Workforce Development in Florida: Creating a Culture of Innovation

1. Workforce Development in Florida: Creating a Culture of Innovation Curtis Austin, Workforce Florida Susan Simpler, Agency for Workforce Innovation Rusty Skinner, Citrus, Marion, Levy Workforce Board

2. The New Model . Workforce Florida Policy, Planning & Performance Accountability 45 board members Performance Contract Agency for Workforce Innovation Consolidated Administrative Structure Regional Workforce Boards Local Control and Accountability 24 RWBS One Stop System Service Delivery – 200+ Service Providers

3. Responsibilities of Workforce Florida, Inc. • Policy Direction for the System • Business Directed Board • Planning for the System • Board includes Business Leaders, Service Providers (Educators), Labor, and appropriate Agency Heads • Performance Assessment

4. Responsibilities of the Agency for Workforce Innovation • Disburse funds to local boards, educational institutions, etc., and account to the federal government for the use of such funds. • Monitor contracts/grants for workforce services for compliance with federal and state requirements. • Run specified programs, such as Unemployment Compensation, determined to be best done at a state level • Provide technical assistance to the system.

5. Responsibilities ofRegional Workforce Boards • Align the use of funds to local priorities of business and economic development • Provide a robust competitive market for the providing of workforce services (labor market exchange, training, placement, etc.) • Maximize the use of the taxpayer dollar in providing workforce services.

6. Responsibilities of Educational and Training Providers • To provide education and training for jobs in demand in the market • To be able to respond quickly to changing market situations • To provide training in the manner most useful for Florida businesses.

7. Keys to Florida’s “INNOVATION CULTURE” • Diversify Decision-Making • Give Real Power to the Private Sector • Use State Innovation Money to Redirect Resources • Use the Sunshine—Do Business in Public • Keep Focused on Outcomes

8. Diversify Decision-Making • Why have business driven boards without taking advantage of the intellectual capital? • Why not take advantage of the expertise of local board staffs and volunteers? • Why not really join in partnership and use the ideas of system partners?

9. Diversify Decision-Making • Get beyond who controls the money. There are lots of ways to control the agenda. • Hire some people who will fight (be willing to deal with) with the bureaucracy. • People worth listening to don’t participate if they have no power.

10. Give Real Power to the Private Sector • Make the bureaucracy answer the business questions (not the other way around). • Determine what matters now (business is much more attuned to markets). • Innovation is the outcome of doing what the business leaders determine is needed—not in “implementing the law.”

11. Use Innovation Money to Redirect Resources • Requiring matching resources can change the agenda of partners. • Innovation costs; Be willing to pay the price • In a tight economy, someone will be willing to figure out the answer. Let others compete to find the answers.

12. Example No. 1 Biotech Training • Biotech Training Curriculum • Consortium of Education Institutions (FCCJ,SFCC, UF, etc.), Industry (BioFlorida), Training and Technical Experts • Internet Platform to deliver training in a variety of settings • Industry control over the uses of the training

13. Example No. 2: CHOICES • Build on Education Changes (make high school more than a final exam) • Provide Industry Certification to Completing Students • Provide College Credit to Students • Provide Practical Job Skills to Students • Solution focused on Politics not Training

14. Example No. 2: CHOICES • Parents have children in a college program • Students get to be on football team and stay with friends • Principals keep revenues for the students • Industry gets students (contributes to do so) • Students get industry certifications, college credit, and a diploma.

15. Use the Sunshine— Do Business in Public • There is a lot of incentive to look good in front of your peers. True from state and local perspectives. • You get a robust debate and information necessary to make good decisions. • Politics and pragmatism get a much more even play.

16. Keep Focused on Outcomes • A on-line, simulated environment was developed with state workforce dollars at the Florida Space Research Institute and more than 1,700 Aerospace workers were trained in the first year of the training. • 7,376 employees of the Bio-Medical Technology Sector have been trained and the current High Skill/High Wages Committee is devoting up to $4 million this year for training in this sector. This compares to 36 people who completed training by Florida Community Colleges in 2001.

17. Keep Focused on Outcomes • 884 Plastics manufacturing workers were trained in Florida over 3 years. The training resulted in industry recognized credentials and provided an average wage increase of 10% for those receiving training. • Since the creation of Workforce Florida, nearly 11,000 Information Technology workers have been trained with state level workforce funds (not including Operation Paycheck participants).

18. Keep Focused on Outcomes • 9,178 workers in the Business Services/Financial Sector were trained with state level funds alone last fiscal year. Community Colleges reported 4,138 completers in 2001 in this sector. • In 2003, $27 million in state provided support was matched with $149 million in industry support in the form of in-kind contributions—including training wages.