Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

What are the Bylaws of the Workforce Development Board of Ventura County?

Workforce Development Board of Ventura County Bylaws

What is the role of the One-Stops/America’s Job Centers of California (AJCC)?

The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 specifies three funding streams to the states and local areas: adults, dislocated workers and youth.

Most services for adults and dislocated workers are provided through the One-Stop system, and most participants use their individual training accounts to determine which training programs and training providers fit their needs.

WIA authorizes “core” services (which are available to all adults with no eligibility requirements) and “intensive” services for unemployed individuals who are not able to find jobs though core services alone. In some cases, the intensive services also are available to employed workers who need more help to find or keep a job.

While the services for adults and dislocated workers may be the same, there is a separate funding stream for dislocated workers.

Services provided for adults:

Core services include job search and placement assistance (including career counseling); labor market information (which identifies job vacancies; skills needed for in-demand jobs); and local, regional and national employment trends), initial assessment of skills and needs, information about available services and some follow-up services to help participants keep their jobs once they are placed.

Services provided for youth:

Eligible youth are low-income, ages 14 through 21 (although up to five percent who are not low-income may receive services if they face certain barriers to school completion or employment). Young participants must also face one or more of the following challenges to successful workforce entry:

• School dropout
• Basic literacy skills deficiency
• Homeless, runaway, or foster child
• Pregnant or a parent
• An offender
• Needs help completing an educational program or securing and holding a job

FEDERAL ALLOTMENTS OF WIOA FUNDS TO STATES

WIOA prescribes the formula the federal government must use in allotting adult, youth and dislocated worker funds to States. Using the formula for each funding stream, the federal government determines the share of national funding that each State will receive in a given year. Two primary factors determine a State allocation:

• The amount of funding available nationally and
• The State’s economic and demographic statistics as a relative share of those statistics for all states

In addition, WIOA establishes minimum and maximum amounts by which a State’s share of total adult and youth funding may change from the prior year. This provision protects States from losing too much of their relative share from year to year. There is no similar provision for the dislocated worker funding stream.

Following is a description of the allotment formula for each funding stream:
Adult Program Formula

• 1/3: State’s relative share of unemployed individuals in areas of substantial unemployment areas with greater than 6.5 percent unemployment)
• 1/3: State’s relative share of excess unemployed (in excess of 4.5 percent unemployment)
• 1/3: State’s relative share of economically disadvantaged adults

Youth Program Formula

• 1/3: State’s relative share of unemployed individuals in areas of substantial unemployment (areas with greater than 6.5 percent unemployment)
• 1/3: State’s relative share of excess unemployed (in excess of 4.5 percent unemployment)
• 1/3: State’s relative share of economically disadvantaged youth

Dislocated Worker Formula

• 1/3: State’s relative share of total unemployed
• 1/3: State’s relative share of excess unemployed (in excess of 4.5 percent unemployment)
• 1/3: State’s relative share of long-term unemployed (individuals who have been unemployed for 15 weeks or more)

Source: California Employment Development Department (May 2007)