The North Carolina Chamber of Commerce Foundation on May 8th released a “white paper” review of the state’s workforce system with a list of 13 options for reform. Governor McCrory, the North Carolina Workforce Commission, and the North Carolina Department of Commerce have already initiated a series of administrative reforms. The White Paper produced by UWC focuses on further reforms with options to increase employer participation, improve alignment and performance measurement.
The thirteen reform options include
- Align the economic development areas (prosperity zones) and the WIA local areas geographically and operationally.
- Establish a statewide mission and vision that is shared by the Governor, state departments and the workforce development commission.
- Review the funds from all sources that may be available to support the workforce system and reallocate funds and make strategic use of funds as necessary to meet goals and objectives across programs.
- Review the status of the NCWorks system, the UI GUIDE system and other systems in the workforce system to determine whether they are maximizing access to job orders enabling employers to effectively access information about job seekers and enabling efficient and effective administration.
- Continue review of the implementation of the MOU between the Department of Commerce Division of Employment Security and Division of Workforce Solutions.
- Actively engage the business community at the state and local level in a meaningful way and provide specialized services to attract new business to North Carolina.
- Establish employer based performance measures in addition to tracking the broad measures of entered employment rate, retention rate and average wages, and engage employers on a regular basis with customer satisfaction surveys and focus groups to enable continuous improvement.
- Establish special initiatives for veterans to enable effective return to work and increase skills certification and effective reemployment services.
- Maximize grant writing and coordinate across agencies with special attention to use of funds and performance.
- Make sure that the system uses the best practice tools that have been shown to be effective in filling employer workforce needs and assisting job seekers.
- Review the community college customized training program curriculum along with changing employer needs to keep training up to date and assure that customized training is coordinated with the state mission, vision and goals and objectives as well as delivery of services through local areas.
- Institute continuous improvement and meaningful customer service surveys to evaluate performance.
- Reorganize and expand the Apprenticeship program
Click here to download the full report.
