Rebooting Federal Workforce Development Policy

Published for Community and Economic Development (CED) on August 14, 2014.
The U.S. Congress passed and President Obama recently signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). The bicameral legislation passed with near unanimous support and reauthorizes the Workforce Investment Act, which was originally enacted in 1998. WIOA streamlines federal job training programs and seeks to strengthen performance measurement and coordination of state/local evaluation efforts, among other changes. For greater detail, see the U.S. Department of Labor WIOA Fact Sheet and Overview.  The National Skills Coalition has conducted an analysis of WIOA provisions.  An Opportunity Nation blog post also provides a useful perspective on the enhancements that WIOA makes to federal workforce development policy.
Topics - Local and State Government