II.b.2.A – Goals

The Commonwealth did not provide goals for specific populations, particularly individuals with barriers to employment, veterans, unemployed workers, and youth and any other populations identified by the Commonwealth.

2.Goals.

Describe the goals for achieving this vision based on the analysis in (a) above of the state’s economic conditions, workforce and workforce development activities.This must include:

  • Goals for preparing an educated and skilled workforce, including preparing youth and individuals with barriers to employment and other populations.
  • Goals for meeting the skilled workforce needs of employers.

WIOA provides federal funds to assist states and local workforce development systems to increase the employment, retention, earnings and occupational skill attainment of workers, particularly those individuals with barriers to employment.Kentucky has programs and supports in place in serving individuals with barriers to employment. Over the past six years, initiatives in place under the WorkSmart plan have increased the collaborative partnerships of the workforce system.This will allow individuals with significant barriers to employment opportunities to succeed in training programs to enter in-demand occupations. All Kentuckians will have access to employment in a fulfilling and meaningful career.Individuals with barriers to employment, as defined by the WIOA and Kentucky, include the following.

Long-term Unemployed

In Kentucky, transitional jobs are a new type of work-based training allowed under WIOA. Transitional jobs are subsidized time-limited work experiences in public, private or nonprofit sectors for barriers-to-employment individuals who are chronically unemployed or have an inconsistent work history and are combined with comprehensive career and supportive services. The goal of transitional jobs is to establish a work history for the individual who demonstrates work-place success and develops the skills that lead to entry into and retention in unsubsidized employment.

When individuals apply for unemployment, they are required to register in Focus Career, Kentucky’s employment website. The Kentucky Employment Network (KEN) works with unemployment insurance (UI) customers who are profiled as likely to exhaust UI benefits. KEN consists of a workshop that informs the customer of the programs available through the Kentucky Career Center (KCC).Re-employment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) works with UI customers who are profiled as likely to exhaust UI benefits. The grant activities consist of KCC orientation, job search overview, Individual Employment Plan and referral to job services.

Kentucky’s KCCGO! National Emergency Grant received in June of 2014 has provided the state with a chance to test and deliver comprehensive services and career pathways to the long-term unemployed. The focus of this grant is to serve 1,700 long-term unemployed, likely to exhaust UI benefits, and/or profiled dislocated workers. Services include on-the-job training, customized training and apprenticeships. Funds are used to provide services such as coaching, counseling and direct job placement. In addition to expanding work-based learning strategies, funds may be used to further develop and strengthen partnerships between workforce and industry organizations and align services with other federal, state and local programs. This grant expires Sept. 30, 2016, but Kentucky has submitted a no-cost, period of performance extension request.If approved, the grant will go on through June 30, 2017.

Homeless Individuals

KCC staff and Jobs for Veterans State Grant (JVSG) staff collaboratively address homeless veteran needs across the state.Additionally, homeless individuals receive adult WIOA priority of service, as reflected in Kentucky’s Priority of Service policy No. 16-006.All local areas receiving youth formula funds provide services to eligible youth who determine homelessness to be a barrier.Local referral processes, per infrastructure agreements, help with identifying additional community support for homeless individuals.Serving this population effectively requires a strong partnership with state and local human service partners.This kind of partnership is of great interest to the new administration and is likely to be a priority over the next four years.

Displaced Homemaker

The Office of Employment and Training (OET) provides WIOA basic career services statewide through the KCC offices. WIOA individualized career and training services may be provided to the displaced homemaker who is determined to be a dislocated worker. Individual dislocated worker status is based on:

  • Individual has been providing unpaid services to family members in the home and has been dependent on the income of another family member but is no longer supported by that income; or
  • The individual is the dependent spouse of a member of the Armed Forces on active duty and whose family income is significantly reduced because of a deployment, a call or order to active duty, a permanent change of station or the service-connected death or disability of the member

Additionally, the individual is unemployed or underemployed and is experiencing difficulty in obtaining or upgrading employment. Eligibility for these services is determined by WIOA career planners, located in KCC offices across the state.

Local boards, under WIOA, have an increased focus and collaboration with TANF.It is anticipated that this collaboration will result in increased awareness, identification and referrals.

Older Individuals

In Kentucky, Experience Works offers employment training services through the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) to low-income older workers in 60 counties in Kentucky. Experience Works partners with local 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit agencies in each of the counties we serve as training sites for participants. Experience Works also actively collaborate with local and public employers to create permanent employment opportunities for older workers who want to re-enter the workforce.

Ex-offenders

One of the specified barriers in the Act is the ex-offender.In serving this target population, the core partner agencies will coordinate and better align services with criminal justice agencies in serving ex-offenders. Innovative pilot programs will receive funding through a set-aside in the governor’s discretionary budget.

OVR and OFB work closely with this target population in providing services, supports and referrals to other programs as needed. Kentucky Adult Education partners with the Department of Corrections to serve both full service jail correctional offenders and state adult institution inmates. Adult educators provide educational services to those in jail based on cooperative agreements with jailers. KCTCS faculty is commissioned to serve state adult correctional institution populations; however, adult educators support those educational experiences, offering evening classes for offenders.

Current LWDA local plans indicate a variety of involvement and engagement with the ex-offender population and a keen awareness of the needs of these individuals.For example, the TENCO LWDA states in its plan:“Offenders often have a difficult time locating employment.Therefore, TENCO will reach out to our local detention center and prison to determine if job preparation training would be considered beneficial.”

Another LWDA, KentuckianaWorks, indicated in its KCC service delivery agreement that the Kentucky Department of Corrections was one of its required one-stop partners.The partner program was listed as Reentry by Design/Big Brothers Big Sisters:Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents; Program Authority-Second Chance Act of 2007 Programs.

Other transitional local plans indicate linkages and referral processes for ex-offenders.

Jobs for Veterans State Grant (JVSG) is a$2.4 million grant administered by OET with staff located in the Kentucky Career Center offices statewide.Those who are both veteransand ex-offenders fall within a category specified to be served under this grant. Currently, the state coordinator receives a monthly list of every incarcerated veteran in Kentucky from the Department of Corrections; those in local jails and state facilities, with their release dates. The nearest disabled veterans outreach program specialist (DVOP) reaches out to these individuals to offer re-entry employment preparation and support services prior to release, when possible.After release, JVSG staff work with the each individual from their KCC office.

KCC partners with the Department of Corrections (DOC) and Adult Education to provide training and assessments toward achieving a National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) for anyone during incarceration.On Jan. 1, 2016,DOC began offering 30 days of “good time” off on sentences of individuals who earn an NCRC.

After release, KCC offers a complete portfolio of services to ex-offenders. As a population with barriers to employment, they are entitled to additional WIOA services facilitated OET’s NCRC coordinator.

Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) - A special tax credit is available to employers who hire qualified ex-felons.The qualified ex-felon is an individual who has been convicted of a felony or released from incarceration for a felony conviction within 12 months prior to the individual’s start date.

Persons with disabilities, including youth

OVR and OFB providemany supports for education and training to those who are eligible.Both agencies provide supports for specific and appropriate job-related education and training if it is needed to prepare someone for a vocational goal that is aligned with his or her interests, strengths and abilities inclusive of students and youth. The goal is identified through a vocational assessment and is agreed upon between the person and a VR counselor in the Individual Plan for Employment.

Youth in, or formerly in, foster care

Kentucky will use funds to ensure that all youth program elements are made available to youth. The state supports the local workforce areas in designing youth programs tailored to the needs of in-school- and out-of-school youth in local communities. OET youth program staff members disseminate updates and guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor and others. Areas have designed special referral processes for youth who come into one-stops, and one area has developed a one-stop career center specifically for youth.

Eligible WIOA youth with this barrier are described as an individual in foster care or who has aged out of the foster care system or who has attained 16 years of age and left foster care for kinship guardianship or adoption, a child eligible for assistance under sec. 477 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 677), or in an out-of-home placement.

The Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board (KWIB) strategic plan has incorporated a variety of approaches for expanding and enhancing outreach to youth. An example is the High School Outreach initiative designed to increase communication and collaboration between workforce boards and boards of education, technical education, postsecondary education and economic development.Another example is a recent collaboration with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) to assist youth in career exploration and planning as they complete summer jobs in CHFS local offices.

English language learners

Throughout the Kentucky Career Center offices, services are provided to all participants regardless of what barriers they face, including Limited English Proficiency (LEP).If a customer requires LEP services, all KCC staff have access anytime to phone translation services through Interpretalk. Information on how to access this system in located within the OET’s Limited English Proficiency Plan, which is housed in the Team of Experts section of the KCC website. Additionally, the KCC Team of Experts site houses many other forms and materials needed for LEP individuals and have been translated. If a customer has additional document or form translation needs, KCC staff may send these documents to the OET Equal Opportunity Office to be translated into the necessary language.

Posters in both Spanish and English are available in all KCC offices notifying individuals of their rights to service and the proper channels to follow if they feel this need has not been met.

Adult English language learners, including individuals who may have earned degrees in other countries, may receive services that enable them to achieve competency in English language and acquire the basic and more advanced skills needed to function effectively as parents, workers and citizens. This includes English language acquisition and instruction on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and civic participation. It may also include workforce training.

Migrant/seasonal farmworkers

Kentucky has a unified migrant seasonal farmworker (MSFW) program that unites MSFW outreach representatives. Its mission is to support agricultural employers and farmworkers through a highly effective labor exchange system while ensuring that employer and worker stakeholders are aware of their rights, responsibilities and protections using an efficient and collaborative service delivery process.

Single parents/pregnant women

WIOA youth formula funds will be used to address the needs of eligible youth who have the identified barrier as pregnant or parenting.Career Center partners will work closely with Department of Community Based Services (DCBS) to assure customers have knowledge and access to needed resources. One-stop partners are directly involved with two Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) grant initiatives with DCBS. Paths to Promise (P2P) is a pilot program with a robust research component serving eight counties in Eastern Kentucky. The pilot includes moving eligible students into AOKY career pathways. The subsequent location of employment and training funds will be dedicated to providing support services to students pursuing education and training in urban areas across the state.

Veterans

Each career center office, along with each of the 10 local areas, provides “Priority of Service” to veterans for all Department of Labor funded programs. Each customer entering the local office receives a questionnaire that is used to determine whether the customer is priority-of-service eligible. If the customer is an eligible “covered person,” he/she receives a fact sheet listing all of the services and programs along with the program’s qualifications, which must abide by the Priority of Service mandate. The covered person is then seen by the first available staff person or referred to the disabled veterans program specialists if they are determined to have one of the significant barriers to employment as specified by the appropriate veterans program letters. Additionally, Kentucky’s Focus Career system automatically contacts veterans matched to new job orders 24 hours before non-veterans.

Individuals facing substantial cultural barriers

English Literacy and Civics (EL/C) programs in Kentucky continue to use a variety of activities and instructional methods to enhance non-English speaking student’s effective communication skills and civic practices. Additionally, programs sponsor cultural activities, such as holiday and international celebrations during which students are invited to bring indigenous food and share their own cultural traditions. These efforts help non-native English speakers navigate and participate in their children’s educational experiences, access services and participate in community activities.

Low Income

Services provided to low-income individuals are reflected in Kentucky’s WIOA Priority of Service policy that provides guidance on the service requirement for Title I Adults for both individualized career services and training services.Priority applies to recipients of public assistance, other low-income individuals and individuals who are basic skills deficient. A low-income individual is defined in Section 3(36) means an individual who:

Eligible WIOA in-school youth must be low-income, unless a local area applies the 5 percent low-income exception.WIOA out-of-school youth are not required to be low-income unless the barrier requires additional assistance to enter or complete an education program or hold employment or is a recipient of a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent and is basic skills deficient or an English language learner.

Service priorities for all populations with barriers to employment

The WorkSmart Kentucky Plan has driven significant changes and improvements in the workforce system since 2010, as well as informed other related strategic initiatives like Kentucky’s participation in the NGA Talent Pipeline Academy. The following2010-13 goals will continue to inform and guide the system during this transition period and to build career pathways for individuals with barriers to employment.To provide determining factors for the goals of Kentucky’s strategic plan, a series of objectives was developed. Each set of objectives supports a specific goal and provides the framework for the development of action steps as well as a basis for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of this plan.

Align Kentucky’s workforce development system with its education objectives.

  • Increase communication and collaboration between workforce boards and boards of education, technical education, postsecondary education and economicdevelopment;
  • increase the number of postsecondary and workreadyhigh school graduates;
  • promote educational options, including technical education, two-year and four-year college, apprenticeships and specialty training to younger students;
  • increase awareness of educational and skills requirements for high-demand jobs, as well as those in emerging industries; and
  • establish the concept of life-long learning as a norm in the 21st century.

Align Kentucky’s workforce development system with economic development strategies.

  • Increase communication and collaboration between workforce boards and economic development agencies;
  • develop “rapid response” framework for new jobs based on model for layoffs;
  • refine and promote evolving methods of projecting jobs and training needs of the future; and
  • increase opportunities for entrepreneurship in a culture of innovation.

Simplify the workforce development service delivery system.Transform the workforce system.

  • Simplify online services and focus on innovative user-friendly applications;
  • promote a truer identity of the unemployment office;
  • increase the awareness and use of online job matching and training services;
  • increase use of job portal by employers and job seekers;
  • reduce confusion and information overload for those unfamiliar with the system; and
  • increase communication among all service delivery points.

Improve service to achieve a customer-centered delivery system.