Washington Monthly - September/October 2022 - 46

" As much as I don't like ... the big bad Department of
Labor saying, 'States, you must do this,' " John Pallasch says,
" in some instances the department can signal, 'Hey, we're serious
about performance. We're serious about accountability.
We're serious about outcomes.' "
To overcome states' worries about failing to meet federal
performance targets if outcomes aren't up to snuff, states
could get temporary " amnesty " for coming clean and a grace
period from penalties while they purge their lists of poor performers.
At the same time, Congress should modify the requirement
that ETPL providers report on all participants,
opening the door to more community colleges and national
providers, as some advocates have urged.
Another step is to prohibit states from including on
ETPLs institutions that would fail the " gainful employment "
rules proposed by the Biden administration to regulate the
quality of two- and four-year institutions-and particularly
for-profits-that rely on federal student loans. (For an idea
of which schools might be removed from the ETPLs, see " The
With employers starved for
skilled talent, the federal
workforce development
system should provide
workers with the skills to
land in-demand jobs. Yet
the number of workers
enrolled in federally funded
training has been declining,
indicating a broken system.
Best and Worst Colleges for Vocational Certificates, " page 52.)
This change would not get at the many training providers that
only rely on WIOA dollars and not on federal student loans to
finance students' education, but it would be a good start.
California's South Bay Workforce Investment Board,
one of the nation's better workforce development agencies,
is a rare example of how an ETPL works when good data is
a priority.
Operating just south of Los Angeles, the organization
created its own approved provider list that the executive director,
Jan Vogel, says benefits from a rigorous screening process
for training providers. " We kick people off the list all the
time, " he says.
Vogel asks private-sector industry experts to evaluate
an applicant's curriculum before the program is added to the
ETPL-something most state agencies don't typically do. " We
46 September/October 2022
might go to a school that's nice and clean with a shiny sign
and give them an 'A,' but our expert would say, 'Your curriculum
is not up to industry standards, the teachers are using
a curriculum that's archaic, and we wouldn't hire them coming
out of that course,' " Vogel says. " We wouldn't have known
that, so having an industry expert give us that information is
very helpful. "
Vogel's team also checks the books of for-profit providers
applying to the ETPL-another unusual step. It scrutinizes
performance, too. " We don't go simply by what they tell us, "
he says. " We actually verify placements to see whether or not
it is accurate. "
Congress should use carrots and sticks to encourage
more workforce development agencies to be like South Bay.
It should also make the system employer driven, rather
than solely reliant on " customer choice, " so training providers
and their programs impart the skills and credentials
employers want. This approach might not require an ETPL
at all.
The best models for this are state workforce development
efforts, such as Virginia's Fast Forward program (formerly the
New Economy Workforce Credential Grant), offered through
the commonwealth's community colleges.
Fast Forward offers short training programs (six to 12
weeks) where enrollees earn industry-approved credentials
for a specific list of 40 in-demand careers in health care, IT,
business, manufacturing, logistics, and skilled trades. Local
businesses work with a community college to design curricula.
Some programs even have " guaranteed interview agreements
with local businesses, " the initiative's website says. Since its
launch in 2016, the program has boasted a 90 percent completion
rate and has awarded more than 32,700 credentials. Students
have seen dramatic annual wage increases ($11,626 on
average, or 55 percent).
By contrast, just 3,121 people enrolled in Virginia's WIOA
adult and dislocated worker programs between April 2020
and March 2021. Of those who finished their training, median
quarterly earnings were $6,156 six months after exit ($24,624
on an annualized basis).
According to the National Association for Business Economics,
a trade association for professional economists, more
than half of businesses in January 2022-57 percent-said
they couldn't find enough skilled workers to hire. This skills
crunch will continue in the long run. By 2030, the placement
giant Korn Ferry reports, the U.S. will need 6.5 million more
" highly skilled " workers (that is, with some postsecondary
credential) than it is on track to produce, particularly in fields
like IT and advanced manufacturing.
The nation's public workforce system should ensure
that U.S. workers don't miss out on these opportunities.
Americans deserve quality training that's worthy of their
potential.
Anne Kim is a Washington Monthly contributing editor and the author
of Abandoned: America's Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection.
Washington Monthly - September/October 2022

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