Director's Corner
During the month of November, we’re finding time here at the
office to remember to be grateful for a good many things. First, thank
you to all of Minnesota’s veterans – and to all of you who have provided
quality services to these veterans, as they return to the workforce!
Second, we are grateful for the resumption of federal government operations,
which allowed us to get additional Workforce Investment Act Dislocated Worker
and Adult resources to the field. Third, we are pleased to see the state’s
Workforce Development Fund in good repair, so I can finally encourage this in a
newsletter for the first time in a few years: if you see a need for
more Dislocated Worker resources in your area, please make sure your local
chain of command is aware of the need, so they can determine whether a request
to the state for more funds is in order. (The next opportunity will
be a Job Skills Partnership Board meeting on March 3; it will arrive sooner
than we all expect!)
Fourth, we are grateful that a new grant specialist will be
filling the vacancy we have, very soon! We’re just a few days from being
able to make a more specific announcement; we’ll let people know as soon as we
have contact information. This hire will be tremendously helpful in
ensuring we get new funds out to the field in a timely manner.
Finally, we are grateful to and for each and every one of
you – our partners, colleagues, and friends across the system. One of the
enormous pleasures of this job, beyond the service to the public, involves the
connections we can make with you as you do your excellent work. We hope
you have a healthy, happy, and fun holiday season!
Using LMI to Serve Your DW Customers
LMI is currently offering its Labor Market for Decision
Making training series. These hands-on sessions are tailored to individuals who
provide career counseling and job search assistance to job seekers. The class
will provide you with an overview and better understanding of the regional
economy and job market, accessing a wide variety of economic, employment and
demographic statistics and reports on the internet.
Classes are filling up! The following still have space
available:
- Thursday, 12/5, 1-4pm, Duluth WFC
- Thursday, 12/12, 1-4pm, Hibbing WCF
- Friday, 12/13, 1-4p, Mankato WFC
- Wednesday, 12/18, 1-4, Rochester WFC
- Friday 1/10, 9-noon, DEED HQ
- Friday, 1/10, 1-4pm, DEED HQ
There is no fee to register, but space is limited. To
register for any of these classes, please email DEED.training@state.mn.us.
DEED’s New Website
Have you seen our new website yet? We moved to www.mn.gov/deed. Here are some program links
that you’ll probably be using a lot:
Let us know if you’ve lost a bookmarked page and we’ll help
you find it!
Policy Updates
At the request of providers and monitors, the DW program
policy team is working on a policy to address funding a course or test multiple
times in the event a program participant fails one or more times. This policy
will likely mirror the Trade
Adjustment Assistance One-time Poor Performance policy. If you have initial
thoughts about this policy, please send them to Annie Welch at Annie.Welch@state.mn.us. We will post
for 30 day public comment before making the policy effective.
The Individual Employment Plan (IEP) Policy greatly
benefited from your comments, so thank you! Comments ranged from asking for
clarification of what assessments need to be recorded in the IEP to asking that
the policy clarify that DEED cannot reimburse participants for training or
other expenses incurred prior to developing the IEP with their counselor. The
updated policy will be posted soon to our new policy page.
NEG Update
The Department of Labor (DOL) will be conducting a
monitoring visit of the Andersen Windows NEG the week of December 9th,
2013.
Additionally, the following activities will no longer need
formal NEG modifications from DOL:
1)
Adding or Removing a Project Operator
2)
Increasing Participants
3)
Adding layoffs from previously approved
employers.
For questions about NEGs and their administration, email
our NEG Team at DEED.NEG@state.mn.us.
Corner On The Market
With Rachel Vilsack
In the last
newsletter, we looked at the types of occupations Dislocated Worker program
participants get trained in. Now we ask: does the training they receive relate
to the job they get? An examination of 13 years of training and jobs data shows
that 45 to 60 percent of the jobs obtained after people left the Dislocated
Worker Program were directly related to program training. (See Figure below.)
For instance, 54.7 percent of Dislocated Worker Program participants who
received a credential in 2012 found a job that matched their occupational
training. So a participant who was trained in a business occupation exited the
Dislocated Worker Program to take a job in a business occupation.
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Not having an occupational match, however, does not
necessarily indicate the training was not important in landing a job. For
example, think of someone who trained as a welder but found a job in sales.
That job may be at a welding company, and the training may have been the key to
landing the job.
The figure above looks at customers who left the program for
jobs during the calendar year, rather than the standard program year (July to
June) that is usually referenced with Dislocated Worker Program statistics.
This is deliberate. During 2001 and from 2007 to 2009, a slightly higher rate
of participant employment was related to training. What distinguishes those
years is a recession. From a labor market standpoint, it makes intuitive sense
that participants are more likely to find jobs related to their training during
difficult economic times, when job opportunities are scarce. When job
opportunities are plentiful, participants are slightly less likely to find jobs
related to their training.
Because a job search can follow unpredictable paths, we
should not expect to see a direct link between training and employment for 100
percent of participants. Even unrelated training may offer a “signaling”
effect, indicating to employers that the job candidate is highly motivated. To
the extent that this is true, training in any occupation could directly improve
the employment chances for Dislocated Worker Program participants.
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