A VISION FOR NEW JERSEY’S WORKFORCE

Section 5.

One-Stop delivery system

In 1993, the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission (SETC) prepared a Unified State Plan for New Jersey’s Workforce Readiness System that called for the development of an integrated Workforce Development System and laid out a vision and comprehensive strategy for the conduct of all workforce programs and services. The development of a comprehensive One-Stop system was a cornerstone of that plan.

In New Jersey’s 1993, 1996, 1999, and 2005 Unified Plans, the development of a comprehensive One-Stop System was recognized as the cornerstone in the State’s plans to develop a comprehensive, integrated and responsive Workforce Investment System.

New Jersey made a determination that every local WIB area must have at least one comprehensive One-Stop Career Center that is strategically located to ensure easy accessibility for customers. Significant emphasis is placed on co-locating all major One-Stop Partners^{^[1]} so that a wide variety of services are readily available. Designed to serve both businesses and job seekers in a single location, the One-Stop Career Center provides the following services:

One-Stop Partners provide these services through a number of programs and funding sources. (See the attached summary of these programs.) A summary of these is attached. The intent is to provide both a central location for customers to seek and receive a full array of services as well as a central hub to support coordination of all local workforce development resources and services.

A list of local One-Stop Career Centers can be found at www.wnjpin.com/oscc/index.html.

Fundamental One-Stop System Characteristics

In order to carry out these essential services, New Jersey has identified eight fundamental characteristics that all One-Stop Career Centers and Systems must possess:

Workforce Investment System Consolidation

In 2004, the State of New Jersey underwent a significant reorganization, consolidating all employment-directed and workforce development programs and activities, including programs for youth, welfare recipients and literacy that support the development of a qualified workforce under a single department—Labor and Workforce Development. In doing so, the stage was set for full integration of key workforce programs at both the State and local levels.

As a result of the State Consolidation, local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) were charged with developing Consolidation Plans that outline the specific steps they would take to integrate these programs and services into local One-Stop Systems and creating comprehensive One-Stop Career Centers and Systems capable of meeting the needs of employers, students, workers, and job seekers. Local WIBs were required to engage a full range of stakeholders in this planning process including private sector board members, local community-based organizations, One-Stop Partners, community colleges, economic development agencies, and State and local public agencies.

Local Consolidation Plans articulated each WIB’s vision for a comprehensive and consolidated One-Stop System including how services among the One-Stop Partners will be integrated. The planning process required local WIBs to engage in an evaluation of the current local One-Stop Systems against this vision and identify strategies for how they would transform the Systems to achieve their vision. In particular, WIBs were asked to focus on fully integrating literacy services and employment services for welfare recipients.

In developing its local system, each WIB area was required to establish a Comprehensive One-Stop Career Center that was viewed as the physical hub of the local workforce investment area. WIBs were also required to amend agreements (Memorandum of Understanding [MOU]) between themselves and the One-Stop Partners to identify the roles and contributions of each Partner to the One-Stop Career Centers, the underlying principles for how the One-Stop Career Centers would operate, the services that would be offered, and the expected results of those services.

One-Stop Career Center Services

New Jersey is intent on creating a strong Workforce Investment System that is capable of meeting the needs of employers as well as individuals. New Jersey’s One-Stop Career Centers are to be comprehensive and provide a series of services that any individual can access to aid him/her in achieving his/her career and employment goals, regardless of current skill levels. Businesses are linked to any number of services that support them in developing their current workers, finding qualified new workers and having other essential human resource needs met.

A minimum of three Partners must provide their full range of services at the comprehensive One-Stop Career Center site and all Partners are expected to contribute in some manner to the delivery of these services regardless of whether they have offices on-site. Each One-Stop Career Center must provide services in the following five areas:

Core Services

Core Services are services that any individual can use on his/her own. These services are designed to aid job seekers in helping themselves. They include:

¡ Access to job leads,

¡ Access to office equipment necessary to conduct a job search such as computers,

¡ Information on support services and training options,

¡ Easy to use assessment instruments and career planning guides, and

¡ Labor market information.

These services are offered through written tools and resources, group informational workshops and staff who can answer questions and point job seekers in the right direction.

Intensive Services

Intensive Services focus on providing more one-on-one support to customers and offer opportunities to build the fundamental job readiness/work success and basic skills necessary to obtain and retain any job today. Some of these Intensive Services can be provided on-site while others are accessed off-site through One-Stop Partners. Typically, on-site intensive services include:

¡ Comprehensive assessment and counseling,

¡ Basic skills,

¡ Job readiness training,

¡ Computer literacy skill development, and

¡ Other short-term, pre-vocational training.

The philosophy behind Intensive Services is simple. Employers frequently cite the need for individuals who have the job readiness/ job success skills along with the prerequisite basic skills, and at the same time, employment and training programs have historically served less than 10% of the eligible population due to funding constraints. By offering Intensive Services through a comprehensive One-Stop System, more individuals are served, services are targeted to the skill requirements most in demand by employers, and only those individuals best prepared and most in need of occupational skill development are enrolled in the more costly training programs.

Literacy Services

New Jersey has placed significant emphasis on making sure customers have access to literacy services. Each local area is required to have at least one Workplace Learning Link (WLL) that is connected directly to the comprehensive One-Stop Career Center. The Workplace Learning Link provides instruction for basic skills in the context of real world work situations, thereby building work readiness skills and literacy skills at the same time. The One-Stop system includes literacy providers and the WLL, the combination of which creates a continuum of services that address individuals at various levels of literacy preparedness.

Training Services

Occupational training services are offered to those individuals who are not successful in securing employment at a self-sufficient wage through Intensive Services or Core Services. These services are generally provided using Individual Training Accounts, which essentially are contracts with private and public training entities for a specific training program.

Business Services

In addition to providing this full range of services to local residents, WIA also places a significant focus on serving the local business community. New Jersey recognizes the employer as a customer of the One-Stop Career Centers. Accordingly, it has established Business Service Centers at each of its One-Stop Career Centers and identified dedicated staff to conduct business outreach. Business Service Centers are full service units designed to link employers with a wide range of services to meet their needs from identifying potential employees to assessing current employees for training needs to providing human resource related information.

Chartering One-Stop Career Centers

Consolidation provided the framework to move the One-Stop System across the entire State of New Jersey to achieve a more integrated system. However, the vision for the State’s One-Stop System goes well beyond integration—it seeks a System that is fully capable of providing the types of services businesses and individuals need to be successful in a customer-focused and friendly manner. In order to ensure the One-Stop System in New Jersey meets these high expectations, the SETC is developing a One-Stop Chartering system. This system will ensure that there is a common understanding among Workforce Investment Boards and One-Stop Partners about the expectations for a high quality of service delivery through local One-Stop Career Centers. Furthermore, the Charter will communicate to job seekers and employers that New Jersey’s Comprehensive One-Stop Career Centers have received a quality endorsement.

The SETC, in consultation with State and local Partners that include WIB Directors and One-Stop Operators, has developed chartering criteria. These criteria, based upon the Strategic Five-Year Unified State Plan for New Jersey’s Workforce Investment System, will serve as the baseline for assessing and issuing charters. (See the attached One-Stop Chartering Criteria.) The Chartering process will assess the extent to which Comprehensive One-Stop Career Centers:

© Have a management structure between and among the WIB, One-Stop Partners and One-Stop Operator that ensures high quality services and maximum participation of all partnering organizations and their resources,

New Jersey’s Chartering process is designed to promote excellence in workforce development. It is to be viewed as a quality endorsement signifying that the One-Stop Career Center meets or exceeds New Jersey’s expectations for a high performing Center.

SETC ONE-STOP CHARTERING CRITERIA

Criterion #1: Customers (employers and job seekers) view the One-Stop as the source of workforce development related services.

© Staff assisting customers in the career resource area or while providing other common functions will identify themselves by service function as One-Stop Career Center staff, not by any particular agency.

Criterion #2: Customers (employers and job seekers) receive assistance through a user-friendly service delivery system.

Criterion #3: Customers (employers and job seekers) can access services in a timely manner.

Criterion #4: Job Seeker customers receive services through a single service delivery system.

© An integrated or coordinated employment facilitation system is implemented so that the process for connecting customers to jobs is coordinated with business services as well as job seeker customers having access to the entire pool of job leads.

Criterion #5: Employer customers receive services through a unified business services delivery system.

© An integrated or coordinated job matching and referral strategy through the Business Resource Center is used to ensure that applicants are properly screened and matched to the specific skill requirements of employers.

Criterion #6: Customers (employers and job seekers) are able to access the services they need to successfully achieve their goals.

Criterion #7: Customers (employers and job seekers) are able to easily access the assistance of knowledgeable staff.

© All Partner staff are knowledgeable about all service components (Core, Intensive, Business) and how to access and use the services and resources available, (e.g., computers, self-directed assessment, literacy services, assistive technology).

Criterion #8: Customers (employers and job seekers) can expect that services offered through the One-Stop Career Center will be continuously improved and that they can provide input into these changes.

© All staff and management participate in and contribute to an annual evaluation and ongoing periodic review of the Center services as well as the development and implementation of improvement measures.

Criterion #9: Customers (employers and job seekers) can expect that One-Stop Career Centers will be well managed and supported by all Partners, the One-Stop Operator and the WIB.

© There is regular and meaningful communication between the WIB, the Partners and the One-Stop Operator, and between the One-Stop Operator and front-line One-Stop Career Center staff about One-Stop operations including regularly scheduled and well-attended meetings.

Criterion #10: Customers (employers and job seekers) can expect that the One-Stop Career Center will be high performing and provide quality customer service.

Criterion #11: Customers (employers and job seekers) receive services in a facility that accommodates their needs and expectations.

New Jersey “To-Work” Programs

Program	State Agency	Description	Populations Served
WIA-Adult	LWD	▪ Job Search ▪ Career Assessment ▪ Occupational Training ▪ Intensive Services Short-Term Training ▪ Basic Skills Training	▪ Economically disadvantaged ▪ Over age 18
WIA-Dislocated Worker	LWD	▪ Job Search ▪ Career Assessment ▪ Occupational Training ▪ Intensive Services Short-Term Training ▪ Basic Skills Training	▪ Unemployed due to lay-off ▪ Displaced homemaker ▪ Long term unemployed
WIA- Youth	LWD	▪ Job Search ▪ Career Assessment ▪ Occupational Training ▪ Intensive Services Short-term Training ▪ Basic Skills Training	▪ Economically disadvantaged ▪ Ages 14-21 ▪ In-school or out-of-school youth
Employment Service (ES) Wagner-Peyser	LWD	▪ Public labor exchange linking employers with job seekers & providing related services to both	▪ All job seekers ▪ All employers wishing to list job openings
Housing and Urban Development	LWD
Job Corps and Youth Corps	LWD	▪ Post-Secondary Education & Training ▪ GED ▪ Work-Experience ▪ Job Placement	▪ High school dropout ▪ Ages 16-25 ▪ State resident
NAFTA TAA North American Free Trade Agreement/ Transitional Adjustment Assistance		▪ Available to workers who lost their jobs as a result of North American or Mexican competition ▪ Provides reemployment benefits such as classroom training, on-the-job training, job search allowances, relocation allowances, & reemployment assistance	▪ Dislocated Workers
Rapid Response	LWD	▪ Dislocated Worker Unit receives news of mass lay-offs through phone calls from affected companies, workers, organized labor, or other sources ▪ Rapid Response contacts the company within 48 hours to ascertain the validity of information received ▪ Provides information on Unemployment Insurance, re-employment, & retraining of workers ▪ Pertinent information is obtained from the company including type of business, permanent or temporary layoff, number of workers affected, & organized labor affiliations	▪ Displaced workers
Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)		▪ Available to workers who lost their jobs or whose hours of work & wages are reduced as a result of increased imports ▪ Under TAA 1974, workers whose employment is adversely affected by increased imports apply for TAA ▪ Includes a variety of benefits and reemployment services to help unemployed workers prepare for & obtain suitable employment ▪ Workers may be eligible for training, job search allowance, relocation allowance & other reemployment activities ▪ Weekly trade adjustment allowances payable to eligible workers following their exhaustion of unemployment benefits	▪ Dislocated Workers
Unemployment Insurance	LWD	▪ The Unemployment Insurance trust fund, financed through payroll taxes provides short-term financial protection for workers who are unemployed due to no fault of their own	▪ Unemployed/ underemployed
Veterans Services	LWD	▪ Outreach, job referral & placement & related services to veterans, including case management of disabled veterans	▪ Job seekers who are Veterans
Vocational Rehabilitation	LWD	▪ Enables eligible individuals with disabilities to achieve employment outcomes consistent with their strengths & capabilities ▪ Services include vocational evaluation to help identify skills; abilities; interests; job goals; guidance counseling & referral for individual help with problems; vocational counseling & career planning; training to learn the skills needed to gain employment; job placement & follow-up services	▪ Individuals with a disability except blind/ visually impaired
US DOL Welfare-to-Work	LWD	▪ Job Search, Job Readiness & post-employment	▪ The hardest to serve Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) recipients
(WDP) Workforce Development Program	LWD	▪ Provides training grants & additional benefits during training, if eligible ▪ Program is for displaced workers who are eligible for unemployment & are in need of training in order to gain reemployment ▪ Provides counseling & customized training for up to two years ▪ Customized training includes basic skills, ESL & occupational training	▪ Dislocated Workers

Food Stamps Employment & Training	NJ DHS	▪ Provides job search training, employment, counseling, job referral & placement, referral to training & education & case management for Food Stamps and General Assistance recipients ▪ This funding is relevant in the Workforce New Jersey Program	▪ Eligible ABAWD/FS/FA recipients
TANF: Temporary Assistance to Needy Families	NJ DHS	▪ Job referral & placement of TANF recipients	▪ Employable TANF recipients

Community Services Block Grants
Adult Education	NJ DOE	▪ Provides Basic Skills, GED & ESL training	▪ Adults & Out-of-School Youth ▪ Lack of high school diploma
Post Secondary (Carl Perkins)	NJ DOE	▪ Provides equipment & program development for vocational training programs	▪ Need vocational/occupational training
School-to-Career	NJ DOE	▪ Funding ran out
National Community Service

^{^[1]}Under WIA law, the entities providing services under the following programs are required to coordinate their services and assist in supporting the delivery of services through the One-Stop Centers: 1) WIA adult, dislocated worker and youth; Adult Education under WIA; New Jersey Employment Service; New Jersey Unemployment Insurance; New Jersey Veterans Employment & Training; New Jersey Vocational Rehabilitation Services; Older Americans Act; Post-secondary Vocational Education under Carl Perkins; NAFTA and Trade Adjustment Assistance and Community Services Block Grant; Housing & Urban Development. In addition, New Jersey requires that welfare agencies and community colleges also be a Partner in the One-Stop System.