Emily Stover DeRocco Speech
Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation
April 18, 2005
Washington, DC
Good morning.Steve Shivers, President of CSAVR & Alabama.
When you saw that I would be speaking this morning, I suspect I know what many of you were thinking and what is on most of your minds right now. But before we get to the issues of the day, I first want to spend a few minutes bringing you up-to-date on what has been happening at ETA since we last met.
As many of you know, our big initiative at ETA is called the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative. Begun over two years ago, the High Growth Initiative is an effort to connect the workforce investment system to the sectors of the economy that provide good jobs at good wages with career potential.
We identified twelve such industries during our early research. Some of them were traditional industries experiencing tremendous job growth such as health care and construction. Others were some of our oldest and most dependable industries that are now undergoing significant transformation such as manufacturing and energy. And still others were the futuristic, cutting-edge industries like biotechnology and geospatial technology; the ones that would drive the American economy forward through innovation.
After meeting with hundreds of executives to understand the industries' workforce challenges and thousands of HR professionals to discuss solutions, we began to fund projects that would model those solutions. To date, we have awarded grants to 88 partnerships for a total of $165 million.
Now, when compared to the $15 billion we and others invest in the workforce investment system, $165 million is not much money. So why did we do it? Because it is our belief that the workforce investment system must refocus its energy towards growing industries. It must develop both personal and professional relationships with the executives of those industries so that they come to see the workforce system as a solution to their human capital needs and as an economic development asset.
And the way to begin that change is to provide leadership at the national level. Even though these grants may be small, they will demonstrate to a large number of people in the system how partnerships with business and education, particularly community colleges, can be successful for both their job-seeker and business customers.
These grants also serve as an opportunity to reengage the business community. By successfully collaborating on small scale projects, business and our system are learning to trust each other and to develop that relationship that I just mentioned.
Why is this relevant to the disability community?
Because during our many conversations with executives across all industries, two issues were consistently repeated. First, there is a lack of skilled workers to fill currently available jobs. The workplace has been transformed over the last decade or so by the widespread introduction of technology. And as businesses are subjected to the harsh competition of a global economy, they are unable to find workers who understand technology and all its associated application such as simulation, supply-chain management and robotics.
And second, this problem is only going to get worse as the demographic realities of the baby-boom retirement loom. Many executives are asking the question "if we can't find available workers now, what are we going to do in ten years when our best and most knowledgeable workers retire?" As China and India and other Asian countries with lower-cost labor continue to produce millions of skilled workers a year, you can understand the temptation that these executives face to outsource more and more of their functions.
The lack of skilled workers, both now and into the future, presents an incredible opportunity for the population of individuals with abilities and disabilities. During those same discussions with executives nearly all of them were willing or even eager to hire persons with disabilities, so long as they possessed the skills their business required. Disabilities were, in fact, a non-issue to them, so long as the individual's performance could help their bottom line.
So, we have a workforce investment system that is making great strides in connecting with the employer community and we have an employer community that is eager, even desperate, to hire skilled workers. Now we must loosen the reins that restrict our job training system and provide it with the flexibility to meet the needs of today's employers and workers. That is the economic foundation upon which the President's Job Training Reform Proposal, including his WIA Plus Consolidated Grant, is based.
The President's proposal, at its core, is a pooling of resources for the benefit of all. It begins with the combination of the four primary workforce system funding streams, WIA adult, dislocated worker, and youth, and the Employment Service, into a single fund source with a single set of rules, results, and reports.
Then it offers states the option to pool the resources of up to five additional key workforce partners: vocational rehabilitation, trade adjustment assistance, veterans training, adult education, and food stamp employment and training.
Let me be clear that the WIA Plus proposal is in no way intended to reduce any Federal commitment to individuals with disabilities or decrease employment and training services for these individuals.
WIA Plus can result in better services to individuals with disabilities because it allows states and local communities to create the comprehensive workforce system that best meets the needs of their economies. That means that individuals with disabilities will be trained for jobs that are in-demand and require highly-skilled workers.
While states and local areas would have great flexibility to design the system that best meets their needs, key safeguards would be in place to ensure continued levels of service to individuals with disabilities would not be acceptable. For example, a "maintenance of effort" provision will ensure that drops in participant levels for individuals with disabilities do not occur. Also, in states where Governors choose to include the Vocational Rehabilitation program, the "order of selection criteria" for individuals with disabilities will be preserved.
But perhaps the best example of our commitment to persons with disabilities is in the design of our incentive program. Under WIA Plus, the only time that states would receive incentive funds would be through the demonstration of outstanding service to, and improved results for persons with disabilities.
We understand that you have great concerns about the ability of One-Stop Centers to serve persons with disabilities. We share your concerns and that is why we have begun a series of programs including Work Incentive Grants and the Navigators to deal with these issues.
Are we all the way there? Certainly not. But we are making strides. And nowhere in our proposal does it state that One-Stops will take the place of Voc. Rehab Centers. In fact, depending upon the state, we could envision Voc. Rehab Centers becoming One-Stops, with all the connections and benefits that these new One-Stops would provide.
In short, our concern is not about the system and what is good or not good for the system. Our concern is for the workers and the employers of this country and whether the outcomes of the system are good for them. If they are not, and I think we can all agree the outcomes of both our systems could be improved dramatically, then we need find new system designs that improve those outcomes.
We believe that the best possible outcomes for persons with disabilities can be obtained by fully integrating their services into the primary system.
Let me end today by letting you hear voices, more articulate than I, on what is possible when individuals with disabilities connect with employers through One-Stop Centers.
Thank you.
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