Over 550 professionals from workforce development and education gathered at San Diego’s Marriott Marquis March 29-31 for the California Workforce Association’s (CWA) Spring Conference. The conference centered around WIOA implementation and the “organize regionally, deliver locally” service distribution vision in the WIOA State Plan. The Spring Conference also focused on challenges and opportunities with WIOA implementation, highlighting best practices for workforce development professionals.
The San Diego Workforce Partnership (SDWP) spoke at five workshops during the conference:
- “Transforming US Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century” asked thought leaders to share their perspectives on transformative education and workforce development strategies and policies to improve opportunities for job seekers, meet the needs of employers and society and deliver effective and efficient solutions that can be adopted across systems.
- “Creating a Fresh Approach to an Old Challenge: Using Human-Centered Design to Connect Employers and Job Seekers” explored the concept Human-Centered Design (HCD) and how can it be applied to workforce development. Attendees learned the steps of HCD and how to use this process to identify challenges, develop a prototype service and implement a unique approach to addressing these challenges.
- “Creative Communications for Greater Impact” brought together representation from SDWP, the America’s Job Center of California (AJCC) network and Starbucks to discuss how to use social media, success stories, e-communications, events and media relations to increase the numbers of job seekers and employers served.
“Preparing Business Services Staff to Effectively Work with Human Resources” shared a curriculum developed jointly by Manpower and SDWP to help bridge the gap between companies and AJCC staff, and discuss the approach, lessons learned, successes and surprises with this endeavor to date.- “Best Practices for Using LMI to Serve, Engage, and Promote the Public Workforce System” covered how to leverage labor market information (LMI) and promote your organization as the go-to source for data and services.
Earlier in the month, SDWP staff participated in CWA’s Day at the Capitol. The event brought together workforce development boards from around the state to meet with representatives in Sacramento to discuss WIOA implementation and pressing workforce development issues.
CWA is a nonprofit member association, which represents all 49 of the Workforce Development Boards in the State of California, as well as over 30 other members from labor, education, industry, Chambers of Commerce, government and community-based organizations.