WWA’s Three Steps to a Brighter Future

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1. Achieve More with Existing Training Resources

State-level funding processes for workforce training need to be better coordinated, so local leaders can align multiple programs to close skills shortages.

The many organizations represented on Workforce Development Councils identify which industries are driving the local economy and which skill shortages are slowing it down. Now, they need more capacity to organize their efforts around those skill shortages to close them faster.

2. Grow the Middle Class

WorkSource is an outstanding community resource that needs to be supported.

WorkSource Centers help people understand and pursue realistic career goals in their local community. Over 150,000 Washingtonians find work through WorkSource each year. Workforce Development Councils are pushing for a stronger emphasis on self-sufficiency and family-wage jobs at WorkSource. WorkSource Centers need increased financial support.

3. Save our High School Students!

Expand proven dropout prevention and retrieval programs. Dropping out is one of the surest ways to end up in poverty or in jail. No family wants that for their child, and no state budget analyst wants those downstream costs. Workforce Development Councils have created dropout programs with a track record of real results, but they are small compared to the size of the problem. These programs work, they prevent more expensive problems downstream, and they need to be brought to full scale. In the past, Workforce Development Councils also ran summer youth employment programs which gave students direct work experience during the summer. These programs included academic components to maintain students’ knowledge over the summer and avoid remedial work at the beginning of the next school year. This common sense approach has produced excellent measurable results and should be reinstituted.

The following organizations proudly support WWA’s
Three Steps to a Brighter Future

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