AB 1910, as amended, Gray. California Workforce Investment Board: San Joaquin Valley Regional Planning and Preparedness Act of 2014.
Existing law declares that a well-educated and highly skilled workforce is necessary for the state to remain competitive in the global economy and that workforce investment programs and services need to work collaboratively with state and local entities to accomplish this policy goal.
Existing law provides that the California Workforce Investment Board (CWIB) is responsible for assisting the Governor in, among other things, the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California’s workforce investment system. Existing law requires the board, in collaboration with specified state and local partners, and the local workforce investment boards to develop a specified strategic workforce plan, updated at least every 5 years, to address the state’s economic, demographic, and workplace needs, and to meet the single state plan requirement of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. In that regard, the board aligns and leverages state and local Workforce Investment Act funding streams, identifies specified industry sectors and clusters, provides skills-gap analysis, and establishes specified eligibility criteria for the Workforce Investment Act eligible training provider list.
This bill would require the CWIB to establish the San Joaquin Valley Regional Economic Planning and Preparedness Council as a special committee, composed of specified members, to, among other things, identify and develop the framework of, and make recommendations as to, appropriate strategies, programs, policies, partnerships, and funding opportunities that are necessary to address the growing need for a highly skilled and well-trained workforce to meet the needs of the San Joaquin Valley’s emerging technology and energy economy. The bill would require the council to report to the Legislature, by April 1 each year, on the status of its activities and its development of an oil and natural gas workforce strategic initiative.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Division 11 (commencing with Section 19000)
2is added to the Unemployment Insurance Code, to read:
3
This division shall be known, and may be cited, as the
8San Joaquin Valley Regional Economic Planning and Preparedness
9Act of 2014.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
11(a) The San Joaquin Valley composed of the Counties of Fresno,
12Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare
13is home to an estimated 4 million Californians.
14(b) For the last two decades, the San Joaquin Valley Region has
15maintained average annual unemployment rates ranging from 62
16percent to 150 percent above the state average.
17(c) The San Joaquin Valley’s per capita income is $31,533 and
1850 percent of the San Joaquin Valley’s population is in poverty
19including thousands of unemployed and
underemployed people.
P3 1(d) The San Joaquin Valley continues to face significant
2economic challenges including, poverty, unemployment, and an
3inadequately trained workforce.
4(e) The San Joaquin Valley is also home to hard-working
5immigrants, new entrepreneurs, business and labor leaders, learning
6institutions including the new University of California, Merced,
7cities and towns renewing themselves, and community and
8nonprofit agencies uniting to develop civic leadership.
9(f) Developing the San Joaquin Valley’s workforce skills and
10aligning public and private workforce development resources with
11industry growth opportunities in the region to meet current and
12future business workforce requirements and close the
13business-workforce
skills gap will cultivate higher paying jobs
14and will allow its economy to flourish.
(a) (1) The California Workforce Investment Board
16(CWIB) shall establish a special committee known as the San
17Joaquin Valley Regional Economic Planning and Preparedness
18Council (SJVREPPC) to develop an oil and natural gas workforce
19strategic initiative to address the growing need for a highly skilled
20and well-trained workforce to meet the needs of the expanding
21energy economy of the San Joaquin Valley.
22(2) Membership of the SJVREPPC shall include appropriate
23representatives from the CWIB existing membership, including a
24K-12 education representative, a California Community Colleges
25representative, an Employment Development Department
26representative,
a Department of Food and Agriculture
27representative, a Governor’s Office of Business and Economic
28Development representative, a California Transportation
29Commission representative, begin inserta local workforce investment board
30representative, end insertand other appropriate members.
31(3) The CWIB may call on other state agencies, other higher
32education representatives, and industry representatives as well as
33philanthropic and nongovernmental groups as appropriate and
34necessary to serve as consultants to the SJVREPPC in the
35development of this strategic initiative.
36(b) In developing the strategic initiative, the SJVREPPC shall
37do all of the following:
38(1) Identify and develop the framework of, and make
39recommendations as to, appropriate strategies, programs, policies,
40partnerships, and funding opportunities that are necessary to
P4 1address the growing need for a highly skilled and well-trained
2workforce to meet the needs of the San Joaquin Valley’s emerging
3technology and energy economy. The SJVREPPC shall, when
4examining the energy industry in the San Joaquin Valley, consider
5the business and workforce needs of the entire energy industry
6cluster.
7(2) Identify resources and facilitate linkages between federal
8and state agencies and the Central Valley Higher Education
9Consortium, the Central California Workforce Collaborative, local
10workforce investment boards, and individual career technology
11programs, high schools, and higher education institutions on issues
12related to
education, training, and workforce development in
13support of the region’s expanding energy industry sector.
14(3) Facilitate the development of public, private, philanthropic,
15and nongovernmental partnerships to build and expand the state’s
16workforce development programs, network, and infrastructure
17related to the energy sector.
18(4) Provide policy guidance for job training programs in the
19expanding energy sector to assist and prepare specific populations
20in the San Joaquin Valley, such as at-risk youth, displaced workers,
21veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, and others facing
22barriers to employment.
23(5) Develop, collect, interpret, and distribute statewide and
24regional labor market data on California’s
current and expanding
25workforce needs, trends, and job growth within the oil and gas
26industry.
27(6) Identify funding resources and make recommendations on
28how to expand and leverage these funds.
29(7) Foster additional regional collaboration within the San
30Joaquin Valley related to the emerging petroleum technology and
31energy economic sector.
On or before April 1, 2015, and each April 1 thereafter,
33the CWIB shall report to the Legislature on the status of
34SJVREPPC activities and its development of an oil and natural
35gas workforce strategic initiative. The report shall be submitted in
36compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
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