REGIONAL WIB TRAINING CONFERENCES

The AFL-CIO Working for America Institute recently completed a series of regional training conferences for labor representatives on state and local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) in Atlanta, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Las Vegas.

Over 250 WIB union representatives from more than 40 states participated in the two-day conferences, which were designed to help labor representatives develop a common agenda for WIB activities and give state and regional colleagues an opportunity to come together and develop specific strategies for action.

Training sessions covered the following topics:

• Governance Issues such as recruiting unionized employers to serve on workforce investment boards, establishing a strategic plan and developing alliances with other board members and community groups;
  
• Policy Issues facing WIBs such as Work First, Individual Training Account policies and One-Stop operations;
  
• Standard Setting including establishing self-sufficiency standards and how to use performance accountability systems to monitor services;
  
• Economic Development linkages facing workforce boards; and
  
• Sectoral Strategies that can be used to promote education and training partnerships between business and labor.

The conferences also included workshops on issues such as serving dislocated workers, the threat of privatization facing One-Stop operations, labor market information, and grant opportunities.

In addition, the Employment and Training Administration Regional Administrators sent representatives to address the conferences and to answer questions.
For more details, see sample agenda.

back to headlines