Kentucky PY2025 – PY2028 Workforce Development Local and Regional Plans Toolkit
“Create a workforce development system that is value-driven for employers, aligns education with industry demands, prepares Kentuckians for the future of work, and drives economic development.”
Background
The Commonwealth of Kentucky encompasses 10 Local Workforce Development Areas (LWDAs) with a total of five regions. Every four years, the local and regional plans are required to be completed to execute the goals of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
The Education and Labor Cabinet’s Department of Workforce Development (DWD) is the administrative state agency for WIOA and is also the umbrella organization of the core and combined partners that are highlighted in 2024-2027 WIOA State Plan.
The Local and Regional Plans Toolkit is meant to be a resource for LWDA and their respective regions to have all the (1) foundational information and to initiate a (2) self-assessment process in support of continuous improvement efforts and driving innovation for the primary customers of workforce development: individual jobseekers and businesses, with an important emphasis on staff members that provide quality service.
Foundational Documents
The local and regional plans must also have alignment with the
2024 – 2027 WIOA State Plan, which highlights the state overarching strategic and operational approach to workforce development.
Furthermore, here are additional key documents that are necessary to understand the statewide approach to workforce development:
- The Executive Summary and the Briefer of the 2024-2027 WIOA State Plan provides the key components of Kentucky’s collaborative approach in supporting the workforce development ecosystem.
- The Kentucky Strategic Plan outlines the key pillars of the strategy: employer engagement, education attainment, workforce participation, and resource alignment.
- The 2024-2027 WIOA State Plan was informed by individuals across Kentucky through statewide listening sessions that were conducted. The collective findings showed interest and alignment with the four strategic pillars, but also raised key findings in the importance of addressing barriers to employment; the WIOA State Plan Local Visit Review can be found here.
- The importance of the Education and Workforce Collaborative as the operational arm of the strategic plan in implementing a collective impact approach to addressing strategies in the workforce development ecosystem.
WIOA Partners & Statewide Programs
The Commonwealth of Kentucky submitted a Combined WIOA State Plan, which includes core WIOA partners plus specific program partners in the 2024-2027 WIOA State Plan. The core partners include:
- Title I – Adult, Dislocated, and Youth Programs
- Title II – Adult Education and Family Literacy, administered by the Office of Adult Education
- Title III – Wagner-Peyser, administered by the Career Development Office
- Title IV – Vocational Rehabilitation, administered by the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation
In addition, specific programs outlined below were highlighted either as required partners or critical partner programs in Kentucky’s workforce development ecosystem. These programs include:
- Kentucky Office of Unemployment
- Jobs for Veterans State Grant (JVSG) program focused on serving veterans in Kentucky.
- Kentucky Registered Apprenticeship program designed to be the gold standard as the work and learn model.
- Everybody Counts initiative providing a clear pathway to success for qualifying seniors graduating from participating Kentucky school districts.
- The Digital Equity initiative is Kentucky’s commitment to ensure all Kentuckians have access to reliable high-speed internet and the right devices to access that technology, while also ensuring necessary resources are allocated to identify barriers to affordability and assure there is training and support available to develop our citizens’ digital skills.
- RETAIN is a program aimed to help injured or ill workers remain in or return to their jobs by implementing and evaluating early intervention strategies. The unique intervention program works with employees, employers and healthcare providers, to address issues that can be factors in successful return to work.
Statewide Strategic Objectives
Kentucky has statewide strategic objectives that are not unique to one agency, program, or initiative, instead these objectives rely on the workforce ecosystem in leveraging resources to meet the strategic outcomes. Below is a list of statewide strategic objectives are executed both on the statewide level and in many communities across the commonwealth. When the local and regional guidance is released, LWDAs will be asked to provide comments on opportunities for a strengthening this alignment between statewide objectives and local and regional execution.
- Statewide Workforce and Talent Team (SWATT): a collective team-based approach to business services through the combined commitment to improved measurement, coordination, and delivery of workforce development solutions and services to Kentucky employers.
- Job Quality: to ensure improved recruitment and retention among Kentucky businesses, and to increase opportunity to attain a living standard for Kentucky jobseekers and workers, the job quality principles provide a framework to building pathways to career opportunities.
- 60x30 Goal: with leadership from the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), Kentucky's strategy for postsecondary education advances the commonwealth's overall ambitious goal—to raise the percentage of Kentuckians with a high-quality postsecondary degree or certificate to 60 percent by the year 2030.
- The LAUNCH Initiative: designed around the principle that every young person deserves a high school diploma with a postsecondary credential with labor market value, and a goal for every person to be engaged in full-time employment or continued training that leads to family-sustaining career in an economically strong community. The four pillars of the Launch Initiative include: alignment of credentials of value; seamless transitions between secondary and postsecondary education; Work-Based Learning (WBL); and student advising and support.
- Work-Based Learning: Work-Based Learning (WBL) is a critical component to training individuals and exposing youth, traditional jobseekers, and workers to opportunities within a career. The key to successful WBL is to have the employer at the center of the program as the spectrum of WBL stretches from career exposure, exploration, engagement, and experience. Various state programs are currently providing opportunities to individuals and employers on the spectrum of WBL, such resources are: the Kentucky Department of Education’s Office of Career and Technical Education (CTE) Work-Based Learning Manual; career exposure via Kentucky Chamber Foundation’s Bus to Business initiative; summer internship opportunities through local workforce development boards; industry-run manufacturing apprenticeships via the Kentucky Federation of Advanced Manufacturing Education (KY-FAME) model; and the Kentucky’s Registered Apprenticeship services.
- Serving Targeted Populations: Kentucky’s ability to serve all individuals in the commonwealth provides opportunities for businesses to target specific talent pools and allows the public workforce system to connect the individuals to good jobs. The map of targeted populations can be accessed to understand where individuals reside. Strategies to address barrier reduction, employment placement, and wraparound services that lead to retention will increase workforce participation in the commonwealth.
- Work Ready Communities – Next Gen: Work Ready Communities (WRC) is a program that is familiar to stakeholders in the commonwealth and continues to play an important role in understanding a communities workforce readiness. During Kentucky’s review of the program, stakeholders overwhelmingly noted the importance of the program with the added request for an update to reflect the current regional approach to workforce and economic development with information relevant in the post-pandemic economy. The key strategic metrics in the WRC-Next Gen will involve supply and demand of regional skills, serving targeted populations, and Work-Based Learning regional ecosystems. Additionally, talent ready strategies will consist of reducing barriers to employment such as childcare, transportation, housing, digital infrastructure, digital equity, and strategies to attract and retain new talent to the regions.
Local and Regional Planning Data Collection Library
We encourage LWDAs to conduct self-assessment with local and regional stakeholders. Below are several strategies that can be conducted. The strategies and self-assessment tools described in this section are recommended and not required.
(1) Stakeholder listening sessions: understanding the perspective from various stakeholders on workforce development across the
LWDA and the region to ensures community engagement and input across the spectrum of the workforce ecosystem. One way to
conduct the listening sessions is through focus groups that reflect the stakeholders and workforce development consumers,
such as:
Businesses
- Elected officials
- Individual customers
- Community based organizations
Understanding these stakeholder opinions on navigating the existing workforce system and providing suggestions on the future of workforce development is an opportunity to improve the local and regional service delivery model to reflect the needs of the consumers. Questions posed to the stakeholders can range from specific local andregional issues to the wider statewide concerns.
An example strategy utilized by the KWIB during the planning session for the 2024-2027 WIOA State Plan was to ask stakeholders to reflect on the current workforce development system followed by a conversation about a “reimagined” workforce development the stakeholders would want to see in the future. This dialogue provided an opportunity for notetakers to capture overarching perspectives and ideas for improving the workforce system.
Common themes were mapped and shared with the respective parties.
(2) Another way to conduct self-assessment is using the below tools designed to engage the board (Tool A) and internal frontline
staff (Tool B). Additionally, a checklist of planning questions (Tool C) is provided for review and preparation.
- A. Tool A: Board Assessment Survey allows local board members to assess and comment on the services and activities provided throughout the local area. Local administrators can use the results of this survey to identify gaps between current performance and ideal performance and develop a plan for improvement. The Department of Workforce Development recommends local areas conduct a formal self-assessment prior to beginning the local and regional planning process.
- B. Tool B: The Internal Assessment Survey allows frontline staff to assess and comment on the services and activities provided to jobseekers throughout the local area. Local administrators can use the results of this survey to identify gaps in its service delivery model and program design and develop a plan for improvement. The Department of Workforce Development recommends local areas conduct an internal assessment prior to beginning the local and regional planning process.
- C. Tool C: Local and Regional Planning Checklist provides a working outline of the regional and local planning elements required by Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and TEGL 4-23. The checklist should be used to guide discussions with regional and local partners.
(3) The final tool that could be utilized for self-assessment is through locally and regionally designed objective surveys that can be
distributed to the various stakeholders of the workforce development services. It is recommended to utilize an appropriate
sample with sound questions that are understood by the target audience. A good resource to utilize in creating a survey is
available here from the
Pew Research Center.
KYSTATS Reports to Aid in Data Collection
- Kentucky Future Skills Report is a supply-and-demand analysis for Kentucky’s Workforce, combining credential data with occupational employment projections.
- Kentucky Workforce Dashboard was intended to analyze Kentucky’s workforce systems (as opposed to the actual labor market) but will be redesigned in the future.
- Work Ready Communities dashboard was created to serve the Work Ready Communities program and will likely change along with the program itself.