Healey-Driscoll
Administration Releases 2024 State Workforce Agenda
Agenda outlines state’s workforce development vision, goals, and
strategies to meet the needs of jobseekers and employers to promote a strong
economy
BOSTON - The
Healey-Driscoll administration today released the Massachusetts’ Workforce
Agenda, Meeting the
Moment to Attract, Retain, and Develop a Future Workforce. This
outline of the administration’s vision, goals, and strategies to support
workforce development statewide is part of the Workforce Innovation Opportunity
Act (WIOA) State Plan, required for submission every four years to the federal
Department of Labor (USDOL) and federal Department of Education (USDOE) by
Massachusetts. The Healey-Driscoll administration filed its WIOA State Plan on
March 4, 2024.
“In Massachusetts, our greatest
strength is our talent. This plan provides a blueprint for how we can best
support our incredible workforce and employers, while also expanding
opportunities for those who are unemployed, underemployed, or facing barriers to
accessing jobs,” said Governor Maura Healey. “We crafted this plan by
bringing together business, labor, education and other stakeholders to ensure
that we were advancing strategies that will benefit all of us.”
“Teamwork and collaboration are
priority areas in our administration when it comes to addressing the state’s
challenges and delivering services and resources to our residents. This plan is
a great example of how that approach can help everyone involved, from employers
and jobseekers to all our stakeholders throughout our workforce system,” said Lieutenant
Governor Kim Driscoll. “The state will use this workforce agenda as we work
to unlock more opportunities for our residents and employers so Massachusetts can
continue to thrive.”
“The Healey-Driscoll
Administration’s workforce agenda outlines our vision and strategy to attract,
retain, and develop a strong workforce over the next 5 to 10 years, and it’s a
unified approach across state government and workforce partners. The plan includes
strategies founded by values and principles to close the skills gap and bring
discouraged and disconnected people far too often left on the sidelines back
into the labor market to build a robust talent pool for employers across
industries and regions statewide,” said Labor and Workforce Development
Secretary Lauren Jones. “We look forward to working with so many partners
and stakeholders to implement our plan to build the future talent that we need
to drive a competitive and more equitable Massachusetts.”
This Massachusetts Workforce
Agenda, embedded within the WIOA State Plan, is the result of a comprehensive
planning process with internal and external stakeholder engagement, listening
sessions, forums and planning discussions, and an extensive public comment
period and drove collaboration across state government and workforce partners.
Beginning in the spring of 2023, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce
Development and the MassHire State Workforce Board engaged with internal and
external partners across Massachusetts to help form the foundation for the
vision and mission, goals, and strategies outlined in the plan. Stakeholders
spanned multiple organizations to incorporate feedback that ultimately shaped
strategies to attract, retain, and develop talent in Massachusetts while also
strengthening the state’s workforce infrastructure systems. Additionally, in
the fall of 2023, the Workforce Skills Cabinet convened seven regional sessions
with members from workforce development, academia, business, labor, and local
and state government officials.
The Healey-Driscoll
Administration also supported a public comment period through virtual, open
discussions late January to early February 2024 to finalize the workforce
agenda and WIOA State Plan.
“Workforce
Development is critical to helping Massachusetts employers find the skilled
workers they need and connecting all residents to good jobs,” said Joanne
Pokaski, AVP of Workforce Planning and Development for Beth Israel Lahey Health
and Chair of the MassHire Workforce Board. “This plan sets a roadmap to an
equitable, inclusive and thriving Massachusetts economy.”
Focus Areas
The Healey-Driscoll
Administration’s Workforce Agenda focuses on 4 key areas:
Talent
Attraction and Retention
Massachusetts must reduce barriers
to employment as a critical strategy that will increase labor market
participation, especially among underrepresented and underserved populations,
and foster a more equitable workforce.
Key Strategies:
·
Strengthen work supports: Launch a
stipend initiative for low-income participants in sector pathway models to
incentivize enrollment, completion and employment and reduce barriers to
training and employment (such as costs for caregiving, transportation, digital
access and equipment, and more).
·
Increase access to transportation to work: Connect
jobseekers and workers via MassHire career centers to local transportation or
limited WIOA subsidies for transportation to work.
·
Reduce the cliff effect: Implement
a statewide project to address cliff effects, initiating first with a pilot to
reform benefit disincentives and provide economic mobility for
participants.
·
Subsidize housing costs: Refer job
seekers accessing MassHire career centers to local housing assistance
organizations. Additionally, provide support for individuals in shelter to gain
employment as a catalyst to exit shelter.
·
Increase worker retention: Promote
the Workforce Training Fund for eligible employers to reskill or upskill
incumbent workers and as a hiring and retention strategy. For employers who may
not be eligible to access grants from the Workforce Training Fund, explore
other grant programs through the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund to
support reskilling or upskilling incumbent workers.
·
Promote ESOL for Work: Leverage
Workforce Training Fund grants for employers to increase use for ESOL training
among incumbent workers and as a hiring and retention strategy.
·
Incorporate a Whole-of-Government Approach to
Caregiving: Work collaboratively across government including EOLWD, Executive
Office of Education, and Executive Office of Economic Development among other
agencies to take a whole-of-government approach to ensuring affordable,
high-quality child care in Massachusetts. Additionally, EOLWD will partner with
the Massachusetts Caregivers Coalition with a renewed focus on increasing
awareness of child care, senior care, and other caregiving resources in the
workplace.
Talent Development
It is imperative that workforce
strategies align with industry hiring demands expressed by employers today and
projected by employers for future in-demand occupations across the state. To
strengthen its talent pipelines, a collaborative workforce system needs to
prepare future talent and create upskilling pathways for workers through
effective education and training models that will fuel priority industries and
occupation.
Key Strategies:
·
Support Priority Populations. As part of
a talent development strategy, Massachusetts needs to create programming and
pathways to move people off the sidelines and into the labor market. This
approach should especially consider priority populations including discouraged,
underemployed, and unemployed residents, as well as individuals disconnected
from the Massachusetts labor market.
·
Promote Targeted, High-Growth Industries and
Employer Needs. Massachusetts has a tremendous opportunity to strengthen and scale
effective strategies, programming, and resources to develop untapped talent
especially by identifying targeted needs expressed by employers statewide and
in regions across the Commonwealth
·
Address AI and the Future of Work. Massachusetts
must align workforce strategies with the state’s economic development plan's
focus on artificial intelligence (AI)
Leadership by Example
Massachusetts has a tremendous
opportunity to strengthen and scale effective strategies, programming, and
resources to develop untapped talent especially with the Governor and Executive
Branch leading by example and the Commonwealth as the largest employer in
Massachusetts.
Key Strategies:
·
Promote skills-based employment practices across state government
that prioritize skills and experience over educational background, ensuring
that unnecessary educational requirements are not included in minimum entrance
requirements or job postings (Governor Healey signed Executive Order
627 on January 25, 2024 instituting skills-based hiring across
executive departments and agencies)
·
Build upon hiring strategies to pursue employment opportunities
for veterans and individuals with disabilities through newly created
partnerships with non-profit organizations and internal agencies, like the
Executive Office of Veterans Services and Massachusetts Rehabilitation
Commission
·
Consider a campaign to encourage private sector employers to train
and hire diverse, untapped talent especially focused on individuals with
disabilities, veterans, and people of color;
·
Implement the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s equity assessment
to address persistent inequities in the labor market and create opportunities
that are inclusive, fair, and representative of Massachusetts’ diversity.
Workforce System Infrastructure
Massachusetts needs to modernize
and strengthen the infrastructure and coordination across the MassHire public
workforce system to improve support for jobseekers and employers.
Key Strategies:
·
Modernize and strengthen the infrastructure and
coordination across the MassHire public workforce system: The
Healey-Driscoll Administration intends to identify capital budget resources to
support the replacement of MOSES—the MassHire database—followed by securing a
contractor through a competitive RFP process to:
o Realign
MassHire service delivery to hybrid model
o Redesign
the online presence of MassHire based on user centered design principles that
follow an individual from “job loss to job gain” aligned to MassHire services
for companies through a new, accessible single “front door” for employers
o Connect
systems between state agencies
·
Improve “front door” experiences for both
jobseekers and employers. As part of MassTalent, it is imperative for the
Massachusetts workforce system to ensure both jobseekers and employers can
navigate, with ease, the range of resources by industry and occupation,
especially focused on high-growth industries statewide.
·
Increase engagement of the MassHire State
Workforce Board. The Massachusetts State Workforce Board serves as a convening body
to influence and support the WIOA State Plan and also serves as a resource for
the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development to engage regional
workforce partners to advance recommendations of the WIOA State Plan and
Governor’s workforce agenda.
To read the full plan and
download a copy, visit the EOLWD website.
