Understanding Good Policy in Workforce Development

High Road Economic Development

The workforce investment system should embrace the principles of a high road economy: one that competes on the basis of innovation, quality and skill rather than on low wages and limited benefits. Just as importantly, the High Road Public Workforce Agenda enables today’s unions and other advocates of high road development to learn more about their regional economies and to use public resources to encourage the creation of the quality jobs that working families need.

The High Road Workforce Agenda calls for:

Comprehensive high road community
audits so that WIBs can identify the good
jobs in their communities and implement
strategies that encourage more of them;

Expanded use of realistic self-sufficiency
standards so that Workforce Investment Boards can
extend eligibility for training services to
more low-wage workers; and

New policies for public subsidy accountability
so that taxpayers can find out whatkinds of jobs are being underwritten with public dollars.**

** From the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute

Partners in High Road Policy and Practice

• Working for America Institure (AFL-CIO)
• Center on Wisconsin Strategy
• Good Jobs First
• The Workforce Alliance

Looking at Labor Market Data from a Union Perspective

The California Labor Federation's WED program can help you analyze your region for high road economic development potential.

Some examples:

Sacramento job growth analysis

San Joaquin Valley job growth analysis

Call Martha Bader at 510-663-4082 for more information

Aligning state systems in workforce development: the CA EDGE Campaign

California's future economic growth rests in large measure on the skill base of its workers. The state is facing a major skill gap. Its industrial leadership is now at serious risk of losing the competitive advantage of a highly trained workforce and it lags other states in responding to this challenge.

The CA EDGE campaign calls for a strategic 5-point plan to forge the state's impressive education and training infrastructure into an integrated system of talent development that addresses the needs of all California workers and employers.

1. Invest in regional workforce and economic
development strategies to build prosperous
communities and competitive industries.

2. Provide all Californians access to high quality
postsecondary education and skills training.
3. Provide working adults with opportunities to move
up the skill ladder.

4. Link workforce programs and institutions to create
pathways to high wage jobs.

5. Align program goals and measures to achieve a
shared vision of California’s future and to ensure accounatbility.

Putting Policy into Practice: Resources for labor market research in California

• California Economy and Labor Market Data from the State of CA
• California Budget Project
• Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy
• Collaborative Economics
• Data Analysis: Cluster approach/ sectoral analysis/ supply chains
• Getting help from the State of CA in doing your own regional analysis: see a list of EDD's Labor Market Division Regional Consultants

Existing training providers of high-road jobs:

Building California Construction Careers