THE OFFICIAL WEB SITE OF THE MADISON TIMES WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Workforce Development Board

21st Century Training

by Jonathan Gramling

Part 2 of 2

Dale Hopkins, the executive director of the Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin (WDB), has been involved in federally funded employment and training programming since the late 1970s when the local Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) office employed him. Hopkins has seen the system evolve over the years - as well as the level of funding.

Hopkins now oversees an annual budget of approximately $8 million, which is distributed to employment and training organizations and institutions for the provision of services to targeted workers. Currently, due to the source of the funding, the WDB devotes a majority of its resources to serving dislocated workers.

The dislocated workers service system reacts quickly when there is a pending plant closure. One of those plants was the Rayovac plant on Madison's east side. "The state of Wisconsin's Workforce Development (DWD) got a notice from Rayovac," Hopkins said. "It's called a WARN, which is 60 day notification required from companies with 50 or more employees who plan to lay off people. As soon as DWD learns of layoffs, they will notify us within hours of receiving the WARN. Immediately, we set up a Rapid Response Team composed of a representative from DWD and our board will go out and meet the representative of the company. If there is a union involved, we'll meet with a union representative at the same time. We find out the details of what is going to happen: how many workers are involved, when is it going to happen and so on. Then we make arrangements for what we call a Rapid Response Orientation for the workers."

The 2-3 hour orientation sessions - 12-14 of them were held for Rayovac workers - are designed to inform the soon to be idled workers about the array of public services they can take advantage of to become retrained and reemployed and all of the supportive service they need to make a smooth transition. The sessions feature experts from many fields, from education to unemployment to health care. The employees also receive packets full of information designed to assist the workers with the decisions and issues they will be facing.

After that, it's up to the employee to respond. "They are free to do what they want to do, but at least they have the information on what is available to them from the public sector," Hopkins said. "Some people take advantage of it that moment and some people are going to try and make it on their own. That's wonderful. But they can always come back to the program."

WDB also works with other populations in need of employment and training services such as low-income individuals, whether they are employed or not. "We are certainly working closely with job centers that do see a large number of lower-income people," Hopkins said. "We're working with human service agencies where the W-2 program might end or might not be appropriate. Where we get into the regular adult and 'at-risk' youth programs, there has to be a good reason why they are in the program. By virtue of the fact we are always dealing with limited funds, we should always be looking toward the most in need who can benefit from our services."

The name of the game for the employment and training system is performance - they are required to place people in employment that pays them at least 80 percent of their former wages. "There is no more free money," Hopkins said.

And the need for employment and training services is limitless. And so, the preferred - and perhaps only - method to secure that performance and to stretch the dollars as much as possible is collaboration. "I emphasize to contractors that we are in this together," Hopkins emphasized.

Through collaboration, WDB buys specialization and the benefits of economies of scale. It also stretches its resources. "Whether it is in the private, private nonprofit or the public sector, we've got wonderful resources, so why not build on what we have as opposed to starting something new," Hopkins asked rhetorically. "We're pretty conservative with the dollars we have been entrusted in. How can we best serve our constituents with the least amount of dollars? Our administration costs are about 4.7 percent. I may be an administrator, but I do a lot with dislocated workers."

In their dislocated workers program, WDB can pay for tuition, books, and supplies, but it always investigates to see if the worker qualifies for veterans benefits, grants, and scholarships first before it picks up the rest of the education tab."

In Hokins view, employment and training programs are a good investment and are vital to securing Wisconsin's future economic health. "We're in trouble as a state because we aren't going to have enough people to fill the required number of jobs that we will have available," Hopkins cautioned. "And we're having a lot of people retiring now in huge numbers, much higher than the national average. We're losing a lot of young people to neighboring states. Wisconsin needs to look very carefully at all populations, whether it's dislocated workers or people with disabilities or older workers or minority populations, we had better wake up and understand that these are extremely valuable populations that need to be treated well and helped to prepare."

While the style, rationale, and funding might change over the years, the need for quality employment and training programs is always constant. It's about empowering workers to be active contributors to society and keeping Wisconsin's economy strong. That's a pretty wise investment.