6379-S

AN ACT Relating to the work force training and education coordinating board; and amending RCW 28C.18.005 and 28C.18.010.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 28C.18.005 and 1991 c 238 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

The legislature finds that the state's system of work force training and education is inadequate for meeting the needs of the state's workers, employers, and economy. A growing shortage of skilled workers is already hurting the state's economy. There is a shortage of available workers and too often prospective employees lack the skills and training needed by employers. Moreover, with demographic changes in the state's population employers will need to employ a more culturally diverse work force in the future.

The legislature further finds that the state's current work force training and education system is fragmented among numerous agencies, councils, boards, and committees, with inadequate overall coordination. No comprehensive strategic plan guides the different parts of the system. There is no single point of leadership and responsibility. There is insufficient guidance from employers and workers built into the system to ensure that the system is responsive to the needs of its customers. Adult work force education lacks a uniform system of governance, with an inefficient division in governance between community colleges and vocational technical institutes, and inadequate local authority. The parts of the system providing adult basic skills and literacy education are especially uncoordinated and lack sufficient visibility to adequately address the needs of the large number of adults in the state who are functionally illiterate. The work force training and education system's data and evaluation methods are inconsistent and unable to provide adequate information for determining how well the system is performing on a regular basis so that the system may be held accountable for the outcomes it produces. Much of the work force training and education system provides inadequate opportunities to meet the needs of people from culturally diverse backgrounds. Finally, our public and private educational institutions are not producing the number of people educated in vocational/technical skills needed by employers.

The legislature recognizes that we must make certain that our public and private institutions of education place appropriate emphasis on the needs of employers and on the needs of the approximately eighty percent of our young people who enter the world of work without completing a four-year program of higher education. We must make our work force education and training system better coordinated, more efficient, more responsive to the needs of business and workers and local communities, more accountable for its performance, and more open to the needs of a culturally diverse population.

Sec. 2. RCW 28C.18.010 and 1991 c 238 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this title.

(1) "Board" means the work force training and education coordinating board.

(2) "Director" means the director of the work force training and education coordinating board.

(3) "Training system" means programs and courses of secondary vocational education, technical college programs and courses, community college vocational programs and courses, private career school programs and courses, adult basic education programs and courses, programs and courses funded by the job training partnership act, programs and courses funded by the federal vocational act, programs and courses funded under the federal adult education act, publicly funded programs and courses for adult literacy education, and apprenticeships, and programs and courses offered by private and public nonprofit organizations that are representative of communities or significant segments of communities and provide job training or adult literacy services.

(4) "Work force skills" means skills developed through applied learning that strengthen and reinforce an individual's academic knowledge, critical thinking, problem solving, and work ethic and, thereby, develop the employability, occupational skills, and management of home and work responsibilities necessary for economic independence.

(5) "Vocational education" means organized educational programs offering a sequence of courses which are directly related to the preparation or retraining of individuals in paid or unpaid employment in current or emerging occupations requiring other than a baccalaureate or advanced degree. Such programs shall include competency-based applied learning which contributes to an individual's academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning, and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, and the occupational-specific skills necessary for economic independence as a productive and contributing member of society. Such term also includes applied technology education.

(6) "Adult basic education" means instruction designed to achieve mastery of skills in reading, writing, oral communication, and computation at a level sufficient to allow the individual to function effectively as a parent, worker, and citizen in the United States, commensurate with that individual's actual ability level, and includes English as a second language and preparation and testing service for the general education development exam.