Brief Description: Concerning entrepreneurial training opportunities.

Sponsors: Senators Kilmer, Kastama, Kauffman, Shin, Delvin, Brown and McAuliffe.

Senate Committee on Economic Development, Trade & Management
House Committee on Higher Education

Background: The Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board (WTECB) was created by the Legislature in 1991 in an effort to make the state's workforce education and training system better coordinated, more efficient, more responsive to the needs of business, workers and local communities, and more accountable for its performance. Among the current responsibilities of the board is the development of coordination criteria for activities under the federal Job Training Partnership Act. This federal law was replaced with the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in 1998.   

On February 23, 2005, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a memo titled "Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 16-04." This memo requested that states "encourage local workforce investment boards to consider entrepreneurial training programs for WIA customers as part of their menu of services and to explore the appropriate partnerships to support these training programs."

There is no mention of entrepreneurial training or education among the WTECB's current list of duties. Entrepreneurial training is a permitted training service under WIA, and self-employment is an allowable employment outcome. There are a number of entrepreneurial and microenterprise training programs in the state.

Summary: The WTECB is to develop policy objectives for WIA in the state and ensure that entrepreneurial training opportunities are available through programs of each local work force investment board in the state. The WTECB is also to facilitate the development of programs for school-to-work transition that include entrepreneurial education and training.   

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate      49   0
House      81   17

Effective:   July 22, 2007