Taking the WHOA out of WIOA: By Matthew McCray

In 2014, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act was signed into law by President Obama. I listened intently to the speech Obama gave from a conference room in an amorphous office building in Pittsburgh with my fellow Workforce Development Professionals as he described the legislation and the role it would play in transforming our workforce. I could not wait to get my hands on a copy to read through it. I printed a PDF of it out as soon as I could and marveled at the phone book-like size of the legislation. I was not alone in my zeal to get my hands on a copy of WIOA on that sweltering day in July. Nearly every Workforce Development organization, lawyer, state legislator and even curious bystanders joined me. Given its scope and grand vision, not to mention some ambiguous wording, the implementation of WIOA on the national level has been slowed greatly as the ins and outs of what the law was intended to do have been scrutinized and interpreted perhaps more than any other legal document in history aside from the Constitution. As a result, the deadline for implementation of WIOA has been pushed back repeatedly. July 1 of this year is the day the law will finally take effect.

So why has WIOA been so intimidating and difficult to implement? The main reasons are the transformational nature of the funding sources as well as the programming that is possible under the law. It is important for us to understand the law as it governs and provides the means for us to provide services that perform the most elementary and fundamental task of Workforce Development: to connect those looking for jobs to the jobs they are looking for. Many of the programs that we will be rolling out in the coming weeks, months and years will fall under the purview of WIOA.During the composition of WIOA, lawmakers asked themselves a key question in regards to the now defunct Workforce Investment Act: “If we weren’t already doing this and had to begin anew, would we be doing things the same way?” The answer to that question inspired the drastic overhaul of the existing law that resulted in WIOA. The main tenants of WIOA are congruent with our mission here at Goodwill:

1.     Increase focus on serving vulnerable members of society in a vocational capacity

2.     Expand relevant education and training options

3.     Remove barriers to employment to facilitate success

WIOA provides for a variety of services that revolve around these three main points for nearly every population. It is my goal that we here at Goodwill utilize the newly available funding through WIOA to shape the Workforce throughout the area that we service. It is also my goal that we will eventually be able to provide employment services to every member of every community. It goes without saying that the areas that we serve have suffered a great deal economically. We have a real opportunity to make a big impact and bring about the change that our service area so desperately needs. Together we will rise up to meet the challenges the tasks in front of us present. I am looking forward to working with everyone as we roll up our sleeves and get to work.