Today's Law As Amended


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AB-23 Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development: Business Workforce Coordination Unit.(2019-2020)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 (a) The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(1) California’s labor market is increasingly reliant upon a better-trained workforce.
(2) California has a projected shortfall of one to one and one-half million workers with some postsecondary education, but not a bachelor’s degree.
(3) If California is unable to adequately address workforce needs, this state risks foregoing economic opportunities and reducing our market competitiveness, thus limiting or altering our state’s economic growth.
(4) Wages increase on average from 20 to 30 percent when comparing California workers who have had some postsecondary education to those with only a high school diploma.
(5) It is critical for California to not only address the widening gap between the trained labor supply and the demand for high-growth professions, but to also incentivize further training in low-growth occupations to facilitate upward economic mobility for Californians working in those occupations.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to incentivize systems that better facilitate communication and partnerships between businesses, labor advocates, and educational institutions for the purpose of creating tailored workforce training programs that both increase worker participation and further the attainment of increased skills.

SEC. 2.

 Section 12100.40 is added to the Government Code, to read:

12100.40.
 The Business Workforce Coordination Unit is hereby established in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. To support economic development, the purpose of the unit is to engage industry and business on aligning career technical education courses, workforce training programs, and preapprenticeship and apprenticeship programs with regional and local labor market demand.

SEC. 3.

 Section 12100.41 is added to the Government Code, to read:

12100.41.
 (a) The unit shall collaborate and coordinate with the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the California Workforce Development Board, the State Department of Education, the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, the Department of Industrial Relations Division of Apprenticeship Standards, the Employment Training Panel, local workforce development boards, business, industry, and other public and private workforce development entities to facilitate a broader understanding of the workforce needs of businesses seeking to expand their operations in California, address a skills shortage, or upskill their workforce, or any combination thereof. Additionally, the unit shall support businesses and employers in their efforts to use workforce development tools to support economic development.
(b) The unit shall, in collaboration with the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, identify underserved or unserved business workforce needs in dominant and emerging industry sectors and regions throughout the state. The unit shall partner with the agency to develop and implement an outreach and engagement plan that will elevate business workforce needs, identify opportunities, and engage businesses in underserved or unserved industry sectors and regions to further incorporate labor market demand needs into future updates to the state’s Unified Strategic Workforce Development Plan.