For purposes of this division:
(a) "Board" means the California Workforce Development Board.
(b) "Agency" means the Labor and Workforce Development Agency.
(c) "Career pathways," "career ladders," or "career lattices" are
an identified series of positions, work experiences, or educational
benchmarks or credentials with multiple access points that offer
occupational and financial advancement within a specified career
field or related fields over time. "Career pathways," "career
ladders," and "career lattices" offer combined programs of rigorous
and high-quality education, training, and other services that do all
of the following:
(1) Align with the skill needs of industries in the economy of the
state or regional economy involved.
(2) Prepare an individual to be successful in any of a full range
of secondary or postsecondary education options, including
apprenticeships registered under the National Apprenticeship Act of
1937 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 50 et seq.), except as in Section 3226 of Title
29 of the United States Code.
(3) Include counseling to support an individual in achieving the
individual's education and career goals.
(4) Include, as appropriate, education offered concurrently with
and in the same context as workforce preparation activities and
training for a specific occupation or occupational cluster.
(5) Organize education, training, and other services to meet the
particular needs of an individual in a manner that accelerates the
educational and career advancement of the individual to the extent
practicable.
(6) Enable an individual to attain a secondary school diploma or
its recognized equivalent, and at least one recognized postsecondary
credential.
(7) Help an individual enter or advance within a specific
occupation or occupational cluster.
(d) "Cluster-based sector strategies" mean methods of focusing
workforce and economic development on those sectors that have
demonstrated a capacity for economic growth and job creation in a
particular geographic area.
(e) "Data driven" means a process of making decisions about
investments and policies based on systematic analysis of data, which
may include data pertaining to labor markets.
(f) "Economic security" means, with respect to a worker, earning a
wage sufficient to support a family adequately, and, over time, to
save for emergency expenses and adequate retirement income, based on
factors such as household size, the cost of living in the worker's
community, and other factors that may vary by region.
(g) "Evidence-based" means making use of policy research as a
basis for determining best policy practices. Evidence-based
policymakers adopt policies that research has shown to produce
positive outcomes, in a variety of settings, for a variety of
populations over time. Successful, evidence-based programs deliver
quantifiable and sustainable results. Evidence-based practices differ
from approaches that are based on tradition, belief, convention, or
anecdotal evidence.
(h) "High-priority occupations" mean occupations that have a
significant presence in a targeted industry sector or industry
cluster, are in demand, or projected to be in demand, by employers,
and pay or lead to payment of a wage that provides economic security.
(i) (1) "In-demand industry sector or occupation" means either of
the following:
(A) An industry sector that has a substantial current or potential
impact, including through jobs that lead to economic
self-sufficiency and opportunities for advancement, on the state,
regional, or local economy, as appropriate, and that contributes to
the growth or stability of other supporting businesses, or the growth
of other industry sectors.
(B) An occupation that currently has or is projected to have a
number of positions, including positions that lead to economic
self-sufficiency and opportunities for advancement, in an industry
sector so as to have a significant impact on the state, regional, or
local economy, as appropriate.
(2) The determination of whether an industry sector or occupation
is "in-demand" under this subdivision shall be made by the board or
local board, or through the regional planning process in which local
boards participate under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity
Act, as appropriate, using state and regional business and labor
market projections, including the use of labor market information.
(j) "Individual with employment barriers" means an individual with
any characteristic that substantially limits an individual's ability
to obtain employment, including indicators of poor work history,
lack of work experience, or access to employment in nontraditional
occupations, long-term unemployment, lack of educational or
occupational skills attainment, dislocation from high-wage and
high-benefit employment, low levels of literacy or English
proficiency, disability status, or welfare dependency, including
members of all of the following groups:
(1) Displaced homemakers.
(2) Low-income individuals.
(3) Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, as those terms
are defined in Section 3221 of Title 29 of the United States Code.
(4) Individuals with disabilities, including youths who are
individuals with disabilities.
(5) Older individuals.
(6) Ex-offenders.
(7) Homeless individuals, as defined in Section 14043e-2(6) of
Title 42 of the United States Code, or homeless children and youths,
as defined in Section 11434a(2) of Title 42 of the United States
Code.
(8) Youth who are in, or have aged out of, the foster care system.
(9) Individuals who are English language learners, individuals who
have low levels of literacy, and individuals facing substantial
cultural barriers.
(10) Eligible migrant and seasonal farmworkers, as defined in
Section 3322(i) of Title 29 of the United States Code.
(11) Individuals within two years of exhausting lifetime
eligibility under Part A of Title IV of the Social Security Act (42
U.S.C. Sec. 601 et seq.).
(12) Single parents, including single, pregnant women.
(13) Long-term unemployed individuals.
(14) Any other groups as the Governor determines to have barriers
to employment.
(k) "Industry cluster" means a geographic concentration or
emerging concentration of interdependent industries with direct
service, supplier, and research relationships, or independent
industries that share common resources in a given regional economy or
labor market. An industry cluster is a group of employers closely
linked by common product or services, workforce needs, similar
technologies, and supply chains in a given regional economy or labor
market.
(l) "Industry or sector partnership" means a workforce
collaborative, convened or acting in partnership with the board or a
local board, that does the following:
(1) Organizes key stakeholders in an industry cluster into a
working group that focuses on the shared goals and human resources
needs of the industry cluster and that includes, at the appropriate
stages of development of the partnership:
(A) Representatives of multiple businesses or other employers in
the industry cluster, including small and medium-sized employers when
practicable.
(B) One or more representatives of a recognized state labor
organization or central labor council, or another labor
representative, as appropriate.
(C) One or more representatives of an institution of higher
education with, or another provider of, education or training
programs that support the industry cluster.
(2) The workforce collaborative may include representatives of any
of the following:
(A) State or local government.
(B) State or local economic development agencies.
(C) State boards or local boards, as appropriate.
(D) A state workforce agency or entity providing employment
services.
(E) Other state or local agencies.
(F) Business or trade associations.
(G) Economic development organizations.
(H) Nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations, or
intermediaries.
(I) Philanthropic associations.
(J) Industry associations.
(K) Other organizations, as determined to be necessary by the
members comprising the industry sector or partnership.
(m) "Industry sector" means those firms that produce similar
products or provide similar services using somewhat similar business
processes, and are closely linked by workforce needs, within a
regional labor market.
(n) "Local labor federation" means a central labor council that is
an organization of local unions affiliated with the California Labor
Federation or a local building and construction trades council
affiliated with the State Building and Construction Trades Council of
California.
(o) "Sector strategies" means methods of prioritizing investments
in competitive and emerging industry sectors and industry clusters on
the basis of labor market and other economic data indicating
strategic growth potential, especially with regard to jobs and
income, and exhibit the following characteristics:
(1) Focus workforce investment in education and workforce training
programs that are likely to lead to jobs providing economic security
or to an entry-level job with a well-articulated career pathway into
a job providing economic security.
(2) Effectively boost labor productivity or reduce business
barriers to growth and expansion stemming from workforce supply
problems, including skills gaps and occupational shortages by
directing resources and making investments to plug skills gaps and
provide education and training programs for high-priority
occupations.
(3) May be implemented using articulated career pathways or
lattices and a system of stackable credentials.
(4) May target underserved communities, disconnected youths,
incumbent workers, and recently separated military veterans.
(5) Frequently are implemented using industry or sector
partnerships.
(6) Typically are implemented at the regional level where sector
firms, those employers described in subdivisions (j) and (l), often
share a common labor market and supply chains. However, sector
strategies may also be implemented at the state or local level
depending on sector needs and labor market conditions.
(p) "Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014" means the
federal act enacted as Public Law 113-128.
(q) (1) "Earn and learn" includes, but is not limited to, a
program that does either of the following:
(A) Combines applied learning in a workplace setting with
compensation allowing workers or students to gain work experience and
secure a wage as they develop skills and competencies directly
relevant to the occupation or career for which they are preparing.
(B) Brings together classroom instruction with on-the-job training
to combine both formal instruction and actual paid work experience.
(2) "Earn and learn" programs include, but are not limited to, all
of the following:
(A) Apprenticeships.
(B) Preapprenticeships.
(C) Incumbent worker training.
(D) Transitional and subsidized employment, particularly for
individuals with barriers to employment.
(E) Paid internships and externships.
(F) Project-based compensated learning.