13997.3.
(a) The Employment Training Panel shall establish a pilot project to enhance the regionally focused statewide business training center network of community college contract education centers to partner with other assistance providers servicing small businesses. The pilot project may be guided through an Employment Training Panel partnership, which may include the California Community Colleges, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, and the California Workforce Development Board.(b) The Employment Training Panel shall develop the pilot project to achieve
all of the following purposes:
(1) To support the enhancement of a regionally focused statewide network of at least 10 regional business training centers, and their subcontracted community college partners, within the California Community Colleges that hold multiple employer contracts with the Employment Training Panel.
(2) To support the upskilling of the regional workforce to meet the demand for jobs in essential industry sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the emerging and dominant industry sectors in the post COVID-19 economy.
(3) To strengthen the capacity of a region’s small business service providers to meet the demands being placed upon it by the COVID-19 pandemic through heightened
coordination and referrals between small business financial and technical assistance centers and regional education and training system partners, including, but not limited to, community college credit, noncredit, and not-for-credit courses, community college workforce training units, including contract education, local workforce boards, public and private universities and colleges, and private training and higher education partners. The intent is to increase coordination within the workforce development ecosystem, leverage and build upon existing efforts to avoid duplication, and to supplement and expand where needed to meet employer training needs.
(c) (1) (A) Each region’s training activities under the pilot project shall be based on a regional skills map that identifies and compares the
occupations that experience the highest number of job losses with those that will require additional workers, including occupations in industries that are considered essential in the state’s response to the pandemic and those that will require additional workers as the state economy recovers.
(B) The regional skills map shall be developed by the Community College Centers of Excellence within the California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development Program (Part 52.5 (commencing with Section 88600) of Division 7 of Title 3 of
the Education Code). The contract education centers shall provide information on the types of courses being requested from businesses for upskilling of incumbent and new workers. The data used in the development of the map shall be available, upon request, to local workforce boards within the region.
(C) The identification of the dominant and emerging industry sectors shall be informed by the most recent local workforce board local plans and the California Community Colleges Strong Workforce regional plans.
(2) Based on the regional skills map developed pursuant to paragraph (1), the workforce training and contract education units of community colleges participating in the pilot project shall offer short-term training programs that assist displaced and incumbent workers
in obtaining the skills necessary to work within essential, emerging, and dominant industry sectors. Training provided shall be consistent with the requirements described in subdivision (g) of Section 88821 of the Education Code and qualify as a “short-term workforce training program” as defined in subdivision (q) of Section 88822 of the Education Code.
(d) The Employment Training Panel and the partners may establish an advisory board of businesses, workforces, and economic development stakeholders to provide advice on the activities to, and review of, the pilot project.
(e) The Employment Training Panel may allocate up to 30 percent of the funds appropriated for the purpose of the pilot project to the contract education centers prior to the completion of the regional
skills gap map.
(f) The Employment Training Panel shall submit, in compliance with Section 9795, all of the following reports:
(1) On or before October 1, 2021, an annual report of the activities of the pilot project in the previous 12 months.
(2) On or before October 1, 2022, an annual report of the activities of the pilot project in the previous 12 months.
(3) On or before January 1, 2023, a final report that includes an overall summary of the activities of the pilot project and an assessment of the effectiveness of the pilot project in achieving the purposes identified in subdivision (b).
(g) The pilot
project shall become operative only upon the Legislature making an appropriation to implement the provisions of this section.
(h) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2025, and as of that date is repealed.