Womens Employment Committee

November 7, 2016: 9:30 AM
Frances Perkins Room, MDOL Commerce Drive, Augusta, ME

Women?s Employment Issues Committee AGENDA 11/7/16 9:30 ? Noon Frances Perkins Room, MDOL Introductions Approval of 9/13/16 Minutes Presentations: Joan Dolan, MDOL, Competitive Skills Scholarship Program and Apprenticeship Program Danielle Despins, MDOE, Special Populations and Gender Equity Coordinator Policy and program priorities in 2017 Member Updates/Resource sharing Update on WIOA, SWB, DOL Please see attached list of 2017 meeting dates

WOMENS EMPLOYMENT ISSUES COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

11/7/2016

Present: Gilda Nardone, Joni Boissonneault, Karen Keim, Courtney Alley, Valerie Carter, Chris Hastedt, Kathy Kilrain del Rio, Jody Harris, Laurie Glidden, Auta Main

Guest: Joan Dolan, MDOL, Competitive Skills Scholarship Program and Apprenticeship Program Danielle Despins, MDOE, Special Populations and Gender Equity Coordinator

Staff: Cheryl Moran, Josh Howe (phone)

Introductions • Gilda Nardone opened the meeting with welcomes and introductions.

Approval of 9/13/16 Minutes • Gilda Nardone asked for approval of the 9/13/16 minutes. Minutes approved as written with no corrections.

Presentations: Joan Dolan, MDOL, Competitive Skills Scholarship Program and Apprenticeship Program • Joan provided a PowerPoint presentation including (2) handouts: 2015 Annual Report on Maine Apprenticeship Program and 2015 Annual Report of the Competitive Skills Scholarship Progarm. She opened the presentation with a ?workforce money 101? stating where the Bureau of Employment Services (BES) receives their funding for their Programs. The funding sources are: 1). Wagner-Peyser ? federal funding used for employer outreach. There are 12 CareerCenters statewide. To access CareerCenter information, go to: www.mainecareercenter.com.
2). Competitive Skills Scholarship Program (CSSP) ? state funds that are an offset of Unemployment Compensation (UI) taxes paid by the employer to get low-income people into high wage/high demand occupations. Apprenticeship Program The Maine Apprenticeship Program is an employer-provided, nationally recognized workforce training program developed in collaboration with individual employers. Apprenticeship is one of the only remaining state-funded, industry-led, incumbent worker training programs. Statute requires apprentices be at least 16 years old (18 years old for certain occupations) and has a high school diploma or equivalent.
In 2015, they had 54 Registered Apprenticeship sponsors. Currently, they have 56; added 11 and 25 are in-line to become sponsors.
Joan stated most apprenticeships in Maine are not new hires. Employers are resistant even if the applicant has a 4 year degree. Some programs are competency ?based and some are time- based. Training can be conducted on-line, in class or in-house. The off-set of the cost of training (to the provider) is up to $1200 per year. Also, they can access other funding streams if eligible. The employer must have 144 hours of classroom training for every year they have an apprenticeship. Pretty much any job is apprenticeship able. Sponsorship: Industry Associations and large employers is the area where she is concentrating on. Medical Assistant Apprenticeship Program Hospitals express the need of medical assistants statewide and they cannot fill openings due to the requirement of having an associate?s degree, experience and the rate of pay. The applicant is assessed by taking the basic skills assessment at Adult Education and need to have at least a 10th grade math and reading level, pre-screened by the CareerCenter and take the California Interest Profiler. The curriculum is compressed into 5 months. They will earn a National Certification at the end of the 5 months and will be hired as a Medical Assistant Apprentice. Pre-Apprenticeship Program Registered pre-apprenticeship programs are designed to facilitate the entry and ultimate success of individuals who enter into registered apprenticeship programs. Both adults and youths can be in the program. Demographically, Maine is doing better than most states however; there still is a gender gap. Competitive Skills Scholarship Program (CSSP) To qualify for the program, the applicant must have a family income of at least 200% or less of the federal poverty level. The CSSP list of occupations is generated on 2 criteria, high demand which means an occupation has at least 20 openings, and high wage - the occupation must be above the median wage. The list is presented to the State Workforce Board for approval each year. There are 4 different CSSP Programs: ? CSSP Regular ? income eligible; 200% or less of the federal poverty level and if 125% or less, a stipend is provided. ? CSSP Bridge ? offers a cohort based educational experience. Eleven schools are participating. ? CSSP Business ? the program is designed to meet individual business training needs for CSSP eligible new hires or to advance income eligible incumbent trainees. ? CSSP FSET ? food supplement agreement with DHHS. The trainees can only work towards earning an industry recognized certification and /or an associate?s degree.
CSSP has a rolling admission. Applications are kept on file for 6 months. Danielle Despins, MDOE, Special Populations and Gender Equity Coordinator • Danielle primarily works with CTE?s at the post-secondary level. She understands the need to re-educate parents that it is not uncommon or inappropriate for a girl to obtain a non-traditional occupation. Hopefully this will empower girls to be excited to seek career paths in a non-traditional occupation. Currently, she is working with another committee on a marketing campaign in non-traditional occupations. Title 6, 9 and 2 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is her focus in that realm. She reviews schools to ensure compliance.

Policy and program priorities in 2017 • Gilda Nardone opened the conversation asking each member to provide their thoughts and ideas in reference to policy and program priorities in 2017. First, Gilda stated she looked at raw data by gender; women in the criminal justice system under training opportunities. Then she proceeded by stating her suggestions: ? Broad Policy agenda.
? Narrow down 1 or 2 particular issues or maybe some policy issues after the election. ? Trends that impact girls. ? Keep each other informed ? How? ? Direction of adult education attainment. ? Immigrant women ? another group to have interaction with. ? Sub-groups of women and girls ? who will be our next generation? ? Those who work on policy issues, keep us aligned. • Laurie Glidden, Family Self-Sufficiency Coordinator, Maine State Housing Authority stated that her program (housing) is expanding. Most of her clients are single women. Her job is to assist all challenges that effect women. • Joni Boissonneault, Program Manager, Portland Housing Authority stated that her program (housing) also is expanding. She also likes keeping the policy agenda broad.
• Auta Main, Veterans? Program Manager, MDOL also agreed keeping the policy agenda broad. She finds it helpful/useful. She reported that there are 120,000 veterans in Maine. Out of the 120,000, 8,000 are women. 65,000 veterans are in the workforce. Maine Hire-a-Vet Campaign update: 140 employers, 83 hires, 16 are women. She stated that she will call each hired veteran and write a short profile. • Courtney Alley, State of Maine Office of Information Technology reported 25% of the workforce are ready to retire. The main focus is to hire women in IT occupations. She announced on March 22, 2017, their department will host TechHire. • Chris Hastedt, Public Policy Director, Maine Equal Justice Partners wants to talk more about TANF because she feels women need basic stability in their lives. She stated that she is in the process of drafting a bill which she will provide to committee members. She would like to break through some of the stereotyping. • Karen Keim, Interim Director, Maine Educational Opportunity Center & Maine Educational Talen Search Program stated that she would like to discuss strategy around the table? issues in general? particularly in Maine. She pointed out what she like about the committee specifically is how willing we are to be able to collaborate. She also expressed how she appreciates what Gilda has brought to this committee. • Jody Harris, Associate Director, Maine Center for Economic Policy stated that she thought it would be great if there was a way to be out in the field. Or maybe we can take ideas and run with it. • Kathy Kilrain del Rio, Director of Program & Development, Maine Women?s Policy Center wants the committee to ?flag? the minimum wage and sub-minimum tip wage issue pending on election out-come. Because more than 60% are women. She hopes the out-come will shift way on how women that dominate minimum wage occupations are paid. She stated that we need to break the stigma that women are responsible for being in poverty.
• Valerie Carter, Ph.D., Research Associate, Bureau of Labor Education, University of Maine stated that her background is in Sociology. She enjoys working with numbers. She also is interested in the single mom issue - blaming the mother for being in poverty. She stated that the issue has increased due to the lack of good paying jobs.

Member Updates/Resource sharing • Gilda Nardone ? provided a flyer on Totally Trades ? A Hands-On Conference for Girls. The Conference will be held on Thursday, November 10 at the FCTE in Farmington. In the spring, the conference will be held in Westbrook, Bangor and Presque Isle. She also provided flyers on 2 non-traditional occupations; Welding & Sheet Metal and Electrician. The Totally Trades Conference will enable girls (8th grade through high school) to explore careers in the trade & technology fields. It will provide an opportunity for the girls to think more expensively about their future. Gilda feels we need to do better in capturing stories. One of the ways is reaching girls at an earlier age.

Update on WIOA, SWB, DOL • Cheryl Moran reported the Steering Committee is working on implementation strategy of the WIOA (Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act) State Unified Plan. Josh Howe is taking the lead as Project Manager.
The whole process started with 6 objectives and 8 criteria (feds imposed), which will be the ?guts? of the implementation. Josh Howe has set-up meetings with the Core Partners to drill down on what is already happening and what is not.

• Karen Keim suggested after 2017, if we can hold committee meetings at another location and tying with another event.

Meeting adjourned

Next meeting will be held on Monday, February 6, 2017 from 9:30 ? Noon in the Frances Perkins Room MDOL Commerce Center Augusta.

Respectfully submitted by Cheryl Moran

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