CTT_Clustering_Plan_REVISION_Jan_2011_(2).doc

CTT CLUSTERING AND

CAREER PATHWAYS PLAN

(SUBMITTED FEBRUARY 5, 2010)

Updated August 12, 2010

Francis S. Cole – Regional Director Compiled By:

Marcia Hampton – Division Chief, Operations

Barbara Lacy – Management Analyst

PHILADELPHIA REGIONAL CAREER TECHNICAL TRAINING

CAREER CLUSTERING PLAN

History

In May 2007, the Philadelphia Regional Director unveiled the impending transformation of the Job Corps program as a result of the “New Vision Implementation Plan”. The transformation began with improving the rigor and relevance of the training achievement records to meet industry standards and rolling out industry-based certifications as part of the Industry-focused CTT and Occupational Clustering goal. Also built into the goals of the New Vision was the need to create multiple jobs within a career pathway. The anticipated outcomes of clustering and building career pathways were expected to produce the following improvements for the program:

· Specialization within fields, leading to a better quality education

· Consolidation of trades, leading to better scheduling, cohort groups, and instructor collaboration

· Specific industry focus leads to better employer linkages and partnerships

· Targeted recruiting, focused on CTT specialization, rather than centers Some potential barriers were identified immediately and shared with the group:

· The Geographic Assignment Plan would eventually need revision

· Admissions Counselors would need training

· Undecided applicants could make poor trade selections and end up at the wrong center

· NTC contractors might protest the needed career technical training changes

· Issues with center CTST and maintenance programs

· Costs for equipment, instructors, etc. could prohibit making the right choices for a center Efforts to mitigate the effects of some barriers were built into the process. Centers were asked to participate in statewide or regional Job Corps consortia meetings to determine what trades were duplicative, what trades might be missing and what offerings might need to become advanced training programs. Consortia meetings were held according to this breakdown: DE/PA, KY, MD/DC, VA and WV. All centers participated in their designated meetings with the exception of Flatwoods Job Corps Center. DOL Regional staff attended the DE/PA, KY, and MD/DC meetings. Notes from the consortium meetings are attached in the appendices. By bringing all of the parties to the table in the design phase, contractors were able to negotiate what programs would stay where, and consider new offerings that could benefit their local markets.

PY08 CTT Changes

As a result of the consortia meetings, several contract centers began to enact the necessary CTT changes. All CTT Change Requests were submitted with labor market information to support higher wages and job growth and included support from the membership of the Industry Advisory Councils.

For Program Year 2008 (July 1, 2008-June 30, 2009), the following changes were incorporated:

(30 slots) Facilities Maintenance

(30 slots)

(48 slots)

(30 slots)

Pharmacy Technician (30 slots)

(60 slots) Medical Office Support

(60 slots)

(24 slots)

Heavy Equipment Operator (16 slots)

(24 slots) Heavy Truck Driver

(24 slots)

(30 slots) Security (30 slots)

2/4/09

2/6/09

(30 slots) Hospitality

(30 slots)

(30 slots)

Nurse Assistant (30 slots)

(30 slots) Hotel/Motel Lodging

(30 slots)

(20 slots)

Electrical

(24 slots)

Woodland

(20 slots) Nurse Assistant

(30 slots)

Woodstock

Clinical Medical Assistant

(30 slots)

PY09 CTT Changes

Effective Program Year 2009 (July 1, 2009 through January 31, 2010), these CTT changes have been incorporated or are pending approval:

and Number of Slots Increased

(24 slots)

Facilities Maintenance

(24 slots)

(24 slots)

Advanced

Welding

(24 slots)

Clements

Keystone

LPN

(20 slots) Postponed deletion of Security due to ROCA results;

LPN approved 5/12/10 start 7/1/10

Keystone

(30 slots)

Clinical Medical Assistant

(30 slots)

Old Dominion

Automotive

(24 slots)

Pine Knot

Automotive Technician

(20 slots)

ARRA Funded

(30 slots)

Nurse Assistant/Home Health Aide

(30 slots)

Pittsburgh

Heavy Equipment Operator

(12 slots) Initially approved

9/11/09

Program Approved 6/11/10 – CTT Change needs submitted Union chose not to sign agreement to implement

ARRA Funded – at PRB as of 6/11/10,;

Pittsburgh

(24 slots) Hospitality

(24 slots)

(24 slots)

HVAC

(24 slots)

Potomac

Automotive

(72 slots)

(30 slots) Advanced Culinary (20 slots)

ACT

(10 slots)

8/6/09

(20 slots) Homeland Security

(20 slots)

Continuous discussions with Center, Operator and Agency staff have allowed the Region to anticipate the next wave of changes. The next program year will bring significant changes to the Health Cluster.

CTT Changes for PY10

and Number of Slots to be Increased

Blue Ridge

Electronic Records Charting

Flatwoods

Harper’s Ferry

Advanced Training Computer Technology (20 slots)

(30 slots)

Medical Office Support

(30 slots)

(30 slots) Dental Assistant

(30 slots)

(24 slots)

(30 slots)

MOS

(30 slots)

(30 slots) Clinical Med Asst

(30 slots)

(30 slots)

(24 slots)

Hospitality-Hotel/Motel (30 slots) CTT Change Request sent to National Office on 11/4/10

The current CTT Change projections for PY 2011 are based on the Regional Office’s assessment of the big picture. In a couple of instances, there was a need to prevent duplication. In one other instance, there was a need to consolidate four trades that were unrelated and determine where the job market is headed so that a logical cluster could be formed.

Proposed CTT Changes for PY11

and Number of Slots to be Increased

(Expand Hospitality Cluster – move from Red Rock)

Old Dominion

Painting

Expand Electrical

Expand Facilities Mtnce

Cluster)

Civilian Conservation Centers A clustering discussion was also held separately with the five Civilian Conservation Corps Centers in December, 2008. At a meeting with the CCC Center Directors and US Forest Service Representatives, the Philadelphia Regional Office shared a clustering proposal that would ensure those centers fully participated in the process, yet were able to attract enough students to maintain full capacity.

Overview of the Region’s Proposal to the US Forest Service

No changes would be necessary at Flatwoods. Harper’s Ferry would increase the Information Technology cluster to include an advanced training program. Culinary Arts would be eliminated from Pine Knot and doubled at Frenchburg, expanding Frenchburg’s Hospitality Cluster. Pine Knot would begin developing a Renewable Resources Cluster. Facility Maintenance would be closed at Frenchburg. At Great Onyx, the Region proposed to eliminate one Office Admin program (30 slots) and expand the current Welding program by 24 slots. The remaining 6 slots would be utilized by offering students an OCT program in Industrial Maintenance through the Bowling Green Technical College.

US Forest Service Response

Three of the five CCC centers are in the state of KY: Frenchburg, Great Onyx and Pine Knot. All three of the center directors participated in the KY consortium meeting in July, 2008. No CTT changes were submitted on behalf of FS centers through December, 2008. After being introduced to the Regional proposal in December, 2008, the center directors and Forest Service staff in Denver reviewed it and developed a counter response. In essence, the response recognized the need for change through a clustering model; however, there was a clear desire to maintain stable, proven trade offerings that support Forest Service priorities. The Forest Service chose to close Urban Forestry at Great Onyx. They did not address the Renewable Resources cluster proposal at Pine Knot. Instead, as a response to the green initiatives, the Forest Service has begun to review its facilities to improve energy conservation and implement green construction rehab. The Regional Office issued a rebuttal, stating that several of the changes did not aid the Region in achieving its strategic goal. (Documentation is provided in the attachment section.)

In July, 2009, The Forest Service submitted a proposal directly to the National Office. The package was reviewed by the National Office contractor. For Pine Knot, they proposed to delete 20 slots in Culinary Arts and 30 slots in computer repair. In return, the program would expand the ASE certified automotive program from 20 slots to 40 slots and institute a 60 slot, 2-instructor Office Admin trade. The automotive expansion was approved in the National Office, effective November, 2009. It will be 50% center-operated and 50% UAW-operated. Beyond the Pine Knot change, no other decisions were made. The Region received an email on August 14, 2009, stating that the decisions for these centers were on hold until funding issues were resolved. No additional information has been received to date. It should be noted that the Training Pathways documents on the Job Corps website identify Urban Forestry and Forestry Firefighting as pathways in the Renewable Resources & Energy Foundations Cluster. Both of these programs are found on the Pine Knot Job Corps Center. Therefore, the Region intends to identify this cluster as an option for that center.

As a result of the recent Career Pathways exercise, the Region has reassessed eliminating the 30 Office Admin. slots at Great Onyx. The center is not taking inputs because of the long waiting lists for trades and there is a great need to add slots, rather than replace slots. The current OBS at Great Onyx is 94.4%. Male capacity is at 104.4%, and female capacity at 70.4%. There are 57 applications pending, 49 male and 7 female. There is room for 16 females in the dormitories. There needs to be more trade offerings for females to fill the bed space.

Proposed Clusters for the five US Forest Service Centers

Efforts to Address Potential Barriers Geographic Assignment Plan

The Region requires every center to update their available slots weekly on the Region’s Community Website link so that O/A staff can immediately determine where there are openings. Applicants are given realistic timeframes as to when they can expect to enroll into a center. For the past year, Outreach and Admissions contractors have struggled to attain their contractual goals. This has primarily been caused by the length of time it now takes for a student to complete the more rigorous training achievement records. To compound the problem, centers built relationships with O/A contractors outside of their GAP when they were struggling to achieve full capacity. These relationships have continued, even as the availability of slots has decreased, creating excessive pending logs for the larger O/A contracts in the region.

The Region had already conducted presentations at the last Admissions Conference covering the new TARs. The training provided the A/Cs with basic knowledge as to what the TAR would cover, an explanation of clustering, what the reading and math expectations would be for students enrolling in particular trades, and what certifications would be available to students. A/Cs were informed that they should sell training programs, not centers. Students should have a cluster identified so they are referred to the correct center. Even if they are not sure what trade, they should know whether they want Health Care, Construction, Business, etc. Students who are not sure of what they want to do are not ready to enroll.

A meeting was held January 6-7, 2010 with four O/A project directors and three Regional staff to identify possible ways of utilizing Admissions staff to improve student retention and better prepare applicants prior to arrival. With long waiting periods to enroll, applicants are finding other opportunities or losing interest in the program. The group identified the following possible solutions to improving the assessment process and keeping students engaged:

Lower goals would allow A/Cs to spend more time on quality and retention. The Region is requesting a plan from the O/A providers regarding how they will address reallocation of staff resources. Admissions staff can access the resources on the March2Success website, discuss local GED and High School Diploma programs within local communities that applicants could enroll while they are waiting, and develop projects that applicants could work on while they are waiting for an assignment date.

At the meeting, there was also a very preliminary discussion about ways assessments might be incorporated into the admissions process. It is an area to consider as we look forward. Clusters will ultimately change the way students are assigned as the program moves to cohorts and students are expected to have a career pathway in mind before they are assigned to a center.

Changes Within the Regional Office To ensure the Region is able to continue providing expertise to the field, several changes have been made to project manager assignments and performance standards. Staff have been assigned contracts based on similar clusters. All project managers have been assigned clusters, where they will be expected to develop areas of expertise. Included in the job duties will be efforts to bring field staff together to discuss important topics related to the designated career pathways within those clusters. In addition, 2 areas of significance have been targeted for increasing in-house expertise: government operated centers and non-residential centers.

Where We Are Now

Part of the CD Conference held December 1-3, 2009, focused on the Career Pathways guidance and the expectations for the program. Centers have revised their plans and the Regional Office staff have compared the centers’ submissions against the needs of the region as a whole. A few modifications will be made to ensure there are a variety of options to offer young people and more programs are attractive to female applicants.

The Region has CTT offerings from 9 of the 11 clusters. The priority funding is being allocated by those clusters that are the most common and/or the most expensive. For Program Year 2009, the Region is prioritizing the Automotive and Hospitality clusters for funding. In 2010, the Region will prioritize the Health and Office Administration clusters. In 2011, the Region will prioritize the Construction and Information Technology clusters. However, given the large number of centers with construction and health clusters, it is expected that we will continue to receive CTT changes related to these areas each year. We will process them as our resources permit.

The Region is preparing to conduct a study of slots to determine how many of our centers have a sufficient number to support OBS, taking into account the increased number of students enrolled full-time. The results of this study will be integrated into the regional clustering plan.

Summary

The Philadelphia Region is well underway. This exercise has identified a few areas where refinements need to be made from the original clustering assignments. These will be addressed in the next two program years. The Regional Office staff will continue to change and grow in order to meet the programmatic demands and ensure quality services to our Students, Center, Outreach and Admissions, and Career Transition Services Contractors and Agency partner.

Auto

Construction

RR/Energy

Information Tech

Hospitality

Information Tech

Business & Finance

Harper’s Ferry

Great Onyx

Frenchburg

Flatwoods

Pine Knot

Health Care

Homeland Security

(Welding)

Hospitality/AT

(Facilities Mtnce)

(Culinary)

Auto

Bus & Finance

(Hotel/Lodging)

Bus/Finance/AT

Construction/

AT-Weatherization

(Pharm Tech)

(Security)

Construction/AT -Weatherization

Renewable -Resources

(Info Tech)

(Facilities Mtnce)

Transportation

Health Care/AT

Info Technology

Transportation/

(AUTO AT)

Info Tech

Construction

(Welding/AT)

(Urban Forestry)

Clements

Flatwoods

Keystone

Harper’s Ferry

Philadelphiaa

Red Rock

Woodstock

Perkins

Potomac

Woodland

Wilmington

Whitney Young

Pine Knot

Pittsburgh

Muhlenberg

Old Dominion

Frenchburg

Great Onyx

Charleston Clements

Blue Ridge

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