MDCD 1999-2000 PROGRESS REPORT

INTRODUCTION

In April 1999, as part of his “Smart State” strategy, Governor John Engler created the Michigan Department of Career Development (MDCD) through Executive Order
1999-1.

Initially, MDCD included three agencies: the Office of Workforce Development, Michigan Rehabilitation Services, and the Employment Service Agency.

A subsequent executive order in 1999 transferred to MDCD from the Department of Education: Career and Technical Education Services, Postsecondary Services, and Adult Education. With this transfer, MDCD was given the capability to address the vitally important topic of career development for all Michigan residents.

The mission of the Department of Career Development is to develop a system that produces a workforce with the required skills to maintain and enhance the Michigan economy.

Dr. Barbara Bolin became the Director of the Department of Career Development in July 1999.

This report assesses the Department's progress in implementing the goals and objectives that were set forth in its first strategic plan developed in the fall of 1999.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Goal 1: Develop an integrated career development system through industry-education partnerships at the state and local levels.

1.1 Strategic Partnerships for Career Development Initiative

On February 17, 2000, MDCD convened business and education leaders throughout the state to begin a strategic planning initiative at the local level that would align diverse funding streams under a single strategic plan. The goal? To produce a workforce with the required skills to maintain and enhance the local/regional economy.

The initiative rewards local communities with cash grants to: (1) assess their present and future social, economic, and educational conditions, and then (2) set career development goals and strategies over a 3-5 year period for the area’s schools, colleges, and education and training programs. Approximately $3 million of the $75 million of tobacco settlement revenues provided to MDCD by the Michigan legislature has been reserved to fund this initiative. MDCD provided a strategic planning manual that outlined the process and provided resource materials for planning. As of September 2000, the accomplishments of this initiative include:

All 25 Workforce Development Boards (WDBs) are participating, plus 100 percent of Michigan’s community colleges and school districts representing 75 percent of K-12 students in the state. Note: Michigan has Workforce Development Boards in each of its 25 workforce investment areas or regions. These boards operate all federal and state job training programs, several welfare-to-work programs, more than 100 Michigan Works Service Centers ("one-stops" that include job placement and referral services, career information, and guidance), and the new Partnership for Adult Learning (adult education) program. Along with the newly re-constituted and expanded Educational Advisory Groups (EAGs), the WDBs are responsible for bringing employers and education and training providers into a common strategic planning process.

 

Education Advisory Groups (EAGs) appointed by the WDBs have an expanded role of leading strategic planning for educational programs in their respective regions. In the past year, many more local school superintendents, intermediate school district superintendents, and community college presidents have joined their EAGs. In addition to their former role of approving local plans for the state's $24 million Career Preparation program, EAGs in partnership with the WDBs, now provide policy direction for the state's new $20 million adult education program, Partnerships for Adult Learning, and federally-supported programs worth $65 million that supplement local programs in career-technical education and adult education. More importantly, EAGs provide a forum for discussing how to redirect billions of locally controlled dollars for public schools and community colleges to enhance the career development of the region’s students and workers.

 

A four-step strategic planning process is under way, with funding to reward the successful completion of each step (averaging $120,000 per workforce area):

 

• Environmental Scan & Career Development Report Card – due August 2000. The scan includes the collective vision for the local area (including economic, social and quality-of-life conditions), the current performance of the career development system in relation to this vision as determined by analysis of available data, and the implications of this analysis expressed as future directions or strategic goals.
  
  
• Community Outreach – due October 2000. The goal of this phase is to share the information and analysis above with thousands of people in order to ensure widespread understanding and agreement on the assessment and proposed strategies to improve the local/regional career development system. This phase may involve extensive media coverage, town meetings, or convocations of community interest groups. People need to care about the system and agree on the facts in order to obtain the political support required for meaningful change.
  
  
• Strategic Assets & Investment Strategies in Final Strategic Plan – due December 2000. Once the community agrees on where it is and where it would like to go, it needs to agree on the initiatives and programs in the community that are currently helping to achieve the strategic goals. This step requires professional, intellectually honest evaluation and analysis of the specific programs. Then specific funding strategies can be developed to build on these successful programs while eliminating or reducing programs or activities that don’t work as well. Considerable community outreach and support is needed to make such investment or funding tradeoffs.
  
  
• Align Institutional Operational (spending) Plans with Area Strategic Plan – due January 2001. The Operational Plan will address spending during the first year of movement toward the strategic goals. This is “where the rubber hits the road.” It will answer the question whether local institutions will transfer funds from activities that either are not working or are of lower priority in order to do the things that they have said they want to achieve as a community.

The strategic plan is now linked formally to all state and federal funding for career development that MDCD oversees. Legislation was enacted in the last session to ensure that local recipients of state dollars for Career Preparation and the Partnership for Adult Learning (PAL) align their programs with the local strategic plan. Departmental policy also ensures that federal and state funds for job training, welfareto- work, employment services, career-technical and adult education, and rehabilitative services are also so aligned. For example, MDCD's Division of Career-Technical Education has worked with the field to consolidate planning regions so that planning for career prep, Perkins, and tech prep programs now align with the 25 workforce regions. This will eliminate duplication of effort, and it will allow better alignment with the career development strategic plans that are currently being developed in each of these workforce areas. The Department expects that locally controlled funds for schools, community colleges, and other local and county agencies will also align with the local strategic plan.

1.2 Data to Support Strategic Planning

MDCD's Employment Service Agency (ESA) is now providing better local labor market data to support local strategic planning. It is hoped that these improved data will enable communities to identify skill shortage areas that may merit expanded programs, as well as skill surplus areas that may warrant reduced training funds. ESA is also in the process of determining how it can work with the state’s educational institutions to produce more consistent and reliable information on training supply, which will add greatly to this demand-supply analysis. Some training supply information – i.e., the number of program completers by educational institutions – is available in the Career Education Consumer Report (www.mycareereducation.org). This database will become increasingly useful as more educational institutions participate in the Consumer Report initiative.

ESA has also established a wage database for program performance evaluation. This database includes reports that employers must provide quarterly to the Unemployment Agency. Data on the wages earned by employees can help communities determine the relative effectiveness of various training programs.

1.3 Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Implementation

Michigan was among the first nine states in the nation to be fully certified by the U.S. Department of Labor to implement this new legislation.

Michigan’s system of 100 Michigan Works! Service Centers (one-stops) is unrivaled in other states, most of which are just starting. (There are only 1,200 one-stops in the entire U.S.)

 

Under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), service centers are required to serve the general population, not only low-income or disadvantaged clients as was the case under JTPA, the federal job-training program that expired in June, 2000. Michigan has been able to provide some service to the general population by tapping three funding sources: $28.4 million of federal Wagner- Peyser funds, which support MDCD’s Employment Service Agency; $3.5 million of WIA administrative funds; and $1.2 million of state general funds that were appropriated for the first time by the Michigan Legislature to support these centers.

1.4 Michigan Rehabilitation Services

Michigan Rehabilitation Services (MRS) serves 40,000 individuals with disabilities annually, and actual caseloads average 26,000 at any one time. There has been a record number of job placements exceeding 7,000 per year during the last two years, thanks to continuing association with over 3,000 employers as well as a small-business initiative which helps persons with disabilities establish their own businesses. MRS also provides job retention assistance to both employees with disabilities and their employers.

MRS offices are now co-located at 100 Michigan Works! Service Centers (one-stops).

 

MRS is working with approximately 500 school districts in order to ensure a successful transition of special education students to independent living and careers.

 

During FY 2000, MRS awarded 119 grants and/or agreements to partners in order to offer new or creative ways to provide transition services, business services, social security, community-based employment, service redesign, and independent living.

 

Using Empowerment Zone dollars, the Detroit Labor and Rehabilitation Services Administration provides culturally appropriate employment and rehabilitative service options to minorities with disabilities.

1.5 Welfare Reform

In 1998-99, state welfare reform policy placed greater emphasis on a partnership between MDCD and the Family Independence Agency (FIA) to improve job retention and career advancement among welfare recipients. Working together, the two agencies increased education and training options and offered transportation, child care, and other services to non-cash recipients (families on food stamps, Medicaid, and child care assistance) as well as cash recipients. Along with job placement assistance, these training and support services provided by MDCD's network of 25 local Michigan Works Agencies – working together with employers – helped 62,783 Work First participants enter full-time employment during the year. Moreover, earnings from these jobs helped close 17,130 Family Independence Program cases, thus helping to shrink Michigan’s caseload to the lowest in 30 years.

1.6 Partnership for Adult Learning (PAL)

This new approach for more flexible, accountable, innovative, and strategically directed adult education was announced by Governor Engler in his 2000 State of the State message and signed into law in July 2000. The $20 million School Aid appropriation goes to the 25 Workforce Development Boards using a formula based on the relative numbers of people who lack a high school diploma, have limited English proficiency, or are on public assistance (FIA caseload). The boards offer grants on a competitive basis to both private- and public-sector applicants. Funded programs must address needs identified in the region’s strategic plan. The workforce boards will begin to award PAL grants in October 2000.

1.7 Commission on Spanish-Speaking Affairs

The Commission on Spanish-Speaking Affairs was moved to MDCD in May 2000, in order to expand the provision of career development services to Michigan’s Spanishspeaking population. The commission has sponsored Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15), which included a calendar of statewide events, a reception for the Legislature, and a “swearing in” ceremony for over 300 new citizens. The commission also assisted with establishing the Greater Lansing Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and recruiting a commission member agency to operate the Operation Fast Break site in Saginaw. The commission collaborated with the U.S. Census Bureau for the Census 2000 statewide media campaign.

Goal 2: Develop an effective, integrated career decision-making and preparation system for youth and adults.

Several MDCD agencies have undertaken initiatives to address the career guidance gap and the resulting mismatch of skills that has become so evident in the Michigan economy.

2.1 Career Preparation

In 1998-99, 90% of Michigan school districts participated in voluntary Career Preparation programs which enhance career guidance, promote the use of educational development plans (EDPs), and encourage contextual learning through enrollment of high school students in Career Pathway programs. Career Pathways address six areas – arts & communications, engineering, industrial technology & construction, health sciences, human services, natural resources & agri-science, and business, marketing and management. By providing a meaningful context for learning, initial trend data suggest that pathways improve student attendance, achievement, and graduation rates. During the 2000-01 school year, more than 60 high schools are in various stages of implementing full Pathway programs. In order to increase interest in Career Pathways, MDCD has begun to publicize them through several public service announcement videos that include the 1-866-MY GOALS telephone number and the slogan "Careers By Choice, Not By Chance."

2.2 Career-Technical Education (CTE)

In 1997-98, 41% of Michigan 11th and 12th grade students participated in career-technical education programs. Total enrollment was 119,007 (including grades 9-10). In comparison with the previous year, there were notable increases in the information technology field. The most popular (highest enrollment) courses are in the areas of business and marketing (52%) and trade & industry (30%). Based upon follow-up data collected each year, almost 50% of students successfully complete their career-technical education to initial job entry standards, and approximately 95% of CTE program completers proceed to postsecondary education or advanced training and/or employment. Academically, 62% of students enrolled in CTE programs meet or exceed Michigan's proficiency standard on at least two of the four tests (reading, math, science, and writing).

2.3 Career-technical Education for Individuals with Disabilities

The Michigan Career and Technical Institute (MCTI), in collaboration with its local Business Advisory Councils (BAC), has continued to validate its 13 training programs to ensure they are consistent with local business and industry labor force demands. This collaboration has resulted in the current 46 "exit points" directly correlated to entry-level positions within industry. Each "exit point" is supported by a competencybased curriculum. Certification is provided by each student successfully completing defined competencies.

2.4 Community Colleges

Community colleges enrolled 396,865 credit and non-credit students in 1998-99. A total of 198,236 students were enrolled in certificate and associate degree programs. Fifty-two percent, or 103,644 students, were enrolled in 241 different occupational education programs. Eighty percent of the individual programs offered at Michigan's community colleges were state-approved to participate in the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act activities. The most popular occupational areas included business and health sciences. In a 1998 poll of former community college students, 62% said they accomplished the goal they set; 88% said instructors did a good to excellent job of presenting material and staying up-to-date in their fields; and 93% felt they were getting their money's worth at Michigan community colleges.

2.5 Career Education Consumer Report

The Department’s new Career Education Consumer Report (CECR) (www.mycareereducation.org), which became available in July 2000, is a database of more than 2500 community colleges and other training programs. The CECR allows the user to compare program tuition rates, job placement rates, and graduates’ average hourly wage. This will help prospective students to select the educational and training opportunities that best meet their needs.

2.6 Improved Job Placement through the World Wide Web (WWW)

The Michigan Talent Bank is the state’s “7-24” job placement system. When data from the most recent year is compared with the average from the last five years, the percentage of individuals finding jobs within 90 days after placing their resumes in the Michigan Talent Bank increased from 33% to 37%. For veterans, it increased from 34% to 40%. Today there are 338,000 resumes in the Michigan Talent Bank and 34,000 job openings. The Michigan Talent Bank’s performance has improved twofold when compared with the staff-intensive, non-Web-based tools in use prior to 1998.

2.7 Management Information System

Michigan will be the first state in the nation to fully automate the collection of data on outcomes for an extensive range of workforce development programs including federal and state job training, welfare reform, and adult education programs. This unique capability allows providers to use the Internet to transfer local program data to a central node. The component for federal and state job training and welfare-to-work programs is now being used by all 25 Michigan Works! Agencies. The adult education component will be ready by October 1. This component implements the National Reporting System developed by the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate adult education. All three of Michigan’s adult education programs (two state and one federal) will be evaluated using this national system.

2.8 Operation Fast Break

Operation Fast Break is an intensive, 8-week, 8-hour-a-day, accelerated learning program that helps people (especially young adults) enter career-track work or college. It integrates instruction in math, reading, computer technology, and employability skills. The program is modeled after those that typically achieve 80% program completion, 85-90% placement in a job or college, and 1-2 levels of improvement on Work Keys tests of math, reading, and locating information in only 7 weeks.

Announced by Governor Engler in his State of the State message, this new program, which is funded by tobacco settlement revenues ($4 million), commenced in fall 2000 in two areas: Benton Harbor (Cornerstone Alliance) and Flint (Mott Community College). Grants are $500,000 over two years, covering roughly 45% of the total cost. Grants are through the Workforce Development Boards, which will work with area businesses to provide jobs to graduates, serve as mentors, and provide program oversight. In 2000-01, each program site is expected to serve 300 or more students. Additional sites will be added over the next two years.

2.9 Legislation to Improve Career Preparation System

MDCD supported two legislative provisions to improve the career preparation system:

 

Dual Enrollment. Public Act 258 of 2000 allows high school students to enroll concurrently in secondary and postsecondary career-technical education programs.

 

Tax Credit for Providing Apprenticeship Opportunities for High School Students. Public Act 184 of 1999 provides a Single Business Tax Credit to employers who provide apprenticeship opportunities to high school students.

2.10 Summer Program for Welfare Youth. Over 4,000 low-income young people were enrolled in the welfare reform Summer Youth Program. A total of 1,219 participated in classroom training in basic skills, and 2,401 were involved in work experience or other employment activities. Other youth were involved in assessments or job searches, and some received support services such as transportation, child care, or work clothing.

2.11 Career Paths for Youth with Disabilities. In Detroit, Michigan Rehabilitation Services, the Great Lakes Center for Independent Living, the University of Detroit, and the Detroit Employer Consortia provide exposure to a variety of career paths and empowerment training for youth with disabilities who are interested in obtaining postsecondary training.

MRS collaborated with the Office of Protection and Advocacy and the Office of Juvenile Justice, Family Independence Agency, to develop a “seamless” reentry process for youth with disabilities exiting state training schools and atrisk youth still in school. While this is an extremely challenging population to work with, outlined below are the results for the 2000 fiscal year.

 

Total number served: 429

Total number on current caseload: 274

Total number employed: 58

2.12 Integrated Website for Career Guidance and Employer Recruitment. MDCD is upgrading the Michigan Talent Bank while integrating it into a new website that will bring several new and existing components into one userfriendly system. It will be introduced to the public in 2001. Following are the details of this exciting collection of worldwide web initiatives, which is being funded by tobacco settlement revenues ($4.5 million):

In collaboration with the Michigan Virtual University (MVU), MDCD is building a Career Guidance System (CGS) for those seeking information on careers, educational opportunities, and job openings. The CGS will bring together the Michigan Occupational Information System (MOIS), the resume database and job listings of the Michigan Talent Bank, the new Career Education Consumer Report on education and training programs, and the new Web-based educational development plan (EDP) that helps people align training to their career and life goals. The integrated website will also make available information on student financial aid for higher education. More than just hyperlinks to separate web pages, all of these functions will be fully integrated to facilitate customer use and satisfaction. Ultimately the system will allow clients to match their career interests and abilities with job requirements and then to obtain training on-line to help them meet the requirements.

 

For employers seeking job applicants, the Department is in the process of upgrading the look and feel of the Michigan Talent Bank. It also intends to increase the number of job postings by electronically bringing in more postings from other databases. The system will make it easier for employers to post job orders and conduct searches of job-seeker resumes. The Michigan Talent Bank already has 338,000 resumes and boasts a 90% satisfaction rating among employer users.

Goal 3: Establish a competency-based career development system that integrates academic and industry skill standards.

MDCD has undertaken several initiatives to promote the concepts of competency-based curricula and a common language of communication between business and education. The Department currently recognizes secondary technical education programs that have successfully adopted national skill standards and will soon recognize other programs that are, according to employers, successful in preparing highly skilled workers for employment.

3.1 Work Keys, a workforce readiness assessment and training system that provides a common language for educators and employers, is being deployed around the state. There are eight assessments: Reading for Information, Locating Information, Applied Math, Writing, Applied Technology, Teamwork, Observation, and Listening. These assessments determine whether individuals have the fundamental academic and work skills to qualify for career-entry work or training. The presence of a skill area and the level of skill for each assessment are validated against particular jobs performed in companies or industries. Students use results to relate their current skills to job requirements and determine any additional training needed. Employers use the results to recruit individuals with appropriate skill profiles.

MDCD will provide resources to establish 34 Work Keys Service Centers around the state, including all 28 of Michigan’s community colleges, five intermediate school districts (Kent, Ottawa, Lenawee, Ingham, and Newaygo), and the Saginaw Area Career Complex, funded by the Saginaw Public Schools. The availability of these service centers is key to realizing other MDCD initiatives, including:

 

Beginning in 2001, adult education programs that enroll students whose goal is job entry or retention must use Work Keys to assess skill improvement. MDCD estimates this number to be in the 20,000 to 30,000 range. (In 1998-99, of 83,000 participants supported by $80 million of state funds and $11 million of federal funds, 4700 obtained a job, 6100 retained a job, 21,200 participants were already employed, and 20,300 were unemployed.) The new $20 million Partnership for Adult Learning program (PAL) is expected to enroll another 1500-2000 students.

 

Beginning in 2000-2001, federally funded and state-funded job training programs administered by MDCD must use Work Keys to assess skill improvements among trainees.

 

MDCD’s new Operation Fast Break requires applicants to achieve particular levels on Work Keys assessments to enroll in the program and then obtain higher levels to graduate. They will learn, furthermore, that access to certain jobs will depend in part on their attainment of the Work Keys skill levels that employers set for those jobs.

 

Awards under the new Competency-based Curriculum Development Fund require that new curricula be based in part on Work Keys skill levels, and that these levels be based on task analyses conducted with job incumbents.

 

Recognition under the new Michigan Technical Excellence Program is contingent, in part, on the use of Work Keys to assess the skill levels that course participants attain.

3.2 Merit Award. In spring of 2000 Work Keys became one of the assessments students can take to earn this postsecondary scholarship. To use the Work Keys option, they must pass at least two of the four MEAP tests (Reading, Math, Writing, and Science) and score at a high level on five Work Keys assessments to qualify for this $2,500 award.

3.3 Certification of Secondary Career-Technical Education (CTE) Programs. Where national industry skill standards exist (e.g., National Institute for Metalworking Standards – NIMS), secondary CTE programs are required to become certified. In addition to national standards, MDCD is in the process of aligning CTE curricula with Work Keys skill assessments.

3.4 Competency-Based Curriculum Development Fund. MDCD announced in July 2000 this three-year, $30 million program to award grants to align training curricula with employer requirements. New technologies and new markets in a progressively global economy are creating new jobs with different and higherlevel skill sets. The CBC fund will help educational institutions modernize their curricula and thus catch up with the “new economy.” Competency-based curricula produce highly skilled graduates faster, and thus would help alleviate the labor shortage in Michigan in economically critical fields. MDCD made the first awards in fall of 2000. There will be a new competition each quarter.

3.5 Michigan Council on Technical Excellence. Created by Executive Order in June 2000, the council will be chaired by Lt. Governor Posthumus. Seven of the nine members will be from the private sector. MDCD is working with Governor Engler and Lt. Governor Posthumus to appoint these members.

The council will administer the Michigan Technical Excellence Program (M-TEP), an industry-led, skill-credentialing, and quality-management initiative for our technical education system. M-TEP will recognize highquality technical preparation programs that are based on high levels of placement and employer satisfaction. The purpose is to provide employers with a steady supply of highly skilled workers who have portable credentials that are widely recognized by employers.

 

M-TEP designation may be used in marketing materials for the institution and will be placed in the consumer report component of the MDCD/MVU Career Guidance System.

Goal 4: Inform and educate the public on Michigan’s Career Development System and how to access and use it effectively.

MDCD has had several new initiatives in 2000 to enhance awareness of its services.

4.1 MDCD has set aside $4.0 million of tobacco settlement funds to publicize the Department’s programs among specific target groups such as parents, students, out-of-school youth, employers, educators, individuals with disabilities, veterans, displaced workers, and homemakers. MDCD has contracted with Brogan & Associates to help implement MDCD's new marketing plan. Following is a selected list of elements of the marketing plan that were implemented during MDCD’s first year.

In August 2000, initial TV and radio spots were aired to publicize the Michigan Works! system and career preparation programs.

 

The MDCD website has been upgraded for those who want to be kept informed about the Department’s directions and new initiatives.

 

A totally new, user-friendly Web site will be operating in 2001 to assist clients who wish to plan their careers, obtain employment, or recruit employees.

 

A general brochure on the Department and approximately 25 program fact sheets have been developed.

 

The circulation of the popular CareerWise newsletter of MDCD has tripled in the last year, thanks to marketing partnerships such as the ones with the Educational Advisory Groups and the Michigan Center for Career- Technical Education, both of whom have large databases of individuals in the education community.

 

Educators, parents, and students may now call MDCD on a toll-free line.

 

Hundreds of press releases were issued in the past year with corresponding questions from the media.

 

A speaker's bureau has been designed to help place content experts in positions to tell "the MDCD story" to various audiences around the state.

 

An eight-week test-marketing campaign has run five commercials and billboards in selected areas.

 

MRS provides all intake materials in a customer’s native language when requested. Non-English materials and information are available for several other programs.

 

Other marketing initiatives include an 18-minute Michigan Rehabilitation Services orientation video, an agricultural website, radio PSAs for the west side of the state, and a veterans’ brochure and website.

4.2 Joint Marketing Committee. Michigan Works! Agencies, through which most of MDCD-supported services are delivered, have formed a joint marketing committee with MDCD to leverage private sector expertise and resources to inform and educate the public. This has resulted in greater recognition of the Michigan Works! brand.

4.3 Internal Relations. Several marketing initiatives have improved communication within MDCD, a new state cabinet agency that employs over 1,100 people:

The majority of MDCD staff attended a half-day orientation to help them understand and appreciate all areas and functions of the new Department. The highlights were videotaped and will be used for orientation of new employees.

 

The quarterly CareerWise publication, intended for external audiences, is now being given to all employees to help with awareness of MDCD programs, products, and services.

 

The Department has formed several committees to help with communication and internal relations, including those for the Bolin Awards, Web page coordination, and CareerWise content development.

Goal 5: Improve staff skills to enable MDCD to provide better service to its multiple customers.

Over the past year, the Department has undertaken several initiatives to further improve the skills of its employees and to utilize technology to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

5.1 Job-related Skill Training. The Department has provided considerable training to help staff update their knowledge and keep up with technology changes. The vast majority of employee training has been provided by the various Departmental units, such as the Employment Service Agency, Michigan Rehabilitation Service, Office of Workforce Development, and the Information Technology Unit. Following is a partial list of training opportunities offered in 1999-2000:

Several divisions have provided training for employees to use their respective management information systems (MIS), such as the Automated Rehabilitation Management System (ARMS) for MRS and automated MIS for job training, welfare-to-work, and adult education.

 

Since October 1999, MDCD has paid employee fees to attend various courses and training programs offered by the Department of Civil Service, including training in topics such as supervisory management; performance management; project leadership; contract administration; the state’s Human Resource Management Network (HRMN) systems for occupational and disability claim reporting, payroll, and benefits; grievance procedures and corrective action; investing and retirement; expert witness; and classes in conducting effective meetings.

 

There has been considerable training for information technology staff, including network administration for GroupWise and other operating systems.

 

Human resources has trained program area staff in labor relations and human resources management, and the Equal Employment Opportunity officer has conducted EEO and sexual harassment training for Department units and agencies.

 

Training has been provided to Department staff on financial management systems such as MAIN as well as on budget systems.

 

Contracts and Grants staff has provided training on its processes.

Staff in various program units have been sent for training pertinent to their areas.

 

ESA has a training plan, which it refers to as its Management Institute, for which Central Michigan University will give continuing education credits.

 

All Department staff have had the opportunity to take training in various types of computer software, such as Microsoft Word, EXCEL, and GroupWise. The Information Technology unit put together a packet of information for Department employees on GroupWise Web access.

 

MRS is expanding its on-line “E-learn” learning service to enable both MRS and Employment Service Agency staff to take training courses on-line.

 

MRS received $927,000 in federal grant funds to retrain all counselors who have not obtained the national certification standard for rehabilitation counselors.

 

The state has a Professional Development Fund for managerial, supervisory, confidential, and business and administrative employees not covered by collective bargaining.

 

The Department has a Partial Tuition Reimbursement Policy if the program areas have funding.

 

MDCD’s collective bargaining agreements have training funds, and language in secondary collective bargaining agreements considers training and tuition reimbursement for unionized staff.

5.2 Deployment of Latest Technology to Increase Staff Efficiency. Several technology initiatives are under way in the Department:

Microsoft Office Suite has been installed throughout the Department.

Timekeeping has been automated.

 

A new Human Resource Management Network (HRMN) is being installed across the state that will have self-evident applications for self service for employees.

 

MRS has spent $2 million for a new Automated Rehabilitation Management System (ARMS) and has paid for staff to attend “train the trainers” sessions so that all MRS staff could be trained. The automated system monitors staff performance goals as related to customer service and provides continuous feedback and coaching sessions, when needed.

 

The Michigan Rehabilitation Services annual training program on assistive technology devices and processes was completed this year.

 

ON COMMAND software has been purchased to enable Information Technology staff to distribute software and have remote takeover of computers without having to visit each computer site.

 

MDCD has purchased new virus protection software.

5.3 Training of Michigan Works Agency Staff and Designated Service Providers. MDCD routinely provides or subcontracts training for those who operate programs funded by or through MDCD. Examples include training to meet federal and state policy guidelines, accountability requirements, and automated system requirements.