Regional Plan Modification 2021-2024
Bay-Peninsula RPU (RPU)
Workforce Development Boards of:
Workforce Investment San Francisco (WISF)
North Valley Consortium (NOVAworks)
San Jose Silicon Valley Workforce Investment Network (SJSVWIN)
Primary Contact:
Marléna Sessions, Director, NOVAworks
(408) 730-7837 / [email protected]
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1 A. ANALYTICAL OVERVIEW OF THE REGION
• Current employment and unemployment data.
• Current educational and skills levels of the workforce, the current needs of employers in the region, and any relevant skill gaps between the two.
• Industries and occupations with an emerging demand.
Introduction and Regional Context
The Bay-Peninsula Regional Planning Unit (RPU) consists of Workforce Investment San Francisco (WISF), North Valley Consortium (NOVAworks), and the San Jose Silicon Valley Workforce Investment Network (SJSVWIN). It covers the geographic area of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties. The Office of Economic and Workforce Development (SF OEWD) is the operational arm of WISF–both names are used interchangeably throughout this document. Workforce services under the SJSVWIN are branded as work2future. The three workforce development boards worked closely together in planning for and administering regional initiatives.
NOVAworks, as the current RPU lead, is submitting this Strategic Regional Plan Modification, as required under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 US Code 3123). The plan modification is in accordance with the guidance and requirements outlined in the California Employment Development Department’s (EDD) Workforce Services Directive 22-05: “Regional and Local Planning Guidance for PY 21-24 Two-Year Modifications.”
Home to 3.6 million people and global leaders in tech-enabled industries, the RPU region is slowly and steadily emerging from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. The region had a civilian workforce of 2,091,600 as of September 2022. The unemployment rate of 2.1% has fallen from the pre-pandemic high of 7.8% in 2020 and has now equaled the 2019 rate. The RPU labor force participation rate is 67.1%. The California rate is 63.4%. The RPU is a majority-minority region, with more Asian and fewer Latinx residents than California as a whole. 37.6% of the RPU population is foreign born and 19.3% speak English less than “very well.” The median age for the three RPU counties is 40.4 (San Francisco), 40.8 (San Mateo) and 38.2 (Santa Clara). The California state median age is 37.6.
Population Estimates (July 1, 2021)
Race/Ethnicity California San Francisco Co San Mateo Co Santa Clara Co Hispanic or Latinx 40.2% 15.7% 24% 25%
Asian 15.9% 37.2% 31.8% 40.6%
Black 6.5% 5.7% 2.8% 2.9%
White (not Hispanic/Latinx) 35.2% 38.2% 37.4% 28.9% Native American 1.7% 0.8% 0.9% 1.2%
Two or more races 4.2% 4.8% 5.1% 4.3%
Source: Census QuickFacts
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2 On average, the region’s population is more highly educated and wealthier than the rest of the state. The poverty level is 7.1% compared to 11.1% statewide. The median household income ranges from $126,187 in San Francisco, $136,837 in San Mateo, and $140,250 in Santa Clara.
The economy, however, is a dichotomous one. Large percentages of residents in each county live below the self-sufficiency standard – 28% in both Santa Clara and San Francisco, and 33% in San Mateo.
1 6.6% of Santa Clara County residents, 5.5% of San Mateo County residents, and 10% of San Francisco County residents live in poverty. That compares to 12.3% statewide.2 Housing and transportation infrastructure play important roles in the dynamics of the regional economy. Affordable rental housing and opportunities for homeownership offer long-term social and financial benefits, making housing an important economic influencer. Sadly, home ownership is out of reach for many Bay Area residents. The median value of owner-occupied housing units in 2021 was $1.256 million in San Mateo County, $1.195 million in San Francisco County and $1.134 million in Santa Clara County. The median value for California was $573,200 and the national median value was $244,900.
3 There is considerable cross county community within the Bay Area, with lower wage workers commuting in from lower cost of living counties, sometimes over significant distances. The majority of San Francisco County (77.1%) and Santa Clara County (86.5%) residents work in their county of residence. The proportion in San Mateo County is lower, with only 48.8% working within their county, and a significant number of residents traveling to San Francisco and Santa Clara counties for work. The 2021 Census Bureau American Community Survey found that average commute times were approximately half an hour, with an average 32.8-minute commute for San Francisco County workers, a 28.7-minute commute for San Mateo County workers, and a 28.5-minute commute for Santa Clara County workers.
Commute Flows into RPU
Source: U. S. Census Bureau (2019)
1 Insight Center for Community Economic Development (2021) 2 U. S. Census Bureau QuickFacts (2021)
3 U. S. Census Bureau QuickFacts (2021)
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3 Current employment and unemployment data
The following table summarizes the numbers of employed and unemployed individuals in the labor force.
County Labor Force Employed Unemployed Unemployment Rate San Francisco 577,400 565,200 12,200 2.1%
Santa Clara 1,057,200 1,034,900 22,400 2.1%
San Mateo 457,000 448,100 8,900 1.9%
Region 2,091,600 2,048,200 43,500 2.1%
Source: EDD (September 2022)
While the unemployment rate continues to drop, inflation, high interest rates, high housing costs, and COVID may conspire to put the brakes on the economy’s momentum. A series of job cuts at major Silicon Valley companies could portend potential trouble for the regional economy. There were 66 WARN mass layoff announcements affecting 5,540 individuals in the RPU region between September 1, 2022, and December 13, 2022. Affected sectors include technology, biotech, accommodation and food service, health care and social assistance, information (data), robotics/autonomous vehicles, e-commerce, ride hailing, software/cloud, manufacturing, public administration, real estate, retail, and transportation and technology. Despite the layoffs, the tech industry was one of few with unfettered growth during the pandemic, and the current job count for tech is higher than pre-pandemic job counts, according to an EDD data analysis by SF OEWD.
Regional leaders interviewed for the Regional Plan Modification and quoted in San Francisco Bay Area media sources differ on the impact of the current round of layoffs on the overall economy. These perspectives and anecdotes are included to provide context for the regional economy in its current state, as economic forecasting is unreliable for the near and mid-term future.
One economist cited the Bay Area’s economic makeup as a potential liability in an era of higher inflation and interest rates. “The Bay Area’s concentration of jobs in the technology, finance, construction and real estate space makes it more vulnerable to the shock of higher interest rates, declining stock prices and tightening financial conditions,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist with Bank of the West.
4 Julie Lind, secretary/treasurer of the San Mateo County Central Labor Council, said she was concerned about the impact of the tech-related layoffs on supportive service positions, including leisure and hospitality, that have struggled to return to the pre-pandemic levels.
One restaurant, A Slice of New York, a pizza shop, and worker cooperative in Santa Clara County, is facing three challenges related to current economic conditions 1. fewer customers due to remote work, 2. a reduction in the regional labor force, and 3. Inflated food and supply costs. These external factors have put a serious dent in profitability and have caused “all kinds of problems for cash flow,” says Kirk Vartan, its general manager.
4 Mercury News, November 22, 2022
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4 Inflation has heighted “barriers to work, such as childcare and transportation costs,” that were hampering individuals and families at all income levels, according to a listening session with community organizations and employers conducted in August 2022 by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Regional economist Steve Levy said, “2023 will be a difficult year for Silicon Valley and especially for the people laid off. But we have overcome more serious challenges – from the 1985 semiconductor job losses to the dot.com bust following 2000, and the foreclosure crisis in 2008. We are a resilient economy, companies adapt, we always bounce back and will again.”
Patrick Kallerman, vice president of research at the Bay Area Council Economic Research told the Mercury News (11/22/22): “The tech and biotech layoffs are not happening at a rate that will damage the overall Bay Area economy. That’s not to say that something else might not occur.”
Said Joint Venture Silicon Valley chief executive Russ Hancock (Mercury News 11/22):
“There is nothing wrong with Silicon Valley. This is not a gold rush that got out of control.
This is not a dotcom bust. Some companies overestimated how much talent they would need and how many perks to give out. They are scaling back and making a course correction.”
Regardless of the impact of immediate factors, there continues to be broad agreement that foundational regional factors like high housing costs and clogged freeway arteries will remain a drag on the Bay Area economy and on the ability of businesses, schools, and community-based organizations to hire and retain talent.
Current Education and Skills levels
The RPU and the San Francisco Bay Area continue to benefit from a highly skilled and educated workforce that fuels the region’s economic growth and innovation. But there are major gaps in education by race and ethnicity that stifle career mobility and deprive employers from access to undervalued talent.
A bachelor’s degree continues to be the gold standard proxy for employability and access to higher skilled regional jobs. The below table of bachelor’s degree attainment by race/ethnicity in the three RPU counties illustrates wide-scale disparities.
Race/Ethnicity San Francisco Co. San Mateo Co. Santa Clara Co.
White 79.5% 61.1% 61.7%
Black 31.6% 27.3% 43.7%
Native American 37% 13.8% 20.2%
Asian 51% 60.6% 68.7%
Latinx 42.8% 23.7% 20.8%
Source: U. S. Census Bureau (2020)
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5 These skill and education gaps are exacerbated by racial and ethnic segregation that deprives individuals of color from access to social capital, including professional networks, mentors, and real-time labor market intelligence. A tale of two neighboring census tracts in San Mateo County illustrates the impact of segregation on a racial and ethnic income gap, and education gap.
Community Per Capita Income BA or higher White (%) Latinx (%) Atherton $171,823 84.6% 67.9 8.8
North Fair Oaks $41,752 28.9% 17.9 71
Source: U. S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (2021) The income distribution, geographic segregation, and education attainment gaps present continued barriers to opportunity, and account in part for the following skill gaps in the RPU.
Skill Candidates Openings Gap
Presentation 5,653 6,594 –941
Microsoft Office 16,231 17,087 –856
Cash Registers 3,172 3,882 –710
Retail Sales 4,797 5,393 –596
C++ 1,309 1,821 –512
Structured Query Language (SQL) 6,384 6,875 –491
Cantonese 338 813 –475
Cash Handling (Cashier) 6,462 6,930 –468
Information Security 1,250 1,671 –421
C 446 803 –356
Mandarin 796 1,148 –352
Circuit Boards 264 614 –350
Hand Trucks 416 756 –340
UNIX 1,396 1,719 –323
Marketing 5,102 5,411 –309
People Skills 1,459 1,757 –298
Start-Ups 397 694 –296
Data Structures 778 1,070 –292
iOS 1,239 1,509 –270
Tutoring 217 484 –266
TypeScript 637 895 –259
Pallet Jacks 731 969 –238
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) 477 707 –231
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) 506 733 –227
Source: JobsEQ (2022)
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6 A broad-based outreach to over 500 employer partners by OEWD revealed a need for the following technical and essential/professional skills for employees:
• Digital literacy
• Office skills
• Software engineering
• Time management
• Attendance
• Absenteeism etiquette
• Critical thinking
• Adaptability
• Dependability
• Open-mindedness
• Customer service
• Communication
• Cross-cultural management skills
Other skills-related challenges include the technology divide, a lack of skilled labor in manufacturing, and concerns about a lack of general workplace readiness, according to a survey of NOVAworks board members.
Industries and occupations with an emerging demand
Industry sectors and careers that have withstood the pandemic and related challenges and are poised for continued, if uneven, growth are described in the below figure.
Many of these growth sectors require workers with both academic and practical training and access to social capital – real-time labor market intelligence, mentors, and professional networks – to ensure sustained career advancement.
But many RPU residents don’t have access to adequate training or social capital and their inability to connect their talent with opportunity hurts the regional economy. The challenge for the RPU and partners is to both support growth in these key sectors while supporting opportunities for the workforce, particularly those from historically excluded communities.
Here is a list of industry subsectors and growth prospects through 2027.
Industry (NAICS) Employment
(2022)
Annual
Growth (%)
(2017–22)
Projected Growth
(%) (2022–27)
Projected Openings
(2027)
Computer Systems Design (54151) 175,320 3.9 2.1 267,053 Restaurants (72251) 125,227 –3.1 2.2 251,660
Services for the Elderly (62412) 72,034 4.6 3.5 134,829 General Medical Hospitals (62211) 75,112 1.6 0.4 106,514 Elementary & Secondary Schools (61111) 66,938 –0.9 0.4 99,019 (continued)
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7 Industry (NAICS) Employment
(2022)
Annual
Growth (%)
(2017–22)
Projected Growth
(%) (2022–27)
Projected Openings
(2027)
Software Publishers (51321) 62,686 11.5 1.4 93,653
R&D in Physical & Life Sciences (54171) 64,509 8.5 0.6 93,180 Computer Equipment Manufacturing
(33411) 60,920 2.4 0.4 88,526
Colleges & Universities (61131) 55,659 0.1 0.8 85,009 Web Search Portals (51929) 50,547 13.2 2.5 80,581
Media Streaming Distribution Services
(51621) 42,410 7.4 1.6 65,949
Temporary Help Services (56132) 37,409 1.5 1.1 60,860 Semiconductor Manufacturing (33441) 39,915 –0.6 –0.3 57,654 Management Consulting Services (54161) 34,815 4.0 1.7 54,002 Management of Companies (55111) 33,511 –5.1 0.1 48,754 Computing Infrastructure Providers
(51821) 31,590 10.1 0.7 46,410
Supermarkets & Grocery Retailers (44511) 27,490 –1.2 –0.9 46,331 Janitorial Services (56172) 23,087 –4.1 0.3 38,148
Accounting, Tax Preparation & Payroll
Services (54121) 24,449 1.0 0.2 36,248
Offices of Physicians (62111) 23,905 3.8 0.8 34,827 Offices of Lawyers (54111) 24,651 – 0.8 0.1 34,737
Hotels & Motels (72111) 18,419 –9.8 2.0 33,365
Investigation & Guard Services (56161) 19,047 2.4 1.7 33,247 Source: JobEQ (2022)
Through the Regional Equity and Recovery Partnership (RERP) grant through the California Workforce Development Board, the RPU and four regional community colleges are targeting three emerging industry sectors designed to provide enhanced career opportunities for English Language Learners, Justice-Involved individuals, veterans, low- income households, and dislocated workers. The education partners are City College of San Francisco, College of San Mateo, Mission College, and Gavilan College. Employer partners include two industry associations – Biocom California Institute and California Life Sciences, as well as Amazon Web Services, Applied Materials, Tesla, LinkedIn, and Twilio.
Target industry sectors and sub-sectors include:
• Cybersecurity - Key occupations include computer systems analysts and information security analysts. In the five years, from 2019 to 2024, the number of jobs in these occupations is forecast to grow by 14 percent in the broader San Francisco Bay Region and 13 percent in the Silicon Valley sub-region (Santa Clara County) according to March 2021 analysis by the San Francisco Bay Center of Excellence for Labor Market Research (COE). The COE further said that there is an “undersupply” of cybersecurity workers compared to the demand for these occupations in the broader San Francisco Bay region and the Silicon Valley sub-region (Santa Clara County). There is a projected annual gap of 3,447 cybersecurity students in the Bay region and 1,359 students in the Silicon Valley sub-region.
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8 • Mechatronics (industrial automation) - The key occupation in this sector is electro- mechanical and mechatronics technologists and technicians. In the five years from 2020 to 2025, the number of jobs in this occupation is forecast to grow by 4 percent, according to an April 2022 analysis by the COE. The COE is projecting an undersupply of workers compared to the demand for these jobs in the Bay region and in Santa Clara County. The project annual gap is 62 mechatronics students in the Bay region and 28 students in Santa Clara County. In addition, employer members of the Mission College mechatronics advisory board are projecting strong future demand. Advisory board members include Tesla and Applied Materials.
• Cloud Computing - Key occupations include sales representative manager and computer network support specialists. For the San Francisco metro area including San Mateo County, the number of sales representatives jobs are expected to grow by 5 percent between 2018 and 2028 with a total of 8,110 annual average job openings, according to EDD occupational projections. The number of computer network support specialists is expected to increase 14.5 percent over the ten-year period with 1,830 annual average job openings. Labor market intelligence from Amazon Web Services and its customer companies suggests continued strong demand for cloud-related occupations and a shortage of talent, according to the College of San Mateo.
B. REGIONAL INDICATORS
• Identify which of the four regional indicators the RPU established objective metrics under RPI 4.0, and what those metrics were.
• Identify any anticipated impacts that tracking and evaluating the regionally agreed upon metrics will have on each of RPU’s local workforce service delivery system (e.g., change in service strategies, improved participant outcomes, new partner engagement) The RPU’s approach to the indicators is shaped by the unique characteristics of the region.
Though the Bay Area has prodigious racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity, the region is rife with continued racial and ethnic segregation from a legacy of redlining, generational exclusion of people of color from the labor market, as well as other intentional and enduring barriers to upward career mobility for many residents, especially people of color and women.
As measured by the Brookings Institution, the RPU region ranks near the bottom of the nation’s 53 largest metro areas for racial and geographic inclusion. The racial inclusion indicators measure the gap between the non-Hispanic White population and people of color on the following inclusion indicators: median income, employment rate and relative income poverty. Geographic inclusion indicators measure changes in the gap between the most advantaged (top 20%) and least advantaged (bottom 20%) of census tracts in each metro Attachment 2
9 area, for each of the following indicators: employment rate, median household income, and relative poverty rate. 5
This reality effectively blocks access to quality jobs for many job seekers from historically excluded communities. In addition, companies are deprived of sources of underrepresented talent. Many report challenges in hiring and recruitment.
Identify the RPU’s regional indicators
The RPU selected the following regional indicators through the RPI 4.0 grant process:
• B: Region has policies supporting equity and strives to improve job quality • D: Region deploys shared/pooled resources to provide services, training, and education to meet target populations needs.
The RPU is implementing the indicators work primarily through an innovative partnership with the Markle Foundation and its Skillful Initiative. As described throughout this plan modification, the Bay Area has record -low unemployment, a highly competitive labor market, and a higher-than-average supply of workers with higher education attainment.
Nonetheless, employers continue to report talent shortages and a widening skills gap. Skillful trains employers to implement hiring through a skills-based lens, thereby broadening their talent pipelines beyond workers with higher education attainment. Through Skillful, the RPU delivers a sustainable, nationally recognized toolkit to help employers integrate skills-based assessment into the hiring process.
Identify impacts that tracking and evaluating the metrics will have on workforce delivery system
Since the Skillful Initiative implementation, the RPU is measuring success by the reach of the program throughout the region. To date, the RPU’s trained facilitators have provided 14 skills-based hiring workshops to 23 regional employers, including the County of San Mateo as well as several large manufacturing associations in San Francisco and San Jose. Industries represented inc lude technology, retail, manufacturing, government, education, transportation, energy, hospitality, non-profits, and finance.
5 The San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley MSA ranked 52 out of 53 for racial inclusion and 53 out of 53 for geographic inclusion. The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA ranked 50 in racial inclusion and 46 in geographic inclusion. Brookings published the Metro Monitor in February 2021. It is based on 2009 -2019 data for racial inclusion and 2005-09 to 2015-19 data for geographic inclusion.
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10 C. FOSTERING DEMAND-DRIVEN SKILLS ATTAINMENT
• Identify the in-demand industry sectors or occupations for the region. • Describe any current sector-based initiatives being implemented by the RPU for regionally in- demand industries or occupations and what, if any, new sector-based initiatives are planned for the next two years.
• Describe what processes or strategies the RPU uses to communicate effectively and cohesively with regional employers.
Identify the in-demand industry sectors
The top in-demand regional occupations range from fast food workers, counter workers, and retail salespersons to software developers, web developers, and managers. But, as illustrated in the table below, the jobs with wages enabling a family to prosper in a high -cost region require higher skills and access to social capital. The higher wage occupations also enjoy significantly lower unemployment rates than the lower wage occupations.
Top 12 Occupations by Employment Numbers in the Bay Peninsula RPU (2022, Q2) Occupation Employment Avg. Annual
Wages
Unemployment
Rate (%)
10-Year
Growth (%)
Software & Web Developers,
Programmers, and Testers 133,754 $ 159,200 1.1% 21.8% Home Health and Personal Care Aides 72,492 $ 35,800 4.1% 17.1% Laborers and Material Movers 60,797 $ 44,400 6.4% 0.2% Secretaries and Administrative
Assistants 47,848 $ 66,700 2.5% –2.2%
Building Cleaning Workers 47,414 $ 44,300 5.3% –3.1% General and Operations Managers 45,029 $ 165,100 2.2% 5.2% Registered Nurses 38,533 $ 160,600 1.1% 3.4%
Office Clerks, General 36,900 $ 52,200 3.2% –0.2%
Fast Food and Counter Workers 36,648 $ 38,600 5.1% 0.1% Cashiers 35,918 $ 39,300 6.0% –1.2%
Retail Salesperson 34,603 $ 43,300 6.0% –2.2%
Cooks 33,570 $ 42,700 6.9% 1.7%
Source: JobsEQ
Current and future sector-based initiatives
The RPU has two initiatives specifically targeted to expand opportunities for higher wages and career mobility to individuals from historically-excluded communities. These efforts are the RERP grant, cited above, and the creation of the Bay Area Good Jobs Partnership for Equity (BAGJPE). The BAGJPE is a “super regional” initiative, encompassing nine San Francisco Bay Area counties, 7.15 million residents, and a labor force of 4.13 million. BAGJPE includes the local workforce development board directors of the city and county of San Francisco, the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Napa, Solano, Marin and Sonoma, and the cities of San Jose, Oakland, and Richmond.
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11 This larger regional focus reflects the fact that job seekers, employers, and educators in RPU effectively function within a broad Bay Area ecosystem. RPU workforce stakeholders do not limit their activities to the three counties. Therefore, BAGJPE represents an opportunity for the workforce system to achieve greater impact for customers.
Regional workforce boards formed the BAGJPE to prepare a response to the U. S. Department of Commerce Good Jobs Challenge grant in 2021. BAGJPE intended to establish partnerships, programs, and placements in growth sectors that are vital to the regional economy. These Bay Area Future of Work Sectors include information and communications technology (ICT), life sciences/biotechnology, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and transportation/logistics. Led by workforce boards with the expertise to convene regional stakeholders, the sector partnerships included employers, labor unions, community -based organizations, institutes of higher education, training providers, and economic development entities.
While the Commerce Department did not award a Good Jobs Challenge grant to the BAGJPE coalition, regional workforce leaders have leveraged the unique partnerships to lead a Bay Area initiative under the California Economic Resilience Fund (CERF) program. The state recently awarded $5 million grant to the Bay Area coalition for planning and startup activities to roadmap pathways to create stronger local economies. Led by the BAGJPE as the fiscal agent for the grant in partnership with All Home as the regional convener, the regional CERF initiative features over 56 initial partners including employers, economic development agencies, labor unions, worker centers, community college consortium, and community- based organizations.
Processes/strategies for communicating with regional employers Working with the BAGJPE, the RPU has identified several intermediaries to help establish links to companies with strong growth prospects. These include industry associations, trade groups and economic development organizations . For example, Biocom California and California Life Sciences together represent 1,150 life science research and business community members in the Bay Area. Regional boards have engaged these two industry associations to create connections to their member companies. Two major business advocacy organizations—the Bay Area Council and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group— are partners in the CERF project.
The RERP grant will enable the RPU to leverage employer contacts through community college business advisory boards. Tesla and Applied Materials, for example, serve on the advisory board for Mission College’s mechatronics program. Amazon Web Services provides labor-market intelligence, technical expertise, and access to its customer base for students pursuing the College of San Mateo’s cloud computing program.
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12 D. ENABLING UPWARD MOBILITY FOR ALL CALIFORNIANS
• How the RPU defines job quality and prioritizes work with employers who provide quality jobs.
• How the RPU works together to develop targeted service strategies for the region’s unserved and underserved communities.
• How the RPU defines equity and how it ensures equal access to the regional sector pathways, earn-and-learn opportunities, supportive services, and other effective service strategies identified by the RPU.
The San Francisco-Silicon Valley region is a global leader in tech-driven innovation. But, due to the legacy of systematic racial segregation, systemic discrimination, and other barriers to opportunity, many in the region are not able to enjoy the fruits of this booming economy. Despite proximity to Apple, Google, Salesforce, Cisco and other name brand tech giants, residents in many regional pockets of poverty have little awareness of growth opportunities and limited access to quality training, professional networks, and well- paying careers.
In response, the RPU is implementing a strategy that intentionally centers job quality and equity in its regional grant initiatives.
How the RPU defines job quality and prioritizes work with employers with quality jobs The road to opportunity for all regional residents begins with promoting job quality and partnering with employers that are ideologically aligned with the RPU. Job quality includes livable wages, comprehensive and affordable benefits, employee voice in the workplace, opportunities for career advancement, and sustained access to social capital. This includes professional networks, mentors, and real-time labor market intelligence.
Strong partnerships with organized labor and other worker rights organizations are critical to the RPU implementing a job quality strategy. RPU members serve on advisory boards that oversee pre-apprenticeship programs designed to provide access for women and other underserved populations to well-paying union jobs in the construction industry. Looking forward, a labor representative on one of the RPU workforce boards expressed interest in more and expanded partnerships for high road employment opportunities in addition to the construction sector, particularly into tech, biotech, and healthcare.
The RPU is partnering with associations in the life sciences industry sector to provide access to social capital for first generation university graduates, veterans, and individuals from historically underrepresented communities. It also leverages partnerships with like- minded community partners. As an example, the San Mateo County Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA) champions equity and all that entails with its members, partners, and other economic development stakeholders.
Addressing the region’s barriers to opportunity will require active participation from multiple sectors. Here is a diverse sampling of the BAGJPE’s CERF grant partners:
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13 Organization Sector
Association of Bay Area Governments Regional planning agency Bay Area Council Business association
Bloom Energy Green energy company
San Francisco Foundation Regional foundation
Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network Community education and organizing Sierra Club, San Francisco Bay Chapter Environmental organization South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council Labor organization
How the RPU develops strategies for unserved and underserved communities The RERP grant provides a playbook for how the RPU will address the region’s multiple barriers to opportunity. The RPU will address the job quality opportunity through a full array of interventions from the high road arsenal. They include intensive outreach to residents of historically excluded communities and underrepresented populations, rigorous career assessments to understand individual experiences and aspirations, and strategic engagements with colleges and employers developing just-in-time training for in- demand careers that fuel regional economic growth. Other approaches will include the integration of community college priorities including credit for prior learning, utilization of industry-valued credentials, as well as academic and career support.
The three RPU workforce boards have detailed and distinct strategies, through local plans, for addressing State of California strategic partners. This includes partners that serve individuals who access CalFresh Employment and Training services, non-custodial parents, those with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and those who are English language learners, foreign-born, and/or refugees. The RPU intends to coordinate and share best practices where possible.
RPU workforce boards have addressed the challenge of building relationships in historically excluded communities by partnering with community-based organizations that are trusted voices to residents. Examples in the region include Self-Help for the Elderly and Mission Hiring Hall in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Mission and South of Market districts, respectively. NOVAworks is developing deep relationships with five public libraries in San Mateo County’s lower-income communities. SJSVWIN’s partnership with Goodwill of Silicon Valley provides access to the following populations: justice involved individuals, veterans, people with disabilities, individuals on the autism spectrum, and youth.
Through these partnerships, the RPU can help connect employers with pipelines of underappreciated talent that most corporate recruiters would never be able to leverage.
How the RPU defines equity and how it ensures equal access Promoting equity begins with a deep understanding of the region’s historical and current day policies and practices to build barriers like racial/ethnic segregation that stymie efforts for workers in historically excluded communities to launch and maintain prosperous careers. The RPU and partners will employ multiple resources and processes to ensure that Attachment 2
14 all residents have access to the educational tools, supportive services and social capital required to enjoy the fruits of the region’s economy.
This includes intentionally targeting those individuals with greatest need. In the RERP grant, the RPU and four colleges partners is serving 160 participants in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties from the following target populations: English language learners, justice-involved individuals, veterans, low-income households, and dislocated workers.
While the Bay Area has extraordinary linguistic diversity, English proficiency continues to be a barrier for job seekers to compete for careers with ongoing access to career ladders. In San Francisco, for example, almost 300,000 of 840,000 residents were born outside of the United States and 160,759 residents “speak English less than very well,” according to the U.
S. Census Bureau (2020).
Low-income households are a priority because the high cost of living in the RPU puts dislocated workers and those from historically excluded communities at peril during economic downturns. According to a compilation of data by AdvisorSmith, the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas are the nation’s two most expensive. San Francisco and San Jose have cost of living indexes at 178.6 and 173.5 respectively, or 78.6% and 73.5% greater than the national average.
The grant’s focus on justice-involved individuals provides the region with an opportunity to build on the best practices from the RPU’s recently concluded Prison to Employment (P2E) grant through the California Workforce Development Board in partnership with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and local county probation agencies and sheriff’s departments.
Mission College will focus its outreach on veterans and will leverage the institutional resources of its VALOR Veteran Center in engaging this population. Demographically, 35 percent of Mission’s student-veterans are Hispanic, 17 percent are Filipino, and 14 percent are White. More than 60 percent are first generation college students.
Dislocated workers are a grant priority because of the continued challenges they face finding sustainable careers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While tech and other high-skill occupations have recovered from the pandemic, employment for leisure and hospitality workers remains below 2019 levels. The grant’s focus is to help these workers transition into growth industry sectors with opportunities for sustained career mobility.
NOVAworks is adding to the region’s equity tool kit with the results of a recently completed workforce pilot in San Mateo County designed to address the needs of the “whole person.” This included housing, food, and transportation assistance in addition to a broad menu of workforce interventions. Drawn primarily for 12 low-income zip codes, the 25 pilot participants received intensive workforce services provided by NOVAworks staff in partnership with the County, public libraries, municipal governments, and community- based organizations. All but three of the participants identified as either Latinx, Black or Asian-Pacific Islander. Each participant received customized job search assistance Attachment 2
15 including career focus, career exploration, resumé development, and interview preparation. NOVAworks also contacted every employed participant each month to determine if they required any assistance with job retention.
E. Aligning, Coordinating, and Integrating Programs and Services • Any regional service strategies, including the use of cooperative service delivery agreements or Memorandums of Understanding (MOU).
• Any regional administrative cost arrangements, including the pooling of funds for regional administrative costs.
The region’s successful model of distributing administrative functions for certain projects and initiatives distinguishes between fiscal project lead and programmatic lead. Due to a variety of logistical reasons, the region has determined that NOVAworks is currently the best fiscal lead for efficiently deploying regional grants and subcontracts; the program lead function rotates among the three boards.
The region does not have, nor does it desire formal regional governance infrastructure. The region does not have administrative cost sharing arrangements, although NOVAworks serves as the fiscal agent because it is the most cost-effective shared contracting structure, short of the state putting money directly into local WDB subgrants.
In a virtual roundtable dialogue conducted for this plan modification, several regional leaders spoke about their vision for greater alignment among workforce development boards and diverse community stakeholders.
The highlights from the roundtable included:
¨ Break down institutional silos and create more integrated effective systems that work seamlessly to address the complex needs of many residents. ¨ Invite employers to participate in regional workforce, educational, and community stakeholder meetings with the goal of better understanding our systems and creating more sophisticated processes for connecting diverse talent to career opportunities with sustainable wages. Employer invitees should include hiring managers and supervisors in addition to HR and recruiting staff.
¨ Create a clearing house of workforce-related resources available to customers. ¨ Gain access to data about small business skill and hiring needs to forge sustained collaborations.
¨ Create/energize/publicize high school, college and career and technical education feeder programs into manufacturing careers.
¨ Focus on creating small, collaborative pilot initiatives engaging employers and workforce, education, and community partners. Test. Learn. Iterate. Scale. ¨ Recognize the mobile nature of the San Francisco Bay Area economy and address workforce issues through a broader regional lens.
Attachment 2
16 ¨ Provide workforce expertise to other systems – subsidized housing for example – to provide those customers with holistic services. Recognize the importance of family sustaining careers to addressing housing and other social service needs.
Building on its strong partnership and collaborative programming, the Bay-Peninsula Regional Planning Unit intends to incorporate these principles into its priorities for the road ahead.
Attachment 2
17 Appendix 1
Public comments received that disagree with Regional
Plan Modification
There were no public comments received that disagreed with the Regional Plan Modification.
Attachment 2
18 Appendix 2
Stakeholder and Community Engagement Summary
Mode of Outreach Target of Outreach Summary of Attendance Comments Email & Web
notice and Zoom
video
conferencing
NOVAworks board
executive committee
and full board
meetings. Research
questions sent to all
board members.
Board reviewed the
local and regional
plan modification
drafts.
20 board members
attended the virtual
NOVAworks board
meeting on November
30, 2022.
Research questions sent
to 25 board members.
25 board members
reviewed the local and
region plan
modification drafts.
Board members responded
to four questions
regarding organizational,
economic concerns,
regional workforce
challenges, organizational
responses to equity, job
quality and career
advancement imperatives,
and organizational visions
for enhancing regional
workforce and stakeholder
collaboration. Responses
expressed concerns around
inflation, regional training
capacity, tech layoffs, the
high cost of living,
especially housing, the
technology divide and the
job quality/diversity
nexus.
Continued on next page
Attachment 2
19 Mode of Outreach Target of Outreach Summary of Attendance Comments Email & Zoom
video
conferencing
NOVAworks LWDA
stakeholders. 113
community partners
representing a wide
range of
organizations from
workforce
development,
education,
rehabilitation, and
community-based
entities, among
others.
39 stakeholders
attending November 9,
meeting where local
and regional plan
modifications were
discussed.
Research questions sent
to 113 community
partners.
113 stakeholders
reviewed the local and
regional plan
modification drafts.
Stakeholders responded to
four questions regarding
organizational, economic
concerns, regional
workforce challenges,
organizational responses
to equity, job quality and
career advancement
imperatives, and
organizational visions for
enhancing regional
workforce and stakeholder
collaboration. Urgent
topics included teacher
salaries and ability to live
in the region, good jobs
and internships for
students, increasing
regional layoffs, high cost
of living, leveraging
CBOs to advance training
goals, and educating
employers regarding the
value of hiring individuals
with disabilities.
Email & Web
notice
Local and regional
plan modification
drafts sent to regional
leaders.
Public notification
period was from
December 16, 2022,
through February 13,
2023.
Comments that disagree
with plan modification are
included in Appendix
One.
Attachment 2
20 Meeting
Discussions
Workforce
Investment San
Francisco (WISF)
meetings with
partners/CBOs
serving, LGBTQ+,
youth, and individuals
experiencing
homelessness, BIPOC
communities, older
adults, justice-
involved, veterans,
refugees, immigrants,
historically
underserved
communities, and
persons with
disabilities.
Meetings with Larkin
Street Youth Services,
Success Centers,
Swords to Plowshares,
FACES, Self-Help for
the Elderly, Urban
Services YMCA, San
Francisco Conservation
Corps, Toolworks,
Goodwill Industries,
Five Keys Schools and
Programs, City College
of San Francisco, and
Jewish Vocational
Service.
Partners recommended
system-wide
improvements in front line
training needs, current
service gaps, skill training
needs, gaps for target
populations, supportive
services, and partner
coordination.
Emails Employers Over 530 employers Employers provided feedback regarding in-
demand skills, how the
workforce system could
better serve the employer
network, supporting
WIOA priority
populations, demand for
software development
skills and talent, demand
for soft skills including
reliability, adaptability,
critical thinking, and
skills-based hiring
opportunities.
Attachment 2
21 Bay-Peninsula Regional Planning Unit
WIOA Regional Plan 2021 – 2024 Two-Year Modification
Signature Page
Name of Workforce Development Board
Name of Board Chair
Signature of Board Chair
Date
Attachment 2