During 1997-98, state agencies in Washington worked to implement the state's High Skills, High Wages Plan for Workforce Training and Education, focusing on seven most urgently needed actions to ensure that the people of the state succeed in an economy that requires ever higher levels of skill and knowledge. Progress made on seven actions included the following: (1) an agency continuous improvement plan was made and impact evaluations of the Job Training Partnership Act, community colleges, and the work force training and education system were begun; (2) a worker retraining program, job placement centers, one-stop career centers, and a labor market information system were established to increase system capacity; (3) school-to-work transition activities included recommending a certificate of mastery, initiating a multiyear evaluation, funding work-based learning (WBL) and teacher preparation projects, conducting research on career preparation standards and public awareness, participating in a national curriculum development initiative, and examining whether all student populations are being served; (4) college admission standards were revised and a WBL guide developed to improve integration of the work force training and education system; (5) website enhancements and publication dissemination increased public awareness of training and education issues and initiatives; (6) WorkFirst, a welfare reform initiative, was begun in collaboration with other state agencies; and (7) connections between workforce training/education and economic development were strengthened through a job skills program, manufacturing extension service, and a demonstration project on informal learning in the workplace. (KC)
