Designated as a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) regional planning unit, the LA Basin Workforce Network represents California’s largest and most diverse coalition of workforce service providers and partners. This coalition includes the Foothill Workforce Development Board, Los Angeles County Workforce Development, Pacific Gateway, the South Bay Workforce Investment Board, the Southeast Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board, the Verdugo Workforce Development Board, and the Workforce Development Board of the City of Los Angeles, as well as America’s Job Centers of California (AJCCs) across the region. In an unprecedented large-scale partnership, the Boards and AJCCs are collaborating with local colleges, universities, vocational and adults schools, business and community leaders, labor unions, apprenticeships, local and state agencies, and hundreds of non-profit organizations serving the region.
The seven Workforce Development Boards have been successfully working together to strengthen the region for over 40 years. The LA Basin Workforce Network formalizes this partnership, and empowers the Boards to more effectively leverage combined strengths and resources to deliver services to community members and businesses with increased efficiency.
The LA Basin Workforce Network is uniquely focused on meeting the needs of the region’s most vulnerable and at-risk residents, including veterans, individuals with disabilities, those experiencing homelessness, out-of-school and out-of-work youth, single parents, and people involved with the criminal justice system.
The LA Basin Workforce Network partners have identified career pathways for the most vulnerable people in the region’s communities, that provide for long-term employment, upward mobility, self-sufficiency, economic stability, and dignity. Through an expansive, region-wide network of service providers and partners, the partnership is also connecting these residents to an array of critical support services and resources beyond training, including educational assistance, stable housing, mental health services, substance use disorder treatment, childcare, transportation, and individualized case management.
This uniquely holistic approach to career training has generated positive outcomes for job seekers and employers alike. The Network’s most innovative and successful programs to date
include Specialty RN and healthcare coordinator training, Aero-Flex Pre-Apprenticeship for aerospace career training (the first program of its kind recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor), CNC Machinist Academy training for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Prison2Employment re-entry training programs, education and work experience programs for disconnected and homeless youth, and the WIN-LA program designed with Metro for career training in transportation. Several of these initiatives have become models of best practice for the state and the nation.
The LA Basin Workforce Network develops demand-driven programs that respond to the needs the region’s employers as well as job seekers. Working closely with businesses across the region, the partnership has identified the most pressing labor and skills gaps impacting vital industries including healthcare, aerospace, and transportation, and have designed training programs to fill those gaps. While helping our most vulnerable residents get on the path to sustainable careers, the LA Basin Workforce Network is also connecting employers to a wider pool of work-ready employees to help them stay competitive.
The newly launched LA Basin Workforce Network website provides job seekers, employers, partner, peers, and legislators with a unified communications platform to learn about the life-transforming programs made possible through this unique collaboration. To learn more, visit www.labwn.com.