What Is WIOA?

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) WIOA is landmark legislation that is designed to strengthen and improve our nation’s public workforce system and help get Americans, including youth and those with significant barriers to employment, into high-quality jobs and careers and help employers hire and retain skilled workers.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) was signed into law on July 22, 2014. WIOA is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy. Congress passed the Act with a wide bipartisan majority; it is the first legislative reform of the public workforce system since 1998.

Read Our Letter to Congress

Much of the funding for the work that workforce development boards does comes from WIOA. We are advocating to ensure that a training mandate is not placed on the funds distributed through WIOA, as recent versions of the reauthorization proposal would suggest.

Read our letter to Congress to understand why a training mandate would not realistically meet the needs of workforce development.

WIOA Up for Reauthorization

The reauthorization bill, called A Stronger Workfroce for America (ASWA), mandates local workforce boards spend 50% of their Adult and Dislocated Worker funds on training.

This mandate does not meet the needs of the work done by workforce development boards.

Read the National Association of Workforce Boards’ perspective on the issue.