Commissioner Richard Corcoran today announced that the Florida Department of Education will be hosting a series of public hearings, in-person and virtually, to collect input that will help to inform the development of the state’s career and technical education workforce plan, which is due to the U.S. Department of Education in Spring 2020.
President Donald Trump signed The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) into law July 31, 2018. This made available nearly $1.3 billion annually for career and technical education (CTE) programs throughout the nation. Of this, Florida will receive approximately $73 million annually to expand opportunities for every student to explore, choose, and follow CTE programs of study and career pathways to earn credentials of value.
The majority of these funds will go directly to Florida College System institutions and school districts to support their local CTE programs. Increased flexibility and increased alignment between Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and Perkins are core considerations during the planning and development process. To that end, the Department has also invited the Department of Economic Opportunity, CareerSource Florida and Enterprise Florida to take part in these public hearings.
“Thanks to President Trump signing The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, Florida is on its way to being the #1 state in the nation for workforce education by 2030,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “This grant, along with our Bold Vision for a Brighter Future budget, enables us to help provide Floridians with opportunities to achieve economic prosperity through expanded apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, affordable workforce housing, recovery workforce training grants and the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund. Florida will remain a state where businesses are encouraged to grow and where meaningful jobs are created.”
“The timing of this opportunity is impeccable as statewide interest in workforce education is at an all-time high, thanks to Governor DeSantis’ Executive Order 19-31,” said Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran.“The Perkins V state plan will build upon the tremendous work taking place to ensure all Floridians have a pathway to achieve their career goals. It will likely be another decade before the next Perkins is enacted, so this is a significant opportunity to put in place funded strategies that will help us to achieve our goal of making Florida #1 in the nation in workforce education by 2030.”
“Governor DeSantis and Commissioner Corcoran’s dedication to enhancing Florida’s workforce education is remarkable,” said Ken Lawson, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. “We are eager to hear from the public and to work with our state partners to develop strategies to prepare Florida for the workforce jobs of the future.”
“Access to quality career and technical education that aligns to market demand is so important for Florida’s students in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape,” said CareerSource Florida President and CEO Michelle Dennard. “We are grateful to Governor Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran for their leadership in this transformative process to ensure Florida has the strongest CTE system in the country.”
“We appreciate Governor DeSantis’ continuing efforts to develop Florida’s talent pipeline,” said Jamal Sowell, President & CEO of Enterprise Florida, Inc. “Enterprise Florida looks forward to working with our partners on this and other initiatives that make Florida a state leader in access to high-quality workforce training.”
Floridians will have the opportunity to offer public input during the Florida Workforce Listening tour stops at the following locations:
- October 29 – Broward County, Atlantic Technical College
- October 30 – Manatee County, Manatee Technical College
- October 31 – Orange County, Orange Technical College
- November 4 – Leon County, Lively Technical College
- November 5 – Okaloosa, Northwest Florida State College
- November 7 – Duval County, Florida State College at Jacksonville
- Week of November 11: two webinars
For more information on the Florida Workforce Listening tour stops, please visit fldoe.org/perkins.
For more information about the Florida Department of Education, visit fldoe.org.
