Leverage Prior Skills Act

To ensure that programs of training services under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 make better use of participants’ prior learning so as to better assist the participants in obtaining degrees and other recognized postsecondary credentials, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Leverage Prior Skills Act 2. Findings; purpose (a) Findings Congress finds the following: (1) A recognized postsecondary credential is key to an individual’s self-sufficiency and upward mobility, and to higher levels of family well-being. (2) Jobseekers often come to programs providing training services with skills acquired through noncredit employment and training programs, such as corporate or military training programs, workplace-based learning programs, volunteer activities, and other activities. (3) Workforce investment systems do not take into account prior learning. Workers and students who have persisted through demanding noncredit employment and training programs often have to repeat courses when they attempt to earn a recognized postsecondary credential through a workforce investment system, wasting both money and time. (4) At a time when unemployment remains relatively high, training services should be geared to allow participants to quickly achieve recognized postsecondary credentials that lead directly to employment. (b) Purpose The purpose of this Act is to encourage States and local boards to develop competency-based workforce investment systems, to validate learning through noncredit employment and training programs and to award recognized postsecondary credentials. 3. Eligible providers Section 122 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 ( 29 U.S.C. 2842 (1) in subsection (b)(2)(D)— (A) in clause (ii), by striking and (B) in clause (iii), by striking the period and inserting ; and (C) by adding at the end the following: (iv) if the provider proposes to provide a program of training services that leads to a recognized postsecondary credential, shall include in the application information on the quality of the services that lead to the credential. ; and (2) in subsection (c)(5)(A), by inserting the information described in subsection (b)(2)(D)(iv) (for a program described in that subsection) and submit 4. Competency-based learning Section 134(a)(2)(B) of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2864(a)(2)(B)) is amended— (1) in clause (v), by striking and (2) in clause (iv), by striking the period and inserting ; and (3) by adding at the end the following: (vii) identifying and implementing a process by which local boards will enter into contracts with providers of training services under subsection (d)(4), or identify providers as eligible providers of training services under section 122, only if the providers involved agree to— (I) use direct assessments to assess, to the extent practical, the prior learning of the participants in noncredit employment and training programs; and (II) take that prior learning into account, to the extent practical, when determining whether such a participant has earned credit hours or made progress toward earning a degree from at an institution of higher education, or has earned or made progress towards earning a recognized postsecondary credential. .

Summary: Leverage Prior Skills Act - Amends the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 to require a governor, in establishing a procedure for local workforce investment boards in the state in determining the initial eligibility of a provider to receive funds for a program of training services, to require the applicant proposing a program that leads to a recognized postsecondary credential to include in the application information on the quality of the services that lead to that credential. Requires a state to use federal funds reserved to carry out statewide employment and training activities (other than certain statewide rapid response activities) to identify and implement a process by which local boards will contract with providers of training services, or identify eligible providers of training services, only if the providers involved agree to: use direct assessments to assess the prior learning of the participants in noncredit employment and training programs; and take that prior learning into account when determining whether a participant has earned credit hours or made progress toward earning a degree from an institution of higher education, or has earned or made progress towards earning a recognized postsecondary credential.