1997 Minnesota Statutes

CHAPTER 126B. Education and employment transitions system

     126B.01 Education and employment transitions system. 

    Subdivision 1.    Goals.  To better prepare all learners 
 to make transitions between education and employment, a 
 comprehensive education and employment transitions system is 
 established that is driven by multisector partnerships and takes 
 a lifelong approach to workforce development.  The goals of the 
 statewide education and employment transitions system are: 

    (1) to improve the skills learners need to achieve greater 
 levels of self-sufficiency through education, training, and 
 work; 

    (2) to improve work-related counseling and information 
 about career opportunities and vocational education programs 
 available to learners to facilitate workforce development; 

    (3) to integrate opportunities for work-based learning, 
 service-learning, and other applied learning methods into the 
 elementary, secondary, and post-secondary curriculum and state 
 and local graduation standards; 

    (4) to increase participation in employment opportunities 
 and demonstrate the relationship between education and 
 employment at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary 
 education levels; 

    (5) to promote the efficient use of public and private 
 resources by coordinating elementary, secondary, and 
 post-secondary education with related government programs; 

    (6) to expand educational options available to all learners 
 through collaborative efforts between school districts, 
 post-secondary institutions, employers, organized labor, 
 workers, learners, parents, community-based organizations, and 
 other interested parties; 

    (7) to increase opportunities for women, minorities, 
 individuals with a disability, and at-risk learners to fully 
 participate in work-based learning; 

    (8) to establish performance standards for learners that 
 integrate state and local graduation standards and generally 
 recognized industry and occupational skill standards; and 

    (9) to provide support systems including a unified labor 
 market information system; a centralized quality assurance 
 system with information on learner achievement, employer 
 satisfaction, and measurable system outcomes; a statewide 
 marketing system to promote the importance of lifework 
 development; a comprehensive professional development system for 
 public and private sector partners; and a comprehensive system 
 for providing technical support to local partnerships for 
 education and employment transitions. 

    Subd. 2.    Funding.  Work-based learning programs 
 incorporating post-secondary instruction implemented under this 
 chapter shall provide for student funding according to section 
 123.3514. 

    Subd. 3.    Governor's workforce development council.  
 The governor's workforce development council is responsible for 
 developing, implementing, and evaluating the statewide education 
 and employment transitions system and achieving the goals of the 
 system. 

    Subd. 4.    Partnership grants.  The council shall award 
 grants to implement local education and employment transition 
 systems to local education and employment transition 
 partnerships established under section 126B.10.  Grants under 
 this section may be used for the local education and employment 
 transitions system, youth apprenticeship and other work-based 
 learning programs, youth employer programs, youth 
 entrepreneurship programs, and other programs and purposes the 
 council determines fulfill the purposes of the education and 
 employment transitions system.  The council shall evaluate grant 
 proposals on the basis of the elements required in the local 
 plan described in section 126B.10, subdivision 3.  The council 
 shall develop and publicize the grant application process and 
 review and comment on the proposals submitted.  Priority in 
 awarding grants must be given to local partnerships that include 
 multiple communities and a viable base of educational, 
 work-based learning, and employment opportunities.  

    Subd. 5.    Annual review.  The council shall review the 
 activities of each local education and employment transitions 
 partnership annually to ensure that the local partnership is 
 adequately meeting the system standards under section 126B.10 
 and state quality assurance standards established as part of the 
 quality assurance system developed by the council.  This 
 subdivision expires July 1, 1997. 

    Subd. 6.    Report.  The council shall annually publish 
 a report summarizing the data submitted by each local education 
 and employment transitions partnership.  The report shall be 
 published no later than September 1 of the year following the 
 year in which the data was collected.  This subdivision expires 
 July 1, 1997.  

    HIST: 1993 c 335 s 1; 1Sp1995 c 3 art 4 s 23 

  126B.02 Repealed, 1995 c 131 s 3; 1Sp1995 c 3 art 4 s 31 

     126B.03 Comprehensive youth apprenticeship program. 

    Subdivision 1. Repealed, 1Sp1995 c 3 art 4 s 31 

    Subd. 2.    Academic instruction and work-related 
 learning.  Comprehensive youth apprenticeship programs and 
 other work-based learning programs under the education and 
 employment transitions system must integrate academic 
 instruction and work-related learning in the classroom and at 
 the workplace.  Schools, in collaboration with learners' 
 employers, must use competency-based measures to evaluate 
 learners' progress in the program.  Learners who successfully 
 complete the program must receive academic and occupational 
 credentials from the participating school. 

    Subd. 3.    Youth apprenticeship programs.  (a) A 
 comprehensive youth apprenticeship program must require 
 representatives of secondary and post-secondary school systems, 
 affected local businesses, industries, occupations and labor, as 
 well as the local community, to be actively and collaboratively 
 involved in advising and managing the program and ensuring, in 
 consultation with local private industry councils, that the 
 youth apprenticeship program meets local labor market demands, 
 provides student apprentices with the high skill training 
 necessary for career advancement, meets applicable state 
 graduation requirements and labor standards, pays apprentices 
 for their work and provides support services to program 
 participants. 

    (b) Local employers, collaborating with labor organizations 
 where appropriate, must assist the program by analyzing 
 workplace needs, creating work-related curriculum, employing and 
 adequately paying youth apprentices engaged in work-related 
 learning in the workplace, training youth apprentices to become 
 skilled in an occupation, providing student apprentices with a 
 workplace mentor, periodically informing the school of an 
 apprentice's progress, and making a reasonable effort to employ 
 youth apprentices who successfully complete the program. 

    (c) A student participating in a comprehensive youth 
 apprenticeship program must sign a youth apprenticeship 
 agreement with participating entities that obligates youth 
 apprentices, their parents or guardians, employers, and schools 
 to meet program requirements; indicates how academic 
 instruction, work-based learning, and worksite learning and 
 experience will be integrated; ensures that successful youth 
 apprentices will receive a recognized credential of academic and 
 occupational proficiency; and establishes the wage rate and 
 other benefits for which youth apprentices are eligible while 
 employed during the program. 

    (d) Secondary school principals, counselors, or business 
 mentors familiar with the education to employment transitions 
 system must inform entering secondary school students about 
 available occupational and career opportunities and the option 
 of entering a youth apprenticeship or other work-based learning 
 program to obtain post-secondary academic and occupational 
 credentials. 

    HIST: 1993 c 224 art 14 s 17; 1993 c 335 s 3; 1993 c 374 s 25; 
 1Sp1995 c 3 art 4 s 24,25 

  126B.04 Repealed, 1Sp1995 c 3 art 4 s 31 

  126B.05 Repealed, 1Sp1995 c 3 art 4 s 31 

     126B.06 General provisions. 

    All state and federal laws relating to workplace health and 
 safety apply to youth apprenticeships. 

    The employment of a youth apprentice may not displace or 
 cause any reduction in the number of nonovertime hours worked, 
 wages, or benefits of a currently employed worker. 

    HIST: 1993 c 335 s 6 

     126B.10 Education and employment transitions 
  partnerships. 

    Subdivision 1.    Local partnerships; establishment.  
 Local education and employment transitions partnerships may be 
 established to implement local education and employment 
 transitions systems.  Local partnerships shall represent 
 multiple sectors in the community, including, at a minimum, 
 representatives of employers, primary and secondary education, 
 labor and professional organizations, workers, learners, 
 parents, community-based organizations, and to the extent 
 possible, post-secondary education.  

    Subd. 2.    Board.  A local education and employment 
 transitions partnership shall establish a governing board for 
 planning and implementing work-based and other applied learning 
 programs.  The board shall consist of at least one 
 representative from each member of the education and employment 
 transitions partnership.  A majority of the board must consist 
 of representatives of local or regional employers. 

    Subd. 3.    Local education and employment transitions 
 systems.  A local education and employment transitions 
 partnership shall assess the needs of employers, employees, and 
 learners, and develop a plan for implementing and achieving the 
 objectives of a local or regional education and employment 
 transitions system.  The plan shall provide for a comprehensive 
 local system for assisting learners and workers in making the 
 transition from school to work or for retraining in a new 
 vocational area.  The objectives of a local education and 
 employment transitions system include:  

    (1) increasing the effectiveness of the educational 
 programs and curriculum of elementary, secondary, and 
 post-secondary schools and the work site in preparing students 
 in the skills and knowledge needed to be successful in the 
 workplace; 

    (2) implementing learner outcomes for students in grades 
 kindergarten through 12 designed to introduce the world of work 
 and to explore career opportunities, including nontraditional 
 career opportunities; 

    (3) eliminating barriers to providing effective integrated 
 applied learning, service-learning, or work-based curriculum; 

    (4) increasing opportunities to apply academic knowledge 
 and skills, including skills needed in the workplace, in local 
 settings which include the school, school-based enterprises, 
 post-secondary institutions, the workplace, and the community; 

    (5) increasing applied instruction in the attitudes and 
 skills essential for success in the workplace, including 
 cooperative working, leadership, problem-solving, and respect 
 for diversity; 

    (6) providing staff training for vocational guidance 
 counselors, teachers, and other appropriate staff in the 
 importance of preparing learners for the transition to work, and 
 in methods of providing instruction that incorporate applied 
 learning, work-based learning, and service-learning experiences; 

    (7) identifying and enlisting local and regional employers 
 who can effectively provide work-based or service-learning 
 opportunities, including, but not limited to, apprenticeships, 
 internships, and mentorships; 

    (8) recruiting community and workplace mentors including 
 peers, parents, employers and employed individuals from the 
 community, and employers of high school students; 

    (9) identifying current and emerging educational, training, 
 and employment needs of the area or region, especially within 
 industries with potential for job growth; 

    (10) improving the coordination and effectiveness of local 
 vocational and job training programs, including vocational 
 education, adult basic education, tech prep, apprenticeship, 
 service-learning, youth entrepreneur, youth training and 
 employment programs administered by the commissioner of economic 
 security, and local job training programs under the Job Training 
 Partnership Act, United States Code, title 29, section 1501, et 
 seq.; 

    (11) identifying and applying for federal, state, local, 
 and private sources of funding for vocational or applied 
 learning programs; 

    (12) providing students with current information and 
 counseling about career opportunities, potential employment, 
 educational opportunities in post-secondary institutions, 
 workplaces, and the community, and the skills and knowledge 
 necessary to succeed; 

    (13) providing educational technology, including 
 interactive television networks and other distance learning 
 methods, to ensure access to a broad variety of work-based 
 learning opportunities; 

    (14) including students with disabilities in a district's 
 vocational or applied learning program and ways to serve at-risk 
 learners through collaboration with area learning centers under 
 sections 124C.45 to 124C.49, or other alternative programs; and 

    (15) providing a warranty to employers, post-secondary 
 education programs, and other post-secondary training programs, 
 that learners successfully completing a high school work-based 
 or applied learning program will be able to apply the knowledge 
 and work skills included in the program outcomes or graduation 
 requirements.  The warranty shall require education and training 
 programs to continue to work with those learners that need 
 additional skill development until they can demonstrate 
 achievement of the program outcomes or graduation requirements. 

    Subd. 4.    Annual reports.  A local education and 
 employment transitions partnership shall annually publish a 
 report and submit information to the council as required.  The 
 report shall include information required by the council for the 
 statewide system performance assessment.  The report shall be 
 available to the public in the communities served by the local 
 education and employment transitions partnership.  The report 
 shall be published no later than September 1 of the year 
 following the year in which the data was collected. 

    HIST: 1Sp1995 c 3 art 4 s 26,30