Workforce development is crucial to community stabilization. Job training or re-training and employment services can help residents to increase their income, particularly in a changing economy and in the face of increasing housing costs enabling them to reduce their housing cost burden and reducing the city’s inequality gap.
Background
What is Workforce Development?
The Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), the Human Services Agency (HSA), Department of Public Works (DPW), and Department of Human Resources (DHR) manage several workforce development programs in the city. The programs support adult and young adult workforce development through sector-based programming, general employment and job placement services and paid work experience opportunities for young adults.
Sector Workforce Programming
OEWD provides training and placement support to assist residents to access opportunities in the City’s workforce sectors that offer the greatest number of entry-level and mid-level employment opportunities and living wage salaries in identified career pathways. Sector Academies offer occupational skills training, industry-recognized credentials and certifications, and internship and job placement assistance. OEWD funds sector academies in the Construction Trades, Hospitality, Health Care and Technology sectors.
Construction Industry Training and Employment
CityBuild Academy meets the demands of the construction industry by providing an 18-week comprehensive pre-apprenticeship and construction administration training to San Francisco residents. Trainees receive hands-on training in 26 Building Trades or construction software applications, classroom instruction and college credits, industry certifications, case management and retention services, and job placement assistance. CityBuild's Employment Networking Services connects San Francisco trades workers and CityBuild alumni to employment opportunities in San Francisco, and assists residents seeking employment in the construction industry with job placement and entry into local trade unions. CityBuild's Compliance Team administers and enforces various workforce policies that prioritize employment of local residents on construction projects in San Francisco. CityBuild also provides project-specific and customized trainings, such as the Chase Center Training partnership with the Golden State Warriors and JP Morgan Chase.
Hospitality Industry Training and Employment
The Hospitality Initiative offers 12 distinct training tracks within food services, guest services, and facilities maintenance. Most of these trainings support the hotel and restaurant industries through back- and front-of-house trainings.
The HealthCare Academy provides training and employment services for clinical and non-clinical career pathways including Personal Care Giver, Home Health Aide, Certified Nurse Assistant, Medical Admin Assistant, Medical Assistant, and Nursing Refresher courses. Incumbent worker trainings are embedded in the Academy to support the existing workforce.
Tech Industry Training and Employment
TechSF provides multiple workforce services for participants interested in careers in the Tech Industry by building talent pipelines to employment by: 1) Connecting industry to Apprenticeship opportunities; 2) Offering Work-Based Learning opportunities that connect students and jobseekers to industry; and 3) Funding local training and education partners to adequately prepare and upskill the City’s local talent pool.
Adult Employment and Job Readiness Workforce Programs
OEWD coordinates a range of neighborhood-based and specialized “Access Points” which provide a seamless array of workforce services designed to assist adults in connecting with needed job readiness and employment services.
Access Points
Neighborhood Access Points provide job readiness workshops, job search assistance, career planning, and connections to employment opportunities. Each Access Point has culturally competent staff and can be found in the Bayview, Chinatown, Mission, Tenderloin, Visitacion Valley, South of Market, and Western Addition.
Specialized Access Points provide job readiness and employment services but specialize in working with specific populations including Persons with Disabilities, individuals involved with the criminal justice system, individuals with limited English proficiency, the LGBTQ community and Veterans.
Job Readiness Services
Job Readiness Services portfolio to help individuals overcome any barriers that may prevent them from successfully attaining employment or enrolling in training. These centers help with attaining a driver’s license, GED/HS Diploma, basic computer skills, increasing ESL levels and provide other assistance. This portfolio is an imminent component to the workforce system as upon remediating a barrier, participants are referred to sector training or adult employment services to assist with the transition into the workforce system.
Additional City-Funded Adult Workforce Programming
HSA's JobsNOW! Program provides employment opportunities and training services for participants in their benefit programs, such as CalWORKS and County Adult Assistance Programs. These services may also be available to select adults on CalFresh as well as youth transitioning out of foster care.
The Downtown Streets Team program provides homeless and low-income men and women with volunteer opportunities and then paid employment.
The HOPE SF housing sites at Hunters View, Potrero Terrace and Potrero Annex, Sunnydale, and Alice Griffith will provide employment and job training opportunities for current residents onsite. Services will include onsite employment planning and placement services for adults and youth.
Several other City and County of San Francisco agencies and departments provide training programs and employment for residents including: Airport, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the San Francisco Port, the Department of Public Health, Public Works, and Recreation and Parks.
Young Adult Workforce Programs
OEWD provides a continuum of services for young adults ages 17-24 to help them reach their employment goals through career development assistance, paid training opportunities, educational reengagement and job placement.
Young Adult Access Points provide education and employment services, career exploration, job preparation workshops, job search assistance and assistance with college/financial aid applications for transitional age youth ages 16-24.
Young Adult Subsidized Employment Program provides youth with paid work experience in high demand industries (i.e. tech and hospitality) to get them ready for the workforce. While enrolled in paid training they receive other valuable services including case management, career plans and job placement assistance.
Reconnecting All through Multiple Pathways (RAMP) Program provides classroom training and hands-on workforce experience through a boot camp model to prepare young adults for employment while having access to onsite education to attain a HS Diploma or GED.
Additional City-Funded Youth and Young Adult Workforce Programs
The Human Rights Commission (HRC) works with OEWD and DCYF to coordinate the City’s youth and young adult internship programs through the “Opportunities for All” initiative, which aims to provide access to a paid internship to every high school student in the City and County of San Francisco.
Agencies, such as the SFPUC, and DCYF manage several additional youth internship and apprenticeship programs. Each of these programs aim to provide internships focused on Latinx, African Americans, Indigenous, LGBTQ, and API youth that place youth in all sector career building opportunities. Programs include:
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Inside Manufacturing program serves 250 students at three schools: Washington, Burton, and John O’Connell High School.
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SSIP CityWorks is a paid two-year, summer internship program either at the SFPUC or with one of the private engineering firms working on our Sewer System Internship Program for high school students from San Francisco’s southeast neighborhoods.
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YouthWorks, a paid after-school and summer internship program, provides San Francisco high school students with an interest in public service with job opportunities at SFPUC and more than 30 other City departments.
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Project Pull provides San Francisco high school students with paid summer internships at SFPUC and other City departments.
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DCYF’s Youth Workforce Development Strategy includes 34 programs across 30 agencies to offer job readiness and other training, work-based learning experiences and transition planning activities.
The City’s Department of Human Resources hosts an Apprenticeship SF Fair annually for people to learn about apprenticeship, pre-apprenticeship, and on-the-job training programs. Building upon the nationally-recognized success of the TechSF apprenticeship initiative, OEWD seeks to continue expanding the apprenticeship model into non-traditional industries and sectors, such as hospitality and healthcare.
Agencies continue to develop research and evaluation protocols in keeping with evolving best practices in the field of social service delivery and program development. OEWD, HSA, and DCYF have engaged in interdepartmental sharing of aggregate data for determine the impact of programs and identify areas of need. With the long-term goal of automated data sharing, City agencies have engaged business intelligence software to visualize and communicate program inputs, outputs, and outcomes.
The Human Rights Commission (HRC) manages the Mayor’s initiative Opportunities for All, an online resource with internship and apprenticeship options for young people ages 14-24 years old. Since 2014, the Committee on Citywide Workforce Alignment has been in existence. Through extensive stakeholder engagement, the Committee identified an action plan to better coordinate services through special projects, partnerships, and programs. The Committee continues to make progress on its mission, vision, and goals, and is in the third year of its five-year plan.
The California Workforce Development Board mandates regional coordination of local workforce development boards. OEWD regularly meets with its regional partners in San Mateo, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose, and San Benito to coordinate regional business services, communicate program offerings, collaborate on funding requests. With the Bay-Peninsula Regional Planning Unit, OEWD coordinates and participates in two working groups—one to coordinate regional business services in the health care industry and to identify best practices in employer engagement strategies and one to identify a regional employer network for tech apprenticeship.
Why is Workforce Development Important?
Workforce development programs provide an opportunity for OEWD, SFPUC, HSA, and DCYF and implementing partners to enhance community stabilization and prevent displacement by supporting workforce development and community-serving businesses.
Key Trends
TechSF’s partnership with SFUSD and City College
has collectively created more than 6,300 work-based learning opportunities for students in the last three years.
City-funded training program clients find employment in a range of industries and often in-demand occupations
in health care, hospitality, construction, and information and communication technology.
Across the City, agencies fund over 130 organizations throughout the city to provide workforce development services.
Participants in all community forums and focus groups emphasized the need for job training to support self-sufficiency and stability.
What’s Happening Now to Develop the City’s Workforce?
In January 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved CityGrow, which requires that certain cannabis enterprises hire one third of their workforce through state-approved cannabis apprenticeships. OEWD is tasked with the approval and administration of pre-apprenticeship programs. Rollout is aimed at late 2019 or early 2020.
In January 2019, Mayor Breed and Supervisor Brown announced CityDrive, which provides free training to residents as commercial drivers to meet the demand at SFMTA and in the private sector. OEWD is tasked with administration of CityDrive.
District 10 Supervisor Walton is exploring the expansion of local hiring requirements to businesses in non-construction sectors, such as technology, healthcare, and other sectors. OEWD has been asked to provide guidance into any possible policies or programs that may come from this process, building upon the existing First Source Hiring Program that applies to City-funded contracts and commercial activity in certain private sector properties subject to City permits or approvals.
Excelsior Works, a multicultural and multilingual workforce development center, provides outreach, workforce programs, and services in English, Spanish, Cantonese, and Tagalog. The center could serve as a model for other workforce development programs.
Issues Related to Workforce Development
Several different City agencies and departments provide workforce development opportunities including internships and apprenticeships for adults and youth.
Despite the large number of job training programs, there is still tremendous need for workforce development support and services, there is still tremendous need for workforce development support and services. Community forum and focus group participants mentioned a need for paid job training programs that are linked to long-term employment more than any other need. Community members suggested several opportunities to expand workforce development services.
Though City Departments and agencies manage numerous workforce development and employment services programs, community forum and focus group participant tended to be unaware of the options. Several different City agencies and Departments operate and manage their own apprenticeship and training programs. There is not one central location for interested members of the public to learn about the City’s workforce development opportunities.
Though the City provides several workforce development programs, the assessment and awareness of the efficacy could be enhanced.
For Future Consideration
The ideas for future consideration that have the potential to increase community stability in San Francisco are described below. They provide a starting point for agencies, decision-makers, and community members to explore stabilization efforts and identify critical pathways forward. Based on preliminary information, staff is qualifying these ideas according to the type of task, scale of resources and level of complexity to underscore that any of these ideas would require time and additional resources not currently identified. These are not City commitments or recommendations, rather informed ideas that will require careful vetting and analysis as to their reach, resource needs, feasibility, unintended consequences, legal implications, and racial and social equity considerations.
Coordinated Workforce Development System
Coordinated City of San Francisco workforce development system
There is an opportunity for City agencies to better coordinate their workforce development efforts. Program coordination requires prioritization of vulnerable populations; seamless and accessible communication on available program offerings; efficient resource sharing for shared tasks; interdepartmental data sharing of client and program information, including demographics, locations, service needs, and program outcomes; and coordinated funding and oversight of community partners and service providers. This effort could build on the 2014 Committee on City Workforce Alignment efforts.
| Type of Response | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Type of Task | Policy implementation
|
| Resource | More information required |
| Complexity | More information required |
| Timing | Long Term (more than 5 years)
|
| Geographic Scale | Citywide |
| Partners | Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), Human Rights Commission (HRC), San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), Human Services Agency (HSA), Public Works (DPW), and community partners |
| Benefit | Improved coordination can increase access for clients. |
| Challenge | Improved coordination carries resource costs and needs staffing and funding support. |
Coordinated Workforce Development System
Coordinated regional workforce development system
There is an opportunity for Bay Area cities and counties to coordinate their workforce development efforts. Like the coordinated City and County of San Francisco workforce development program opportunity, the regional agencies could develop a unified regional program.
| Type of Response | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Type of Task | Policy implementation
|
| Resource | More information required |
| Complexity | More information required |
| Timing | Long Term (more than 5 years)
|
| Geographic Scale | Regionwide |
| Partners | Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), Human Rights Commission (HRC), San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), Human Services Agency (HSA), Public Works (DPW), and regional agencies |
| Key Priority | Yes - Enhancements to Existing City Programs and Policies |
| Benefit | Improved coordination can increase access for clients. |
| Challenge | Improved coordination carries resource costs and needs staffing and funding support. |
Program Expansion
Job training program expansion
Community forum and focus group participants suggested new types of job training programs and workforce readiness services including: paid apprenticeship programs; ESL, vocational, and technology education programs; all-ages internship programs; and, training programs with a cultural competency component for recent immigrants, people with limited English proficiency and others.
| Type of Response | Mitigation, Prevention |
|---|---|
| Type of Task | Funding, Service
|
| Resource | More information required |
| Complexity | More information required |
| Timing | Long Term (more than 5 years)
|
| Geographic Scale | Citywide |
| Partners | Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), Human Rights Commission (HRC), San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), Human Services Agency (HSA), and community partners |
| Key Priority | Yes - Enhancements to Existing City Programs and Policies |
| Benefit | Responding to needs expressed by community members can fill gaps in community services. |
| Challenge | Program expansion requires funding and resources. |
Program Expansion
Employment service expansion
There is an opportunity to expand the number of employment services to meet the needs of community members. Community forum and focus group participants suggested the following employment service needs: practice tests for City and County job positions; and a community jobs fair for all City and County employment opportunities.
| Type of Response | Prevention |
|---|---|
| Type of Task | Funding, Service
|
| Resource | More information required |
| Complexity | More information required |
| Timing | Long Term (more than 5 years)
|
| Geographic Scale | Citywide |
| Partners | Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), Human Rights Commission (HRC), San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), Department of Human Resources (DHR), and other agencies |
| Key Priority | Yes - Enhancements to Existing City Programs and Policies |
| Benefit | Responding to needs expressed by community members can fill gaps in community services. |
| Challenge | Program expansion requires funding and resources. |
Outreach and education enhancement on workforce development programs
If establishing a more unified workforce development program presents more challenges than benefits, consider consolidating the communication and outreach function. Due to the breadth of workforce development programs and number of agencies that manage them, many residents may not know about the available opportunities. By expanding outreach and education on workforce development programs in different languages, more members of the public (residents of San Francisco, the region, and the state) could be aware of the existing workforce opportunities available to them.
| Type of Response | Mitigation, Prevention |
|---|---|
| Type of Task | Funding, Service
|
| Resource | More information required |
| Complexity | More information required |
| Timing | Long Term (more than 5 years)
|
| Geographic Scale | Citywide |
| Partners | Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), Human Rights Commission (HRC), San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), Human Services Agency (HSA), and other agencies |
| Benefit | Coordinated communication can increase access for clients. |
| Challenge | Coordinated communication requires funding and resources. |
Comprehensive workforce development program efficacy assessment for clients and program providers
There is an opportunity for the City to assess the efficacy of agency and department workforce development programs for the providers and participants of these programs. An assessment could help the City have a comprehensive understanding of the number of clients served, types of jobs held after completing programs, and salaries of those jobs. The City could have a better understanding of the extent to which workforce programs are growing San Francisco’s workforce to address the challenges of the future.
| Type of Response | Prevention |
|---|---|
| Type of Task | Data
|
| Resource | More information required |
| Complexity | More information required |
| Timing | Short Term (1 year or under)
|
| Geographic Scale | Citywide |
| Partners | Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), Human Rights Commission (HRC), San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), Human Services Agency (HSA), and other agencies |
| Benefit | Provides additional and comprehensive insight into how to enhance existing programs to serve needs of clients and the City. |
| Challenge | Requires resources and funding. |
