Hello Academy Partners,
CWDS is in the midst of a number of changes. We are in the process of migrating all of our child welfare training to the statewide Learning Management System, CACWT, which will be completed by April 1. We are in the process of implementing a new software platform, AccessPlanIt, which will be used to coordinate the scheduling of trainings, house all information about our facilitators, and communicate with our facilitators. Our primary focus right now is sequencing and pacing these efforts so we can support our team through change management, leverage effective implementation strategies, and maintain our high quality of services for our customers and stakeholders. Each of these changes will streamline our work and reduce confusion for our staff and our county partners. They represent many months of planning and we are eager to bring you all along with us! Keep your eye out for opportunities to learn more!
We have begun our annual needs assessment process, which is a continuous and ongoing process that is informed by a number of methods for gathering information. At the start of February, our Workforce Development Survey is deployed to our county partners. It is electronic and can be completed by as many different individuals within an agency as is deemed appropriate by the county. Data is displayed in a dashboard and we can filter by respondent position, time with the agency and other characteristics in order to better understand each county’s needs. Our Academy leadership is also conducting annual planning meetings with each of our county leadership teams to develop scopes of work that will guide contract development. Our team meets regularly with the training and staff development teams from each county via monthly meetings with our County Consultants and in quarterly Southern Workforce Development Collaborative meetings.
The key theme we have been hearing throughout the start of the needs assessment process is regarding an increase in hiring in the Southern region. Current estimates indicate that we will be delivering 26-30 line worker cores this coming fiscal year. This is a significant increase over our average delivery of 20-22 cores per year. Our county partners gave us plenty of advance notice and our team is hard at work building capacity in our facilitator pool to accommodate the needs.
As we move into the second part of this fiscal year (what our team refers to as the home stretch) we are already gearing up for next year and the work that is ahead of us. The changes we are in the midst of are both exciting and challenging. They represent opportunities for growth and innovation. We are grateful to be able to step into what is next with your partnership.
Dawn
