Solano workforce board opens 30-day comment period on local and North Bay regional workforce plans

The Solano County Workforce Development Board presented draft local and North Bay regional workforce plans to the Solano County Board of Supervisors and the supervisors opened the federally required 30-day public comment period.

Heather Henry, identified as executive director of the workforce development board, told supervisors the regional plan covers six counties and identifies four priority industries for the North Bay region and two emerging industries. The local plan focuses on five strategies for the next four years, including support for alternative training routes, evolving career services, expanded experiential learning for youth, employer-based training, and improved access to labor-market data.

Henry said the regional priority industries are health care, manufacturing, a new category labeled "public sector," and transportation and logistics; she also identified life sciences/biotech and climate sustainability as emerging industries. On healthcare, Henry highlighted internal wage disparities within the sector: many health-care support occupations (for example, home health aides and certified nursing assistants) earn median hourly wages far below those in practitioner roles such as registered nurses.

Henry said the local workforce board had engaged 44 stakeholders through interviews and topic-specific sessions and had piloted projects funded by the county's ARPA investments, including career-coach tools, industry-based cohorts, and a climate summer youth program. Henry also described a plan to purchase five virtual-reality headsets loaded with occupational simulations; the devices will be made available at the workforce board office, to check out for resource fairs and career events.

The board opened the public hearing and began the 30-day comment period required by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act; Henry said the draft plans will be posted to local newspapers and the workforce board will return to the board on consent after the comment period. The meeting included a public comment urging greater attention to senior employment programs during the comment period.

Ending: The public hearing was opened and a 30-day comment period started; the workforce board will accept comments and return the plans to supervisors after the public comment period ends.