4. a. The Workforce Development Partnership Program is hereby established in the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and shall be administered by the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development. The purpose of the program is to provide qualified displaced, disadvantaged and employed workers with the employment and training services most likely to enable the individual to obtain employment providing self-sufficiency for the individual and also to provide the greatest opportunity for long-range career advancement with high levels of productivity and earning power. To implement that purpose, the program shall provide those services by means of training grants or customized training services in coordination with funding for the services from federal or other sources. The commissioner is authorized to expend moneys from the Workforce Development Partnership Fund to provide the training grants or customized training services and provide for each of the following:

(1) The cost of counseling required pursuant to section 7 of P.L.1992, c.43 (C. 34:15D-7), to the extent that adequate funding for counseling is not available from federal or other sources;

(2) Reasonable administrative costs, which shall not exceed 10 percent of the revenues collected pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1992, c.44 (C. 34:15D-13) during any fiscal year ending before July 1, 2001, except for additional start-up administrative costs approved by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget during the first year of the program’s operation;

(3) Reasonable costs, which shall not exceed 0.5 percent of the revenues collected pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1992, c.44 (C. 34:15D-13) during any fiscal year ending before July 1, 2001, as required by the State Employment and Training Commission to design criteria and conduct an annual evaluation of the program; and

(4) The cost of reimbursement to individuals for excess contributions pursuant to section 6 of P.L.1992, c.44 (C. 34:15D-17).

b. Not more than 10 percent of the moneys received by any service provider pursuant to this act shall be expended on anything other than direct costs to the provider of providing the employment and training services, which direct costs shall not include any administrative or overhead expense of the provider.

c. Training and employment services or other workforce investment services shall be provided to a worker who receives counseling pursuant to section 7 of P.L.1992, c.43 (C. 34:15D-7) only if the counselor who evaluates the worker pursuant to that section determines that the worker can reasonably be expected to successfully complete the training and instruction identified in the Employability Development Plan developed pursuant to that section for the worker.

d. All occupational training provided under this act:

(1) Shall be training which is likely to substantially enhance the individual’s marketable skills and earning power; and

(2) Shall be training for a labor demand occupation, except for:

(a) Customized training provided to the present employees of a business which the commissioner deems to be in need of the training to prevent job loss caused by obsolete skills, technological change or national or global competition; or
(b) Customized training provided to employees at a facility which is being relocated from another state into New Jersey; or

(c) Entrepreneurial training and technical assistance supported by training grants provided pursuant to subsection b. of section 6 of P.L.1992, c.43 (C. 34:15D-6).

e. During any fiscal year ending before July 1, 2001, not less than 25 percent of the total revenues dedicated to the program during any one fiscal year shall be reserved to provide employment and training services for qualified displaced workers; not less than six percent of the total revenues dedicated to the program during any one fiscal year shall be reserved to provide employment and training services for qualified disadvantaged workers; not less than 45 percent of the total revenues dedicated to the program during any one fiscal year shall be reserved for and appropriated to the Office of Customized Training; not less than three percent of the total revenues dedicated to the program during any one fiscal year shall be reserved for occupational safety and health training; and five percent of the total revenues dedicated to the program during any one fiscal year shall be reserved for and appropriated to the Youth Transitions to Work Partnership created pursuant to P.L.1993, c.268 (C. 34:15E-1 et seq.).

f. Funds available under the program shall not be used for activities which induce, encourage or assist: any displacement of currently employed workers by trainees, including partial displacement by means such as reduced hours of currently employed workers; any replacement of laid off workers by trainees; or any relocation of operations resulting in a loss of employment at a previous workplace located in the State.

g. On-the-job training shall not be funded by the program for any employment found by the commissioner to be of a level of skill and complexity too low to merit training. The duration of on-the-job training funded by the program for any worker shall not exceed the duration indicated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Information Network, or “O*NET,” for the occupation for which the training is provided and shall in no case exceed 26 weeks. The department shall set the duration of on-the-job training for a worker for less than the indicated maximum, when training for the maximum duration is not warranted because of the level of the individual’s previous training, education or work experience. On-the-job training shall not be funded by the program unless it is accompanied, concurrently or otherwise, by whatever amount of classroom-based or equivalent occupational training, remedial instruction or both, is deemed appropriate for the worker by the commissioner. On-the-job training shall not be funded by the program unless the trainee is provided benefits, pay and working conditions at a level and extent not less than the benefits and working conditions of other trainees or employees of the trainee’s employer with comparable skills, responsibilities, experience and seniority.

h. Employment and training services funded by the program shall not replace, supplant, compete with or duplicate in any way approved apprenticeship programs.

i. No activities funded by the program shall impair existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements, except that activities which would be inconsistent with the terms of a collective bargaining agreement may be undertaken with the written concurrence of the collective bargaining unit and employer who are parties to the agreement.

j. All staff who are hired and supported by moneys from the Workforce Development Partnership Fund, including any of those staff located at any One Stop Career Center, but not including any staff of a service provider providing employment and training services supported by a customized training grant pursuant to section 5 of P.L.1992, c.43 (C. 34:15D-5) or an individual training grant pursuant to section 6 of P.L.1992, c.43 (C. 34:15D-6), shall be hired and employed by the State pursuant to Title 11A, Civil Service, of the New Jersey Statutes, be hired and employed by a political subdivision of the State, or be qualified staff hired and employed by a non-profit organization which began functioning as the One Stop Career Center operator with the written consent of the chief elected official and the commissioner prior to the effective date of P.L.2004, c.39 (C. 34:1A-1.2 et al.), or be qualified staff hired and employed by an approved community-based or faith-based organization to provide services at the level of staffing provided in an agreement entered into by the organization before the effective date of P.L.2004, c.39 (C. 34:1A-1.2 et al.).

k. Employers in the State who apply for grants for training and employment services or other workforce investment services for their employees in the State shall be evaluated by the commissioner and preference shall be given to those employers who:

(1) provide equipment, supplies, or services to military bases and installations pursuant to a procurement or military contract with the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, or any branch of the United States Armed Forces;

(2) are engaged in one or more of the following fields or industries: science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or advanced manufacturing within these fields or industries;

(3) are manufacturers; or

(4) intend to train veterans.

Pursuant to this paragraph, “veteran” means any resident of the State now or hereafter who has served in any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States or a Reserve component thereof or the National Guard of this State or another state as defined in section 1 of P.L.1963, c.109 (C. 38A:1-1), and has been discharged honorably or under general honorable conditions from that service.

L.1992, c.43, s.4; amended 1993, c.268, s.12; 1994, c.73, s.1; 1995, c.394, s.10; 1995, c.422, s.2; 2001, c.152, s.9; 2004, c.39, s.10; 2005, c.354, s.21; 2017, c.22, s.1; 2019, c.278, s.1; 2019, c.500, s.2.