12. a. The State Employment and Training Commission shall select industries in which a growing or unmet demand for skilled workers, professionals or other personnel provides an opportunity to generate significant growth in employment or careers providing access to self-sufficiency and shall create State-level industry task forces consisting of key stakeholders in each selected industry to analyze the most significant mismatches between labor supply and demand in the industry and develop Statewide strategies to rectify those mismatches. The membership of each task force shall be selected by the commission and shall include leaders of businesses, labor unions, professional associations and other stakeholders in the industry and representatives from State departments and agencies which the commission determines may be of assistance in rectifying the mismatches of supply and demand.

b. The commission shall select Workforce Investment Boards and direct them to create regional planning bodies to address the workforce needs in the regions under the jurisdictions of the boards of specific industries, occupations or career clusters in which a growing or unmet demand for skilled workers, professionals or other personnel provides an opportunity to generate significant growth in employment or careers providing self-sufficiency. The membership of each regional planning body shall include representatives of Workforce Investment Boards and One Stop Career Center partners and leaders of businesses, labor unions and professional associations and other stakeholders of the industries, occupations, career clusters or employers in the region. The region under a regional planning body shall be selected by the commission to enhance local delivery systems by providing meaningful geographic boundaries for labor market rationalization. The region selected for one industry, occupation or career cluster may be different from the region selected for another industry, occupation or career cluster. The size of regions under regional planning bodies may vary in accordance with the concentration of the relevant work forces or in accordance with other factors. The commission may also determine any areas outside of the State which would benefit from a joint effort with a regional planning body and direct the body to seek cooperation with the Workforce Investment Board or boards outside of the State that have jurisdiction over those areas.

c. The purpose of each regional planning body shall be to develop, for its area of jurisdiction, strategies to match labor market supply and demands and support a demand-side focus anchoring the employment and training system to the labor market in a manner which increases opportunities for employment and careers providing access to self-sufficiency. Those strategies may include job skill training and utilization of labor market and demographic information to match the location of jobs with the residence of workers. The planning for the development of the strategy shall include an analysis of the adequacy of the transportation system to get the workers to the jobs and the suitability of the training being offered in an area for the needs of the local workplace, and shall take into consideration any Statewide strategy developed by a Statewide industry task force pursuant to subsection a. of this section which is relevant to the jurisdiction of the regional planning body.

d. The Legislature finds and declares that the current and growing shortage of skilled and credentialed health care professionals, paraprofessionals, and entry-level workers has reached crisis proportions. The commission shall establish a State-level industry taskforce on the health care industry, as well as regional planning bodies on the health care industry in each region designated by the commission, to address this problem and promote enduring partnerships among employers, labor unions, professional associations and other stakeholders in the health care industry, the public workforce investment system, primary, secondary and postsecondary education, and social service providers to develop and sustain solutions in the areas of recruitment, retention, training and education capacity-building in that industry in a manner which increases opportunities for employment and careers providing access to self-sufficiency.

L.2005,c.354,s.12.