Integrated Longitudinal Education and Workforce Performance Management System

The Integrated Longitudinal Education and Workforce Performance Management System was designed to generate high quality data and information that can be used for the creation of effective, results-oriented policies that link workforce expectations and education requirements for the jobs of the future. The system integrates administrative data from participating partners to address four fundamental questions:

Do Mississippians get jobs?
Do Mississippians retain jobs?
Do Mississippians get better jobs and better pay?
Is Mississippi preparing its workforce for the jobs of the future?

With this system, the State Workforce Investment Board has been able to identify resources, strengthen coordination and cooperation, and improve responsiveness and service delivery across stakeholders. By integrating data from a broad array of education and training partners, the Integrated Longitudinal Education and Workforce Performance Management System allows for the effective and efficient tracking of progress and identification of best practices across the state, leading to customized and practical solutions to real-world problems.

To learn more about the Integrated Longitudinal Education and Workforce Performance Management System, click on the links below.

Vision VIEW || HIDE

All workforce and education programs will be performance-oriented.
Mission VIEW || HIDE
The mission of the Integrated Longitudinal Education and Workforce Performance Management System innovative system is threefold:

First, the mission is to measure the outcomes of any workforce initiatives in Mississippi across state and federal funding streams with the intent to answer four fundamental questions:
1. Do people get jobs?
2. Do people retain jobs?
3. Do people get better jobs (better pay)?
4. Are we meeting the demands of businesses?
Second, the mission is to generate information relevant to integrating education with workforce expectations to create a more responsive statewide system capable of better meeting the needs of current and future jobs.

Third, the mission is to align the efforts of universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, and early childhood education in terms of academic standards and career expectations with the general intent of: (1) decreasing the number of high school dropouts; (2) increasing the number of high school students who graduate and enroll in and successfully complete a two- or four-year college degree; (3) increasing the number of students who successfully transfer from community colleges to universities; (4) increasing the number of four-year college graduates; (5) improve career-readiness at all levels of education; and (6) increase the number of students who successfully gain employment.
Goals VIEW || HIDE
The Integrated Longitudinal Education and Workforce Performance Management System was created under the leadership of SWIB in order to achieve the goals set forth in the Mississippi Comprehensive Workforce Training and Education Consolidation Act of 2004.

The act called for the accomplishment of the following major goals:
1. Promote practices that meet the state's workforce needs while creating access to good jobs for workers across the state and local regions.
2. Align education, job development, and job service programs with workforce expectations.
3. Improve outcomes for education and workforce initiatives across the state.
4. Achieve results by using resources efficiently and ensuring that workers and employers can easily access needed services.
5. Maximize cooperation among state agencies to increase employment retention, earnings of participants, and occupational skill attainment.
6. Reduce social costs (e.g., welfare dependency, Medicaid, ex-offender recidivism) to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the state.
The system was implemented in 2006 under a general structure that included three parts: (1) the Governor's Office, (2) State Workforce Investment Board, and (3) all partners involved in workforce and education development.

Partners currently participating in data sharing include:
1. Mississippi Department of Employment Security.
2. Mississippi Department of Human Services.
3. Mississippi Department of Corrections.
4. Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services.
5. Mississippi Department of Education.
6. Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning.
7. State Board for Community & Junior Colleges (and the 15 member institutions).
Each partner has formally agreed to share its data for the purposes of tracking progress and identifying best practices for workforce and education development in the state. The data warehouse model is used to process and analyze the data. The main objective of the data sharing is to address four fundamental questions. That is, after receiving education, service, and/or training:
1. Do Mississippians get jobs?
2. Do Mississippians retain jobs?
3. Do Mississippians get better jobs and better pay?
4. Is Mississippi preparing its workforce for the jobs of the future?
Accomplishments VIEW || HIDE
The Integrated Longitudinal Education and Workforce Performance Management System has been instrumental in:
1. Establishing a nationally recognized State Policy Academy for promoting sector-based regional workforce and economic development strategies.
2. Developing linkages between stakeholders and businesses in order to assure coordination and non-duplication among programs and activities.
3. Recommending comprehensive, results-oriented measures that shall be applied to all Mississippi workforce and education development programs.
4. Identifying all existing workforce and education delivery agencies and respective resources.
5. Defining appropriate roles of the various agencies to include an analysis of service providers' strengths and weaknesses and determine the best way to utilize the various agencies to deliver services to recipients.
6. Developing a financial plan to support the delivery of workforce and education programs along with an accountability system.
7. Enabling effective school-to-work transition policies and programs that link students moving from high school to higher education and students moving between community colleges and four-year institutions to academic and technical skills training.
8. Working with industry to identify barriers to the delivery of quality workforce programs and responsiveness of educational institutions to the needs of industries.
9. Providing periodic assessments on effectiveness and results of Mississippi's comprehensive workforce and education development system.
Benefits VIEW || HIDE

State-of-the-art technology and infrastructure are not enough to give the state a competitive advantage; the state must also have a highly educated and skilled workforce that meets the demands of the knowledge-based economy. An economic development tool such as the Integrated Workforce and Education Performance Management System is critical for the establishment of sustainable partnerships between employers and stakeholders to make data-driven decisions on present and future regional workforce needs of industries and workers, with a focus on quality jobs and career opportunities for all. As such, this innovative system is important for developing and maintaining:

Prominence -- Having the most integrated workforce and education system in the country elevates Mississippi's reputation by creating a model that can be used for the rest of the nation.

Competitive Edge -- Having an innovative and flexible data-driven system gives Mississippi a competitive edge in the growing knowledge-based global economy, where high-quality education and job skills are replacing natural resources and physical technology as the raw materials for economic growth.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage -- Having an efficient, reliable, and flexible system allows the state to continually innovate. In the current political and economic environment, innovation is the process by which individuals, businesses, government, communities, regions, and the state as a whole remake themselves in the face of the challenges imposed by the growing knowledge-based economy.
Data Warehouse Model VIEW || HIDE

Data warehouse modeling is employed as part of the Longitudinal Education Integrated Workforce Performance Management System. The data warehouse model allows for predictive modeling and knowledge discovery and is part of a larger business intelligence system designed to bring together disparate datasets to provide access to timely, relevant information that supports everyday decision making and strategic planning and allows for customized knowledge-based applications.

Because the data warehouse model is analytically oriented and both a repository of information and access point to information, flexibility is a hallmark. The data warehouse model allows for the creation of and easy access to metadata and longitudinal data. This dynamic results in a system scalable and nimble enough to meet changing priorities and demands.

The key to successful implementation of a data warehouse is access to relevant data from various sources. In this case, access to data across agencies and programs engaged in workforce services in Mississippi is the cornerstone of the warehouse. To ensure all data necessary for the integrated workforce performance system are available, data sharing agreements (Memorandums of Understanding) are negotiated across all partners. Currently, data sharing agreements are in place with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, Mississippi Department of Human Services, Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services, Mississippi Department of Corrections, the State Board for Community & Junior Colleges and the fifteen community colleges it coordinates, Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, and the Mississippi Department of Education. Mississippi has been very successful in using its integrated performance system to meet the demands of jobs that require basic education and some form of workforce development. Mississippi also recognizes that to move forward and to be competitive in the global knowledge-based economy, emphasis must be placed on higher education and workforce needs. This will require aligning early education requirements with college expectations to facilitate career-oriented education to meet the demand of workforce skills for the jobs of the future.

With data sharing agreements in place, appropriate protocols for data transfer and storage are determined with participating partners. After procedures and policies have been established, partners' administrative data are transferred to a secure central location. Once data are received, they are reviewed on an agency-by-agency and program-by-program basis to identify relevant fields. Data dictionaries for all data are developed by program to ensure accurate data entry and coding.

Data are then managed into a common file structure and format. A standardized methodology is developed and employed across data from all partners to establish common fields. Lastly, all data are integrated into a single administrative database that can be more easily maintained and updated over time to provide the required output for the Integrated Longitudinal Education and Workforce Performance Management System in a timely manner.
Outcomes VIEW || HIDE
The Integrated Longitudinal Education and Workforce Performance Management System is able to make a positive impact on the training and development of the 21st century workforce in seven important ways:
1. Generating timely information on both the supply and demand sides of the economy of the state and its local regions.
2. Enabling proper resource management for workforce development activities across agencies and funding streams.
3. Promoting data sharing to reduce duplication of services, measure performance, calculate return on investment, and identify best practices.
4. Helping state agencies meet federal reporting requirements.
5. Providing economic and financial forecasts to promote workforce initiatives.
6. Marketing existing businesses and attracting new businesses.
7. Leveraging federal and state training dollars and building the business case for needed additional funding.
Data Security VIEW || HIDE

The National Strategic Planning & Analysis Research Center at Mississippi State University protects information in all forms for which it is the custodian and maintains a robust, proactive, and evolving information security program. This program protects information from a variety of threats and stresses the importance of multi-layer protection. Through staff orientation, Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects certification, and university information security certification, each nSPARC staff member is aware of, committed to, and accountable for his or her role in the overall protection of critical and sensitive information.

In addition to personal accountability, nSPARC identifies best practices to ensure ongoing protection of information. nSPARC operates in a restricted access environment and maintains a "clean room" for management and analysis of all sensitive data. Random security audits are conducted to maintain data and system integrity. In the interest of ongoing security, specific details regarding steps taken to ensure data and system integrity are confidential.

All data transferred to nSPARC for management and analysis are governed by Memorandums of Understanding that establish specific terms, conditions, and limitations on the use of custodial data. Furthermore, all sensitive data for which nSPARC is the custodian are transferred via a secure Web server that relies on HTTPS Protocol. Uploaded data are encrypted using SSL/TLS with a 128-bit key. Once received, all files are automatically encrypted using an RSA 4096-bit key and moved to a secure offline location for storage. All identifiers (e.g., names, street addresses, telephone numbers, and identification numbers) are stripped from datasets once a unique alternate identification code has been assigned.

Information security policies and procedures are continually reviewed and evolve in response to changing information security technologies, requirements, and threats.