The Division of Workforce Excellence was established in 1994 under Wis. Stat. 101.264 as the Governor's Office of Workforce Excellence within the Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations. In 1996, the office was transferred to the newly created Department of Workforce Development and made a division. The division manages the School-to-Work Initiative and Youth Apprenticeship programs. These initiatives are intended to better prepare secondary school pupils to enter the workforce and are comprised of five components: local partnerships, youth apprenticeships, career counseling centers, technical preparation, and post-secondary enrollment options.
The federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) of 1975 mandated the establishment by states of a State Employment and Training Council (SETC) which would be responsible for broadly coordinating federal and state manpower-related programs. In Wisconsin this duty was assigned to the existing State Manpower Council. The SMC's duties were reassigned by Executive Order 14 in 1979 to a new Governor's Employment and Training Office. In 1983, Executive Order 3 charged the Office with all statewide planning, administration and planning service responsibilities designated to the Governor under the 1982 Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA).
One of the duties given to the Office by JTPA was the providing of staff support to the SETC's replacement, the State Job Training Coordinating Council (SJTCC). Under JTPA, the Council had the specific responsibility of advising the Governor on the organization of the new state employment delivery system, as well as the duty to assist state agencies with carrying out their employment and training responsibilities. Ongoing functions of the SJTCC were to set a policy framework within which JTPA resources would be allocated in Wisconsin; to ensure that state responsibility for administrative and financial control of JTPA funds would be carried out; and to make recommendations to the Governor on specific policies for promoting effective use of all state employment and training resources.
These responsibilities remained the fundamental functions of the SJTCC through its various permutations, although as time passed the Council increasingly focused on the concepts of “human resources” and “investment” in employees as guiding rationales for its activities.
The SJTPCC changed its name in 1987 to the Wisconsin Jobs Council; in 1994 the Jobs Council was replaced by the Human Resource Investment Council. Another name change came in 1997, when the HRIC became the Council on Workforce Excellence. The Council is attached for administrative purposes to the Division of Workforce Excellence in the Department of Workforce Development.
