Virginia: Workforce Bill Now Law

February 15, 2023 Last Edit: June 5, 2025

Legislation Aims to Streamline Job Training and Help Small Business Find Qualified Workers

Virginia: Workforce Bill Now Law

Before Virginia’s session ended last month, Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, consolidating job training and workforce development programs that are now spread out between 12 state agencies and 35 different programs. NFIB advocated for lawmakers to pass this legislation.

Senate Bill 1470 allows Virginia to compete with other states and attract business to the commonwealth by changing how Virginia administers, delivers and measure workforce development services. The aim is to build a pipeline for future workers and help small business owners find qualified workers. According to NFIB’s latest survey, 45% percent of owners reported job openings that were hard to fill, up four points from December. That is a historically high number. The transformation of Virginia’s workforce development system will allow the Commonwealth to:

Deliver programs more efficiently and increase workforce participation, fostering greater business investment, and, ultimately, a stronger economy for all Virginians;
Provide data-driven insights that will improve the delivery of skill-building and workforce preparedness services through leveraging innovative data analysis;
Create a comprehensive strategy, balanced with regional flexibility, ensuring programs and services remain consistent with the needs of regions across Virginia;
Develop programs that better align with the needs of businesses and scale programs that work; and
Create a set of measures and metrics focused on jobs filled and people retained in the workforce, with greater accountability of the results.

Topics:

Economy

State:

Virginia

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