Bioscience worker training initiative.

Existing law establishes in state government the Labor and Workforce Development Agency in the Department of Industrial Relations to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of California and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment, among other duties. Under existing law, the agency consists of the Office of the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development and the California Workforce Development Board, among others. This bill would require the office and the board to establish, in collaboration with the California Economic Strategy Panel, a bioscience worker training initiative for the purpose of making California workers more skilled in the competitive global biosciences manufacturing and science value chain, as defined. The bill would require the initiative to be conducted in partnership with specified sectors and entities, including the state's life science industry sector and the Employment Development Department, to develop a strategy to support regionally based workforce intermediaries to provide one-time trainings, retraining, and ongoing training in advanced scientific research and development.