For purposes of this part, the following terms have the following meanings:
(a)
“Career pathways” means an identified series of positions, work experiences, or educational benchmarks or credentials that offer occupational and financial advancement within a specified career field or related fields over time.
(b)
“Career technical education credential” means a workforce certificate, degree, or industry-recognized credential.
(c)
“Career Technical Education Regional Consortium,” or “consortium,” means an administrative grouping of community college districts by the Division of Workforce and Economic
Development of the chancellor’s office for the purpose of coordination and joint planning within regions, as defined in subdivision (i).
(d)
“Chancellor’s office” means the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges.
(e)
“Industry” or “industry sectors” means trade associations or those firms that produce similar products or provide similar services using somewhat similar business processes.
(f)
“Middle skill credential” means a certificate, associate’s degree, or industry-recognized credential that is less than a bachelor’s degree but more than a high school diploma and facilitates student success with workforce outcomes.
(g)
“Plan” means the regional plan established under this part.
(h)
“Program” means the Strong Workforce Program established under this part.
(i)
“Region” means a geographic area of the state defined by economic and labor market factors containing at least one industry cluster and the cities, counties, or community college districts, or all of them, in the industry cluster’s geographic area. To the extent possible, for the purposes of this part, collaborative regions should align with federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (Public Law 113-128) regional planning unit boundaries specified in the California Strategic Workforce and Development Plan and expand upon existing consortium infrastructure established by the chancellor’s office.
(j)
“Strong Workforce Task Force” means the Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation and a Strong Economy commissioned by the Board of Governors of
the California Community Colleges.