Purpose and Legislation

The Texas Skill Standards Board

In 1995, the 74th Texas Legislature established the Texas Skill Standards Board (TSSB) as part of the workforce development system under House Bill 1863. It is an advisory body to the Governor and Legislature on the development of a statewide system of industry-defined and industry-recognized skill standards for all major skilled, sub-baccalaureate occupations that provide strong employment and earnings opportunities. In 1999, the 75th Legislature amended the TSSB mandates with the passage of HB 3431. This bill charged the TSSB with four specific mandates:

  1. validate and recognize nationally-established skill standards to guide curriculum development, training, assessment, and certification of workforce skills;
  2. convene industry groups to develop skill standards and certification procedures for industries and occupations in which standards have not been established or adopted and recognize the skill standards and certification procedures;
  3. review standards developed by other states and nations and enter into agreements for mutual recognition of standards and credentials to enhance portability of skills; and
  4. promote the use of standards and credentials among employers.
House Bills 1863 and 3431 lay out the Legislature’s vision for a Texas skill standards system. To implement that vision into a viable, operating system, comprehensive guidelines of policy and procedures for the development and recognition of skill standards are needed.

Role of the Texas Skill Standards Board

The TSSB does not set skill standards. House Bill 1863 explicitly states that the skill standards are defined and recognized by industry.

The role of the TSSB is to facilitate and promote a statewide system of voluntary, industry-developed skill standards. As quality assurance agent, the TSSB establishes the criteria for validating nationally-established standards, for developing standards in industries and occupations where no standards currently exist, and for reviewing and recognizing other states’ and nations’ standards, thereby ensuring portability of credentials through reciprocity agreements. These criteria reflect the need for skill standards to be accessible to and usable by all stakeholders; specifically, to guide curriculum development, training, assessment and certification of workforce skills. The TSSB also offers technical assistance to industry groups convening to develop skill standards, and it promotes the use of skill standards among community and technical colleges in curriculum development.

Creating a system of skill standards requires collaboration among all relevant, interested parties. This document is a primary vehicle to communicate with and establish common understanding among the various partners in workforce development. This document sets out the context in which skill standards are developed and those requirements that must be considered by industry groups that intend to seek TSSB recognition.

The Target Skill Standards

"Skill standards are performance specifications that identify the knowledge and competencies an individual needs to succeed in the workplace. Standards are defined by occupational areas and validated by representatives from the occupation. Standards include the functions, activities and performance criteria for an occupational area."
 
Consistent with the mandate and objectives of the Texas Skill Standards Board, the purpose of a Texas system of voluntary skill standards is to strengthen the ability of Texas’ industry to be competitive in the global economy through the enhancement of workforce skills and organization capabilities. While skill standards provide a base for productivity improvements through enhanced entry-level and incumbent worker skills, standards that support true strategic capabilities at the industry and enterprise levels must be future oriented. These skill standards should not only capture current critical work functions and activity skills, but also those work and worker characteristics that will enable enterprises to build competitive capabilities and strategic market placement through work practices that characterize high performance workplaces.

The Organizational Context High Performance Workplaces

High performance workplaces are quality driven and customer focused. They are innovative workplaces where teamwork is common, as is decentralized and delegated decision making which maximizes communication, customer-focused problem solving and flexibility. These workplaces are notable for sharing and openly communicating strategic goals and priorities to all employees. They engage employees in setting business goals and in guiding and implementing operational changes to improve productivity. These workplaces focus on the building of individuals’ competencies through private and public workforce development efforts and the leveraging of those competencies to build organization strength. Skill standards that are future focused include competencies that fit within this high performance workplace context.

The Texas Skill Standards Infrastructure and Linkages - Development, Recognition and Usage of Skill Standards and Certification and Credentialling of Skill Attainment

The Texas Skill Standards Infrastructure (TSSI) is the conceptual umbrella for the system of skill standards development, implementation and outcomes achievement to support workforce development efforts and enhanced industry competitiveness in Texas. The TSSI promotes the creation and use of industry-defined and industry-recognized skill standards through public-private partnerships. As a conceptual umbrella the TSSI defines the skill standards system in Texas and the processes and requirements to be undertaken by industry groups which seek recognition by the TSSB for skill standards. Within the TSSI, the primary role of the TSSB is to provide leadership and stability. Within that leadership and stability role is the notion of the TSSB as the primary quality assurance agent for system development and standards recognition in Texas.
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