This final brief in the series focuses on policy options that can foster more innovation and address challenges in career education (CE) program development. It is based on earlier research for a series of reports called "Career Opportunities," aimed at identifying ways that state and system policy can best support the CE mission of the…

Workforce pipelines are essential to sustain a productive workforce in an increasingly competitive, high-tech environment. Advanced automation, sensors, materials and data analytics will increase the need for highly skilled workers in the manufacturing (and manufactured construction) sector. Attracting and developing the next-generation workforce…

Southwest Tennessee Community College (Southwest) received a Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor in 2013 to fund the Southwest Solutions program (Solutions). The goal of Solutions is to prepare, credential, and place veterans, dislocated workers, and unemployed or…

This bibliography summarizes recent research on the structure and effectiveness of workforce development programs. While the term "workforce development" can mean many things, this document focuses on programs to help low-skill, low-wage and displaced workers increase their employment and earnings, as well as labor market trends that…

In 2007, Michigan undertook a bold mission: to retrain tens of thousands of adults to qualify for jobs in emerging and expanding sectors of the economy. The state's proposal to jobless, dislocated, and low-income residents was simple but appealing: enroll in up to two years of postsecondary education, and Michigan would cover up to $5,000 in…

Beginning in the 1970s, low-wage manufacturing areas in advanced industrialized countries experienced deindustrialization and worker dislocation as transnational corporations left for sites of lower-cost labor. In response, communities sought to rebuild their economies and pursue new employment opportunities in the restructured labor markets of…

This report describes the performance of New York City's Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) adult training providers. It discusses challenges currently faced by providers, and recommends strategies for improving the performance of the city's employment and training system, including those arising from the implementation of the Workforce…

A study evaluated the economic outcomes of one state-sponsored training program--the California Employment Training Panel (ETP)--which captured the benefits of private job training within a public program. It examined the impact of ETP training on a new group of 41,959 ETP trainees trained in 1990-91 in the year after training and estimated the…

From 1991-93, 2,147 dislocated workers from timber-impacted counties of Washington state received Timber Retraining Benefits (TRB), with 81% using the aid to attend a state community or technical college. To determine the impact of the TRB program on the dislocated workers and their timber communities, the Washington State Board for Community and…

The transformation of Singapore from a stagnating colonial port city in the late 1950s into a newly industrialized city-state in the early 1990s was the outcome of planned adjustments to changing internal and external conditions. Training and retraining programs played a role in these adjustments. Although full employment prevailed in 1979, the…

This monograph presents results from a study of the Texas Worker Adjustment Demonstration, a 2,192-person randomized experimental evaluation of reemployment programs for displaced workers conducted at three Texas sites during 1984-85. It describes in detail: (1) the background, design, conduct, and content of the programs at each demonstration…

This study estimates the net impacts and private and social benefits and costs of 11 workforce development programs administered in Washington State. Six of the programs serve job-ready adults: Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title I-B Adult programs, WIA Title I-B Dislocated Worker programs, Community and Technical College Job Preparatory…

A study examined the experiences of some 1.4 million American defense industry workers, displaced in the wake of the Cold War, as a way of reviewing and evaluating national policies toward worker adjustment and re-employment as they have evolved in the 1990s. The study found that the federal government, through the Department of Labor,…

A study assessed effectiveness of Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 performance measures. Data were from a survey of WIA program administrators in 50 states; visits to 5 states; interviews with labor officials and national associations representing state and local workforce development officials; and a document review. Findings indicate…

A study was conducted in Illinois to determine how effectively the vocational education system was meeting its responsibilities to train, retrain, and upgrade employed and unemployed workers in new skills for which there is a demand in the state, under the terms of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984. Responses were received from…