As policy makers have placed an increasing focus on training and preparing workers to obtain postsecondary credentials, questions remain about the value to various actors, especially for job seekers and workers who often invest time and money to obtain a credential with the hopes of improving their employment prospects and raising their earnings.…

Governors are increasingly aware that the emerging economy will provide few well-paying jobs for workers who have not earned a postsecondary degree or a relevant workforce certificate. Fifty years ago, nearly 80 percent of all jobs required only a high school diploma or less and most paid a good wage. Fast-forward to data from 2013 and that number…

Public funding for employment and training has dwindled over the past several decades. Yet in communities all over the United States, there has been considerable development of alternative approaches to help low-income people gain skills for particular industry sectors. In 2003, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Public/Private…

Over the past two decades, an innovative approach to workforce development known as sectoral employment has emerged, resulting in the creation of industry-specific training programs that prepare unemployed and underskilled workers for skilled positions and connect them with employers seeking to fill such vacancies. In 2003, with funding from the…

This report looks at three very distinct intermediary organizations--The Reinvestment Fund, a social-purpose lender and financier of community and economic revitalization in Philadelphia; Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership, a labor/management partnership in Milwaukee; and the Seattle Jobs Initiative, an agency that began its operations within…

Surveys of rural and urban businesses and households in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin found that: only 25 percent of firms had trouble hiring skilled workers; required skills were not particularly high-tech; few firms used public or private education providers in their skill training activities; and the labor force was overtrained…

This study analyzes private sector training programs that benefit economically disadvantaged (CETA-eligible) persons. Information on ten private sector training programs in seven states (Iowa, Florida, Maryland, California, Kansas, Mississippi, and New York) collected from a mailed eleven-page questionnaire, a follow-up telephone interview, and…

Describes the Northwest Wisconsin Concentrated Employment Program, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) prime sponsor for ten northern Wisconsin counties. Primary occupations available to program participants are in wood products, paper industry, tool and die manufacturing, welding, meat cutting, and resorts and recreation. (MF)

After careful review Workforce Strategy Center has articulated a policy assessment of President George W. Bush's Community-Based Job Training Grants initiative. WSC called the $250 million Community-Based Job Training Grants plan right on track by emphasizing: A Strong Role of Community Colleges in Workforce Development: All available research…

Wisconsin's welfare reform program, which is called Wisconsin Works or W-2, emphasizes work over education. Wisconsin's welfare reform policy caused the numbers of Wisconsin welfare recipients attending college to shrink by thousands in the mid-1990s. In contrast, increasing numbers of states are coming to realize how much flexibility they really…

This manual describes the methods and procedures which Project Skill has developed since its beginning in 1974 and provides a sourcebook of ideas for those who might be interested in adapting a program designed to expand the employment opportunities of the handicapped in the civil service system. The first of the five sections in the document…

The following presentations are included in this document: "A Nation of Students" (Lamar Alexander); "Businesses Are Clamoring for Skilled Workers" (Betsy Brand); "We Need to Be Partners in Reality" (Roberts Jones); "The Value of a Working Parent as a Role Model" (JoAnne Barnhart); "Human Capital Is…

Designed to provide planning assistance to administrators and staff who offer vocational instruction to persons of limited English proficiency, this guide focuses on three components of a successful program: vocational instruction, language instruction, and support services. The first two chapters address the questions of why these programs should…

These four papers are from a symposium on integrating learning and performance. "Identifying the Skill Requirements and Performance Needs of Small Manufacturers" (Julie A. Furst-Bowe) reports a survey to identify needs of small manufacturers in northwestern Wisconsin and to determine whether a university-based performance improvement…

This booklet contains descriptions of the approach of each state member of the Action Team on Lifelong Learning in meeting the challenge to prepare and upgrade the skills of the work force. Each one-page discussion is followed by the name, address, and telephone number of a contact person in the state. The reported approaches of 10 states…