In partnership with the ECMC Foundation, Jobs for the Future is leading an effort to explore how postsecondary competency-based education models can be adapted to better serve underprepared adult learners. JFF kicked off this initiative with a convening of educators, policymakers, and researchers, the results of which are captured in this paper.…

WorkAdvance is a sectoral workforce development program designed to meet the needs of workers and employers alike. For unemployed and low-wage working adults, the program provides skills training in targeted sectors that have good-quality job openings with room for advancement within established career pathways. For employers in those sectors,…

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…

Traditional employment often excludes those individuals with severe and moderate mental retardation. This paper describes three strategies that can be used by employment specialists and one strategy that can be used by job coaches in obtaining and maintaining employment for mentally retarded adults, using the supported competitive employment…

The article describes the design and implementation of a community-based training program for mentally retarded adults. The program focuses on job preparation, training, and placement, with a secondary emphasis on functional independent living skills. (PHR)

This article describes a comprehensive transition program for students with mild disabilities. The program revolves around a classroom-based employability skills curriculum taught over a semester's duration. Four program components are addressed: employability skills training, family involvement, adult agency referral, and on-the-job support. (CR)

The Community-Based Services Work Adjustment Program provides vocational assessment, work adjustment training, social adjustment training, extended sheltered employment, transitional/supported employment, and competitive job training and placement through on-the-job training at natural community work sites. The program serves mentally retarded,…

The National Women's Employment and Education project (NWEE), sponsored by the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, was a fast-paced effort designed to serve 20 women each month, 240 each year. The training concept was quite different from traditional programs in that NWEE's thrust was to move women quickly into jobs. The program…

This handbook stresses those components that are considered peripheral to the placement process but that must precede the actual placement. The philosophy of placement upon which this guide is based appears first. Discussions follow of the basic components of the process of training and placement of handicapped individuals, including a varied…

Industry-school partnerships are needed to help students, especially urban youth, become acquainted with the realities of preparing for employment and with the processes of finding a job, staying employed, and moving on through training to improved productivity and earning power. This report suggests considerations for organizing such partnerships…

This paper presents an overview of the Sales Techniques and Results (STAR) training program developed by the National Alliance of Business in conjunction with IBM. The STAR training program can be used to help vocational directors, teachers, and counselors to be better salespersons for cooperative education or job placement programs. The paper…

This report of entry level training in the better known community programs for the hardcore unemployed covers prevocational, on the job, and skill training. Many of the programs are financed in part, or in full, under the Manpower Development and Training Act; others, such as the Detroit Skill Center, depend on several governmental sources for…

Discusses various aspects of the independent school: course offerings, hours per week in class (intensive study), hands-on training, open entry-open exit format, individualized attention, teacher qualifications, teacher student relationship, most popular courses, student placement in appropriate classes, accreditation, job placement, job…

This study surveyed experiences and characteristics of hard core unemployed black men entering a vestibule training program conducted by a large manufacturing firm; and a comparison group of "direct hires." Vestibule trainees were guaranteed an entry level job after completing several weeks of training. Turnover among direct hires was attributed…