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Strategic Objective

Advance employment opportunities for U.S. workers in 21st century demand sectors and occupations using proven training models and through increased employer engagement and partnerships.

Strategic Objective

Advance employment opportunities for US workers in 21^st century demand sectors and occupations using proven training models and through increased employer engagement and partnerships.

Lead Office: Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS)

Themes:

Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services Veterans Benefits and Services Income Security

DOL.gov

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Overview
Progress Update

Overview

Progress Update

The Department of Labor, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, has highlighted this objective as a focus area for improvement.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) was signed into law on July 22, 2014. WIOA supersedes titles I and II of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), and amends the Wagner-Peyser Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. WIOA is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy. The six required core programs under WIOA are Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth activities, Adult Education, Wagner-Peyser Employment Service, and Vocational Rehabilitation.

Employment and Training Administration and Veterans’ Employment and Training Services programs that support this objective include the Adult, Dislocated Worker, National Emergency Grants, Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker, Indian and Native American, Trade Adjustment Assistance, Community Service Employment for Older Americans, Jobs for Veterans State Grants (JVSG), and Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program (HVRP).

The Department’s funding for the above programs goes to a range of states, localities, and other entities, with varying employment and training delivery strategies designed to meet the needs of the target group being served. DOL provides leadership for those programs through technical assistance, policy guidance, and grants administration. Evaluations have indicated positive impact of the WIA Adult and Dislocated Worker programs on participants’ employment and earnings. With few exceptions, DOL employment and training program participants’ entered employment rate, employment retention rate, and average earnings improved over the past four years. One noteworthy achievement is an increase in the share of veterans who received intensive services from JVSG specialists – from 25 percent in FY 2011 to 76 percent in FY 2015.

The decentralized nature of the workforce system creates challenges in program implementation, as it is more difficult to ensure the uniform adoption of evidence-based and best practices and employer engagement. In addition, the Department has faced issues with the reliability of the performance data it collects under WIA regarding training related employment.

Another barrier to addressing this objective is limited training funds relative to the number of job seekers. As a result, only a small fraction of those served by these programs receive training (as opposed to less expensive core and intensive services). To address this, the FY 2017 President’s Budget funds the DOL WIOA formula grants at their full authorized levels (a $138 million increase). Another budget proposal will provide $2 billion over 5 years to fund Career Navigators and establish a WIOA Workforce Data Science and Innovation Fund to assist unemployed and underemployed Americans get into better jobs using best-in-class data and tools to inform their recommendations.

WIOA requires the development of common indicators of performance and a unified or combined State Plan – changes that led to unprecedented cross-agency collaboration aiming to improve performance on this strategic objective. However, reduced funding for Workforce Data Quality Initiative grants poses a challenge for supporting state efforts to develop and build integrated data infrastructure for case management and other purposes.

In order to identify and expand the use of proven models that engage employers, the Department has continued to pursue evaluation and research projects that have strong employer components. Conclusive information from such research will be widely disseminated as it becomes available. In addition, the Department has made a commitment to provide technical assistance to states as they conduct their own evaluations and research projects, as required under WIOA. Where evidence supports a particular approach, states and grantees are encouraged – and for some competitive grant programs, required – to adopt it. The Administration is also seeking to expand the use of models that have been shown to produce positive employment outcomes—such as apprenticeship and Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments, for which the Budget provides additional resources.

[1] Heinrich, Carolyn J., Peter R Mueser, and Kenneth R. Troske (2009) Workforce Investment Act Non-Experimental Net Impact Evaluation. Columbia, MD: IMPAQ International, LLC (http://wdr.doleta.gov/research/keyword.cfm?fuseaction=dsp_puListingDetails&pub_id=2419&mp=y&start=41&sort=7)

[2] The DOL Office of the Inspector General (OIG) identifies as a top management and performance challenge for the Department "Helping Adults, Youth and Veterans Obtain the Education, Training and Support Services Needed to Succeed in the Labor Market" (http://www.dol.gov/sec_/media/reports/annual2015/2015annualreport.pdf). Additionally, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found ETA grantees' training-related employment data unreliable primarily because a significant portion of the data was missing (WIA: Strategies Needed to Improve Certain Training Outcome Data, (GAO-14-137).

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Strategic Goals

Strategic Goal:

Prepare workers for better jobs

Statement:

Prepare workers for better jobs

Strategic Objectives

Advance employment opportunities for U.S. workers in 21st century demand sectors and occupations using proven training models and through increased employer engagement and partnerships.

Statement:

Advance employment opportunities for US workers in 21^st century demand sectors and occupations using proven training models and through increased employer engagement and partnerships.

Description:

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FY 14-15 Priority Goal: Increase the percent of participants who receive intensive services provided by Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialists, with a focus on improving employment outcomes for veterans.

Statement:

By September 30, 2015, increase to 75 percent of participants served by Disabled Veterans' Outreach specialists who receive intensive services.

Description:

As large numbers of service members and veterans return to the civilian labor force, they are met by an improving but still-challenging labor market. Veterans, service members, and their families still face significant barriers to entering and maintaining meaningful employment. This is especially true for veterans with significant barriers to employment, including those with a service-connected disability, the educationally or economically disadvantaged, and veterans ages 18-24, who experience historically high unemployment.

Additionally, the last several decades have seen significant shifts in the American economy and workplace. Globalization, outsourcing, the shift from manufacturing to service sector jobs, the rise of technology, the decline in unionization, and the changing ethnic and gender make-up of the population, have changed the physical, social, and cultural landscape of the workforce. Today’s employers increasingly rely on highly-skilled workers with post-secondary degrees, state licensure, or other credentials. Veterans’ transferable skills (gained in past jobs and in the service) can help meet the needs of employers in the 21^st century.

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Provide marketable skills and knowledge to increase workers' incomes and help them overcome barriers to the middle class through partnerships among business, education, labor, community organizations, and the workforce system

Statement:

Provide marketable skills and knowledge to increase workers' income and help them overcome barriers to the middle class through partnerships among business, education, labor, community organizations, and the workforce system

Description:

As the economy recovers and job growth returns, the public workforce system has a critical role to play in ensuring that job seekers and employers have access to the skills they need to compete and succeed. The Department recognizes that more credentialing can help lay the human capital foundation necessary to support new and growing sectors of the economy. Investing in skills development not only helps individuals return to work, but also helps workers obtain the measurable and specific skills they need to move along directed career pathways, while giving employers access to the skilled workers they need to compete globally. Therefore, the Department committed to the Agency Priority Goal of increasing credential attainment by public workforce system participants. This goal reflects a growing appreciation of the urgent need for a more highly-skilled workforce to compete in today’s global economy and supports the Administration’s efforts to increase skill development opportunities for American workers, particularly those most disadvantaged in the current economic climate.

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Advance workers' rights, acceptable work conditions, and livelihoods, particularly for the world's vulnerable populations

Statement:

Advance workers' rights, acceptable work conditions, and livelihoods, particularly for the world's vulnerable populations.

Description:

Preparing workers for better jobs is fundamental to enacting the Secretary’s vision of promoting and protecting opportunity. Investing in workers and empowering them to earn the skills they need to succeed in durable, sustainable careers is one way the Labor Department contributes to President Obama’s plan to rebuild the middle class. To grow the economy from the middle out, workers need the opportunity to equip themselves with the right competencies and employers need access to a skilled domestic workforce required to compete in a 21^st century global economy. While the Department serves all workers, it maintains a focus on the hardest to serve populations, assuring that these groups expand their economic opportunities and do not get left behind. The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) protects opportunities for American businesses and workers to compete on a level playing field internationally, by working to improve worker rights and livelihoods for vulnerable populations across the globe.

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