Report Summary
Although program administrators confirm that supportive services must supplement skills training, budget constraints often leave participants with unmet needs.
Workforce development programs offer much-needed skills training to un- and under-employed Americans. Many such individuals also face personal challenges that prevent them from completing their training. Workforce professionals have long asserted that supportive services are necessary for long term success. To date, few studies have assessed which services are most needed, or evaluated the impact of such supports on trainees’ performance.
In the spring of 2016, IWPR undertook a major survey of program administrators to help fill this gap in the literature. The responses came from administrators at 168 job training programs across 41 states and the District of Columbia. The programs represented every region of the country and operated in urban, suburban, rural, and a mix of community types. Nearly 60 percent of the programs served mostly female trainees; roughly 40 percent trained mostly men. Programs most commonly trained participants for jobs in administrative and clerical work, health science, building and construction trades, and manufacturing.
Whatever the location, size, demographics, or other characteristics of their program, virtually every administrator agreed that supportive services were critical to job training success. Only one in five administrators, however, thought they were meeting their clients’ support needs well. Administrators most commonly attributed the shortfall in services to a lack of funding. Though 99 percent of program officials wanted to provide more supportive services, only about one-third said they were likely to expand their supports in the near future.[1]
What did administrators see as the most common barriers to trainees’ success?
The survey revealed that certain challenges were particularly likely to prevent participants from completing their program. Administrators most often identified trainees’ financial difficulties (59 percent), followed by inadequate child care (53 percent). Other common obstacles to completion, according to program officials, were work hours or scheduling conflicts (45 percent), family care-giving responsibilities (43 percent), personal or family health concerns (41 percent), or transportation that was inadequate or unaffordable (41 percent).
Administrators in programs serving mostly women identified many of the same reasons for noncompletion as those in programs serving mostly men, with a few differences. Administrators in programs that served mostly women pointed to child care deficiencies significantly more often than did those in majority-male programs (65 vs. 38 percent). Similarly, in programs that served predominantly men, substance abuse problems were much more commonly cited than in the majority-women programs (43 vs. 28 percent).
Which supports did administrators believe were most effective?
Nearly all program officials reported that supportive services were critical for participants to complete their training. According to one administrator,
[Providing support services] is a slog. It’s a lot of hard work. It costs a lot. But it’s essential if we’re going to do the work this society needs.
Although participant demographics and program characteristics were also associated with job training success, the survey responses supported the anecdotal evidence regarding the importance of support services. Sixty-two percent of administrators who said their trainees’ needs for support were met well report high completion rates (80 percent or above), compared with just 30 percent who said their participants needs are not met well.
The administrators surveyed asserted that certain services had an especially important impact on participant success. Assistance with child care, transportation, and financial needs—including help in finding and paying for housing—were identified as especially critical to program completion. One administrator described a trainee who was
living out of her car with two young children [when she] entered our 12- week full-time intensive program. Our partners got her child care and eventually housing. She completed the program and is an apprentice earning $28 per hour. She is continuing her education and will soon have her associates’ degree.
IWPR’s report contains a wealth of information regarding different models of delivering support services and makes valuable recommendations for programs seeking to leverage scarce resources.
[1] Given the 2016 election’s results, were the question posed today, presumably many fewer administrators would say they were likely to expand supports in the near future.
About the author
Cynthia Hess is Chief Operating Officer (COO) at IWPR and Scholar in Residence at American University. In her role as COO, Cynthia oversees the operations of the Institute while working with program staff to support the execution of research and other projects. As COO, Cynthia serves as a member of the executive leadership team within the organization and works closely with the President and staff to develop and implement organizational systems and processes to maximize efficiency and support future growth.
Prior to her position as COO, Cynthia served as Associate Director of Research, directing IWPR’s research on numerous issues including projects on intimate partner violence, workforce development, and women’s leadership and activism. Under her tenure, IWPR expanded its longstanding Status of Women in States project and launched an accompanying website, statusofwomendata.org. Cynthia has been quoted in a number of media outlets including The Washington Post, Fortune, Governing magazine and, The Boston Globe.
Before joining the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Dr. Hess taught for two years as a visiting faculty member in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She received her Ph.D. in Theology from Yale University and her A.B. from Davidson College.
Emma Williams-Baron was a Policy and Data Analyst at IWPR and Assistant Editor for the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, focusing on job quality, pay equity across the life course, work-life policy, and intersectional analysis. She began at IWPR as a Mariam K. Chamberlain Fellow in 2015.
Previously, she was a research assistant investigating gendered violence with Dr. Alexandra Hrycak, and a legislative intern at the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women.
As an undergraduate student, Emma presented a senior thesis titled Girls and Boys Who Work: Effects of Gendered Adolescent Work Experiences on Career, Education, Family, and Work-Life Balance Aspirations and Expectations. Since joining IWPR, Emma has given several presentations at national and international conference including sharing findings from her study of youth work experience and attitudes toward career and family at the 2016 Work and Family Researchers Network Conference and presenting conclusions from her work with Dr. Hrycak at the 2016 Association for the Study of Nationalities 21st Annual World Convention.
Emma is a 2015 graduate of Reed College with a B.A. in sociology.
Barbara Gault, Ph.D., is the former Executive Vice President of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Her work covers a wide range of issues, including college access and affordability, job quality, paid leave, poverty, political engagement, and the need for better early care and education options for working parents. She founded and lead IWPRs Student Parent Success Initiative, and has authored dozens of reports and publications, including Improving Child Care Access to Promote Postsecondary Success Among Low-Income Parents, Resilient and Reaching for More: Challenges and Benefits of Higher Education for Welfare Participants and Their Children, " and Working First But Working Poor: The Need for Education and Training Following Welfare Reform. She has testified in Congress on low-income women’s educational access, has spoken and delivered keynote presentations in venues throughout the country, and appears in a range of print, radio and television media outlets. Prior to joining IWPR, Dr. Gault conducted research at the Office of Children’s Health Policy Research, and served as a staff and board member of organizations promoting human rights in Latin America. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.A. from the University of Michigan. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Coalition on Human Needs, and is a Scholar in Residence at American University.
Ariane Hegewisch is Program Director of Employment and Earnings at IWPR and Scholar in Residence at American University; prior to that she spent two years at IWPR as a scholar-in-residence. She came to IWPR from the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings. She is responsible for IWPR’s research on workplace discrimination and is a specialist in comparative human resource management, with a focus on policies and legislative approaches to facilitate greater work life reconciliation and gender equality, in the US and internationally. Prior to coming to the USA she taught comparative European human resource management at Cranfield School of Management in the UK where she was a founding researcher of the Cranet Survey of International HRM, the largest independent survey of human resource management policies and practices, covering 25 countries worldwide. She started her career in local economic development, developing strategies for greater gender equality in employment and training in local government in the UK. She has published many papers and articles and co-edited several books, including ‘Women, work and inequality: The challenge of equal pay in a deregulated labour market”. She is German and has a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and an MPhil in Development Studies from the IDS, Sussex.
