The Trump Administration declared this to be Workforce Development Week, focusing on job training programs, apprenticeships, and improving America’s economy.
Current funding levels of job training programs leave administrators with limited resources to provide supportive services to program participants. The Trump Administration’s proposed budget would cut job training funding even further.
Job Training + Supportive Services = Greater Likelihood of Success
Supportive services are a critical feature of programs that help underserved populations succeed in the job market. That’s the basic conclusion of IWPR’s recent Job Training Success Project. The five-report series demonstrates the importance of providing trainees services such as case management, transportation assistance, child care, and emergency cash, among others. Supports are associated with improved training and employment outcomes even when controlling for factors such as gender, race, age, marital status, education, number of dependent children, and immigrant status, among other factors.
>>Read the new one-pager on findings from IWPR’s Job Training Success Project.
Job Training Participants Say Supports Are “Incredibly Important” in Achieving Workforce Success
IWPR’s nationwide online survey 1,900 job training program participants, conducted in 2016, was the largest survey exploring the relationship between supportive services and program and employment outcomes and the first to examine which services participants need most. Many survey respondents reported that receiving supportive services was vital to their ability to complete job training. As one trainee said, “All the assistance I received from this program has been incredibly important in keeping me in my program. Without it, I have to make decisions like whether to pay for rent or food or pay for school fees.”
>>Read the new one-pager on findings from the national survey.
IWPR is a national partner of the National Center for Women’s Equity in Apprenticeship and Employment. For more information on the Center’s work to expand access to apprenticeships and non-traditional careers for women, visit http://womensequitycenter.org/.
