By Design: Engaging Employers in Workforce Development Organizations

Workforce development practitioners and policymakers have come to recognize the importance of employers as customers. Too often, however, not enough time is devoted to considering (much less implementing) the organizational and programmatic changes necessary to truly engage employers. By Design describes strategies used by three organizations to effectively engage employers in workforce development efforts. Jewish Vocational Service, San Francisco; Training, Inc., Boston and WIRE-Net, Cleveland, have successfully involved employers in a variety of different waysfrom including them on the Board of Directors to having them teach training classes. By Design outlines employer-engagement strategies in detail to help other organizations substantively involve employers in daily activities and services

Strengthening Workplace Education Program Policies to Enable Low-Wage Workers' Advancement

Updates the 2007 brief "Strengthening State Policies to Increase the Education and Skills of Low-Wage Workers"; profiles programs that improve basic, literacy, and English language skills; and outlines issues for enhancing state policy and strategy

Employment Retention Essentials

Employment retention is one of the critical challenges facing the workforce field today. For any organization that seeks to improve retention services, "Employment Retention Essentials" is an invaluable resource. User-friendly and filled with practical ideas, this guide offers concrete tools for keeping people working, including tips on how to involve employers, build relationships and stay in contact with participants

Targeting Industries, Training Workers and Improving Opportunities: The Final Report from the Sectoral Employment Initiative Executive Summary

This executive summary provides a brief look at the key findings and challenges sectoral programs encountered while participating in the Sectoral Employment Initiative (SEI). By identifying local sectors that lack workers -- which might range from health care to manufacturing to construction -- these organizations were shown, in many cases, to help low-income workers acquire the specific skills they need to fill available positions

States of Change

States of Change documents efforts by state policymakers and local practitioners to devise useful approaches to helping low-income job seekers stay employed and begin advancing. It draws, in part, from our experiences working on these issues since 1997 with five states -- Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Oklahoma and Florida -- as well as on examples and lessons in several other states. In general, states are trying a number of retention strategies, but few have been tested. Therefore, we expect that many strategies discussed will soon be modified or replaced with new approaches. We hope that States of Change encourages this process of testing and innovation by providing a sense of what is being tried and learned around the country, and what challenges remain

Targeting Industries, Training Workers and Improving Opportunities: The Final Report from the Sectoral Employment Initiative

Over the past 30 years, American workers have faced daunting challenges, including declines in real wages and dwindling upward mobility. Paths to advance within companies have deteriorated, leaving many low-skilled workers "stuck" indefinitely in low-wage jobs -- and swelling the ranks of the working poor. As opportunities for less-educated workers to access well-paying jobs grow scarce, it is clear that our nation requires new approaches to workforce development.In a departure from traditional strategies, some workforce organizations have begun to implement services and activities that focus on the needs of specific industry sectors. By identifying local sectors that lack workers -- which might range from health care to manufacturing to construction -- these organizations can help low-income workers acquire the specific skills they need to fill available positions. To explore the potential of this approach, P/PV launched the Sectoral Employment Initiative (SEI) in 1998, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. This final report relies on data gathered during interviews with staff members at the SEI organizations and other key players in the targeted sectors, site visits, reviews of program documentation, and baseline and follow-up interviews with program participants focusing on a range of outcomes, including employment, earnings, education, housing and household income. The report presents key findings and explores some of the challenges sectoral programs encountered

Supporting Youth Employment: A Guide for Community Groups

Although public money is available for education, job training and youth programs throughout the nation, many young people in low-income communities do not acquire the skills and credentials necessary to get high paying jobs. This Guide is a resource for parents, youth workers, educators and young people who want to take action. It details three major public funding sources that can support job-related training for youth: the WIA, TANF and State Education Assistance. The Guide also offers information on how to recognize effective programs, activities and supports, highlighting successful youth initiatives. A long list of youth-oriented resources is provided

Here to Stay: Tips and Tools to Hire, Retain and Advance Hourly-Wage Workers

Much has been written about retaining high performers and upper management. But where can businesses go for advice about keeping their lesser-skilled, hourly-wage workers? P/PV has addressed the gap with this new guide. Based on the practices of businesses that value their workers, Here to Stay offers a series of cost-effective actions, including hiring the right people, welcoming them, retaining them and developing their talents for the company's benefit. Workforce organizations can use the guide to understand business practices that keep lower-income workers on the job; to generate ideas to help employer partners who are experiencing high turnover; to provide content for newsletters, presentations or workshops for the business community; and as a resource -- and a thank you -- to businesses that hire their job seekers

Job Development Essentials: A Guide for Job Developers, Second Edition

"Job Development Essentials Second Edition" provides practical advice for workforce development professionals -- the same advice found in the first edition, but with a stronger emphasis on engaging employers, providing expanded services to the business community and involving business people as resources and advocates for an organization

Job Training That Works: Findings from the Sectoral Employment Impact Study

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, P/PV launched the Sectoral Employment Impact Study to test the efficacy of one such approach. Using a random-assignment design, P/PV researchers set out to answer the question: Can well-implemented, sector-focused training programs make a difference to the earnings of low-income disadvantaged workers and job seekers? Three organizations were selected to participate in the study: Jewish Vocational Service in Boston, Per Scholas in the Bronx and the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership in Milwaukee. This issue of P/PV In Brief summarizes impacts found for participants across the three sites, including increases in earnings and employment; a more detailed report on the study will be released in late 2009