State Use of Workforce System Net Impact Estimates and Rates of Return

The net impacts and private and social benefits and costs of workforce development programs were estimated in three separate studies; two of them in Washington and one in Virginia. The programs included the public job training system, programs at community and technical colleges, adult basic education, private career schools, high school career and technical education, and vocational rehabilitation for disabled individuals and for blind or visually impaired individuals. The net impact analyses were conducted using a nonexperimental methodology. Individuals who had encountered the workforce development programs were statistically matched to individuals who had not. Administrative data with information from the universe of program participants and Labor Exchange data for registrants (who served as the comparison group pool) were used for the analyses. These data included several years of pre-program and outcome information including demographics, employment and earnings information from the Unemployment Insurance wage record system, and transfer income information such as Food Stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipiency and benefits

Paper Session III-C - Commercializing Strategic Defense Initiative Technology

By creating new products, improving existing products, and making manufacturing processes more efficient, new technologies can improve our standardof- living and create or save millions of jobs. But building a better mousetrap is not enough; just as we need a infrastructure of highways, railroads, and bridges to move goods in this country, we also need an infrastructure of technical information and business assistance centers to move technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. Congress, recognizing the need for this support mechanism, passed technology transfer legislation — starting with the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 and ending with the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of 19891 — that has spurred today\u27s growing emphasis on the transfer of Federally-sponsored research and development

Modernizing payment systems in emerging economies

The authors address the following questions in this overview of payment systems: What is a payment system? How can efficient systems contribute to the development of modern, market-based financial institutions and markets? What elements are necessary for payment systems to operate efficiently? What are the operational characteristics of a modern payment system? What is the World Bank approach to selected payment system initiatives, design, and development? Effective, efficient payment systems, they conclude, are vital for the economic development of emerging economies. Efficient payment systems help promote the development of commerce, enhance economic policy oversight, control the risk inherent in moving large values, and reduce the financial, capital and human resources devoted to the transfer of payments. Many emerging economies lack the financial and technical resources to develop such systems. Many turn technical resources to develop such systems. Many turn to the World Bank and other international agencies for assistance. Unfortunately, some believe that the entire solution for an effective payment system rests in obtaining modern computer hardware and believe the World Bank's sole contribution is to finance hardware costs. Hardware procurement alone will not solve problems of payment systems. These countries need organizational plans and structure for national payment systems before they spend money on computer equipment. They often lack the expertise to design and operate modern payment systems, so they may need technical assistance from financial experts before they invest in systems development. The design of a new payment system should be kept simple. Many emerging economies lack the infrastructure and banking sophistication to leapfrog from basic to state-of-the-art payment systems. The first task is to fix the most serious problems. The second is to upgrade the current systems incrementally, to meet basic standards of timeliness, security, and reliability. As these improvements are made, the countries can turn their attention to long-term, advanced solutions. Each country's payments system is unique. To simply import another country's system without adjusting for the target country's geography, infrastructure, banking and legal structures, culture, and needs could lead to suboptimal solutions. Development of the system should follow a disciplined plan for defining the needs of users and for organizing the project team and project goals.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation,Information Technology

Towards Model Driven Architecture in Health Care Information System Development

Failed software projects are often the result of an unsystematic transfer of business requirements to the implementation. This deficit led to the specification of the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). It claims a consistent use of conceptual models for the software development process from requirement analysis to technical specification of software. The MDA reduces the gap between the business level and the information technology (IT) level by defining a methodological framework to link these levels (Business-IT alignment). We will present the use of an MDA in health care domain. For this purpose, we show how the paradigm of MDA can be configured to implement medical application software based on a telemedical IT platform (telehealth platform). Additionally to the conceptual structure of the developed approach and the domain-specific alignment, lessons learned from the experiences gathered during design process will be formulated as assistance for similar projects and substantiated with an exemplary application

Net Impact Estimates of the Workforce Development System in Washington State

This study estimates the net impacts and private and social benefits and costs of nine workforce development programs administered in Washington State. Five of the programs serve job-ready adults: Community and Technical College Job Training, Private Career Schools, Apprenticeships, Job Training and Partnership Act (JTPA) Title III programs, and Community and Technical College Worker Retraining. Two of the programs serve adults with employment barriers : Community and Technical College Adult Basic Skills Education and JTPA Title II-A programs. The other two programs serve youth: JTPA Title II-C programs and Secondary Career Technical Education. The net impact analyses were conducted using a nonexperimental methodology. Individuals who encountered the workforce development programs were statistically matched to individuals who did not. Administrative data with information from the universe of program participants and Employment Service registrants (who served as the comparison group pool) supported the analyses. These data included over 10 years of pre-program and outcome information including demographics, employment and earnings information from the Unemployment Insurance wage record system, and transfer income information such as Food Stamp and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipiency and benefits. A variety of estimation techniques were used to calculate net impacts including comparison of means, regression-adjusted comparison of means, and difference-in-difference comparison of means. We estimated short-run net impacts that examined outcomes for individuals who exited from the education or training programs (or from the employment service) in the fiscal year 1999/2000 and longer-run impacts for individuals who exited in the fiscal year 1997/98. Short-run employment impacts a re positive for seven of the nine programs and negative for the other two. Short-run earnings impacts are insignificant for four of the programs, negative for two, and positive for the remaining three. The longer-run impacts are more sanguine. Employment impacts are positive for all nine programs, and earnings are positive for seven and insignificantly different from zero for the other two. The benefit-cost analyses show that all of the programs have discounted future benefits that far exceed the costs for participants, and that society also receives a positive return on investment

Net Impact and Benefit-Cost Estimates of the Workforce Development System in Washington State

This study estimates the net impacts and private and social benefits and costs of nine workforce development programs administered in Washington State. Five of the programs serve jobready adults: Community and Technical College Job Preparatory Training, Private Career Schools, Apprenticeships, Job Training and Partnership Act (JTPA) Title III programs, and Community and Technical College Worker Retraining. Two of the programs serve adults with employment barriers: Community and Technical College Adult Basic Skills Education and JTPA Title II-A programs. The other two programs serve youth: JTPA Title II-C programs and Secondary Career and Technical Education. The net impact analyses were conducted using a nonexperimental methodology. Individuals who had encountered the workforce development programs were statistically matched to individuals who had not. Administrative data with information from the universe of program participants and Employment Service registrants (who served as the comparison group pool) supported the analyses. These data included over 10 years of pre-program and outcome information including demographics, employment and earnings information from the Unemployment Insurance wage record system, and transfer income information such as Food Stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipiency and benefits. A variety of estimation techniques were used to calculate net impacts including comparison of means, regression-adjusted comparison of means, and difference-in-difference comparison of means. We estimated short-term net impacts that examined outcomes for individuals who exited from the education or training programs (or from the Employment Service) in the fiscal year 1999/2000 and longer-term impacts for individuals who exited in the fiscal year 1997/1998. Shortterm employment impacts are positive for seven of the nine programs and negative for the other two. Short-term earnings impacts are insignificant for four of the programs, negative for two, and positive for the remaining three. The longer-term impacts are more sanguine. Employment impacts are positive for all nine programs, and earnings are positive for seven and insignificantly different from zero for the other two. The benefit-cost analyses show that virtually all of the programs have discounted future benefits that far exceed the costs for participants, and that society also receives a positive return on investment

Net Impact and Benefit-Cost Estimates of the Workforce Development System in Washington State

This study estimates the net impacts and private and social benefits and costs of 11workforce development programs administered in Washington State. Six of the programs serve job-ready adults: Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title I-B Adult programs, WIA Title I-B Dislocated Worker programs, Community and Technical College Job Preparatory Training, Community and Technical College Worker Retraining, Private Career Schools, and Apprenticeships. Three of the programs serve adults with employment barriers: Community and Technical College Adult Basic Skills Education, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation programs, and Department of Services for the Blind programs. The other two programs serve youth: WIA Title I-B Youth programs and Secondary Career and Technical Education. The net impact analyses were conducted using a nonexperimental methodology. Individuals who had encountered the workforce development programs were statistically matched to individuals who had not. Administrative data with information from the universe of program participants and Labor Exchange registrants (who served as the comparison group pool) supported the analyses. These data included several years of pre-program and outcome information including demographics, employment and earnings information from the Unemployment Insurance wage record system, and transfer income information such as Food Stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipiency and benefits. A variety of estimation techniques was used to calculate net impacts including block matching, comparison of means, regression-adjusted comparison of means, and difference-indifference comparison of means. We estimated short-term net impacts that examined outcomes for individuals who exited from the education or training programs (or from the Labor Exchange) in the fiscal year 2003/2004 and longer-term impacts for individuals who exited in the fiscal year 2001/2002. Short-term employment impacts are positive for nine of the 11 programs and negative (although not statistically significant) for the other two. Short-term earnings impacts are also positive for nine of the programs, positive but not statistically significant for one of the programs, and negative for the remaining program. The longer-term impacts are similar and even a little better. Employment impacts are positive for all 11 programs, and earnings impacts are positive for ten of the 11. The benefit-cost analyses show that virtually all of the programs have discounted future benefits that far exceed the costs for participants, and that society also receives a positive return on investment

Farmer cooperatives in Mexico : case studies in Jalisco : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in AgriCommerce at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Farmer cooperatives are businesses owned and controlled by (and for) their members in order to create welfare and satisfaction beyond simple profitability. In developing countries, farmer cooperatives have been formed in rural areas in an effort to improve social integration, social equity, market and information transfer. Additionally, cooperatives have reduced the negative economic impact of market power and uncertainty through lower transaction costs, higher incomes and collective bargaining power. However in Mexico, cooperatives have faced an increasingly competitive and dynamic environment and have not adhered to the principles and values, such as solidarity, self-help and mutual aid, established by cooperative legislation. There is a lack of education, training and culture in relation to cooperatives. In addition, there is limited government support for financing, no stimulation for their creation and development and no public technical assistance. Despite this situation, in the state of Jalisco, there are successful consumer farmer cooperatives, whose main objective is to supply feed input (concentrates) to their members at the lowest possible cost. They have been able to achieve this by leveraging the collective bargaining power of members via the cooperative union. In order to identify factors for success in relation to the farmer cooperatives in Jalisco, a mixed methodology study was undertaken, using three case studies and a survey. Three farmer cooperatives in Los Altos, Jalisco were selected for the research: Pedro Ezqueda, Nutrimentos and Prolea. The results from the study showed that the following factors influence the success of farmer cooperatives in Jalisco: leadership; member knowledge and continuity; effective communication; member satisfaction; training; and government support. Additionally, challenges faced by these cooperatives include: poor understanding of cooperative principles among members; low enthusiasm for attending training; individualistic members with limited trust between them; lack of member commitment and participation in their cooperative; lack of young people joining the agriculture industry (including cooperatives); and no clear public policies regulating the agricultural sector. Despite these issues, farmer cooperatives have been successful within the challenging and dynamic environment in Mexico. Keyword: Jalisco, Mexico, farmer cooperatives, factors for succes

Utilization of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) as a Decision Making Means in the Institutional Section of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Religion, Yogyakarta Special Region

This study was conducted to determine the utilization of the education management information system (EMIS) as a means of decision making in the institutional section at the Regional Office of the Ministry of Religion, Yogyakarta Special Region.This research is a qualitative research using data collection techniques in the form of interviews, observations, and documentation. Technical analysis of data using data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. This research focuses on objective results with research subjects who really know, experience, and understand in this case the head of the madrasa education sector, along with the operator and the head of the SIM institutional section. The results of the study show that the basis for decision making can be completed because it has been accumulated by regulations and adopted the opinion of top managers. If the alternative answers are not satisfactory, the analysis will continue with deliberation with stakeholders and elements of the madrasa.Decision-making and Utilization of EMIS data during the study showed that EMIS plays a role in the distribution of the budget contained in the PIP program (smart Indonesia program), Madrasah BOS, National Examination student data, transfer and appointment of principals, equitable distribution of teachers and madrasa infrastructure, and the contribution of data The EMIS is utilized by the People's and Community Welfare Bureau, and the Provincial Government Legal Bureau. In addition, EMIS also plays a role in providing infrastructure assistance. EMIS development needs to be improved with new innovations. Data updates must be done frequently, always input as long as there are dynamics of data changes so that they are up to date. Reports on development, development, performance improvement should be based on EMIS data. The dynamics in society continue to exist at all times, for example there are students who move, teachers who transfer, teachers who are appointed as acting. Then EMIS must be updated every day

A Survey of Selected National Organizations Providing Support to the Community Building Field

In recent years, community building has emerged as a powerful, comprehensive approach to neighborhood improvement. Increasing numbers of national and local organizations use community building to describe the ways in which they work to improve outcomes for children and families in low-wealth neighborhoods. As a local and national technical assistance provider and resource to the field, the Urban Strategies Council (the Council) set out to conduct a limited scan of the national organizations providing programs and services to support community building practitioners.In early 1999, the Council surveyed a dozen national organizations involved in community building support to identify the core strategies they employ to support practitioners and the development of the field. We also asked about the target populations for their supports and services. The twelve organizations were not selected through scientific sampling methods and are certainly not a representative sample; rather, they include organizations known to us and engaged in work that they identify as community building.This report presents the findings of the scan. The report begins with a brief review of community building definitions. It then presents a summary of the methodology used to conduct the scan. It continues with a review of our findings about strategies used by the responding organizations and the target populations that are the focus of their work. The report concludes with implications we draw from this limited scan and a discussion of possible next steps for the field along this line of inquiry