A National Call for Innovation: Rethinking Reemployment Services for UI-Claimants

"ETA engaged the National Association of State Workforce Agencies' Center for Employment Security Education and Research and the Information Technology Support Center to 'initiate a two-phased effort to develop a national vision for improving the UI and workforce systems’ connection and integration.' As part of the first phase, a national workgroup consisting of individuals at the federal, state and local levels of the publicly-funded workforce system was formed and they developed a vision statement for improving the UI and workforce systems' connection and integration and addressed approaches for serving UI claimants as a key customer of the workforce investment system. This document highlight's the workgroup's work and recommendations." (Abstractor: Website Staff)

"The overriding recommendation of the workgroup was that every UI claimant should be treated as a job seeker. Therefore, in addition to expediting timely and accurate income support benefits, all UI claimants should be provided access to core workforce services – virtually and in-person via One Stop Career Centers. In the process of developing the Emerging National Vision described in this report, the workgroup identified four transformational areas that define this vision: 1. Integrated Workforce Customer Registration. This represents the ideal goal of offering each customer, whether they are seeking UI benefits and/or workforce services, with a "no wrong door" point of entry to register. Real time triage. Current UI claimants are typically profiled once to determine the likelihood that they will exhaust their benefits before becoming reemployed. The Emerging National Vision describes a continuous process, defined by the workgroup as real time triage, where job seekers are linked with job openings, training opportunities and career counseling on a continuous basis while registered in the system. Transferability of Skills/Job Match. Tied to real time triage is an automated process to link job seekers to job openings in their area based on past work history, education and training including degrees and certifications. There are a number of tools (both self-service and staff-assisted) currently available that have been developed using O*NET occupational data. Among these is ETA's newly unveiled mySkills myFuture website (http://www.myskillsmyfuture.org/) that identifies job openings based on past or current occupations. Social Networking. The Emerging National Vision incorporates the power of the Internet to link job seekers with job openings, training and education options, peer networks and general labor market and career information. While the workgroup members did not consider themselves experts in this field, the workgroup recognized the potential of employing social networks and tools to leverage information and contacts available through the Internet." (p. 2-3) (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2010
• Author(s): Individual author not identified
• Organizational Author(s): Maher and Maher, U.S. Department of Labor, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies