Evaluation of the New Jersey Workforce Development Partnership Program: Customized Training Program

"Using evidence generated from interviews with individual grant administrators, company executives, training instructors, supervisors of individuals receiving training, and the individuals who received training themselves, this report explores the perceived effect of customized training (CT) grants on recipient companies and their employees. The report also uses New Jersey Unemployment Insurance wage records to examine the wage and employment outcomes of selected individuals who received training. Finally, the report makes a series of recommendations that could be used to inform future CT grant decisions.

The ten grants included in this study were selected because they represent five general categories of grants that were of specific interest to the State Employment and Training Commission and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. These include: grants to fund customer service skills training for the retail industry, grants to fund customer service skills training in the casino industry, grants to fund process improvement training for the manufacturing and wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing industries, grants to fund various types of training for companies in the life sciences industry, and grants to fund English as a second language and adult basic skills training for various industries" (p.1). (Abstractor: Author)

• "Company executives interviewed for this profile reported that Customized Training (CT) grants assisted the companies to increase the amount of training provided to employees" (p.1). • "Company executives also reported that the training funded by CT grants assisted companies to increases employee productivity and increase the economic competitiveness of the company" (p.2). • "All of the more than thirty individuals interviewed for this study who received training funded by CT grants reported that they benefited from that training.Four promising practices emerged from this research which could be used...to guide future CT grant decisions: industry/higher education partnerships, training for small companies organized by consortia, training programs that provide individuals with college credit or an industry-recognized credential, and English as a Second Language training." (p.2). • "The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development should use current and new methods to calculate performance measures for the Customized Training program"(p.4). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2008
• Author(s): No individual author identified
• Organizational Author(s): Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
• Funding Source: New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies