Evaluation of Local Workforce Demonstration Projects – Travis County’s REM and GEM Projects

“In recent years, Travis County had funded workforce development demonstration projects with Workforce Solutions—Capital Area Workforce Board. The demonstration projects included the Rapid Employment Model or REM project, which launched in 2006, and the Gainful Employment Model or GEM project, which launched in 2009…These projects were a collaborative effort to decrease the amount of time an individual is out of work.

The Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs was conducting the evaluation of these demonstration projects. Four prior reports by the authors (2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011) detailed the evaluation findings, including labor market outcomes and program impacts, through the first quarter of 2010 for REM 2006–2008 participants. This report extended the outcomes analysis of REM participants through March 2011 and added the cohort of 2009 participants. This outcomes evaluation report also introduced the GEM project and provided outcomes and impacts for 2009–2010 GEM participants” (p.1). (Abstractor: Author)

“The outcomes associated with the Rapid Employment Model (REM) demonstrate the short-term gains associated with less-intensive workforce development interventions. It is worth repeating that the outcomes presented here likely undercount actual employment and earnings levels given training targeted at truck driving and construction, two industries with large shares of self-employed or independent contractors who do not contribute to UI and are therefore not included in the research dataset. Despite this underrepresentation, REM’s outcomes still demonstrate that it is meeting the objectives behind the program: helping individuals through rapid skill acquisition and quick connection to employment. The county extended the REM model in 2009 into intermediate-length training opportunities through the GEM demonstration. This further underscores the importance the County and Workforce Solutions place on connecting individuals to employment at or above the living wage as longer-term training is more likely to prepare individuals for those types of job opportunities. Initial outcomes of GEM participation indicate that a larger share of participants are employed two quarters after leaving the program than had been employed in the four quarters prior to their program entry” (p.10). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2012
• Author(s): Smith, Tara C.; King, Christopher T.; Schroeder, Daniel G.
• Organizational Author(s): The Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources at the University of Texas at Austin
• Funding Source: Travis County Health and Human Services Department
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies