Change and Continuity in the Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs Under WIOA

WIOA’s ADW programs, two of the six “core programs” identified in the law, authorize a broad array of services for adult job seekers and employers. Although the services available under WIOA for these programs are in many ways similar to those that were offered under the Workforce Innovation Act (WIA), WIOA articulated some new priorities and opportunities, both overall and specifically for these programs. According to most state and local respondents, the most noteworthy changes concerned the following:

1. A greater emphasis on "training that is job-driven," particularly “work-based training,” such as registered apprenticeships, on-the-job training (OJT), and customized training. As part of this emphasis, WIOA provides “additional options and flexibilities” for these work-based training options, and also authorizes the use of transitional jobs as a new type of work experience activity aimed at helping customers “develop important workplace skills.”
2. An increased focus on career pathways as a way to “improve the quality and labor market relevance of workforce investment...efforts” for job seekers, particularly related to education and training services, including registered apprenticeships.
3. A focus on “individuals with barriers to employment…to ensure access to quality services for these populations.”
4. New opportunities for coordination and alignment with other WIOA core programs, including Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, and Vocational Rehabilitation.
5. A stronger emphasis on employers as customers through more explicit requirements for the provision of certain employer services, including more flexibility to provide incumbent worker training using program funds.

Sample Findings: Increased efforts to promote use of Work-Based Learning (WBL) -

• State and local respondents reported that they had focused on trying to develop WBL opportunities — particularly registered apprenticeships.
• Reasons for low enrollment in WBL. Respondents shared their perspective that the low numbers reported in national data were likely due to the amount of staff time needed to develop WBL opportunities and lack of interest among employers and participants for such services.

Sample Findings: Career Pathways -

• Nearly all respondents reported they were already implementing career pathways efforts of some kind for their ADW participants before WIOA.
• Respondents reported that WIOA helped their ADW programs to better promote and align their approaches to career pathways with other core and required partners.

Sample Findings: Access to services for people with barriers to employment -

• Respondents reported that WIOA’s passage pushed them to try to serve more people facing barriers to employment, e.g., those with disabilities, low basic skills, and involvement in the justice system.
• Partnerships were reported to be key to addressing challenges in serving individuals with barriers to employment.

Sample Findings: Aligning services for adult and dislocated worker job seekers across core programs and other partner programs -

• ADW programs and their partners reported facing a number of barriers in trying to align services across programs, such as challenges coordinating across partners that were not co-located; a lack of knowledge about partner programs; and lack of a unified case management system.
  
  

Recommendations:

• Targeted training and resources. The development of WBL and career pathways opportunities, as well as industry and sector partnerships, requires market demand, staff resources, and expertise. State and local area respondents noted the need for additional targeted guidance and training to help strengthen their efforts in these areas.
• Building staff skills to better serve jobseekers with barriers to employment. To successfully meet the needs of these job seekers, program staff reported that they needed to become more skilled in working with these populations.
• Technical assistance on sharing participant data. Respondents reported working on formalizing local procedures to facilitate referrals, co-enrollment, and follow-up to help ensure participants are connected to the right services at the right times.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2020
• Author(s): Dunham, K.; Paprocki, A.; Grey, C.; Sattar, S.; Roemer, G.
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Burak Yuksel
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies