Changes aimed at unskilled JTPA will stress year-round work for young people
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is drafting major changes to the nation's premier job-training program, aiming to provide more services to the people spending time while cutting the number of people served in favor of more thorough training.
The proposed changes to the Job Training Partnership Act also would take youth-training programs now under JTPA and establish them as a separate entity that would drop its emphasis on summer training for a year-round approach both in schools and for dropouts, according to department officials.
Also recommended will be new oversight methods to ensure cooperation at the state level between agencies that handle billions of dollars in training and related money distributed by the federal government each year, primarily from the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services.
The recommendations are included in legislation drafted by Labor Department officials, a process essentially completed Friday. The legislation is to be reviewed by Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole this week and then forwarded for White House review. She hopes to unveil the proposals to Congress in mid-May.
"Right now a person can't go one place and get all the services," Dale said in interview.
T
The Job Training Partnership Act, by far the largest of the federal government's training programs, was allocated $2.4 billion for the current fiscal year and is projected to serve 1.9 million people.
mented. We've got to bring down this bureaucratic barrier . . . The hardest thing to do is coordinate across government. But we're determined to do it."
The proposed changes address many of the criticisms directed at JTPA in a number of recent studies and reviews, including one by the General Accounting Office and another by an advisory committee appointed to monitor the program, established under legislation co-authored by Vice President Dan Quavle.
"JTAP is the most successful (training) program that you have ever said. It can make you more confident. You can make it much better."
Dole has met with Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos and HHS Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan to discuss the proposals. They would involve expanded cooperation between HHS and the nation's programs included in last year's welfare reform law and the nation's vocational
education system, which is up for congressional reauthorization this year.
JTPA, by far the largest of the federal government's training programs, was allocated $2.4 billion for the current fiscal year and is projected to serve 1.9 million people. The Bush administration has requested stable funding for next year.
A Labor Department official said he could not say how many fewer people would be served by JTPA if the changes are approved but said the reduction would be modest.
The two most significant changes would be writing the formula and separating it.
Two-thirds of JTPA money now is targeted based on unemployment rates while one-third goes to areas with concentration economically disadvantaged populations.
The new formula, which still was being fine-tuned Friday, will substantially shift spending and have at least two thirds of JTPA funding targeted to the economically disadvantaged, primarily those identified and jobs skills, the department official said.
Because of funding restrictions, JTPA now serves about 8 percent of those eligible for its services, with state and local officials administering the JTPA-financed programs considerable leeway in selecting program participants from the pool of those eligible.
The proposed changes would refine the
selection process to add individual skills assessments to better screen potential trainees for those most lacking skills.
"Too often, I'm afraid, we're training people who can make it on their own." Dole
Also changed would be program guidelines that emphasize per-trainer cost and the rate of job placements. Those have been criticized for encouraging program directors to select trainees who already have marketable skills so they can be placed in jobs rapidly and for encouraging "quick fix" approaches that lead to placement in low-skills jobs that offer few career opportunities.
"What we're saying is it's all right to spend more per person as long as we have longer-term outcomes, training that leads to better jobs." said the department official.
Improved targeting has been suggested by several recent reviews of JTPA, including a GAO report that said more than 40 percent of JTPA on-the job training money was being used to prepare workers for low-skill jobs such as dishwashers.
Since taking office, Dole has spoken frequently about improving training for youths, a floor pool essential to hopes of a better country in shortages, particularly in high-skill jobs.
"Young people who are prepared are prepared to learn. There are plenty of jobs if you have the skills.
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