Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) program, focusing on: (1) participants' readiness to enter the job market; (2) the type and intensity of services participants received according to their job readiness; (3) participant employment outcomes; and (4) differences among JTPA service delivery areas (SDA).
GAO found that SDA: (1) generally served more and less job-ready participants in about the same proportion as their incidence in the eligible population; (2) did not target services to any particular job readiness group; (3) tended to underserve the eligible high school dropout population and offered little remedial education; (4) provided fewer and less intensive services to less job-ready participants than they did to more job-ready participants; and (5) provided placement assistance only or lower-skill or non-occupational training to over 50 percent of participants, who either did not get a job or obtained a low-skill job in a low- or no-growth occupation. GAO also found that: (1) participants receiving higher or moderate skill training, including the less job-ready, tended to obtain jobs at the same level of training; (2) on-the-job training contracts frequently exceeded the Department of Labor's (DOL) suggested training time; (3) DOL did not collect adequately detailed information regarding JTPA participants and services; and (4) JTPA and program guidance lack the necessary specificity to ensure that those most in need of services are appropriately served.
