Summary: Recognizing that the country's fragmented employment and training programs were not serving job seekers or employers well, Congress enacted the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in 1988. One of WIA's goals was to create a one-stop center system to help unify the services provided by many programs and give states the flexibility to design services better suited to local workforce needs. Veterans' employment and training programs, administered by the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS), are mandatory program partners in this new one-stop center system. VETS administers two grants programs--the Disabled Veterans' Outreach Program (DVOP) and the Local Veterans' Employment Representative (LVER) program--that fund staff offering services for veterans. Although veterans receive priority employment services at one-stop centers, VETS does not collect appropriate data for determining the effectiveness of these services, including subsequent job retention and wages. VETS requires states to collect information on the number and type of employment services provided to veterans relative to nonveterans. This information showed that veterans received more intensive services, and received these services more readily, than did nonveterans seeking services through states' employment service offices or one-stop centers--an elevated level of service principally provided by DVOP and LVER staff. VETS' oversight of the DVOP and LVER grants is inadequate. The agency lacks a comprehensive system in place to manage state performance in serving veterans. The two programs do not always operate well within the one-stop center environment because states do not have the flexibility to design their services for veterans in a way that best meets the needs of employers and veterans. The success of the one-stop system depends on providing services that meet the changing employment needs in local communities. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: Veterans' Employment and Training Service: Greater Flexibility and Accountability Needed to Better Serve Veterans, by Sigurd R. Nilsen, Director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues, before the Subcommittee on Benefits, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. GAO-02-192T, Oct. 30 (13 pages).
