Sponsoring Agency: U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration
Project Officer: Jonathan Simonetta
Performance Period: April 2006 – March 2007
Project Summary:
The President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative (HGJTI) is a major national effort to encourage the development of market-driven strategies to address critical workforce challenges as defined by business and industry. Under this initiative, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (DOL/ETA) issued grants to encourage partnerships to develop solutions to the workforce challenges and labor shortages in specific industry sectors. The key to the initiative is partnerships among governors, local officials, business and industry, the workforce investment system, training and education providers, and the economic development system. At the time of the evaluation effort, DOL had awarded over 100 grants aimed at increasing the number of skilled workers for demand jobs in identified industries and occupations, and improving and expanding the capacity of public systems to meet the challenges and demands. The Urban Institute, with its partners Johns Hopkins University and Capital Research Corporation, conducted an implementation evaluation of the HGJTI to document and assess how the grant-funded projects were designed and implemented and how well they were meeting the objectives of the HGJTI. This study documented the experiences and sustainability of 20 of the earliest HGJTI grantees as told by the project administrators. The final report summarized the major implementation lessons emerging from the early grantees and documented the extent to which projects continued after the end of the grant. The report also examined the various partnerships and models for expanding capacity and increasing the number of trained workers in targeted sectors, and potentially promising strategies grantees have developed. The report also included options for further evaluation of impacts, costs and benefits, and performance and results. Reports: J. Trutko, C. O’Brien, P. Holcomb, and D. Nightingale, Implementation and Sustainability: Emerging Lessons from the Early High Growth Job Training Initiative (HGJTI) Grants, The Urban Institute, prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, 2007 (available at: http://www.urban.org/publications/411556.html).