What's New in Workforce Investment?

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) has proposed an application package, follow-up survey, site visit data collection, and case study interviews in support an evaluation of the Self-Employment Training (SET) Demonstration.

This demonstration and its evaluation are sponsored by ETA to understand whether providing dislocated workers access to self-employment training and counseling services increases their likelihood of reemployment, their earnings, and their propensity to enter into self-employment.

The affected public under this collection includes applicants and participants (dislocated workers), One-Stop Career Center (OSCC) administrators and staff, and participating providers' self-employment advisors and other staff providing support for the demonstration.

The June 20, 2012 FEDERAL REGISTER provides complete background, methodology, and survey estimates. Janet Javar is the contact for obtaining the package. Comments are due to Janet by August 20.

Excerpts:

ETA seeks to implement and rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of innovative strategies for promoting employment based on the authority granted to the agency under Title I of the Workforce Investment Act. The SET Demonstration focuses specifically on self-employment as a reemployment strategy for dislocated workers. The demonstration is premised on the hypotheses that: (1) Self-employment could be a viable strategy for dislocated workers to become reemployed; (2) starting a small business is difficult, especially for individuals who lack business expertise or access to start-up capital; and (3) dislocated workers might experience difficulties locating and accessing training and counseling services that could effectively prepare them for self-employment via the existing workforce infrastructure.

The SET Demonstration will implement a new service delivery model that seeks to better connect dislocated workers to self-employment services. This approach differs from previous large-scale demonstration programs, which have provided mixed evidence on the effectiveness of self-employment services on earnings and employment, because the SET Demonstration will:

(1) Rely on self-employment advisors to offer more intensive business development counseling services than prior demonstrations have offered; and

(2) concentrate on dislocated workers who have fairly limited traditional employment prospects but are well-positioned to benefit from self-employment counseling and training.