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ERIC Number: ED496213
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Jan
Pages: 26
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
WorkFirst: Fifth Year Accountability Report for WorkFirst Training Programs Conducted in 2002-03
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
WorkFirst is Washington State's welfare-to-work program. The program's mission is to help citizens get "a job, a better job, a better life." Inaugurated in 1996, it is based on the 1996 federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) welfare reform legislation. As part of this new program, the community and technical college system created WorkFirst training programs in 1998-99 to provide WorkFirst participants with pre-employment and job training to help them succeed in the economic mainstream. In its fifth year, WorkFirst job training funds were reduced 25 percent as part of an overall WorkFirst budget cut from the state. The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges shifted to funding colleges in block grants with one parameter: every college was required to offer pre-employment-type training that was short in duration and geared toward specific hiring needs. Within this parameter, colleges could combine the services they had previously offered as separate programs, and continue to offer services based upon their local area needs. This report provides data on educational training completion, academic achievements, and earnings and employment outcomes for those enrolled in the WorkFirst programs. These programs include: (1) Customized Job Skills Training (CJST), the major WorkFirst training program that prepares welfare and low-income parents for immediate employment; (2) High Wage/High Demand training, a full-time training option for welfare recipients; (3) WorkFirst Work-Study, which combines 16 to 19 hours-per week of a work-study job with college training; and (4) Advancement Training post-employment program that encourages current and former welfare and other low-wage workers to increase their education and skill levels while they work. Colleges also provide such other basic and job skills services as family literacy, educational planning, and other assessment and preparatory training activities to other welfare or low-income parents attending for reasons not immediately related to CJST job placement goals. This report describes who received those services, their training, and their employment outcomes. [This report was prepared by Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, Education Services Division.]
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. P.O. Box 42495, Olympia, WA 98504-2495. Tel: 360-704-4400; Fax: 360-704-4415; Web site: http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu
Publication Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Adult Basic Education; Adult Education; Higher Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, Olympia.
Identifiers - Location: Washington
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A