In the nation today, 4.6 million young adults ages 16 to 24 are out of school and unemployed. More than one-third live in poverty. For these young people, commonly referred to as opportunity youth, building skills and gaining work experience are key to upward mobility. However, they face significant barriers to entering the labor market.…

Since the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act, performance measurement systems based on short-term program outcomes have been increasingly used to assess the effectiveness of federal programs. This paper examines the association between program performance measures and long-term program impacts, using nine-year follow-up data from a recent…

"Job Corps," a federally funded education and job training program for economically disadvantaged youth, offers remedial education, GED (General Educational Development) preparation, vocational training, job placement assistance, and other supports. "Job Corps" participants typically reside in a "Job Corps" center…

The past history of varied operations of the Job Corps Centers indicates that the high incidence of failure to acculturize trainees to socially acceptable behavior has been due to the Centers' limited, vocational orientation. The Centers should identify the different types of deviant behavior and treat them individually. Also, they should help the…

Efforts to determine the effectiveness of federal youth employment training programs have indicated that positive results are accompanied by persistent problems. Available from: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Rm. 456 GHI Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20250. (JD)

The General Accounting Office compared state youth training programs with the Job Corps using the four program features that, taken together, characterize the Job Corps program: (1) serving a severely disadvantaged population, (2) providing basic education instruction, (3) focusing on vocational training services, and (4) providing these services…

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (Public Law 105-220) marked a major reform in the nation's job training system. It consolidated more then 60 federal training programs into three block grants to states: (1) adult employment and training; (2) disadvantaged youth employment and training; and (3) adult education and family literacy…

This paper presents the recommendations made by the Advisory Committee on Job Corps to the Secretary of Labor pertaining to the review, development and implementation of policies, legislation and regulations for the Job Corps program. This document represents the culmination of an intensive and comprehensive nine-month process undertaken by the…

The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) compared the former Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) Private Sector Initiative Program (PSIP) with the traditional Comprehensive Services Program (Title IIB) in terms of participants, services, and outcomes in order to provide baseline data for the supervision of the Job Training Partnership…

Current federal youth employment programs have failed to meet the employment needs of disadvantaged youth. Programs should be revised to: (1) require all participants to receive remedial academic instruction on the high school level; and (2) train participants in at least one vocational skill for which there exists a local demand for youth…

This testimony on unemployed disadvantaged youth given before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor focuses on the condition of Hispanic and other disadvantaged youth in the labor force. The experiences of these youth with the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) are discussed, and the following problems are elucidated: (1) failure to meet the…

Describes two new vocational education programs: the Private Sector Initiative Program and the program (still in proposal stage) which was created by the Youth Act of 1980. Also explains how the National Alliance of Business has provided support for these programs and for the creation of the local Private Industry Councils. (CT)

This paper reviews the sections of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) that provide for using competencies gained by youth as evaluation tools. The paper discusses the types of competencies that youths should gain by such programs and how they should be measured, as an alternative to traditional program-based evaluation. The paper is organized…

This report contains oral and written testimony of persons who appeared at a hearing on amendments to H.R. 18, the American Conservation Act of 1987. The act is intended to provide jobs for youth, especially poor, inner-city youth who have dropped out of high school or who lack basic skills, while providing necessary clean-up and development…