Technical Assistance

Each WDQI grantee is expected to build (or to have built) a workforce database that integrates longitudinal education data. The state-level workforce data sources include (but are not limited to):

  • wage record data from employers reporting through the Unemployment Insurance (UI) payroll tax system;
  • benefit and demographic data from claims processed through UI;
  • data from the employment and training services authorized under the Workforce Investment Act and the Wagner-Peyser Act employment services;
  • Trade Adjustment Assistance; and
  • demographic data from the Federal Employment Data Exchange System.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA, Pub. L. 113-128) was signed into law on July 22, 2014 and took effect July 1, 2015. ETA envisions that the data incorporated into the WDQI databases will be important as states implement the new performance reporting requirements to inform consumer choice and support evaluation activities under WIOA. The six core programs under WIOA are Adult, Dislocated Worker, Youth, Adult Education and Literacy, Title I of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, and Wagner-Peyser. Disaggregated individual record data for these six programs, in addition to the other programs listed in the Funding Opportunity Announcement, must be included in the state database.

ETA has contracted Social Policy Research (SPR) to provide technical assistance to grantees. SPR provides technical assistance to support states in fostering the partnerships and developing the technological capacity necessary to link labor, education, and other state data systems in a way that will make it possible to track individuals from Pre-K through their engagement in the workforce system.

More specifically, technical assistance activities aim to increase the capacity of states to:

  1. develop or improve WDQI longitudinal databases;
  2. enable workforce data to be linked with longitudinal individual-level education data; and
  3. build data sharing partnerships to support research and analysis, and tools and strategies for informing state and local policy.

Collaborative Workspace

WDQI grantees, Federal Project Officers, and other pertinent grant personnel can register for access to the WDQI Community on WorkforceGPS.