This report, one of a series of occasional papers from the Evaluation of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, describes demographic and other characteristics of all trainees in the TAA program under the 2002 amendments, as well as information on the duration, occupational focus, costs, and providers of training and education funded by TAA Data for the report was obtained from a 2008/2009 survey conducted with TAA participants, most of whom had lost their jobs in 2005 and 2006. There were 2,226 participants who completed interviews, of whom 65 percent pursued training. Among these trainees, 86.2 percent said their main motivation for training was to prepare for a new career, while 8.9 percent wanted to use training to upgrade skills in their current occupation. Among all trainees, 82.4 percent were pursuing only occupational skills training, 5.5 percent were combining such training with general education, and 17.7 pursued general education only.

For participants in TAA-funded training programs (who comprised 46 percent of all participants and 69 percent of all trainees), the most common occupations they were preparing for were in health care support, administrative support, installation, maintenance, and repair. Community colleges were the biggest providers of both general education and occupational skills training. The median cost of programs was $5,923 while the average was almost $8,500, indicating that a small number were much more expensive than others. About a third of respondents were still in training at the time of the survey, but among those no longer enrolled, 86 percent said they had completed their program and 93 percent of these completers reported they had received a certificate or a degree.