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The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 included multiple provisions to strengthen service quality, access, accountability, and coordination across many programs. The report focuses on implementation of WIOA’s changes to various aspects of the WIOA Title I Youth program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. The report covers changes regarding funding, service delivery approaches, performance accountability, and program elements.

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Key Takeaways

• Shift from serving in-school youth to serving older, out-of-school youth. The most noteworthy change, from the respondents’ perspective, was WIOA’s requirement that states and local workforce areas spend at least 75 percent of youth program funds on out-of-school youth in order to serve individuals with greater barriers to employment.
• Concerns regarding in-school youth. Many respondents were concerned that spending 75 percent of program funds on out-of-school youth created a gap in services for in-school youth, 3 who were in danger of dropping out of school, and also harmed workforce partnerships with schools and colleges.
• Greater focus on work experience. WIOA’s requirement that local Workforce Development Boards (WDBs) spend 20 percent of their nonadministrative youth program funds on paid or unpaid work experience was noted by youth program respondents from 8 states and 16 local areas as leading to a number of changes to the youth program.
• Addition of five new program elements. Youth program respondents reported that the addition of five new program elements—education offered concurrently with workforce preparation and training for a specific occupation; financial literacy education; entrepreneurial skills training; services that provide labor market information; and post-secondary preparation and transition activities —had a modest influence on approaches to providing youth services and the range of service offerings.
• Provision of youth services by local boards. All 16 local boards included in the site visits that had competitively procured youth service providers under WIA continued to do so under WIOA.
• Access to youth services at American Job Centers (AJCs). Most but not all youth staff continued to be housed in AJCs, as they were under the prior law.
• Retention of youth councils. Although WIOA did not require local boards to maintain youth councils most of the local boards visited continued to have youth-focused standing committees.
• Participant characteristics. Administrative data on the youth program for PY 2013 through PY 2017 showed that, across all states, implementing the requirement corresponded to a significant increase in the number and percentage of out-of-school youth exiters, and a parallel decline over the same time period (PY 2013 – PY 2017) in the number and percentage who were in-school youth.
• Program duration and enrollment. The median duration of participation in the program declined from ten to seven months overall from PY 2013 to PY 2017.
• Tracking expenditures. WIOA’s mandate to spend 75 percent of youth funds on out-of-school youth and 20 percent on work experience activities presented some challenges related to tracking expenditures.
• Performance accountability changes. Under WIOA, the youth program became subject to the same six primary indicators of performance as the other five core programs.

Research Gaps

• How changes to the definition of out-of-school youth have affected the characteristics of youth served under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and whether the intent of WIOA’s changes are being met. What types of services or combinations of services are most effective in achieving program goals, possibly through structured efforts to test different approaches at the local level, for different subgroups of youth. (page xvi)

Citation

Dunham, K., Mack, M., Grey, C., Hancock, M., Holcomb, P., English, B., Roemer, G. (2020). Social Policy Research. Operationalizing Changes to the Title I Youth Program Under WIOA. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.