Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) Research Study Design Options: Knowledge Development Report
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About the Report
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) makes major investments in employment and training services to help improve veterans’ labor market outcomes. These investments include services available only to veterans through the Jobs for Veterans State Grants program (JVSG), as well as priority of service to workforce programs available to the broader population, most notably through the Wagner-Peyser Employment Service and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Adult and Dislocated Worker programs.
Recognizing the importance of understanding the veterans served by DOL, their use of workforce services, and their labor market outcomes, Section 502 of the Jeff Miller and Richard Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2016 (PL 114-315) requires DOL to fund a “longitudinal study of job counseling, training, and placement service for veterans.”
To develop “design options,” that is potential approaches for addressing this requirement and more generally for building evidence about improving labor market outcomes for this population, DOL’s Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) awarded a design contract—the “Veterans’ Employment and Training Services (VETS) Research Study Design”—to Abt Associates and its partners, RAND Corporation and Capital Research Corporation. The knowledge development report provides a foundation from which the project will develop and assess potential study designs that meet the legislative requirements and the informational needs and priorities of DOL. First, the report attempts to clearly specify the research questions. This report then describes the populations of veterans to be studied, the nature of the programs that serve them, veterans’ use of the workforce system, and potential sources of data to capture the required outcome measures (such as employment, income, use of educational benefits, and Unemployment Compensation receipt).
Citation
Klerman, J. A., Clarkwest, A., Litwok, D., Epstein, Z. (December 2018). Abt Associates. Knowledge Development Report: Veterans’ Employment and Training Services (VETS) Research Study Design. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.
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.