A study was conducted to examine the private sector involvement in the federal job training and employment system since the inception of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) of 1982. The problem was to ascertain whether the innovative involvement of the private sector in the management and oversight of federal job training programs had achieved the explicit and implicit goals of the JTPA legislation. The methodology used included a combination of qualitative and quantitative strategies. A literature review was first conducted followed by a series of unstructured interviews with Private Industry Council (PIC) members. This led to the development of a three part survey instrument: questionnaire, attitudinal survey, and open ended question format. The survey instrument was pilot tested, refined, and mailed to a random sample of 300 public and private sector members of PICs within New England. The data was put into a computer and analyzed using the App-Stat analysis program. The study indicated that private sector involvement in job training has a positive impact on the management and operation of the local training and employment system, including improved public sector program management, increased responsiveness of training to local labor market needs, and improved operational effectiveness based on measured performance. Commitment to PIC goals, leadership ability, company support of efforts, and time availability were cited as the most important characteristics of effective PIC members. The study cited several areas of need including the lack of an adequate orientation and familiarization program for members, the need for more local autonomy and flexibility in order to address local problems, and the need to reverse the continued decline in the availability of funding resources for staff and programs. Recommendations were made for improving private sector utilization in the federal job training system. Suggested changes to legislation included broadening program eligibility requirements, altering performance standards, and establishing a stable funding base. Recommendations for future research and for using the data emanating from the study were also made.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-1201 |
| Date | 01 January 1989 |
| Creators | Neveu, Florian Richard |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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