RHODE ISLAND WORKFORCE TRAINING PARTICIPANTS

Through the U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Data Quality Initiative, DataSpark partnered with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training and the Governor's Workforce Board to evaluate outcomes for workforce training participants.

In this dashboard, we investigated postsecondary attainment among selected workforce training participants, focusing specifically on the two largest programs in the State, Real Jobs Rhode Island (RJRI) and programs funded collectively by the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).

RJRI grows business-led partnerships that build workforce solutions to address their unique workforce challenges. These partnerships help place new employees into immediate job openings; up-skill current employees to advance skills and/or remain competitive; and create pipelines of talent for the future.

WIOA is "landmark legislation that is designed to strengthen and improve our nation's public workforce system and help get Americans, including youth and those with significant barriers to employment, into high-quality jobs and careers and help employers hire and retain skilled workers" (https://www.doleta.gov/wioa/). In Rhode Island, implementation of the Act is overseen by the RI State Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Office.

The Governor's Workforce Board maintains data on participants of these training programs, which DataSpark linked with postsecondary data from the RI Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner. Both datasets are maintained in the RILDS, Rhode Island's statewide longitudinal data system for data along the education-to-workforce pipeline.