Employment & Wage Outcomes of Workforce Training Programs

First published in 2010, the annual Unified Workforce Development Expenditure and Program Report (UEP) is a compendium of Rhode Island's workforce development expenditures and activities, serving as a mechanism to assist elected officials, policy-makers, and other stakeholders in gaining a better understanding of the impact of workforce development funds.

As part of the Workforce Data Quality Initiative Round 6, DataSpark upgraded the process of tracking participant outcome data. In previous years, agencies and programs self-reported outcome data. With support from WDQI, DataSpark was able to pull outcome data directly from the Governor's Workforce Board and Wage Record data that DLT incorporates into the DataHUB. 

To refine the scope of this effort exclusively to those programs that relate to workforce development; it is important to define what a workforce development program is. Borrowing from the definition developed by the National Center for Education Statistics – Classification of Industrial Programs; a Workforce Development program will be defined as:  

“A state or federally funded program that focuses on learning or upgrading basic or advanced skills with the direct intent to obtain a new job, enhance performance in a current job, or promote career development.”