Supporting Success: Expanding Employment Opportunities for Women

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Supporting SuccessExpanding Employment
Opportunities for Women

• Avis A. Jones-DeWeever, Ph.D.
• Institute for Womens Policy Research
• www.iwpr.org
• World Bank Workshop II for Gender Focal Points
• April 7, 2005

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Contemporary Economic Context

• Todays American economy faces challenges unlike
  any in the nations history.
• The increasing importance of globalization has
  demanded a higher level of competitiveness for
  attracting and maintaining jobs within local
  communities.
• Skills requirements have increased for many of
  the nations fastest-growing jobs
• Nation is on the verge of a skills-deficit as the
  baby boom generation nears retirement-age

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Contemporary Economic Context

• Impending demographic shifts in the nations
  working-age population will significantly alter
  the workforce of the future
• Increasingly people of color
• Increasingly new immigrants
• Increasingly made up of individuals from
  low-income backgrounds
• Increasingly made up women

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Contemporary Economic Context

• Given this new and challenging circumstances,
  several states/localities have begun to design
  policies aimed at increasing the skills of its
  workforce, with a specific emphasis on those
  demographic groups expected to make-up a larger
  portion of the workforce of the future
• Effort is part of long-term strategy to maintain
  and expand the economic vitality of the state
• To improve the standard of living for residents

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Workforce Intermediaries

• In order to bridge the gap between employer needs
  and workforce qualifications, several states have
  put into place Workforce Intermediaries
• Workforce Intermediaries organize key
  stakeholders and resources in order to help
  potential workers gain the skills they need while
  also helping businesses gain skilled-workers
• In so-doing, they implement a sectoral-based
  strategy of linking training emphasis to local
  employment opportunities.

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Workforce Intermediaries

• Workforce Intermediaries take several different
  forms
• Employer Associations
• Labor-Management Partnerships
• Community-Based Organizations
• Workforce Boards

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Workforce Intermediaries

• No matter the form, Workforce Intermediaries
  share a core set of basic characteristics
• Mission driven
• Highly entrepreneurial
• Adaptive to changing strategies and programs in
  order to most efficiently respond to changing
  labor market needs

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Workforce Intermediaries

• States that have been the most successful in
  supporting Workforce Intermediaries have done the
  following
• Pursued a dual-customer strategy
• serving both businesses seeking qualified workers
  and job-seekers pursuing quality employment
• Organized multiple partners and funding streams
  around common goals
• Businesses
• Labor unions
• Educational institutions
• Social service agencies
• Others as needed to design programs and policies
  for improved labor market outcomes

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Workforce Intermediaries

• Provided services that go beyond mere recruitment
  and referral
• Emphasis to both employees and employers the
  special needs and circumstances of the other
• Placed a special focus on meeting the needs of
  low-skilled, low-waged workers while providing
  service to all
• Improved outcomes for both businesses and workers
  by spurring improvements within the public system
  and business employment practices

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Does the Workforce Intermediary Strategy Seem
Applicable to Your Needs?
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Key Stories of Success

• Minnesotas Pathways Program
• A two-year study of this program uncovered that
  those participants who graduated from
  Pathwaysa program that provided customized
  training developed in partnership with local
  businesses and community technical
  collegesearned 19 higher hourly wages 28
  more weekly income than those who received only
  job search services
• San Joses Center for Employment Training (CET)
• CET trained primarily low-income Latino/a job
  seekers in local demand industries
• 2 ½ years after graduation, CET participants
  garnered 45 greater earnings than similar local
  job seekers not enrolled in the program

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Key Stories of Success

• Project QUEST
• Provides industry-specific occupational skills
  training for non-traditional students who
  resident in San Antonio, Texas
• Training is provided in the following areas
• Health Care
• Business Systems
• Maintenance of Repair
• Service Technology
• Evaluations of the programs have found that
  graduates earnings increase up to 40 an hour
  over the levels received prior to training.
• Today, more than 800 students go through the
  program annually

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Project QUEST In-Depth

• What Project QUEST Does
• Determines the skills required to succeed in
  targeted, hard-to-fill occupations
• Recruits, trains, and develops adults so that
  they are qualified and ready to fill employers
  needs

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Project QUEST In-Depth

• Services for Employers
• Assists in analyzing the skills required to
  succeed in specific occupations
• Customizes training programs to meet
  industry/business needs
• Provides qualified, motivated employees who
  possess skills that are in-demand

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Project QUEST In-Depth

• Services for Participants
• Evaluates aptitudes and interests, then helps to
  match candidates with jobs most compatible to
  these qualities
• Provides employer-driven, certified training to
  teach the technical skills required for job
  attainment and advancement
• Offers support services and comprehensive
  counseling for both life skills and job readiness

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Project QUEST In-Depth

• Services for the Community
• Assists business, educational institutions and
  community organizations to work toward the common
  goal of workforce development
• Helps attract new industrial and business
  enterprises by providing a strong, skilled
  workforce
• Helps citizens achieve a higher quality of life

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Exclusively Addressing the Needs of Women

• Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW)
• Nonprofit established in 1978 devoted to
  training, placing, and advocating for women
  seeking work in construction and other skilled
  blue-collar trades
• NEW services over 300 women annually

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NEW

• Successfully places at least 75 of its graduates
  in union apprenticeships including
• Operating engineers
• Electricians
• Carpenters
• Laborers
• Plumbers
• Concrete Workers
• Elevator Mechanics
• Tile setters
• Cement Masons

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NEW

• Provides post-employment support services for
  graduates including advocacy and employment
  referrals
• Offers technical assistance to unions, employers
  and organizations across the country to promote
  the recruitment and retention of women in
  non-traditional work

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Barriers to Nontraditional Work

• Social/Cultural
• Socialization to traditional female roles
• Unsupportive family and friends
• Negative attitudes of classmates and co-workers
• Lack of self confidence and assertiveness
• Lack of female role-models
• Limited life-experience with tools and mechanical
  operations

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Barriers to Nontraditional Work

• Education and Training
• Limited information provided about
  non-traditional occupations
• Women and girls often directed to traditional
  training
• Lack of support for sex equity efforts by
  instructors and other personnel
• Lack of prerequisite classes in the maths and
  sciences
• Limited access to on-the-job training
• Lack of support servicese.g., child care,
  transportation, etc.
• Isolation and sexual harassment in the classroom

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Barriers to Nontraditional Work

• On-the-Job
• Discrimination in hiring, firing or promotion on
  the basis of sex, race, age, physical build
• Isolation and sexual harassment on the worksite
• Lack of support from some unions
• Lack of support services

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Overcoming Barriers

• Train teachers, counselors, and program
  administrators to support access to high-wage
  training and employment for women and girls
• Support incentives for training programs and
  employers that meet or exceed their goals for
  training and placing women and girls in
  non-traditional jobs
• Monitor governmental expenditures and policies
  for job training and vocational education to see
  that adequate support exists for training women
  and girls in non-traditional careers

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Overcoming Barriers

• Train women and girls in survival strategies
  for working in a male-dominated environment,
  including how to handle sexual harassment.
• Organize support groups and mentoring programs
  for women and girls in nontraditional jobs or
  training programs.
• Educated women and girls about the wage
  differences between traditional and
  non-traditional careers
• Work with employers to encourage them to prepare
  the workplace to successfully receive and train
  women in non-traditional jobs.