Federal Targeted Training

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE United States spends tremendous sums of money each year to train people for jobs in the federal government or for employment in the general economy. Some of the training seeks to help people get a job. Other training seeks to improve the capacity of workers to perform at higher levels in their jobs. Both types of training are aimed at preventing poverty or at lifting people out of poverty.

In order to be more effective in the use of the money spent on training, the federal government “targets” training so that people who need training get it. Moreover, geographical regions that are lacking sufficient workers are promoted as areas that job seekers should go to for training, in order to qualify for those available jobs.

The federal government recognizes that the way in which work must be organized into employment today is a dynamic challenge. Technology alone is forcing people to do new jobs. Old jobs in both governmental and private sectors of the national economy have disappeared. This means that many young people may come to the job market without the skills needed for getting a job. Or older workers may need to be retrained if they are to continue to be useful producers.

It is the philosophy of the federal government that human capital has a supreme value. Accordingly it is the duty of all federal agencies to seek ways to respond to the challenges of the changing employment needs.

In order to implement its philosophy of the supreme value of human capital, the federal government as a matter of policy uses the concept of targeted training in order to be more efficient in the use of the great sums it spends on training. For example the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (Public Law 105220) was adopted by the 105th Congress on August 7, 1998. The act's preamble states the purpose of the act is to “consolidate, coordinate, and improve employment, training, literacy, and vocational rehabilitation programs in the United States, and for other purposes.” In order to achieve these general goals, the act provides for “the establishment and implementation of programs [Page 351]targeted to empowerment zones and enterprise communities.”

Among the many topics associated with the numerous provisions relevant to targeted training that are spread across the United States Code and the Federal Code of Regulations are such things as “equal opportunity and civil rights,” “desktop computer skills,” “information technology,” and many others. These and other elements of civil rights are part of the targeted training used by the federal government for training the unskilled into employable workers.

According to Anthony P. Carnevale, chairman of the National Commission for Employment Policy, federal targeted job training is explained as: “Congress, the administration, and other interest groups recently have focused much attention on federal job training programs and their ability to adequately prepare American workers for the labor market. Employers require skilled, flexible, and responsive workers. Yet millions of Americans lack the capacity to get and keep jobs in an increasingly sophisticated economy. This is even more true given that our economy is undergoing a period of structural change. The resulting discrepancy between skill level and available jobs is not only detrimental to individuals, it curtails overall economic growth.

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