Procedimiento

Indiana

Grantee. Tecumseh Area Partnership (TAP), Inc. is the regional operator for the Region 4 Workforce Investment Board in West Central Indiana.

Industry Focus. Advanced manufacturing, healthcare, information technology, and transportation Location(s) of Grant Activities. One local workforce investment area in West Central Indiana consisting of 12 counties (Benton, Caroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Howard, Miami, Montgomery, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Warren and White) with a total population of approximately 415,000; includes the Kokomo and Lafayette metropolitan areas.

Grant Amount. $1,000,000 Project Goals

• Provide training to help older workers obtain high-paying jobs in high-growth industries • Increase the ability of American Job Centers to serve aging workers

• Improve employer awareness of the value of older workers as employees Targeted Participants

• Unemployed individuals 55 years of age or older Project Services

• Assessment, career awareness and exploration, development of an individual employment plan, and case management provided by an Aging Worker Specialist • Up to $2,400 for occupational skills training in one of the four targeted industry sectors

through existing training programs offered by community college or proprietary vendors • Computer foundation skills courses available from the state community college system.

(Early participant cohorts participated in another computer training course offered by a private provider. This training was discontinued because employers did not recognize the certificate participants received at the end of the training.)

• Workshops and group job search assistance sessions provided by dedicated AWI program staff through specialized Career Transition Hubs dedicated to older workers

• Hands-on experiential learning, provided through a paid internship at an employer’s worksite. (Twenty-six individuals had participated in paid internships as of 9/30/12.) • Seminars offered to employers to increase their understanding of mature workers and their unique skills, using a previously developed training curriculum called “Managing Your Multi-generational Workforce”

Project Management and Staffing. TAP, Inc. created three staff positions to coordinate the AWI project in the local service area, including one 50-percent-time project director and two full-time Aging Worker Specialists. In addition, the executive director, chief operations officer, and financial services staff helped provide project oversight.

Key Partners and Their Roles

• Partners in project planning and oversight. An informal strategic partnership group, with representatives from the state department of aging, local adult basic education program, state community college, employers, American Job Center operators and the

state department of workforce development, participated in project planning and oversight.

• Partners in the recruitment of AWI participants and the delivery of project services. The staff of the local SCSEP provider and American Job Center operators have been active in referring older workers and providing additional program supports.

Project Challenges

• Delays in participant and employer recruitment. As a result of the economic recession, many aging workers delayed seeking services until their unemployment compensation benefits were exhausted. By the time aging workers enrolled in the project, a number of customers needed immediate employment and were not able to pursue long-term training. It was also difficult for staff to engage employers about hiring new staff because the economic recession made them reluctant to hire new employees and because the project had limited staff to market the grant.

• Difficulty finding aging workers interested in targeted industry training. The project had a goal of having every participant enroll in and complete a training course that offered a certificate recognized by employers. In some instances this was not feasible because aging workers were either not interested in pursuing training at all or did not want to pursue training in the demand occupations.

• Failure of existing computer skills training courses to meet the needs of mature workers. Many participants served by the project needed computer skills training. However, most of the available courses that offered a certificate in computer training were too complicated and moved too quickly for mature workers to master.

Participant Outcomes

The following project outcomes are based on the data submitted on the grantee’s quarterly progress report for the period ending on September 30, 201297_:

Goal Actual Goal Achieved Percent of

Enrolled 300 359 120%

Began education/training activities 90 135 150%

Completed education/training

services 70 106 151%

Received degree/certificate 60 53 88%

Entered employment (of those who completed

education/training activities) 40 58 145%

Entered training-related employment (of those who completed

education/training activities) 30 17 57%

Other Outcomes

• _{The grantee improved the employment and training services available to older workers by} conducting a service audit and training 60 One-Stop Career Center staff members about the needs of aging workers and how to help aging workers navigate reemployment options.

• Four American Job Center staff members received specialized training on adult learning styles and helping aging workers identify transferrable skills.

• The grantee created a “Maturity Matters Employer Award” that recognized the value local employers place on mature workers through business-led employment and retention efforts.

97 _{In this project profile, we compare grantee goals to the aggregate outcomes reported by the grantee on ETA}

Form 9134 for the quarter ending September 30, 2012. These were the most recent data available at the time we were revising this report. In contrast, in the body of the report, we present findings based on our analysis of individual level data provided to us by the projects in the late spring of 2012. Therefore, the data presented in this table are from a more recent time period and a different data source than the outcomes data presented in Chapter V.