Narrative: III. b. 6. B.

Under Minnesota statute 116L.98, the Minnesota legislature has required specific and long-term performance indicators of state-funded workforce training programs since 2014. These indicators include: - Employment and median wage prior to enrollment - Program enrollment - Training enrollment, occupation associated with training activity, and training completion - Credential attainment - Program exit and duration of time in program - Consistent employment and median wages for three and eight quarters after program exit - Comparisons are available by participants’ education level, race, gender, and geography, and are available by year. DEED’s agency-wide performance staff has already integrated WIA programs into its public facing Uniform Outcome Report Card. This activity will continue under WIOA, thus setting additional indicators of performance upon which workforce programs in Minnesota will be assessed.

State statute also require Minnesota to produce a net impact analysis of workforce programs. In January 2015, the Governor’s Workforce Development Board (GWDB) published Minnesota’s first report on the net impact of WIOA Adult and Dislocated Worker programs, using a rigorous methodology developed by an external economist, Dr. Raymond Robertson.

The initial results of this analysis are striking. Over the medium term (defined as five to eight quarters after program entrance), WIOA Adult program participants had earnings approximately 37 percent higher than they would have if they had not participated in the program. For Dislocated Worker participants, the earnings impact was 31.7 percent – or $10,349 more in earnings – on average for participants exiting in PY 2007, and 13.2 percent (or $5,121) for participants exiting in PY 2009. The difference between the two years may be related to the economy; the first cohort exited just as the recession was starting, whereas the second cohort exited as the recession was technically ending.

For employment over the medium term, WIOA Adult program participants were approximately 15 percent more likely to be employed than they would have been if they had not participated in the program. For Dislocated Workers, the impact was 13.3 percent for the PY 2007 cohort and 8.2 percent for the PY 2009 cohort.

The programs impacted different populations differently, often with positive equity implications. A headline result relative to Minnesota’s struggles with racial employment disparities, WIOA Adult has larger impacts on employment and earnings for African-American participants than for white participants. Additionally, the Dislocated Worker program shows larger impacts for women than for men.

DEED is currently building on this analysis to include more recent cohorts of WIOA Adult and Dislocated Workers, as well as and the state’s career pathways program, FastTRAC. Moreover, the analysis will provide impacts of specific program services, including various types of training and support services. It will also include an analysis of program benefits relative to program costs, which has never before been estimated in the Minnesota context. DEED will publish this analysis by January 2017.

Finally, DEED submits workforce training and UI wage records to the Minnesota Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS), which links secondary and postsecondary education and workforce to identify the most viable pathways for individuals in achieving successful outcomes in education and work. The capacity will exist very soon for DEED to request more robust data on WIOA program participants who enter, persist and complete postsecondary education after exiting when program tracking typically commences.