Vet Training Needs More Accountability
Published Feb 6th, 2006 by FedNews OnLine
http://www.fednews-online.com/view_publication.aspx?publicationId=8864
“Labor reports that states will not be held accountable to a common national standard for veterans employment until 2007,” according to the testimony.
Challenges to implementing the JVA provisions on DVOP and LVER include integrating and training veterans’ staff at select “one-stop offices” and an inability to have incentive awards programs.
A lack of funding and training is impeding the Act’s full implementation at one-stop offices.
“Current funding would cover training for only about 16 percent of all veterans’ staff each year, while annual staff turnover was averaging 18 percent,” said Nilsen.
Incentive awards programs could not be implemented in 17 states for various reasons, including an incompatibility with states’ collective bargaining agreements and morale issues among employees that had limited opportunities to serve with veterans.
Most state workforce administrators surveyed, however, believe the reforms improved the quality of veterans’ services and employment outcomes.
GAO cited two factors that weakened the DVOP and LVER programs: the lack of local data and the absence of coordinated oversight.
The absence of performance data from many states has limited federal oversight and weakened local level accountability.
“Little or no effort has been made to coordinate oversight or use the monitoring results to target assistance to states and localities that are most in need,” said Nilson.
Only five states’ VETS directors reported working with Labor’s Employment and Training Administration to share monitoring information and to cooperatively address problems.
GAO recommended that the secretary of Labor:
- Provide clear guidance to combine veterans’ staff into one-stop offices
- Aid in the growth of state use of the incentives awards program
- Increase coordinated oversight of JVA provisions
- Utilize monitoring results to create program improvements
To view the testimony, visit http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06357t.pdf.