	Background

With WIA, the Congress sought to replace the fragmented employment and training system that existed under the previous workforce system. Among other things, WIA sought to streamline program services at one-stop centers; offer job seekers the ability to make informed choices about training, and provide private-sector leadership to manage this new workforce development system. Although both Education and Labor have provided information to states and local implementers about how to interpret WIA’s requirements, according to state and local implementers we interviewed, the guidance does little to specifically address the concerns about how to integrate services while not adversely affecting target populations or violating program requirements. Training Options May Become Limited as Training Providers Drop Out of the System

Although training providers are making efforts to participate in the WIA system, they believe that the new data collection and reporting requirements it imposed are too burdensome to warrant their participation in the system, especially given the few individuals sent to training. As a result, they are reducing the number of course offerings they make available under WIA–in effect, reducing the training options from which WIA job seekers have to choose.
What GAO Found

The Workforce Investment Act was passed in 1998 to unify a fragmented employment and training system. The act sought to change the workforce development system by streamlining the delivery of employment and training services, enabling job seekers to make informed choices among training providers and course offerings and enhancing the private-sector role. During the early stages of the act's implementation, state and local implementers were challenged by the significant changes to the workforce system. Mandatory partners have concerns about how to participate in one-stops without adversely affecting their respective target populations, violating their own programs' rules, or straining their financial resources. Training providers have struggled to find ways to effectively meet the act's data collection and reporting requirements that they believe are burdensome and, as a result, have reduced the courses offered to job seekers.