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Happy Anniversary to WorkforceGPS!
WorkforceGPS is celebrating our Fourth Anniversary this month. The purpose of WorkforceGPS has not changed—an online technical assistance website created to help build the capacity of America's public workforce investment system. Over the past four years, we have strived to feature useful webinars and other training resources, promising practices, and relevant evidence-based research, all with the goal of giving you the tools you need to assist you in doing your jobs. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) public health crisis has shown the importance of the public workforce system’s services in assisting individuals and businesses get through the crisis and back on the road to recovery. WorkforceGPS, with its robust webinar capabilities and communities is ideally suited to provide you with the latest guidance and resources to assist the public.
Here are some interesting WorkforceGPS statistics:
- Our user base has grown by 40 percent since we started tracking it in July 2017 from just under 51,000 to nearly 85,000 at the end of April 2020. This is an increase of over 33,500 users. Connect with your colleagues thru the Member Directory!
- We have conducted 452 webinars over the last four years, providing more than 682 hours of training to 75,500 participants. Check them out!
- We have tripled the pieces of content on the site since its launch. Learn something new!
- Since July 2017, we've had over 800,000 visits to the site.
As we mentioned last month, WorkforceGPS has published a Coronavirus COVID-19 Resource page, this includes a series of technical assistance resources and frequently asked questions (FAQs) to address grants management questions related to Coronavirus (COVID-19) to help state and local workforce leaders, and other stakeholders and partners to assist the public workforce system during this crisis. More resources are frequently added to these pages, so sign-up for a Custom Alert to get the latest technical assistance information on COVID-19.
In addition to the COVID-19 Resource page, the U.S. Department of Labor has released additional guidance in several areas including support for Dislocated Workers and States, Job Corps students, supporting the workforce needs of the agricultural sector and federal contractors.
Three Disability and Employment eLearning Modules Released and Webinar Overview Planned
eLearning is an innovative way to stay connected. Check out three self-paced eLearning modules that can help support frontline American Job Center staff and managers provide a seamless customer service experience for both people with disabilities and businesses. Each of the three modules– Serving Individuals with Disabilities, Working Across Partners and Providing Inclusive Business Services – includes strategies, tips, and scenarios to support organizational learning.
The modules were developed in part by a Task Force organized by the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration (ETA). The Task Force was comprised of 27 members from 20 states across different WIOA programs.
Click here to access these new eLearning resources and join us for a one hour live webinar on May 20th to learn more about how to use the modules to support you or the training goals of your staff!
How Does Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development Support Economic Growth and Re-Employment?
At a time when businesses are shuttered and unemployment rates are climbing, research findings from evaluations of three, multi-site small business development initiatives are especially helpful to inform a path forward for the public workforce development system. Survey and evaluation data, collected soon after both the Self-Employment Training (SET) pilot program and the New Economy Initiative (NEI) concluded, describe positive impacts on the number of jobs for self-employed workers and overall rates of employment for program completers. Findings from the five-year follow-up to the large, random assignment Grow America Through Entrepreneurship (GATE) project provide more detailed and nuanced findings on the effect of efforts to create, sustain, or expand small businesses, including the important role that the public workforce development system can play. As the focus turns to how to stimulate job and economic growth, the following resources provide timely examples of how small business and entrepreneurship programs can help:
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