Step 1: Need-focused Planning and Analysis
Consult Labor Market Information
If part of the problem to be solved involves addressing the future employment prospects for a group of people, an important step in the analysis needs to be a focus on labor market information. Before training people for specific jobs, learn the answers to the following questions:
- Is there a demand locally for a particular job or set of jobs?
- Is that demand projected to grow, decline, or stay about the same in the coming years?
- How are those jobs potentially vulnerable to other factors in the local, national or global economy, such as technology advances or offshoring? Similarly, are they vulnerable to likely changes in public policy?
The importance of this step cannot be overstated. It will be wasted effort if the resulting training programs fill jobs with limited shelf-life. The best programs will help participants meet the evolving demands of the local economy, not just short term demands but long term ones as well. A good guide for how to analyze local labor market information is Jobs for the Future’s The Right Jobs: Identifying Career Advancement Opportunities for Low-Skilled Workers (Goldberger, Lessell, & Biswas, 2005), which you can access online at www.jff.org.