Step 3: Adult-Centered Implementation
Student Support - Find Ways to Ease the Financial Burden of Training and Learning
A final concern for anyone interested in developing learning initiatives is how to fund them. Federal resources for adult education and for workforce training have significantly diminished in recent years, and so practitioners and workforce development partnerships have had to be creative in their financing strategies, often drawing from a number of different funding streams to support innovative and results-oriented programs. (WRTP, an organization profiled earlier in this report, is well-known for its ability to combine and leverage different funding streams.)
- Public sector – Although the dollar totals are largely inadequate to meet the growing need, the public sector still offers considerable resources for workforce development and adult education. Some sources of information on this support include:
- Gruber, David. (2004, November). Using Resources Effectively: An Overview of Funding Sources for Workforce Development Initiatives, by David Gruber, Workforce Strategy Center, Retrieved May 2, 2006 from http://www.workforcestrategy.org/publications/WSC_UsingResources.pdf
- Klein-Collins, Rebecca. (2006, April). There’s no place like home: a look at local support for workforce intermediaries. Retrieved May 2, 2006 from http://www.cael.org/pdf/LocalSupportforWorkforceIntermediaries.pdf
- National Adult Education Professional Development (n.d.). Sources of federal funds for adult education and family literacy. http://www.naepdc.org/resources/CFS.html
- Employers and Individuals – Those who are able to develop programs that demonstrate real value (or even a return on investment – see section on Evaluation) to employers may find that they are able to charge fees for the training that is provided for incumbent workers and/or job seekers. Similarly, if programs are able to show that individuals will be able to complete the program with little difficulty and that the result will be opportunities for career advancements, individuals may also be willing to commit their own resources to pay for the program.
- Combined Resources – In addition to the above resources, some practitioners are testing new mechanisms that leverage multiple sources of funding at once. Two models already in the field are Lifelong Learning Accounts (LiLAs) and Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). LiLAs are matched savings accounts for education and training that are employer-based. As designed by CAEL, match dollars for LiLAs are leveraged from the private sector, with philanthropic or public sector resources used as a third-party match when possible. CAEL currently has three LiLA demonstration sites and is working with several states on developing and implementing state-level LiLA programs (for more information, see www.cael.org/lilas.htm). IDAs are matched savings accounts for low-income families to save and build assets, with the ultimate goal being the purchasing of a first home, paying for postsecondary education or starting a small business (see Corporation for Enterprise Development, www.cfed.org for more information on IDAs).
Related Organizational Example
- WorkSource (the Jacksonville area Workforce Investment Board)