What’s Next After Work First: Workforce Development Report to the Field
Mark Elliott
March 1998
Moving people into the workforce quickly may be the best first step to moving them out of poverty; but, by itself, rapid attachment is not likely to achieve the more important workforce development goals of enabling people to keep their jobs and leave poverty behind. This report explores the new challenges to building self-sufficiency brought about by the work first orientation of welfare reform, and the steps that practitioners, policymakers, and researchers may need to consider to keep their poverty alleviation strategies on track. The report includes descriptions of innovations in three key areas — employer involvement, working with work first, and post-employment services — which P/PV believes to be necessary to advance workforce development in the uncertain climate of welfare and education and training reform.