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.Thus, given JTPA s eligibility rules, virtually all PY 1998 JTPA adultexiters were classified as low income.This percentage dropped sub-stantially among PY 2001 WIA exiters to about three-quarters of thosewho received intensive or training services.Similarly, there has been apronounced drop in service to cash welfare recipients, with nearly one-third of exiters classified as such in PY 1998, a proportion that is quitea bit higher than the available figures for WIA.17With respect to other barriers, WIA exiters are much less likely tobe single parents (44 percent are single parents in JTPA versus fewerthan 30 percent in WIA), but they are about as likely as those whoexited under JTPA to be individuals with a disability or to be limitedEnglish speakers.18 Curiously, among WIA registrants, those whoreceive training are somewhat less likely to be low income or welfarerecipients, or to be high school dropouts or single parents, than arethose who receive intensive services but no training, even though thosewith these barriers presumably are more in need of training than oth-ers.19In Chapter 2 of this volume, Barnow and Smith reflect on a long-standing concern (e.g., Anderson, Burkhauser, and Raymond 1993;National Commission for Employment Policy 1988; U.S.GeneralAccounting Office 1989) that local areas engage in cream skimming, by serving those more able to find employment from among those eli-gible.One might expect this concern to be exacerbated in WIA, whichpurports to promote universal access and lacks the explicit adjustmentsfor participant characteristics in setting performance standards thatJTPA had.Evidence to date indeed suggests local areas ability andwillingness to serve a wider customer base than they once did.At thesame time, their priority for serving those who are low income stillseems clearly in evidence.Establishing Customer Eligibility for TrainingAmong the tensions embedded in WIA, local areas need to balancethe legislation s requirements to husband resources by sequencing ser-vices across the three tiers, while also being customer-focused andresponsive to customer needs.Based on our data collection, we con- Implementation Issues in Delivering Training Services to Adults under WIA 117clude that local areas generally seem quite flexible and are not adopt-ing a rigid work first interpretation of WIA that severely limitsaccess to training.For example, only a few areas of the dozens westudied required customers to demonstrate evidence of repeated unsuc-cessful job search as a condition for being approved for training.However, although few sites imposed duration requirements of thissort, some basic steps were always required before training would beauthorized.Thus, consistent with WIA, customers needed to undertakeat least one core and one intensive service before being approved fortraining, which might entail registering with the state Employment Ser-vice, attending a one-stop center orientation, undertaking an assess-ment of occupational skills and interests, conducting labor marketresearch, and attending one or more preemployability workshops,among other things.Thereafter, as part of their training decision, theymight be expected to research eligible training providers and interviewprospective employers or former trainees.To accommodate these vari-ous steps, it generally took customers several weeks to complete a coreand an intensive service, make a decision to train, and then conductresearch associated with selecting a training program and a vendor.Theshortest typical period that any site reported was about two and a halfweeks, while the longest period was about nine weeks.This variabilityreflected how case management appointments were sequenced, thespecific job search and information gathering that different local areasrequired, and the extensiveness of the assessment process they used.These requirements notwithstanding, local areas emphasized theirflexible approach to dealing with customers, and pointed out that thosewho were demonstrably in need of intervention adults with littlework history, for example could move from core to intensive ser-vices, and then on to training, more quickly than others.The custom-ers own motivation and initial preferences also seemed to be veryimportant.Thus, customers who missed appointments or took longer toschedule them could undergo protracted periods in core and intensiveservices before being approved for training.By contrast, those whoknew they wanted and needed training, expressed this preference earlyin the intake process, and were prompt in scheduling appointments andcompleting research or other requirements could move along quitequickly. 118 D Amico and SalzmanHelping Customers Make Training ChoicesWIA requires that local areas should provide access to training in away that maximizes customer choice (WIA Title I.B.134).At thesame time, WIA is very performance driven and demands high levelsof system accountability in achieving employment and related out-comes.In keeping with this, local areas have an interest in ensuringthat customers make wise training choices, because choices that resultin poor outcomes will negatively affect the local area s attainments onits core measures of performance.20 Similarly, results from the CareerManagement Account demonstration suggest that case managerssometimes have difficulty relinquishing control to customers over theirtraining decisions when they feel that customers are making poorchoices (U.S.Department of Labor 1999).21Through the visits we conducted to nearly 50 local areas overWIA s first several years, we concluded that local areas endeavor toensure both customer choice and system accountability by promoting amodel of informed customer choice, wherein case managers ensurethat those authorized to undertake training receive ample informationand assistance, so that they are led to make prudent choices (or at leastdefensible choices) on their own.(This approach closely approximatesthe middle approach, Approach 2 in the experimental ITA evaluationdescribed by Decker and Perez-Johnson in Chapter 6 of this volume.)This general approach of promoting informed choice seemed to beembraced virtually everywhere we visited.However, the specificmechanisms that local areas adopted differed, as did the rigor withwhich they were applied.Thus, nearly all areas required customers toundertake a formal assessment of their basic skills or occupationalinterests, although some assessment processes were much more exten-sive than others
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