Around Campus
Center for Women and Work takes online job training program to other states
Archived article from Oct 4, 2004
By Patricia Lamiell
In today’s economy, a full-time job does not guarantee a living wage. A minimum-wage worker employed full time could earn less than $12,000 per year, hardly enough to keep a family off public assistance.
In addition, many minimum-wage employees work at odd hours and have child-care responsibilities, making it difficult for them to take advantage of training programs that could lead to better jobs and higher pay.
In 2001, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development started an innovative, federally funded pilot program that provided working single mothers, typically earning less than $16,000 per year, with online computer skills training on laptops or personal computers placed in their homes. Participants could access the training program on their own time and learn skills such as word processing, data entry and processing medical claims.
A study by the Center for Women and Work (CWW) at Rutgers found the program to be highly successful. Of 128 participants, 92 percent, or 117, completed the program. That group had an average 14 percent pay increase, and 15 went on to college or community college.
“All the women emphatically reported that they would not have been able to complete a training program if it were not available at home,” said Mary Gatta, director of workforce policy and research at CWW and author of the study.
CWW recently received a $150,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to assist other states in creating online training programs for men and women earning low wages. On Sept. 21, the center hosted a conference for labor officials from more than 16 states, plus New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., who are considering such programs. Four states – Delaware, Florida, Maine and Wyoming – are in the planning stages.
While New Jersey’s pilot program targeted single, working mothers, the state is planning to expand it to low-income men and to welfare recipients, said Henry Plotkin, executive director of the New Jersey Employment and Training Commission. Plotkin said the success of New Jersey’s program shows that online training and education can work for a wider audience than previously thought. “Everybody knows that distance learning works,” Plotkin said. “The question is, can you make it work for a nontraditional population?” According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 41 percent of employed workers have a high school education or less. They would benefit from skills training delivered at home or on flexible schedules, Gatta noted.
The New Jersey pilot program was funded by the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. Gatta said additional federal funds could be tapped for online learning programs. In addition, some states could use discretionary job-training funds or money from local workforce investment boards.
“Our goal is to expand online learning to improve opportunities for the working poor nationally,” Gatta said. “In doing so, we will be able to provide training and education to individuals who previously did not have access to such programs. In turn, raising working parents out of poverty through programs that provide a broad range of access to job training and education will strengthen their families and help close the digital divide that prevents poor people from using computers and the Internet.”
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