A Comparison of Findings and Recommendations of Two Reports:
“Preparing Our Youth for Work: A Community Assessment”,
August 2010
UNC Charlotte Urban Institute
and
“Workforce Development Sector Analysis: Focusing on Workforce Development for Adults with Barriers to Employment in Charlotte-Mecklenburg”, August 2011
Carol Morris Consulting and The Lee Institute
Two different studies in the past two years of Mecklenburg County’s workforce development programs – one looking at adults ages 25 and older, the other looking at youth ages 14-24 – found many of the same problems and offered many of the same suggestions.
Workforce development programs in the county, which range from government-run to private groups, are plagued with service duplication as well as service gaps, with little communication or collaboration among various programs. Other problems noted include difficulty finding jobs for workers with few skills, insufficient job preparation, and lack of tracking of program participants during and afterward.
Some of the recommendations shared by these reports include bringing members of the workforce development sector together to build a unified system and developing a comprehensive tracking system.
To read the report: Download PDF
Mark Sivy wrote this article while a graduate student working at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute in 2011.
