Multiple Employment Training Programs

In the current fragmented system of federal job training programs, many programs are targeting the same populations. This overlap in client groups raises questions about duplicated effort and wasted government resources. GAO's analysis of nine programs that target the poor showed that the programs had similar goals, often served the same kinds of people, and provided many of the same services using separate, yet parallel, delivery structures. The overlap can add unnecessary administrative costs at each level of government--federal, state, and local.

GAO found that: (1) although the government attempts to provide employment training assistance to disadvantaged people to help meet the challenges of increased global competition and a changing U.S. economy, many federal employment training programs target the same populations; (2) the amount of overlap in federal training programs varies according to the type of services provided; (3) although each employment training program generally has a well-intended purpose, there is the potential for duplication of effort and increased administrative costs; and (4) the nine programs that target the economically disadvantaged have similar goals, serve the same target groups, and provide many of the same services using separate delivery structures.