Findings from the STETS Transitional Employment Demonstration

This article describes the model for and the implementation of the Structured Training and Employment Transitional Services (STETS) demonstration—a major transitional-employment intervention funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. In terms of the evolution of transitional-employment-type initiatives, STETS was important for two reasons: It was the largest of such efforts yet undertaken in this social area, and its design and evaluation were based on an experimental methodology, thus generating the most robust and accurate findings yet available on the transitional-employment concept. The evaluation of STETS focused on five basic issues: participants' subsequent labor-market behavior, use of school and training programs, public-transfer dependence, life styles, and the benefits versus the costs of the intervention. The results indicate that mentally retarded young adults can perform competently in competitive employment, and that STETS-type transitional services can be instrumental in helping such individuals achieve their employment potential.