Managing Customers' Training Choices: Findings from the Individual Training Account Experiment (Appendices)

A key goal of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) is to provide people with choices in the types of services they receive. This goal was addressed by requiring that vouchers or individual training accounts (ITAs) be used for WIA-funded training. Workforce agencies were given a great deal of flexibility about how to implement ITAs, but had little information on which to base this choice. This report addresses this information need by presenting findings from an experimental evaluation of three approaches to implementing ITAs. The approaches varied by how much counseling was required, whether the counselor could veto a choice, and how the amount of the ITA was set. The evaluation examined the effect of each approach on the use of counseling, receipt of training, and employment and earnings outcomes.