Local innovations in skill-building and employment for low-skilled workers in the United States

The main goal of this study in the United States is to identify good practices and programs to help low skilled workers to find or keep their jobs and programs that can be good examples for the Paris Region.

Helping low-skilled workers

In a country where the public system is weak and where States and localities have a high flexibility in implementing programs, many places have developed experimental and alternative approaches. This context is particularly interesting to analyze local initiatives to help low-skilled workers and French practitioners in the field of employment could learn a lot from the American context about how to build pragmatic and global programs and how to implement new programs adapted to the specific needs of employers or people.

Before presenting the initiatives and operational principles, we begin with some framework elements on the situation of low skill workers in the United States and the functioning of the employment and workforce system. In the second part we examine some promising practices to transform the workforce and employment services and what lessons can be learned.