The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration will host a webinar on November 16, 2021 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET to introduce CareerOneStop and its tools and resources to new users. CareerOneStop is a free comprehensive career, education, and job website that helps users conduct career exploration, make education and training decisions, search for jobs, and find assistance at the closest American Job Center. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development will also moderate.

The Urban Institute will host a webinar on October 13, 2021 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET to explore persistent rural poverty, which occurs in one in seven rural counties and leaves rural and Native communities lacking capital, quality jobs, housing, infrastructure, and services. The webinar includes presentations from six rural community development financial institutions on what has worked to transform the rural and Native areas they serve into opportunity and the challenges that remain. Speakers include representatives from the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, HOPE, Oweesta Corporation, Fahe, cdcb, Communities Unlimited, and the Urban Institute.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, Division of Youth Services, will host a webinar on October 6, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET to showcase success stories of youth work experience providers and lessons learned from implementing their programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Videos covered in the webinar include Early Childhood Resource Center, an Ohio-based child care work experience provider; Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, which offers summer youth employment; New Hampshire Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG), which connects youth with health care providers; and the Virginia WIOA Youth Summer Program. The webinar will allow participants to interact with Division of Youth Services staff to learn more about work experience requirements.

In observance of National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, September 19-25, this compendium highlights nine practices that represent holistic approaches to delivering adult education programs. These programs represent approaches for modeling effective integrated education and training (IET) programs—transitioning adult learners from adult basic education to postsecondary education or training, and increasing access to adult education services. The practices are drawn from programs in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.

This podcast highlights the SOAR Program at Tri-County OIC, which is affiliated with the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania region. SOAR is a reentry program for young adults (ages 18 to 24) who have been involved in the criminal justice system. The comprehensive program offers customized academic training, vocational training, intense case management, and stackable/portable credentials training. Part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Voice of Experience video series, the podcast is presented by SOAR Project Manager Christina Johnson.

The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals will host a webinar on September 29, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT to discuss this fall’s emerging labor market as pandemic unemployment benefits are scheduled to end. This discussion-style webinar, led by Kirkland J. Murray of the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation in Maryland and Elisabeth Sanders-Park, author of “No One is Unemployable,” will offer participants a perspective on this new reality. The webinar will also include steps to help workforce development practitioners prepare for these changes, and what tools they can offer to job seekers in the evolving and expanded labor market.

The Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse will host a webinar on September 29, 2021 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET to discuss how workforce development practitioners have adapted employment services to remotely offer work readiness activities or education and training services to low-income job seekers. Discussion will highlight a recent brief’s findings on common challenges that make it difficult for job seekers to utilize remote services and ways that practitioners can deliver services remotely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Presentations will also include a demonstration of where to find information about employment interventions, including remote service delivery within the Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse.

The National Staff Development and Training Association (NSDTA), incorporated as an American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) affinity group, aims to develop professional and organizational capacity at the local, state, or federal level. NSDTA will host a hybrid event from October 3 through October 6, 2021. With an “Embrace Agility & Advance to New Heights” theme, presentations cover six tracks: Workforce Development and Planning; Human Services Leadership; Curriculum Design and Instructional Technology; Organizational Development/Organizational Effectiveness; Training & Facilitation; and Evaluation & Research. The live event will take place in Spokane, Washington. A registration fee is required for participation.

The Center for Advancing Policy on Employment for Youth (CAPE-Youth) seeks input on best practices to improve transition outcomes for youth and young adults with disabilities. CAPE-Youth, with funding support from the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policies, is launching a national study on “Youth and Adult Systems Collaboration.” Research from this study will cover best practices, challenges, and strategies for improving interagency collaboration and service coordination to improve transition outcomes for youth and young adults with disabilities. Input is sought from supervisors and direct service providers working on behalf of state and local-level government agencies. Lessons learned from the study will be used to develop technical assistance and professional development tools and resources supporting state-level interagency collaboration and best practices of service coordination. Please indicate interest in the study here. For more information on the project, please contact the CAPE-Youth team at info@capeyouth.org.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief reviews changes in the healthcare workforce, especially for Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) related occupations, during the first seven months of the COVID-19 pandemic from January through September 2020. More than half of HPOG participants train for Certified Nursing Assistant, Home Health and Personal Care Aide, Licensed Practical Nurse/Licensed Vocational Nurse, or Registered Nurse occupations. During the first four months of the pandemic, healthcare sector employment decreased over 9 percent but recovered about 60 percent of the losses through September 2020. The brief can support HPOG and healthcare workforce stakeholders when interpreting future impact evaluation analyses results or investing in future healthcare workforce programs.