4 Implementation Issues in Delivering Training Services to Adults under WIA

The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) represents a poten-tially important reshaping of the federal government’s approach to worker training as part of publicly funded workforce development ser-vices. First applied nationwide in program year (PY) 2000, a number of the act’s key provisions were to some extent initially greeted with confusion and uncertainty by workforce practitioners charged with implementing them. Moreover, PY 2000 represented a period of rapid economic growth and extremely tight labor markets that limited the demand for training services among what would normally have been the program’s traditional clientele. Both of these facts combined to make WIA’s first full year of implementation rather tentative. Subse-quently, WIA has matured substantially, as the workforce development system has gained greater confidence and comfort with implementing WIA, and changes to the economic climate have increased the demand for training services