The Evaluation Center ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION PROGRAM EVALUATION WORKFORCE NEEDS ASSESSMENT Briefing Paper #3: Workforce Needs Assessment 1 Liesel A. Ritchie, Arlen R. Gullickson, and Chris L. S. Coryn. The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University, 4405 Ellsworth Hall, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5237 Telephone: 269-387-5895 E-mail: arlen.gullickson@wmich.edu July 2006 Abstract This brief focuses on how ATE projects and centers are conducting workforce needs assessments and how this information is being used in relation to project implementation. We discuss needs assessment as an evaluative activity and suggest that approaching it as such has the potential to concentrate the expertise of evaluators, increasing their capacity to make more meaningful summative evaluation statements about the impacts of ATE projects and centers. Survey findings reveal that (1) a majority of grantees do gather workforce needs assessment information in one or more ways, although there is a substantial dependency on “weak” forms of needs assessment; (2) grantees who do not gather workforce needs assessment data are in the minority; (3) centers are much more likely than projects to conduct workforce needs assessment once funding is awarded; (4) a variety of factors, including type of host institution, market focus, scope of industries served, and major disciplinary focus appear to be associated with whether or not projects and centers conduct workforce needs assessment; (5) the purposes for which workforce needs assessment information is considered most useful by grantees include developmental and formative evaluation activities; and (6) many PIs perceive that workforce needs assessment is not essential to their efforts. Overall, these findings suggest that the ATE program explore the potential for establishing guidelines regarding the conduct of workforce needs assessments. The 2006 Briefing Papers are prepared from survey census data collected in February and March 2006 from principal investigators (PIs) of ATE projects and centers. 1 Each surveyed project/center was currently funded by the ATE program and had been funded for at least one year prior to the survey. The response rate for this survey was 92 percent. All PIs were expected to complete the organizational management section, which described project and center workforce needs assessment activities and served as the basis for this report. 1 1. WORKFORCE NEEDS ASSESSMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ATE PROGRAM This paper focuses on workforce needs assessments conducted by ATE projects and centers. Divided into five sections, this brief highlights how projects and centers are conducting workforce needs assessments and how this information is being used in relation to project implementation. Section 1 provides an overview of workforce needs assessment in the context of the ATE program. Section 2 examines the timing and extent to which formal workforce needs assessments were conducted by grantees and distinctions between projects 1 This briefing paper is based on survey data from the 2006 survey of ATE projects and centers. For a description of the survey’s sampling method, response rates, and overall findings, refer to the Advanced Technological Education Program Fact Sheet (Coryn, Ritchie, & Gullickson, 2006), and 2005 ATE Technical Report: Processes, Procedures, and Results (Coryn & Hanssen, 2005). and centers with respect to these activities. Section 3 describes methodologies used to conduct the needs assessments, further examining differences between projects and centers. Section 4 discusses the manner in which PIs use information garnered through their workforce needs assessments as well as perceptions of the utility of this information. Section 5 briefly summarizes the survey findings. Finally, Section 6 addresses workforce needs assessment as an evaluative activity, exploring ways in which assessment activities might be enhanced, criteria that might be established with respect to methodologies and approaches, and ways in which current evaluation activities might incorporate, support, and utilize workforce needs assessment to assist in determining project impact. Generally speaking, needs assessments are conducted for a variety of purposes, such as determining goals and priorities, program planning, justification for funding or