Form questionnaire Gold Card Initiative questinonaire

OMB Control Number: 1205-0436

Expiration Date: 11/30/2013

Gold Card Initiative –Monthly Survey of Program Provision of Services

INTRODUCTION

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration and Veterans Employment and Training Service are jointly surveying the Wagner-Peyser Employment Service’s provision of services to post-9/11 era veterans. Your responses will help us understand the implementation and operation of the Gold Card Initiative within the Wagner-Peyser Employment Service.

On August 5, 2011, the President announced the Gold Card Initiative, a high-priority joint effort of two Department of Labor agencies (the Employment and Training Administration, ETA, and the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, VETS) to provide intensive employment services more quickly and easily to unemployed, post-9/11-era veterans, in anticipation of changes in U.S. military needs overseas. The Gold Card Initiative, which began in November 2011, is particularly focused on post-9/11-veterans or those veterans serving on active duty from September 11, 2001 and documenting their receipt of priority of service for intensive and staff-assisted services through the workforce system.

This survey, which will be 100 percent electronic in transmission and submission, consists of two questions:  1) the number of post-9/11 era veterans served through the Wagner-Peyser Employment Service and 2) the number of those veterans who received intensive services, and one demographic identifier: 1) the two letter state code. Each question is limited to the time parameters of the previous month of operation. For example, the current survey will be for January 1, 2013 through January 31, 2013. The submission of the surveys’ results will be required by the 15^th of each subsequent month. For example, the first survey concerning monthly data for January 2013 will be received February 1, 2013 and submission of data is due February 15, 2013. Monthly collection would begin in January 2013 and continue through August 1, 2013 to provide continuity in data collection and a point of comparison and technical assistance to states for new elements to be incorporated into the Labor Exchange Reporting System (LERS).

The information to be collected through the monthly survey is needed for two purposes: 1) to provide sufficient data to develop performance benchmarks for the forthcoming data items in the LERS and 2) to provide more “real-time” data on service levels so that federal and state program managers can assess levels of service, and if needed, provide timely technical support and assistance to the states to better serve these individuals.

The monthly data collection is needed in order to collect and provide data sooner than would be available through the LERS, to have sufficient data points to understand service levels in the near term for technical assistance, and to establish statistically validated performance expectations when the new data elements are fully implemented in LERS. Quarterly data would neither be available soon enough nor be sufficient to identify variations in performance in the coming months in order to provide technical assistance, conduct corrective action, or set benchmarks in the data system itself. Thus the monthly survey would enable ETA to collect data relevant to this initiative prior to August 2013 and would also provide multiple points of data that could be used for validation.

If you have any questions as you complete this questionnaire, please contact Heather Parker at the United States Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration at 1‑202-693-2633 or [email protected]

1. Please enter your two letter state code: |__|__|.

2. How many post-9/11-veteran participants are new enrollees in your program? (By new enrollees, we mean individuals who have been enrolled in your program during the current month.)

|__|__|__|__|__| NUMBER OF POST-9/11-VETERAN PARTICIPANTS

3. How many participants of your post-9/11-veteran new enrollees received intensive or staff-assisted services? (By intensive or staff-assisted, we mean as defined by the current Wagner-Peyser definitions.)

|__|__|__|__|__| NUMBER OF NEW ENROLLEES RECEIVING INTENSIVE OR STAFF-ASSISTED SERVICES

Persons are not required to respond to this collection of information unless this survey displays a currently valid OMB control number (OMB 1205-0436, expires 11/30/2013). Participation is voluntary however this is the single point of data for each state’s implementation of the Gold Card Initiative. Public reporting burden is estimated to average 4 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate to Heather Parker, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research, Room N-5641, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20210

Prepared by the Employment and Training Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research 1