DOL and VA oversee four employment and training programs targeted to veterans (see table 1). DOL administers its programs through state workforce agencies in each state. DOL oversees these programs through federal officials stationed in each region, including a Director of Veterans’ Employment and Training located in each state. DOL’s VETS administers three of the employment programs targeted to veterans. VETS also funds its portion of the TAP, which is a joint program with the Department of Defense and VA. VA funds the Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment Program. In December 2012, we examined the extent to which certain federal veterans’ employment and training programs vary in terms of the services they deliver and the veterans who receive them. We reported that some federal veterans’ programs provide similar services (e.g., job placement) but largely serve different populations. In addition to its programs administered by VETS, DOL offers employment and training services to the general population—including veterans. These programs include a national system of public employment services available to all individuals seeking employment. Those services include job search and labor market information and, as with its veterans programs, DOL administers its general programs through state workforce agencies that provide services at AJCs. Formerly known as One-Stop Career Centers, AJCs unify service locations for multiple federally-funded employment and training programs in a single system. AJCs serve two types of customers—job seekers and employers—and provide access to a full range of services pertaining to employment, training and education, employer assistance, and guidance for obtaining other assistance. Federal law requires these programs to give veterans priority over the general population, meaning that veterans can access services ahead of the general population or, if funds are limited, that veterans access services instead of the general population. From April 1, 2012, to March 30, 2013, AJCs served about 1.6 million veterans nationally through DOL’s Employment and Training Administration. Most of DOL’s employment service programs—both for veterans and the general public—report the same performance measures, known as common measures: Percentage of program exiters who have obtained employment (entered employment rate); percentage retaining employment for 6 months after exiting the program (employment retention rate); and 6-month average earnings of program exiters (average earnings). TAP was established over 20 years ago to meet the needs of separating servicemembers during their period of transition to civilian life by offering job-search assistance and related services (see fig. 1). TAP consists of several significant components provided by the Department of Defense, VA, DOL, and the Small Business Administration, among others. One of the components, DOL’s TAP employment workshops, consists of comprehensive 3-day workshops at selected military installations nationwide. Workshop attendees learn about job searches, career decision-making, current occupational and labor market conditions, resume and cover letter preparation, and interviewing techniques. Participants also are provided with an evaluation of their employability relative to the job market. TAP workshops must have a minimum of 10 participants and a maximum of 50 participants, per DOL guidelines. The Department of Defense is generally required to mandate participation, with some exceptions. Under the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011, DOL has been required to use a contractor to conduct these employment workshops since November 21, 2013. The funding level for the DOL-provided employment workshop component of TAP for fiscal year 2014 was about $14 million, according to DOL’s 2015 Congressional Budget Justification. With these funds, VETS provided nearly 7,000 employment workshops that served over 207,000 participants, according to DOL. DOL reported that this was an 11 percent increase in participants, compared to fiscal year 2013. DOL attributed the increased demand for its employment workshops to the fact that TAP became mandatory for all transitioning servicemembers in fiscal year 2013. DOL requested $14 million for fiscal year 2015 in order to provide about 5,400 employment workshops with a planned average class size of 35 exiting servicemembers or spouses. This amount included the costs for conducting the pilot workshops outlined in the Dignified Burial Act. All of the content from TAP is also available online. The online or “virtual” curriculum was added to benefit servicemembers at geographically separated units, those with a short-notice separation and those contemplating retirement because some servicemembers may not have access to classrooms for transition instruction. Online TAP mirrors the traditional TAP offerings, and allows servicemembers, veterans, and spouses to access it from anywhere in the world. The Dignified Burial Act required DOL to provide TAP to veterans and their spouses at locations other than military installations for the purposes of assessing the feasibility and advisability of providing such a program. The act required the workshops to be piloted for 2 years starting in January 2013: in three to five states (at least two of which had to have high levels of veteran unemployment); at a sufficient number of locations to meet the needs of veterans and spouses within each pilot state; anywhere except military installations (could, however, include National Guard or reserve facilities not on active duty military installations); and, in a manner that generally follows the content of TAP. The Dignified Burial Act also required DOL to provide to Congress an annual report on the provision of the workshops for each year of the pilot. In response to the Dignified Burial Act, DOL provided the same employment workshops—including the same curriculum delivered by the same contractor—for the veterans’ employment workshop pilot as it uses for active servicemembers as part of on-base TAP. DOL officials said the TAP workshops offered employment training elements that were relevant to veterans, such as information on the federal hiring process, resume writing, and job searching practices. DOL officials also said that its TAP workshops satisfied the Dignified Burial Act’s requirement that the training should generally follow the content of the TAP.DOL has published two annual reports on the pilot. As required by the act, DOL provided the workshops to veterans in three states that volunteered to assist with the pilot—Georgia, Washington, and West Virginia—from November 2013 to December 2014. DOL officials said they selected the pilot states using a number of factors, including selecting two states with high veteran unemployment rates—Georgia and West Virginia—as DOL also considered states’ veteran population, required by law. number of military installations, infrastructure, geographic dispersion, and capacity to administer the program.West Virginia because it also presented the opportunity to test the pilot in one rural state. Officials said that they selected DOL instructed each state to hold 5 workshops; West Virginia subsequently held 7 additional workshops and Washington canceled 1, bringing the three-state total to 21. DOL provided guidance to the pilot states about where to hold the workshops and other requirements and then asked the state workforce agencies to select individual workshop locations based on DOL officials’ belief that state workforce agency officials would have a better idea of where the workshops were most needed. For example, DOL told pilot states the workshops could be held anywhere except military installations, as generally required by law, and that the classrooms needed to have internet access and be able to accommodate a large number of people. While each state held the workshops at locations other than military installations, the three state workforce agencies used different approaches in selecting locations for the workshops. Georgia, for instance, chose locations in part using veteran population data from VA’s website, Washington chose several locations close to military installations, and West Virginia chose locations mostly near rural areas. While states used different methods to select the workshop locations, Georgia and Washington held most workshops at AJCs. West Virginia held workshops mainly at National Guard installations and community college campuses because the state’s AJCs did not have classrooms that could accommodate large numbers of participants or the technology to present the course materials, according to state officials. DOL also instructed states to market the pilot to veterans and their spouses; each state developed its own marketing strategy. According to state workforce agency officials we interviewed, they worked with other organizations to inform veterans about the workshops. For example, officials from Washington’s state workforce agency said they collaborated with federal, state, and non-profit organizations, such as the National Guard, Job Corps, and local VA offices, and also sent marketing e-mails to unemployed veterans they identified through the Department of Defense’s Unemployment Compensation for Ex-servicemembers program. Similarly, in West Virginia, officials said they asked their partners, including veteran service organizations and community colleges, to inform their constituents about the workshops. West Virginia officials advertised the workshops through mass marketing efforts, such as television and the state workforce agency website. A Georgia official told us they also worked with state and local partners to inform veterans about the workshops and that they recruited participants through a homeless women’s veterans center. Additionally, all three states developed flyers that they distributed through their various partners. Finally, DOL instructed pilot states to help DOL collect information on pilot participants by enrolling workshop participants in the AJC database to get basic demographic data on them and eventually track their employment outcomes. Officials said they are collecting outcome data for workshop participants using the same measures as other DOL employment programs, namely whether veterans found a job, if they retained the job, and their average wage earnings. Additionally, the department asked states to administer DOL surveys that asked participants about their satisfaction with the workshop, including whether it accomplished its objectives and how much participants valued the training. Workshops were conducted during weekday business hours due to AJCs not being open during evenings or weekends. on the veterans’ employment workshops; officials said that developing a new survey would have been costly and time consuming because, for example, it would have required both departmental and Office of Management and Budget approval.customer satisfaction questions such as the extent to which participants felt the workshop was useful rather than why participants took the workshop.