Retraining in Michigan has mixed results

LANSING, Mich., July 1 (UPI) -- Job retraining in Michigan is showing mixed results with many dropouts, many still in school and some with jobs they enjoy, program analysts said.

Undeniably, the No Worker Left Behind program was popular with 130,000 enrolled in the program and 20,000 on waiting lists as some regions ran out of funds for training, The Detroit News reported Thursday.

But more than 14,000 dropped out of their tuition-free programs and 47 percent of those with training complete have been unable to find work, the newspaper said.

About 16,000 have graduated from training programs and found jobs, but there are no statistics to show if those jobs pay better, the same, or worse than jobs they had before the trainees lost their jobs.

The $10,000 available for two years of training are available to unemployed adults, those who received layoff notices or someone whose household income was less than $40,000.

"One would expect the placement rate to be higher than 53 percent," said Carolyn Heinrich, director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin and author of a study on the federal Workforce Investment Act, which funds the training programs.