Career success and the financial stability it produces are part of the American dream. But not everyone entering the workforce has the education and training needed to succeed. Young people in poverty, disadvantaged adults, and people involved in the criminal justice system can have especially severe barriers to workforce achievement. On the other end of the spectrum, older and highly experienced workers who lose their jobs have unique needs that must be addressed. EBSI has been studying ways to help these groups succeed. In addition, we have examined operational and administrative issues and conducted performance monitoring to help government agencies and nonprofit organizations provide services effectively and efficiently.
Job Training and Economic Development

EBSI’s Job Training and Economic Development services are designed to  assist low-wage, low-skilled workers to advance in their careers, and helps unemployed, disadvantaged people learn skills necessary to secure employment.  EBSI personnel have developed programs to train eligible workers and provide ongoing support. We also continue to seek to establish partnerships with a local government agency’s and businesses to provide training to its low-wage workers, thereby expanding their skills and advancing their career opportunities. 

In addition, EBSI personnel can work with local economic development organizations and employers to identify local industries experiencing problems recruiting skilled entry-level workers, training economically disadvantaged individuals (including welfare recipients) in the needed skills and placing them in employment with these companies.

The goal of EBSI’s Job Training and Economic Development services is to develop training programs that link the work force needs of local industries with the job training and placements needs of disadvantaged persons in the community. EBSI has formed partnerships with local employers and educational institutions to design and deliver training programs for disadvantaged persons. Successful completers of the training can be placed into employment with participating employers. 

Moving Young People into Productive Careers

The Workforce Investment Act, which specifies how federal funds should be allocated to state and local agencies, focuses the workforce development system on the concept of one-stop shopping and packages tailored to individual needs. EBSI personnel has worked with community-based versions of these programs, where case managers help youth access the services they need, enlisting the support of key stakeholders to enhance individual and program success. EBSI personnel is also involved with alternative programs such as Job Corps, which saturates young people with education, training, and other services in a residential setting.

Recently, these efforts have been complemented by career-focused strategies. EBSI personnel have evaluated programs that pair workforce development services with alternative-school initiatives to prepare youth for work. Other projects have examined ways to link at-risk students with an array of educational, mentoring, career, cultural, and financial supports, as well as postsecondary training.

Job Corps

Job Corps stands out as the nation's largest, most comprehensive education and job training program for disadvantaged youth between the ages of 16 and 24. The program provides a wide range of services—basic education, vocational skills training, health care, education, and counseling—primarily in a residential setting. Each year, Job Corps serves more than 60,000 new participants in about 120 centers nationwide, at a cost of about $1.5 billion.

Studies have indicated that Job Corps has produced beneficial, statistically significant impacts on key outcomes, such as increased academic and vocational training, increased attainment of GED and vocational certificates, increased literacy test scores, and reduced criminal behavior, for broad groups of students. In addition, studies have shown a 12 percent earnings gains for Job Corps participants and that Job Corps was found to be cost-effective.

Figuring Out What's Effective with Disadvantaged Adults

Although many disadvantaged adults have some job experience, it is often not enough to garner high wages in the labor market. These individuals tend to lack experience and skills to move up the ladder or into more highly skilled occupations. Yet the demand for highly skilled workers continues to rise, especially as welfare recipients with little job experience and few skills have moved into the workforce.

EBSI personnel has evaluated welfare-to-work programs to help policymakers figure out not only how to get people into the workforce but also how to keep them there, since evidence suggests that retaining a job is as much a challenge for a disadvantaged adult as is obtaining a job. We have broad experience examining programs that work with this population to reduce their barriers to self-sufficiency. Some of our other studies have looked at how to help people get better jobs and how to get them back to work quickly when they lose a job.

Encouraging Productive Participation in Society by Criminally Involved Youth and Adults

Young people who have been involved in criminal activity or the criminal justice system face special hurdles to career success. In many cases, they confront the same challenges as other disadvantaged youth and young adults—low educational levels, spotty work history, and lack of job skills. They also may need help dealing with issues such as substance abuse and mental illness, which are prevalent among criminally involved populations. These difficulties, coupled with the temptations of a criminal lifestyle and the stigma of a criminal record, can be powerful forces to drive criminally active youth and adults away from the work and persistence required to advance in education, training, and employment.

Programs designed to help encourage criminally active or formerly incarcerated youth and adults to become involved in legal, socially acceptable activities must take into account their special needs. EBSI personnel have evaluated programs that work with criminally involved or at-risk youth and adults to determine whether they have increased participation in education and legal-sector employment and reduced involvement in the criminal justice system. We also are investigating whether mentoring and other services offered by local faith- and community-based organizations help individuals recently released from jail to obtain jobs and job skills and stay out of trouble with the law.

Operating Programs and Delivering Services Efficiently

Call centers and the internet have revolutionized the way that government agencies provide benefits and services to job seekers and people in search of training or educational assistance. EBSI personnel have examined the implications of adopting these technologies on a range of issues, such as whether the changes affect benefit receipt and customer satisfaction, whether the quality of the information collected and the integrity of the program are affected, and whether the costs of providing benefits decline. In several other studies, EBSI personnel have examined the most effective ways to measure whether programs have been achieving their objectives. And, as both the government and society have had a renewed recognition of the importance of grassroots, faith-based, and community-based organizations in the provision of personal, flexible services and emotional support to people in need, EBSI personnel have examined whether these organizations are effective in linking with the local workforce development system and in reaching the hardest-to-serve populations.

EBSI’s Job Training and Economic Development services are designed to  assist low-wage, low-skilled workers to advance in their careers, and helps unemployed, disadvantaged people learn skills necessary to secure employment.  EBSI personnel have developed programs to train eligible workers and provide ongoing support. We also continue to seek to establish partnerships with a local government agency’s and businesses to provide training to its low-wage workers, thereby expanding their skills and advancing their career opportunities. 

In addition, EBSI personnel can work with local economic development organizations and employers to identify local industries experiencing problems recruiting skilled entry-level workers, training economically disadvantaged individuals (including welfare recipients) in the needed skills and placing them in employment with these companies.

The goal of EBSI’s Job Training and Economic Development services is to develop training programs that link the work force needs of local industries with the job training and placements needs of disadvantaged persons in the community. EBSI has formed partnerships with local employers and educational institutions to design and deliver training programs for disadvantaged persons. Successful completers of the training can be placed into employment with participating employers. 

EBSI draws from a portfolio of integrated IT strategy capabilities and expertise to ensure that the agency’s foundation and direction in the application of IT are well-defined, efficient, and consistent with commercial and government best practices and legislation.

System Strategic Planning - Develop strategic plans with IT goals and objectives that are aligned with the agency’s mission, goals, and objectives. Provide a near-, mid-, and long-term operational approach to ensure that strategic planning initiatives are met.

IT Capital Planning and Investment Control - Apply best government and business practices to assist agencies in their efforts to design and implement an IT capital planning and investment control process that is integrated with current agency planning and budgeting processes. Use a proven methodology to help agencies make the most appropriate IT investment decisions and manage IT investments effectively.

Standards and Methodologies -Support the development of agency standards to improve the overall effectiveness of IT decision making and management, such as implementing effective risk management programs for large IT investments, establishing standard approaches to ROI, and implementing proven program management frameworks.

Performance Measurement -Assist in defining business and IT-oriented performance measurements to better manage agency mission performance, along with efficient and systematic means of making and evaluating those measurements.

IT Organization Development -Assist agency CIOs and IT organizations in their development to provide greater levels of IT service to their customers and addressing some of the human factors that are involved in optimizing IT investments.

IT System Analysis- Our front-end system analysis services are designed to ensure that your IT investments are focused information systems and telecommunications networks that solve the agencies real problems.

Business Process Reengineering -Identifying baseline processes; designing target business processes that, when implemented, can result in significant step improvements in mission performance and cost-effectiveness; applying automated tools within a structured methodology of interviews, group sessions, goal setting, and benchmarks/best practices to lay a foundation for change and enterprise reengineering.

Requirements Analysis -Analyzing user needs, business processes, and existing systems to define specific, unambiguous, and testable requirements upon which information system or telecommunications network engineering and implementation can be based.

Requirements Modeling and Prototyping -Applying a rapid prototyping approach, using tools such as Visual BASIC, ACCESS, Powerbuilder, and Visual C++ to demonstrate user requirements and to support proof-of-concept efforts.

User Oriented Design - Applying a prototyping approach and a structured methodology within which users and developers work jointly to define user requirements, the user interface, and various aspects of a system design, such as screen navigation, that are important to user acceptance; applying information engineering principles to capturing the user and business perspective of the design requirements.

Business Case Development -Working with the user and IT communities within an agency to ensure that justification for an information system or telecommunications investment is stated in terms of unambiguous and defensible costs and benefits.
IT System Engineering -Our system engineering services ensure that information systems and telecommunications networks are designed to capitalize on agency architectures and IT standards, to provide interoperability with other systems and networks, to be reliable and maintainable, and to make the most cost-effective use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and agency wide and government wide resources.

Telecommunications Network Analysis and Design -Applying automated tools to capture voice, data, video, and/or wireless network requirements, model network demand and load, and compare design alternatives on the basis of price and performance.

COTS Product Evaluation and Selection -Applying a structured methodology to identifying, evaluating, and selecting COTS hardware, software, and services (e.g., telecommunications services, Internet access services, software maintenance) to meet specific requirements; when warranted, adjusting the methodology, including prototypes and pilots, to address risk.

Systems Integration -Determining, testing, and exercising the appropriate configurations of two or more hardware or software components of information systems or telecommunications networks to deliver stated levels of performance, interoperability, and maintenance support within the known constraints of an agency’s IT infrastructure.

Information System Design -Translating user requirements into a system architecture and system components capable of delivering required levels of performance; instantiating the system design as a document or prototype upon which full scale development can be based with minimal risk.

Software Development -Translating the system design into testable, maintainable software modules that meet user and design requirements; applying iterative approaches to facilitate staged testing, implementation, and deployment; applying CASE tools-such as IEF, Oracle CASE, ADW/Key-and employing prototype techniques.

System Reengineering and Migration -Employing automated tools and reverse-forward engineering techniques, including software conversion, to transition existing systems to new platforms and/or architectures.

Testing and Evaluation -Applying automated and manual tools including “black box” and “white box” testing, to test and evaluate systems and networks under development.
IT System Implementation -System implementation services roll out the system or network investment in stages to minimize turmoil and disruption to existing business and to ensure early success and return on investment.

System Deployment - Delivering the developed system to field activities, including hardware delivery and installation, training, software installation and configuration, database utilization, installation testing, and coordination of installation testing with cutover activities.

Network Deployment -Provisioning the designed network to all supported locations; coordinating network installation activities with system deployment activities; and testing and validating operation of installed services end-to-end.

System Cutover and Transition -Developing the software procedures and support needed to ensure an agency’s smooth transition to a new system, including specialized training, scheduling, temporary platform or network services, and bridge software to facilitate cutover and integrity of databases.

Training and Technology Transfer -Providing tailored training packages and approaches designed to “bootstrap” an agency’s key personnel to specific skill levels in target technologies.

Cabling and System Installation – EBSI has teaming partners with experience in designing, specifying, installing, and performing end-to-end testing of cabling and associated hardware in a facility (or group of facilities), including providing connectivity to wide area networks (WAN) and carriers, all media (twisted pair, coax, fiber, and wireless), and all applications (data, voice, and video).
IT System Operations and Maintenance - Cost-effective operations and maintenance (O&M) concepts are built in during system engineering and then delivered through our partners O&M services for information systems and telecommunications networks.

Facilities Management- Operating a data center or network operations facility, including staffing, security, supplies, production operation at specified service levels, and continuity of operations.

Help Desk Operations- Designing help desk services to meet specific requirements for application help, network/PC troubleshooting, COTS software help, supporting electronic mail (E-mail), voice mail, and other telecommunications services; delivering help desk services at specified levels.

Software Asset Management -Managing the acquisition and distribution of COTS software licenses through the use of technology and in the most cost-effective manner possible.

Application Software Maintenance -Modifying application software to include corrective maintenance (i.e., eliminating software errors), preventive maintenance and modifications needed to meet new user requirements or changes in underlying design; implementing version control and release management procedures integrated with overall configuration management approach.

Network Management -Installing, configuring, and employing automated tools to track network configuration; to monitor network status and performance; to detect, diagnose, and resolve network problems; and to project future network capacity requirements.

IT Program Management - Our program management services ensure that IT solutions are integrated into the overall organizational and programmatic infrastructure for optimal improvement in performance and that IT projects are successfully managed-start-to-finish-through the fierce competition of an agency’s IT budget process.

Project Management-Defining, establishing, and monitoring project budgets and schedules for end-to-end performance; selecting milestones and review criteria consistent with the agency’s life-cycle methodology (e.g., military standard [MIL-STD-498], Evolutionary Development Methodology); linking and integrating project management approach to configuration management procedures, agency WBS standards and accounting codes, quality assurance (QA) procedures, and system and network development methodologies.

Quality Assurance and IV&V-Providing a QA capability that is independent of the system or network development activities; providing an independent means of verifying and validating these development activities end-to-end.

IT System Security- Applying our IT system security capabilities to our clients’ environment, we help them identify vulnerabilities, manage risk, and implement security process that improve the protection of their IT systems and critical resources.

Data Sensitivity Analysis-This process begins with the identification of an organization’s critical data and how these data are used. A determination is then made regarding the sensitivity and classification of the data.

Sensitivity Assessments-Examining computer systems, networks, information flow, administrative procedures, and security mechanisms to determine compliance with existing security policies and requirements. Assessing threat, providing identification and vulnerability analysis, and performing functional and penetration testing.

Intrusion Detection and Audit analysis-Designing an audit analysis capability that provides the appropriate level of detection for an organization, including identifying audit analysis and intrusion detection requirements and operating environment. Performing a vendor survey of existing COTS products, developing an implementation plan, building a prototype or pilot if necessary, and integrating and implementing the selected solution.

Security Awareness Training-Providing computer security awareness training, including development of training modules and instructor’s guide and performance of the appropriate level of training.

Security Solution Integration and Implementation-Selecting appropriate security solutions and integrating these solutions into the client’s environment. Prototype and pilot development in our teaming partner’s Information Assurance Center is frequently done before an enterprise wide implementation.

Security Architecture and Engineering-Working with the client to define solutions that are non-intrusive, provide access to those who need it, and protect high-value, critical information.

Certification and Accreditation of Sensitive Systems- Performing the security process required for certification and accreditation of sensitive systems, including developing a computer security plan, performing a risk assessment, performing a security test and evaluation, and developing the accompanying documentation (e.g., security features user guide, trusted facility manual)

Disaster Recovery-Providing disaster recovery, continuity of operations, and contingency planning support, including those for software applications, which are processed on various computer platforms. Assistance in this area includes reviewing and critiquing existing disaster recovery and continuity of operations plans, developing disaster recovery and continuity of operations plans, performing a disaster risk assessment, and recommending ways to increase the effectiveness of the plans and the continuity of service.

IT Advanced Technology- Our advanced technology services provide leading edge and emerging technology expertise, allowing organizations to capitalize on the latest IT advances. Our full range of services include: technology evaluations, feasibility studies, prototyping, systems engineering and software development, installation and implementation, and life cycle support. A primary focus of this area is on Internet/intranet and web-based application development.

Technology Evaluations and Feasibility Studies- Researching and application of experience to provide recommendations and assessments in areas such as COTS evaluations and comparisons, COTS integration strategies and feasibility, technology insertion, technology upgrades, system concept feasibility, and projected return on investment for systems or technologies.

Prototyping - Applying a structured methodology to identify, evaluate, and select advanced technologies (e.g., Internet/intranet and web) to meet specific requirements; when warranted, adjusting the methodology, including prototypes and pilots to address risk.

System Engineering - Delivering integrated software and hardware solutions using proven methodologies and documented standards to ensure successful delivery of complex systems that provide interoperability with other systems, utilize existing agency architectures and standards, and support high reliability requirements.

Software Development- Translating requirements, prototypes, and system designs into specific functionality that is documented and tested (using unit, system, integration, and beta tests) to support organizational missions and processes.

Installation and Implementation - Deploying software and COTS products to centralized or geographically disparate user communities using controls, such as configuration management/configuration control and repeatable test procedures, to ensure consistent and predictable system operation.

Life-Cycle Support - Applying and tailoring system development methodologies to provide controls, plans, and traceability that ensure delivery of documented, tested, and requirements-compliant systems.