4.4 Initial Enrollment Appointment

The enrollment appointment must consist of a comprehensive participant assessment and the development of an initial employment plan.

4.4.1 Assessment

During the initial appointment, the FSET worker must conduct a comprehensive, individualized participant assessment to identify the strengths, needs, and preferences of each FSET participant. The FSET worker must inform the FSET participant that all assessment forms will be kept confidential and that the questions about barriers are being asked to connect participants with resources to overcome barriers to employment. The FSET worker must explain that participants can opt out of answering questions related to barriers.

Individualized assessments must include, but are not limited to, identifying job readiness, level of job seeking skills, and other potential barriers to employment such as housing, transportation, family, or legal issues. The assessment process includes gathering past and current information from the participant or other relevant sources, either through informal or formal assessment. FSET agencies are encouraged to develop their own assessment tools or may use existing assessment tools for conducting a comprehensive, individualized assessment.

For the assessment at the initial appointment, the FSET worker must review past and present information about the following areas:

Barriers Assessment: Collect information regarding barriers to employment in five categories: work participation, housing, transportation, legal issues, and job readiness.
Education Assessment: Collect and document the participant’s educational level and training information and relevant test scores. Achievement on educational test scores (e.g., TABE, WRAT, etc.) and certificate/degree completion should be tracked and updated upon reassessment, as necessary.
Employment Assessment: Collect employment information for an individual or document if there is no employment history.

Information gathered through the assessment process is the driving force behind the development of an employment plan (EP). Once the initial EP is developed, the FSET worker must reassess participant progress in employment and training activities to determine if any additional support, changes to the EP, or changes to assigned activities are needed. Follow-up assessments may indicate if current activities or support should be increased, decreased, or eliminated. Assessment and re-assessment are ongoing FSET processes.

Assessment results may also reveal the need for FSET supportive services or for a referral to other community programs to address participant needs that are outside the scope of FSET. FSET workers must be aware of available community programs and resources that commonly serve FSET participants. The FSET worker must assist the participant in connecting with community programs, if necessary.

This page last updated in Release Number: 17-01
Release Date: 5/18/2017
Effective Date: 5/18/2017