Given high unemployment in the United States, this qualitative research studied the effectiveness of job readiness training programs from the perspective of graduates. This study replicated a job training research done by S. J. Jackson (2006) in St. Louis, Missouri, through an examination of similar programs in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. This researcher sampled participants, obtained written consent, and conducted semi-structured interviews to collect data. Once collected, the data was analyzed and summarized following methods used by the original researcher.

The aim of this study was to determine whether or not similar programs in a different geographical area would also show that adjustments needed to be made to curricula to accommodate the varying skill levels of the participants. The findings suggest that the distinctive job requirements of the 2 metropolitan areas create a need to tailor the programs to accommodate the variations of each region.

As recommended by the original researcher, this study collected and analyzed data of graduates from individual training facilities instead of grouping all of the data for the research. This aided in determining whether the program performed the same under a variety of conditions and over a broad geographic area. The data was collected from 3 sites of an employment and training program that services low-income persons. The results revealed both similarities and dissimilarities across the sites.