In order to inform the development and improvement of the Employment and Training Administration's (ETA) domestic policies and programs, ETA engages in meetings, studies, and exchanges with various international organizations and individual foreign governments. By participating in international engagement and dialogue, ETA gains valuable insight from countries outside of the United States (U.S.) to improve the services it provides to employers and American workers.
The international organizations in which ETA participates include (in alphabetical order): Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, International Labour Organization, Organization of American States, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the United States-European Union (EU) Working Group on Employment and Labor-Related Issues. In addition, ETA shares an ever-increasing collaborative relationship with its Canadian counterpart, Human Resources and Social Development Canada, in order to exchange promising workforce development policies and practices.
Representatives of foreign governments and the U.S. State Department Diplomatic Corps often look to ETA for expertise in employment and training polices and practices. In coordination with the Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs, ETA regularly briefs these individuals on various workforce development topics as requested.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) - Founded in 1989, APEC acts as a forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. ETA has participated in and sponsored several APEC conferences focused on workforce development. For example, in 2006 and 2007, ETA sponsored APEC conferences in Vietnam and the Philippines covering various topics on preparing the workforce for the 21st Century economy, including building a public workforce system, collaborative partnerships, entrepreneurship, global trade impacts, labor market information, resource mapping, and skill credentials. In 2008, ETA and the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations jointly sponsored an APEC symposium in Singapore on public-private partnerships to meet the needs of the 21st Century global workforce.
The Belmont Conference - Since the 1990s, ETA has participated in the Belmont Conference. It is a forum for senior officials and chief executives from agencies charged with employment from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. to exchange information on labor market strategies and policies.
At the Belmont Conference each of the six countries presents a paper regarding employment.
United States (U.S)-European Union (E.U) Working Group on Employment and Labor-Related Issues - The U.S.-E.U. Working Group on Employment and Labor-Related Issues was established in 1996 via a Memorandum of Understanding between the United States Department of Labor and the European Union Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. The US-EU events that ETA has participated in most recently include the Youth Employment Roundtable (Brussels, January 2008), the seminar on Gender Issues from an Employment Perspective (Washington, D.C., October 2006), a Labour Mobility seminar (Brussels, April 2006), and a Local Employment Development Policy Seminar (Brussels, June 2005).
