Learn to use your data better.
Knowing the data exists is one thing. Knowing how to work it is another, and that is what the FutureWorks Academy is for. It brings together the tools, references, and plain-language guides we have built over years of living in this data, so your team can build real fluency in WIOA performance, the PIRL file, and what the numbers are actually telling you. It is the same material we reach for ourselves.
A path from new to fluent.
The Academy is a library of self-contained apps and guides covering WIOA performance accountability and the PIRL, the federal participant record layout every workforce program reports against. They are built to be read in order, from a first week on the job to looking up a single data element under deadline.
WIOA and PIRL Beginner's Guide
An eleven-chapter plain-language course in federal workforce performance reporting, from why WIOA exists through to the pending reauthorization. Written for new case managers, new data staff, and new board members. Its Practical Survival Guide chapter collects the glossary, the acronyms, and the ten mistakes people make before submitting a case.
Proving WIOA Value
How to turn PIRL data into a story boards and funders will act on. Five real-world use cases, what to do about lagging outcomes, and a stakeholder breakdown giving directors, program managers, and front-line staff each their own questions to ask and next steps to take.
WIOA Performance and Timing Chart
An interactive grid mapping all nine WIOA performance measures across eight program years. For any exit cohort it shows when each indicator is measured and when it is reported, which is the question practitioners argue about every quarter. Open the timing chart here, free and without the form.
PIRL Explorer
All 490 data elements of the DOL-only PIRL, searchable by element number, name, or keyword and filterable by section and by program. Every element carries its data type, definition, and code values, and the elements new for 2025 are flagged as new.
Apprenticeship PIRL Explorer
The 107 elements of the Apprenticeship PIRL Schema, filterable by section and by participant type, with validation sources and grantee notes. It adds three explainers written for grantees who arrived at federal reporting through a grant rather than through a workforce board.
FutureWorks BI National Documentation
The methodology behind the national public PIRL dataset: what is currently loaded, the rolling four-quarter coverage window, current data notices, every national release DOL has published since PY2020, and the source data behind each WIOA Impact Report.
Learning Labs
A recorded lab series on understanding and leveraging the data behind WIOA performance, produced by Midwestern Urban Strategies in partnership with FutureWork Systems.