Two recent programs funded through H-1B skills training grants are the TechHire and the Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) initiatives. The TechHire program provides accelerated skills training, and the SWFI initiative provides flexible training and childcare supports to help adults obtain high-tech skills. The common elements of these programs are an effort to help make training more accessible and an effort to connect disadvantaged populations to high-growth sectors of the labor market.

In June 2016, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) within DOL competitively awarded 39 TechHire grants and 14 SWFI grants. The funding opportunity announcement stipulated that grantees be a member of a partnership that included the following eligible entities: the public workforce investment system, education and training providers, and business-related nonprofit organizations. In September 2016, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) of DOL awarded a contract to conduct an evaluation of strategies used in the TechHire and SWFI grant programs. The evaluation includes three studies on implementation, outcomes, and impacts.

This report focuses on how 49 TechHire and SWFI grantees implemented their programs and the perceived effectiveness of the strategies used.

Some key findings include:

• Recruitment of qualified applicants was a challenge for grantees due to the low unemployment rate during most of the grant.
• Grantees varied in the extent to which the occupational training funded through the grants was similar to existing training programs.
• Retention of participants in the training programs was a challenge for grantees due to participants' lack of basic skills and personal barriers.
• Helping participants pass credential exams was a challenge for some grantees because some participants did not understand that exams were required or how difficult the materials would be.
• Grantees reported success bridging the workforce system and childcare systems and working with childcare providers to alter their services to accommodate participants' needs. However, grantees experienced less success convincing employers to accommodate participants' childcare needs.
• Grantees experienced challenges placing participants into jobs. Grantees attributed these challenges to participants' lack of soft skills, participants' barriers such as lack of transportation, and a mismatch between the level of the training and the skills demanded by employers.