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 the implementation and short-term impacts of TechHire and SWFI—capturing between 7 and 14 months of follow-up—and involves a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of services provided by five grantees to estimate the effects of their programs on outcomes such as skill attainment, employment, and earnings. The RCT assessed the extent to which TechHire and SWFI’s combination of training, case management, and support services helped people increase their employment and earnings over and above what they would have achieved in the absence of these programs. It is also looked at whether these programs led people to obtain the kinds of middle- to high-skilled jobs that the grant programs intended and to receive more support—including childcare—than those who were not in the programs.