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The brief reports results of an exploration of survey non-bias using data collected for the evaluation of the Ready to Work (RTW) Partnership Grant program. Additional detail on the RTW program and its evaluation are also provided.

The America’s Promise evaluation explored the strategies that regional partnerships used to engage with employers and the lessons they learned. The brief draws primarily on interviews with grantee and partner administrators and frontline staff collected through virtual site visits with 18 of the 23 America’s Promise partnerships in fall 2020. Across these 18 partnerships, advanced manufacturing was a target industry for 11 grant partnerships, health care for 9 grant partnerships, and information technology (IT) for 10 partnerships.

The evaluation of America’s Promise Job Driven Training (America’s Promise) provided a unique opportunity to hear directly from employers on their collaboration with the workforce development system. The brief draws on 31 interviews with employer representatives to describe why they chose to participate in regional workforce partnerships, how they helped shape partnership activities, what they perceived as successes and areas for improvement, whether they planned to sustain involvement, and what findings might provide insights for employer engagement more broadly.

The report presents the findings from the America’s Promise Job-Driven Training Grants implementation study, which included virtual site visits, telephone interviews, a grantee survey, partner network survey, and Workforce Integrated Performance System (WIPS) data analysis, using data from 2017 to Q2 2021 and describes how the 23 America’s Promise partnerships used America’s Promise grants to provide sector-based employment and training services and form regional partnerships, including how the partnerships changed over time to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2016, the Employment and Training Administration, in partnership with the Chief Evaluation Office, awarded a contract to Abt Associates, with the Urban Institute, MEF Associates, W.E. Upjohn Institute, Capital Research Corporation, George Washington University, and McBassi & Company to evaluate the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) training programs across all 46 grantees, mostly community colleges. 

The AAI programs seek to: 

The report presents results from the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) grant employer return-on-investment (ROI) sub-study. The primary data source is an Employer Survey administered to 68 employers that hired apprentices supported by an AAI grant. Each employer was asked to describe one of their apprenticeship programs in detail; all together, these programs represented 2,854 apprentices. The survey was deployed between March 2020 and October 2020, towards the end of the 5-year AAI grant period.

The report presents findings from the outcomes study of the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) evaluation. It examines the characteristics, reasons for enrollment, program experiences, and postprogram outcomes of AAI apprentices and pre-apprentices. The data sources include an AAI Apprentice Survey administered to a sample of approximately 2,600 registered apprentices, program records from grantees, and administrative earnings data from the National Directory of New Hires.

The report presents findings from the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) demonstration study that examined the impact of employer engagement efforts on employers’ take-up of registered apprenticeship. The primary data source is data collected by the two grantees (MassHire and Philadelphia Works) in the demonstration on their efforts to research, contact, and subsequently develop apprenticeship programs with employers.

The brief is part of the the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) evaluation, and is based on site visits and follow up clarification calls to 6 AAI grantees that constituted 7 State or local workforce development boards. The evaluation team talked primarily with staff in management and leadership positions, although some agencies invited direct-service staff, such as career counselors and business services staff, to join the conversation.

The brief examines the recruitment, program experiences, and post-program employment and earnings outcomes of American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) apprentices from underrepresented populations—defined as women and people of color (Black, Hispanic, and Other Races, specifically Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Native American, or multiple races)—relative to all AAI apprentices and historically represented populations—defined as White men. The brief combines data from a number of sources, including U.S.

The brief discusses the number and value of indirect benefits of American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) registered apprenticeship programs to participating employers. Supporters of apprenticeship, including state and local workforce agencies, can use these findings from the AAI evaluation to promote adoption of apprenticeship by employers. Direct benefits estimates were based on employers’ reports of a reference apprentice’s increased productivity. Indirect benefits were employers’ reported values relative to the value of the reference apprentice’s increased productivity.

The brief examines the earnings growth of American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) apprentices compared to the earnings growth for comparable workers during the same period. Researchers limited the sample to apprentices who started their program by 2018 and had a valid Social Security Number so that they could match their earnings records and follow them for 2.5 years after registration. They define comparable workers as workers with earnings records in the U.S.

The brief discusses costs to the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) grantees of supporting employers and sponsors in their efforts to create apprenticeships. The brief also explores how grantees progressed in setting up apprenticeship programs and how costs varied over time. Practitioners and policymakers, including state and local workforce agencies, can use these findings to plan future public investments in apprenticeship expansion through intermediary organizations like the AAI grantees or direct subsidies to employers. The AAI grantees began operations in October 2015.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) funded Evaluation of the Pathway Home Grant Program study was a result of the annual process to determine the Department’s research priorities for the upcoming year. It contributes to the labor evidence-base to inform Reentry and Employment and Training programs and policies and addresses Departmental strategic goals and priorities. In particular, the brief focuses on the first 20 Pathway Home grants awarded in 2020 and their experiences implementing their programs during the COVID-19 pandemic between January and December 2021.

The report for the Evaluation of the Pathway Home Grant Program. Individuals released from incarceration face substantial obstacles to successful reentry and self-sufficiency once in the community. The Pathway Home Grant program seeks to help mitigate these obstacles by providing linked pre- and post-release employment services to improve individuals’ chances of finding meaningful employment and avoiding recidivism.

The purpose of the Older Workers Implementation and Descriptive Study is to build evidence about the implementation of the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) and other U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) workforce programs serving older workers to inform the continuous improvement of SCSEP. To inform evaluation activities, the report reviews the literature and identifies the state of the evidence on workforce programs, including those that serve older workers and populations with similar employment barriers.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance (OTAA) to fund contractor Mathematica, and its partner Social Policy Research Associates, to conduct the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Navigators Formative Study under the Navigator Evidence-Building Portfolio of studies.

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor The Urban Institute to design and conduct an evaluation that examines critical policy issues, lessons learned, and challenges states faced administering Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs during the Great Recession that began in 2007 and the economic recovery that followed.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) funded contractor Abt Associates to develop two evaluation reports for projects funded under the Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF) initiative: The Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF): A Synthesis Report on Evaluation Findings and Experiences and Process Study of the U.S. Department of Labor’s “Pay for Success” Pilots in Two States. The WIF initiative awarded 45 grants, allowing for the implementation of employment-related interventions.

The report identifies the interventions implemented by the 43 Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF) grantees, summarizes findings from the evaluation reports produced between 2015 and 2019, and provides observations regarding the evaluations themselves. Finally, it highlights lessons learned from the experiences with evaluations under WIF and discusses how these lessons might be applied in future initiatives involving grantee-led evaluations.

Appendix to Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF) Evaluations: A Synthesis Report on Findings and Experiences Synthesis Report: Appendix A. Summary Briefs of Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF) Projects, Appendix B. List of All WIF Projects, Appendix C. WIF Background and Context Materials, and Appendix D. Understanding WIF Evaluation Findings.

The report documents the early efforts of Massachusetts and New York as they designed and implemented the Pay for Success (PFS) pilots funded under the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF). This report examines the seven-month period grantees had to develop their grant applications after the Solicitation for Grant Awards (SGA) was announced, the four months of planning once awards were made, and the initial approximately 10 months of operation.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) sponsored a process study of the two Pay for Success (PFS) pilots, conducted by Abt Associates, to document project implementation and provide information on the PFS approach to policymakers and program administrators. This is the process study’s report. An earlier interim report documented the development of the pilots and their initial implementation. This final report updates information about the implementation of the pilots and includes observations based on the entirety of the DOL supported portion, or first phase, of the PFS grants.

The briefs aim to inform states about the current status of evidence on Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) programs and strategies. These briefs are intended to be useful to states as they refine their programs and build evidence in response to the legislative and administrative requirements. These briefs describe findings from research on the effectiveness of elements frequently used in RESEA programs. Each of the three briefs reviews and considers the evidence and gaps in one of three subject areas:

The brief summarizes the state of the evidence for basic career services—a category of reemployment services—to help unemployment insurance (UI) claimants return to work. The brief closes with a discussion of gaps in the current evidence base and implications of evaluating these kinds of Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) program components.