CEO Library

The brief summarizes lessons learned from using machine learning to study the implementation of career pathways programs. First, this brief describes the research questions that guided the study and summarizes the machine learning methods designed for the data collection and analysis activities, including study limitations and challenges encountered. It then provides lessons learned on using machine learning methods for social science research.

Graphic highlighting several Career Pathway program milestones and improvements from the 1980's through the 2020's.

The report focuses on implementation of key changes to financial and management requirements for the American Job Center (AJC) system in order to seamlessly deliver services to all workforce customers across various partners. Data for this report are drawn primarily from site visit interviews, conducted in early 2019, with administrators, board chairs and members, employer and agency partners, and frontline staff in 14 states and 28 local areas. Other sources of information include administrative data and relevant state and local documents.

The report focuses on implementation of key changes to governance of the workforce system and how state and local workforce boards engage in planning across the core programs. Discussed here are the successes and challenges, promising practices, and possible areas for further technical assistance related to WIOA for workforce system governance and planning.

The literature review aims to examine the roles and activities of navigator programs in workforce development and related fields as well as the outcomes and impacts of such programs. To address these goals, researchers identified and reviewed relevant literature published between 2010 and 2021. They also reviewed the bibliographic references of the identified articles for additional materials.

The brief summarizes the input on research priorities gathered from stakeholders and experts by the WIOA Research Portfolio project team between November 2020 and April 2021. The timing of these discussions provides important context for the findings. Many discussions were held during a surge in cases of COVID-19, when social distancing measures were widespread. Other discussions were held after the vaccines were becoming widely available and restrictions were being lifted. The conversations also spanned two different presidential administrations.

The report describes the National Health Emergency (NHE) Demonstration Grants to Address the Opioid Crisis: Implementation Evaluation findings and considers lessons learned and practices that appear potentially promising for future efforts to provide workforce services and system investments to support people directly and indirectly affected by the opioid crisis.

The report describes the characteristics of TechHire and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) grant programs participants, participation in services, training enrollment, training completion, credential receipt, and employment. It also examines how outcomes vary by participant characteristics. The data come from the Participant Individual Record Layout (PIRL).

The report of an evaluation of strategies used in the TechHire and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) grant programs. The evaluation includes implementation, outcomes, and impact studies. The impact study involves a randomized controlled trial of services provided by five grantees to estimate the effects of their programs on outcomes such as skill attainment, employment, and earnings. The focus of this report is the implementation study, which examines how 49 TechHire and SWFI grantees implemented their programs and the perceived effectiveness of the strategies used.

The report focuses on the implementation and short-term impacts of TechHire and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) — capturing between 7 and 14 months of follow-up—in the five programs that participated in a randomized control trial. The implementation analysis explored broad research questions about how the programs were implemented and what factors facilitated or inhibited implementation.

The brief draws on data collected from virtual site visits with 18 of the 23 America’s Promise Job Driven Training (America’s Promise) grant programs as part of a comprehensive implementation study to explore the development of and services provided by regional grant partnerships involving workforce development agencies, institutions of higher education, economic development agencies, employers, and community based organizations.

Employers seeking to have recovery-friendly work places might have questions about how to better support their employees who are recovering from a substance-use disorder. Small- and medium-sized employers, in particular, might not have sufficient capacity or expertise in human resources to address potential issues that can arise.

By developing partnerships with behavioral health providers, the workforce system can reduce barriers to accessing employment and training services for people in recovery by providing these services on-site at locations where potential participants already gather and are comfortable. The brief highlights an innovative effort, funded through a National Health Emergency Dislocated Worker Demonstration Grant to Address the Opioid Crisis to the state of Pennsylvania, to provide employment services in opioid treatment clinics.

The workforce system offers work readiness training through nearly 2,400 American Job Centers (AJCs) nationwide. However, people in recovery can face unique barriers to employment not covered in traditional work readiness curricula. The brief focuses on an innovative effort, funded through a National Health Emergency Dislocated Worker Demonstration Grant to Address the Opioid Crisis to the state of New Hampshire, to adapt work readiness training for people in recovery.

Community health workers (CHWs) and peer recovery specialists (PRSs) can play an important role in meeting the health care needs of people with opioid use disorder. Registered apprenticeship programs, an “earn while you learn” approach, can help build a certified workforce of CHWs and PRSs by providing classroom and on-the-job training.

The literature review examined studies related to cash transfers and training voucher programs, through a search of the literature using the bibliographic databases/search engines Google Scholar, JSTOR, and ProQuest Social Science Premium and searched for terms expressing the concepts of interest: cash transfers and training vouchers, as well as specific training voucher programs identified in the search. The resources database of the National Bureau of Economic Research was also searched for additional relevant works.

The report is the first of three to present findings from the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) Evaluation implementation study. This initial report primarily uses data from an online survey completed by all grantees, which documented the planning and implementation of grant-supported programs, including characteristics of grantees and their partners, strategies to engage employers, registering apprenticeship programs, identifying and recruiting apprentices, and the major components of apprenticeship programs, including related technical instruction and on-the-job learning.

The report presents findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), collected from face-to-face interviews with 2,586 crop workers interviewed between October 1, 2016, and September 30, 2018. It is organized into nine chapters, each beginning with a summary of the chapter’s key findings.

The report documents findings from an implementation study, describing how the Ready to Work (RTW) Partnership grantees’ programs were implemented over the full term of the grants, the institutional benefits the grantees anticipated would be sustained after the grants ended, and lessons for current workforce programs. Future reports, to be released in 2021 and 2022, will examine the impact of the four RTW programs on participants’ education and employment outcomes. Findings from this implementation study will be important in interpreting those impact results.

Ongoing research and evaluation that produce actionable, widely disseminated evidence are central to the continuous improvement of U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) programs. In addition, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (WIOA) requires DOL to conduct periodic, independent evaluations to inform the effective operation of WIOA programs and services. To support the development of DOL’s research portfolio, this scan examines existing evidence on key topics related to WIOA programs and services.

This brief documents findings from the Ready to Work (RTW) Partnership Grant Evaluation, describing how the grantees’ programs were implemented over the full term of the grant, the institutional benefits the grantees anticipated would be sustained after the grants ended, and lessons for current workforce programs. Future reports, to be released in 2021 and 2022, will examine the impact of the four programs on participants’ education and employment outcomes. Findings from this implementation study will be important in interpreting those impact results.

The report describes recent and long-term economic and policy developments with relevance for the public workforce system. This research evidence scan is one of a pair of reports developed as part of DOL’s WIOA Research Portfolio project. The companion report is A Research Evidence Scan of Key Strategies Related to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Report  (Deutsch et al. 2021).

The summary details the research activities and highlights key findings from all components of the five-year Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3) evaluation. First, researchers describe the implementation study, and provide an overview of the study’s findings. Then, they describe the evaluation technical assistance activities provided to grantees and their local evaluators and present findings from the synthesis of Cohort 1 pilots’ local evaluation reports. Lastly, they offer brief considerations of how the lessons learned from P3 can inform future efforts.

COVID-19 has caused hiring freezes and business and institutional closures, which affected disconnected youth’s ability to continue working with service providers to meet employment and education goals and basic needs. In response, and in order to continue supporting youth, providers have adapted their services. To assess these adaptations, Mathematica and its subcontractor, Social Policy Research Associates, conducted a supplemental study as part of the National Evaluation of the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3).

The Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2014 authorized the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3), which provided awarded pilots the flexibility to use funding from across multiple Federal discretionary programs to support efforts to improve the systems serving youth and youth’s outcomes. The report assesses the 14 awarded pilots’ implementation of the Federal vision for P3. Findings showed that pilots took a variety of approaches to try to improve youth outcomes, which commonly included new or enhanced services.