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The report from a Job Corps pilot focused on enrolling students in college to prepare for a career in healthcare or information technology, conducted February 2017 through June 2019 with 488 students from the Pacific Northwest (ages 16-21) with at least a sixth-grade level of competency in reading and math) enrolled in Job Corps’ Cascades College and Career Academy (CCCA). This report of the implementation analysis is part of the Evaluation of the Cascades Job Corps College and Career Academy (CCCA) Final Report.

Research Questions

• How was the CCCA model implemented?

Key Takeaways

The main differences between the conventional Job Corps program and the Cascades pilot were the following:

• The pilot focused on coaching students when they broke the rules, which gave the students more opportunities to take responsibility and learn from their mistakes.
• The pilot not only offered education and training services at the center, but also gave students the opportunity to attend college, earn college credits, and obtain advanced credentials. In comparison, only a limited number of conventional Job Corps students have the opportunity to attend college or continue participating in Job Corps for a third year to earn advanced credentials through specialized Job Corps programs offered at select centers.
• The pilot career and technical training (CTT) had specified career pathways that enabled students to earn stackable credentials as they progressed and ensured that they would leave with some level of CTT credentialing even if they did not participate for the entire three years.
• The pilot provided substantial academic and non-academic preparation and support before and during college enrollment through its unique formal College Readiness module.
• According to pilot staff, requirements for program entry, such as academic assessment minimum scores, can potentially act as barriers for certain populations more than others.
• Limiting the pilot to two career pathways posed recruitment challenges and may have dissuaded some potential applicants altogether.
• Despite requiring that students pass an academic assessment as part of the pilot eligibility, pilot staff suggested that the pilot student population still had academic barriers and challenges.
• Paying for college is not only complicated for the program; it also can affect students.

Citation

Olejniczak, K., Grossman, J., Ibok, A., Klerman, J.A., Saunders, C. (2021). Abt Associates. Evaluation of the Cascades Job Corps College and Career Academy (CCCA) Pilot: Detailed Report of the Implementation Analysis. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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This study was sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research, Division of Research and Evaluation, and was produced outside of CEO’s standard research development process.