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The report summarizes 46 impact evaluations that focus on programs that embed elements of the career pathways approach. In the past decade, the career pathways approach to workforce development emerged as a promising strategy to promote long-term earnings advancement and self-sufficiency by helping workers attain in-demand postsecondary credentials (Fein, 2012). The approach involves a combination of rigorous and high-quality education, training, and other services to support participant success (WIOA, 2014). The programs that are at the center of the 46 evaluations in this meta-analysis are diverse across a wide variety of dimensions—including what they offer, how they provide those offerings, who they serve, and their local contexts. Based on robust evidence, the meta-analysis reports the average impacts from these 46 evaluations, revealing that the career pathways approach leads to large educational progress gains, large gains in industry-specific employment, small gains in general employment, small gains in short-term earnings, and no meaningful gains in medium/longer-term earnings. Additional, exploratory analyses identify some factors that appear to associate with smaller or larger impacts in the evaluated programs.

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Research Questions

• What is the overall impact of the career pathways approach on participants’ educational progress and labor market outcomes?
• Which characteristics of career pathways programs are most closely associated with impacts?

Key Takeaways

• The career pathways approach achieved large gains in participants’ educational progress and employment in the industry trained for. The approach had small impacts on overall employment.
• The career pathways approach increased participants’ short-term earnings by a very small amount but did not meaningfully increase medium or long-term earnings. Researchers noted that few evaluations reported earnings over more than five years, indicating an opportunity for additional research.
• Larger educational progress impacts were associated with a staffing agency serving as a partner, or when employer engagement activities involved employer input on curricula or program design. Programs that had a community or technical college as the lead or partner all had positive educational progress impacts, but those impacts were generally smaller.
• Larger labor market impacts were associated with programs that had a larger share of Black participants. Smaller labor market impacts were associated with programs that offered flexible sequencing of courses or offered tuition or other financial assistance.

Citation

Peck, L.R., Schwartz, D., Strawn, J., Weiss, C. C., Juras, R., de la Rosa, S. M., Greenstein, N., Morris, T., Durham, G., Lloyd, C. (2021). Abt Associates. A Meta-Analysis Of 46 Career Pathways Impact Evaluations: Final Report. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.