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As part of its mission to combat child labor, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) provides grants to support the work of organizations around the world that implement projects to keep children out of the child labor (referred to as OCFT grantees). Some OCFT grantees gather data to estimate, both before and after project implementation, the prevalence of child labor in the areas that they serve.

Career pathways approaches to workforce development offer articulated education and training steps between occupations in an industry sector, combined with support services, to enable individuals to enter and exit at various levels and to advance over time to higher skills, recognized credentials, and better jobs with higher pay. The U.S.

To inform future research on career pathways approaches, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office contracted with Abt Associates to understand the state of the field and develop evaluation design options. Abt conducted knowledge development by scanning career pathways studies and initiatives implemented as of February 2017 and consulting with 44 experts, then created a menu of evaluation design options to answer priority research questions. The brief gives a short overview of the project’s four reports.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) requires the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to “conduct a multistate study to develop, implement, and build upon career advancement models and practices for low-wage healthcare providers or providers of early education and child care” (29 U.S. Code § 3224(b)(4)(I)).

Appendix to the Career Pathways Evaluation Design Options Report that provides evaluation and data source exhibits.

Synthesis Matrix to the Career Pathways Research and Evaluation Synthesis Report.

The rapid rise of career pathways strategies, including an emphasis on them in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), creates a need for more evidence on this approach. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office contracted with Abt Associates to conduct the Career Pathways Design Study, to develop evaluation design options that could address critical gaps in knowledge related to the approach, implementation, and success of career pathways strategies generally, and in early care and education (ECE) specifically.

Job Corps, a program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA), is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive residential education and job training program for at-risk youth. Originally established by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the program currently operates under the provisions of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which Congress enacted in 2014.

In 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), and funded contractor Mathematica to develop Resources for Quantitative Surveys on Child Labor under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies.

The report provides an overview of an approach for evaluating the cooperative relationship between the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and community-based organizations (CBOs). The current research effort began with a review of documents provided by the OFCCP; a followup conference call with members of the OFCCP’s national office and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) revealed CBOs to be a critical part of OFCCP’s mission, enhancing their ability to reach their organizational goals.