CEO Library

Interest and participation in short-term training programs have increased in recent years, highlighting the need to understand how program participants’ employment and earnings change over time. Looking only at participants’ average outcomes at specific points in time overlooks the potential variation in people’s experiences over time.

In 2016, the Chief Evaluation Office of the Department of Labor (DOL) contracted with Westat and its partner MDRC (the evaluation team) to conduct an evaluation of the strategies used in the H-1B TechHire Partnership (TechHire) and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) grant programs and measure the programs’ impacts. This short paper describes the labor market outcomes of participants in the grant programs, combining data from two administrative sources.

In 2016, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office, in partnership with the Employment and Training Administration, contracted with Westat and its partner MDRC (the evaluation team) to conduct an evaluation of the strategies used in the H-1B TechHire Partnership (TechHire) and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) grant programs and measure the programs’ impacts on participants’ outcomes. DOL and the evaluation team selected five of the 53 TechHire and SWFI programs to participate in a randomized controlled trial, or impact study.

Program developers and program staff need to understand how participant characteristics relate to training completion so that they can identify strategies and services needed for success and design programs to encourage training completion. The H-1B TechHire Partnership Grants (TechHire) and the Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) were designed to provide funding for programs that would make training more accessible to individuals who might otherwise experience barriers to training and employment.

Registered apprenticeship provides an opportunity to help strengthen rural workforce development and labor markets by training the rural workforce for local industry needs. This brief describes approaches to promoting rural apprenticeship expansion based on discussion with state apprenticeship administrators, local apprenticeship partners, and employers in seven states.

Employers are an indispensable part of registered apprenticeship (RA) programs. Because they hire and train apprentices on the job and sponsor apprenticeship programs, state efforts to expand apprenticeship depend on outreach to and recruitment of employers. This brief describes seven states’ efforts to expand the number of employers engaging in apprenticeship programs.

The Chief Evaluation Office of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL CEO) is committed to using innovative tools to meet the Department’s research, evaluation, and data analytics needs. In December 2021, DOL CEO commissioned the Westat Insight and American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) study team to explore potential opportunities to use machine learning methods to facilitate the automated data collection of labor-relevant data.

The report synthesizes findings from third-party evaluator (TPE)-conducted implementation evaluations and subsequent interim reports, supplemented by submitted quarterly narrative reports (QNRs) from March 2023. The synthesis aims to provide an overarching description of the first round of SCC (SCC1) grantees’ progress in implementing their workforce development and career pathways programming and highlight promising practices, implementation barriers, and lessons learned across the grantees.

The report provides analysis of intermediate impacts on participation in and completion of TechHire and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) programs training, receipt of credentials, and use of child care and other services, as well as on longer-term outcomes such as employment and earnings, advancement and job quality, and other, exploratory outcomes such as overall well-being, health, and housing status at about 2 years following random assignment. 

The report presents results from the America’s Promise outcomes and impact analysis and draws on findings from the previously completed implementation study to provide context for the presented results (English et al. 2022a). Chapter 1 provides detailed information on the background for the evaluation and the guiding research questions for the outcomes and impact studies.

The America’s Promise job-driven grants were designed to develop and expand regional partnerships to provide sectoral training programs that address the immediate needs of the regional labor market. The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office contracted with Mathematica and its partner, Social Policy Research Associates, to conduct an evaluation of the America’s Promise grants including an implementation study and an impact study.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund Trewon Technologies, LLC to conduct the Strengthening Community Colleges (SCC) Training Grants Study. The implementation study and impact evaluability assessment aim to understand the implementation of SCC grantees—community college-based workforce development and career pathways programs in partnership with local employers—as they address disparities in workforce outcomes and build institutional capacity.

In 2014, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office on Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) to fund contractor Westat to conduct an evaluation of the Pathways to Careers project.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation synthesizes findings implementation and impact findings from 71 Round 4 third-party evaluations. It summarizes what has been learned from the fourth and final round of the grant program to support a growing body of evidence on strategies that encourage accelerated learning, college persistence and completion, and connections to employment. The synthesis provides implications for future community college and workforce development initiatives and how to evaluate them.

The report presents findings of the Pathways to Careers: Community Colleges for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities (Pathways) evaluation consisting of an implementation study and a descriptive outcomes study. The evaluation is descriptive only, given the small numbers of participants included in the Pathways project and lack of a comparison group to measure impacts. The evaluation incorporates an overall design based on mixed data collection methods to support two interrelated and interwoven studies focused on implementation processes and programmatic outputs and outcomes.

The brief provides findings from an implementation study of the Evaluation of Community College Interventions for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). In 2014, DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) awarded two community colleges with 5-year Pathways to Careers: Community Colleges for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities (Pathways) grants to increase their capacity to provide inclusive integrated education and career development and training services to young adults with disabilities.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation, describes early outcomes of Round 4 TAACCCT colleges, describes education, earnings, and self-sufficiency outcomes of participants about 15 months after entry into 34 programs at nine selected Round 4 grantees. It also describes the implementation of those grantees’ programs.

Appendices to the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program - Round 4 Early Outcomes Study Final Report that include Baseline Data, Follow-up Survey Data, Unemployment Insurance Wage Data, Service Impacts, Methodology for Estimating Outcomes by Program, Implementation Data Collection, and Expanded Results.

Profiles of nine Round 4 Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant grantees—four single-institution and five consortia—whose grant-supported programs were included in the outcomes Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program - Round 4 Early Outcomes Study. The profiles use data collected during site visits conducted in April and May 2017.

In 2012 and 2014, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractors Urban Institute and Abt Associates to conduct the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Initiative National Evaluation. The implementation and outcomes evaluation, as well as a synthesis of third-party grantee evaluations, aims to document promising practices to deliver workforce education and training programs. 

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation focused on Round 3 TAACCCT colleges that summarizes key findings based on a survey of all Round 3 colleges that participated in the grants, totally 187 colleges, and interviews and focus groups conducted during site visits to 14 Round 3 colleges. This final report presents findings from the Round 3 implementation study.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation synthesizes findings from 87 third-party evaluations of the Rounds 1 and 2 TAACCCT grants. The findings are based on the final evaluation reports that assess the implementation of the grant activities and estimate the impact of TAACCCT on the education and employment outcomes of participants.

The brief explores factors affecting the implementation of statewide systems change in the Round 4 Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grants, focusing on the experiences of statewide consortia. It first describes Round 4’s emphasis on systems change and then discusses systems change to improve community colleges’ ability to train workers in skills needed for in-demand jobs. The brief then presents findings on systems change efforts implemented by statewide consortia composed of multiple community colleges in one state.

The brief describes evidence-to-date on career pathways generally, the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) grantmaking approach, and the extent to which grant-funded colleges implemented key elements of career pathways (defined for purposes of this brief as those in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)). It also examines additional ways colleges used the grants to build career pathways systems.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation presents survey results across all four rounds of TAACCCT grants to describe how the implementation of grant activities differed for three subgroups of colleges: rural colleges, colleges whose grant activities focused on their local economy’s recovery and expansion, and colleges that implemented work-based learning activities.