Resource Library

This paper addresses a paucity of information about the economic returns employers receive from Registered Apprenticeships. It reviews evidence of empirical estimates of the return on investment (ROI) of Registered Apprenticeships to employers (mainly in the United States, but also with international data from developed countries where employers may invest in apprenticeships).

In 2019, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration  (ETA) to fund contractors Urban Institute, Mathematica Policy Research, and Capital Research Corporation to design and conduct analysis to build and expand the evidence portfolio on apprenticeships, including models, components, partnerships, and strategies that often include the work of community colleges. 

The DOL Chief Evaluation Office commissioned the Urban Institute and partners Mathematica and Capital Research Corporation to conduct an evaluation of the Scaling Apprenticeship and Closing the Skills Gap grant program implementation. The implementation study includes 48 grantees: 23 Scaling Apprenticeship and 25 Closing the Skills Gap grantees.

In 2019, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration to fund the Urban Institute and its partners, Mathematica Policy Research and Capital Research Corporation to conduct the Evaluation of the Scaling Apprenticeship and Closing the Skills Gap Grant Programs under the Apprenticeship Evidence-Building Portfolio, which aimed to expand apprenticeships in non-traditional industries, such as health care, information tech

In 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with Employment and Training Administrative (ETA) Office of Apprenticeship (OA) to fund contractor Manhattan Strategy Group through the 

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.

This report summarizes findings from the literature on UI administrative funding and costs, including information about 1) the sources for and methods of distributing UI administrative funding, (2) patterns in UI administrative funding and costs, (3) implications of inadequate UI administrative funding, and (4) recommendations in the literature.