This paper from MDRC highlights the work of YouthForce NOLA, which works to prepare New Orleans public high school students for post-secondary education and careers in three in-demand local industries: health sciences, creative media and technology, and skilled crafts. The paper provides an overview of the main principles and elements essential to creating a career pathway for high school-aged youth. MDRC is currently completing an implementation evaluation of the program.

This informational Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program video intends to assist grantees in establishing their own employer partnerships by highlighting established in-demand healthcare trainings used across 21 states to meet growing employer need. The video illustrates relationships between HPOG 2.0 grantees and their employer partners.

This journal article from The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences outlines a plan for utilizing Head Start and career pathways services offered through a community college to create a two- generational human capital approach to serving low-income families. The article outlines policy and funding that would encourage this type of collaboration across anti-poverty programs. It highlights recent research that has shown that this model can work and produce positive outcomes as evidenced by a program in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

SNAP to Skills will host the webinar Better Jobs and Increased Incomes: Integrating SNAP E&T into Career Pathways Programs on March 22, 2018 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. EST. The webinar will focus on how career pathways can help SNAP participants upgrade their skills and advance to higher paying jobs by completing training and obtaining credentials in industries with strong employment opportunities. Webinar participants will learn how SNAP E&T can integrate with career pathways programs to create expanded opportunities for SNAP participants, leverage other funding, and fill service gaps to increase impact. It will include opportunities to hear from specific communities on how they have integrated SNAP E&T with career pathways to create opportunities for participants to obtain better jobs and increase earnings.

Learn more about Wisconsin’s journey through career pathway policy alignment and system change at the local, regional, and state levels. In this webinar, participants will hear from Scott DuBenske, Education Director at the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS). He will provide a detailed look at the primary drivers of success in Wisconsin’s journey to scale career pathways. Join the webinar to learn the details of this innovative career pathways operation and gain insights into how to scale initiatives state-wide. WTCS’s career pathways initiative was supported by funds from a Round 4 Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant.

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and PHI published this report which explores the role of leaders beyond just the workforce development field, but also across professional, business, government, and other sectors to promote better quality jobs in a coordinated and efficient way. Initiatives engaged across a variety of fields would expand economic opportunity while encouraging public and private partnerships and change across policies and practices. This report shares efforts that have already been successful, while also making recommendations for future opportunities.

This brief examines the Accelerating Opportunity initiative that began in 2011, which helps adults with low basic skills obtain well-paying jobs through increasing their credentials. It reviews the implementation, impact, and cost benefits evaluations of the program in Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana. It showed promising gains for low-skilled adults in the area of education, but earnings impacts were mixed.

This report examines evidence on the Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement, which is a program that connects low-income students and local employers. The initiative helps participants earn a living wage, and employers find skilled workers. The program was effective at increasing full time college enrollment and future reports will identify gains for participants in employment and earnings.

This practice brief introduces the Tribal HPOG 2.0 evaluation, provides a summary of the findings of the Tribal HPOG 1.0 evaluation, and examines how the evaluation of the first program informed the second. The Tribal HPOG 2.0 program encourages individuals to enter the healthcare field through supporting demonstration projects that equip those individuals with the necessary education and training. It is the first in a series of briefs that will be disseminated to share lessons learned and findings from the program evaluation.

This reference resource from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation is a guide for the use of cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) to be conducted at six of the nine Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) programs that are part of the Career Pathways Intermediate Outcomes (CPIO) study. The study looks at how to monetize and determine the cost and benefits of the net present value (NPV), which can be a useful tool to policymakers when making decisions about what works in employment and self-sufficiency programming.