This report presents findings from an OPRE evaluation of New York City’s Young Adult Internship Program (YAIP) that strove to provide subsidized employment and support services for disconnected youth. Implementation and short-term impact studies were previously conducted, so this report details longer term impacts and performs a cost analysis. While the program initially led to strong employment and earnings gains for participants, the results faded after 30 months and participants did not transition into education, employment, military, or training programs at higher rates than the control group. At $5,431 per participant, this intervention is on the lower end of the spectrum of similar programs, which can range from $4,200 to $10,000 per group member. The authors concluded that “light-touch employment and personal development services” are insufficient to translate into sustained employment and earning outcomes, and that future programs should pay more attention to transitioning their participants from subsidized work to long-term unsubsidized employment.

This detailed report by the American Enterprise Institute reviews the skills gap in the labor market today and underlines the inefficiencies in coordination between the U.S. Department of Labor and programs seeking to train workers. Because there are more jobs for middle-skill workers than there are people to fill them, the Federal Government created programs like the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to upskill workers into these positions for the benefit of the workers and the economy. The report explains ways to improve workforce development initiatives by clarifying the program to grantees, improving coordination between college financial aid officers and American Job Center caseworkers, making requirements for data collection and reporting more flexible and easier to track, finding other sources of state and federal funding for WIOA beneficiaries, partnering with private businesses to offer training, and allowing training providers to transfer their credentials between states. These initiatives will streamline the workforce development process and allow for fewer inefficiencies and higher quality training.

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) prepared a toolkit with findings from a multi-year research project covering 28 main ways that the Federal Government supports tribal innovation within workforce development. Also included are four case studies of approaches that some tribes use to address workforce development.

This report from MDRC presents the interim impact findings from an ongoing evaluation of YouthBuild, a program that employs at-risk youth in the construction field, teaching them marketable skills while also supporting them to earn their high school diploma or GED. Many of the reported impacts from this randomized control trial were positive, and each is examined in the report.

This report from the Urban Institute highlights the work of three community-based organizations taking part in the JPMorgan Chase’s New Skills at Work Initiative. It showcases promising approaches and strategies to engage employers to fill their employment needs and train workers to meet these needs.

This report from ICF for the Baltimore County Department of Economic and Workforce Development summarizes the implementation and evaluation of the Accelerating Connections to Employment (ACE) program. The ACE program is designed to improve workforce and employment outcomes for low-skilled workers with partnerships between Workforce Investment Boards and community colleges. The results of the evaluations found positive outcomes for low-skilled workers and fidelity to the program model between various sites.

This blog by Lane Schonour, Goodwill Vice President of Learning and Development, looks at the challenges faced by many non-profits related to talent management in today’s economy. Mr. Schonour shares insights and lessons learned by Goodwill as a result of their work in this area and how Goodwill has had success with managing the talent pipeline by ensuring they have the right mix of skills and competencies to meet current and future business requirements.

This Aspen Institute report looks at five workforce organizations that were funded through Capital One Foundation’s Human Capital Innovation Fund (HCIF) to test new strategies and approaches to enhance the placement of low-income individuals for employment. Each program serves a different population and targets different industries. The objective of the report is to encourage, promote, and share lessons learned on the ways that grantees can leverage HCIF funds to build effective workforce approaches. The report also highlights areas which U.S. workforce development organizations typically find the most challenging, including developing and maintaining strategic partnerships with other organizations, engaging with employers, and delivering support service strategies tailored to the needs of training participants.

Community colleges have the potential to provide low-cost, high-quality training to students if they partner with local business and industry leaders. This toolkit from the Brookings Institution provides practical strategies for community colleges to use to build and maintain partnerships with local business leaders. The toolkit has three sections: creating a navigator for industry partners, key characteristics of productive partnerships, and practical steps for building relationships. Each section has recommendations that are based on research and conversations with business and industry leaders, community college leaders, and intermediaries.