Career pathways programs provide post-secondary education and training that is organized as a series of manageable steps leading to successively higher credentials and employment opportunities in growing occupations. Among policymakers, practitioners, and researchers, there is a good deal of interest in the career pathways model to help adults with low incomes move into living wage jobs. OPRE’s Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) project and the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 1.0) Impact Study, both conducted by Abt Associates, are among the earliest evaluations of programs using a career pathways framework and both recently released impact findings three years after random assignment.
To help policymakers, practitioners, and researchers consider all of these new findings, OPRE recently published a report by Abt Associates summarizing three-year impact findings from across the nine PACE programs and the HPOG 1.0 Impact Study. PACE and HPOG 1.0 used experimental designs to evaluate ten education and training programs for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other adults with low incomes and low academic skills. They measured impacts on education, employment and earnings, and other life outcomes.
The three-year cross-site report shares several major findings:
- Most programs had large impacts on credential receipt, primarily for short-term credentials, such as Certified Nursing Assistant.
- These large impacts on credentials, and only modest impacts on other measures of educational progress such as months of training, did not, on average, lead to increases in earnings, with one exception.
- One program, Year Up, did increase earnings at the three-year mark with some of the largest earnings impacts reported from randomized evaluations of training programs for adults with low incomes to date.
- Few programs increased employment overall, with generally high employment rates for both the treatment and control groups.
- Four of the five HPOG-funded programs increased employment in the healthcare field, which is one of HPOG’s statutory goals. (Note: four of the nine PACE programs were funded in whole or in part by HPOG and trained participant for jobs in the healthcare field.)
- There was little evidence that any of the programs, other than Year Up, affected outcomes related to well-being, including financial distress, public assistance receipt, personal student debt, and children’s well-being.
Reflecting on these findings, the new report also discusses some plausible explanations for why Year Up is more effective than other programs. As we shared in a previous OPRE Insights blog post, Year Up is an intensive, one-year program for young adults aged 18 to 24 who have earned their high school diploma. The report discusses possible reasons for Year Up’s large earnings impacts, including: the program’s maturity at the time of evaluation, strong implementation, intensive employer engagement, rigorous screening of applicants, provision of stipends, and longer trainings relative to other programs.
Collectively, these three-year findings provide a lot of information to consider for those operating, designing, evaluating, and funding job training programs. To build on this learning, both the PACE and HPOG 1.0 evaluations are also examining findings six years after random assignment — with both site-specific and cross-site reports expected in late 2021 and early 2022. We look forward to continuing to share findings from HPOG and PACE with you and to better understand how career pathways programs impact participants over time.
Nicole Constance is the deputy director of OPRE’s Division of Economic Independence (DEI). Her work in OPRE has focused on employment and training, career pathways programs, parents involved in the child support program, and justice-involved parents. She is especially interested in improving employment opportunities for low-income populations, particularly young men, noncustodial parents, and parents who have been incarcerated.
Amelia Popham is a Senior Social Science Research Analyst whose work focuses on the well-being of low-income families. She has a particular interest in the coordination of federal safety net programs, participatory approaches to research and evaluation, and building capacity in underserved communities.