Introduction
Research Questions
- Who participated in HPOG 2.0?
- What types of trainings were offered by grantees and started by participants?
- What skill development and support services do HPOG 2.0 grantees provide to participants and how many participants receive these services?
- What are HPOG 2.0 participants’ training, career progress, and employment outcomes?
This brief highlights key findings from the Final Annual Report of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program, 2015-2021, the last in a series of six annual reports for the HPOG 2.0 Program. The Final Annual Report updates all past annual reports and includes information on program structure, participants, training, activities, supports, and outcomes.
Purpose
Across two rounds of grants, the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program aimed to provide education and training to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other adults with low incomes for occupations in the healthcare field that pay well and are expected to either experience labor shortages or be in high demand.
This brief presents information describing HPOG 2.0 including the training and services received and outcomes obtained by those who participated. The report includes all 32 grantees’ and participants’ experiences from HPOG 2.0’s start on September 30, 2015, to its end on September 29, 2021.
Key Findings and Highlights
- HPOG 2.0 grantees varied in grant size, location, and organization type.
- While targeting the same overall HPOG 2.0 goals, grantees designed their own programs to meet local population and employer needs.
- HPOG 2.0 enrolled more than 100 percent of its target goal.
- Most HPOG 2.0 participants were women with dependent children and low-incomes.
- Many participants had prior college experience or healthcare employment.
- HPOG 2.0 grantees offered a variety of healthcare trainings at multiple career pathway levels.
- Many HPOG 2.0 participants (81%) started healthcare training, and for most, training was at the entry-level and short.
- Almost half of HPOG 2.0 participants (48 percent) engaged in basic skills activities.
- Participants also engaged in other skill development activities, the most common were introduction to healthcare careers workshops and work-readiness training.
- Few participants engaged in work-based learning activities.
- Most HPOG 2.0 participants (83%) received support for their training tuition.
- Almost all participants received academic supports.
- About half of participants received personal/logistical supports, and one third received employment assistance supports.
- Many HPOG 2.0 participants completed healthcare training, 78 percent of those that started.
- Of those that completed, two thirds (68 percent) started a job or were promoted on an existing job in healthcare.
- About half of employed participants earned between $10 and $15 an hour and almost half earned $15 an hour or more.
- Almost two thirds (63 percent) of HPOG 2.0 participants showed career progress during the Program.
- Participants’ career progress did not differ substantially by characteristics at intake.
Methods
The data in this report come from the HPOG 2.0 Participant Accomplishment and Grant Evaluation System (PAGES), a participant tracking and program management information system used by all HPOG 2.0 grantees. All results in this report are descriptive and should not be interpreted as causal impacts.
Citation
Nathan Sick and Pamela Loprest. (2022). Summary Brief: Key Findings from the Final Annual Report of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program, 2015-2021. OPRE Report 2022-236. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.