This brief examines how the Urban Institute, partnered with Institute for Workplace Skills and Innovation America, supported employers in designing and launching youth apprenticeship programs by drawing on five years of experience as federally funded intermediaries. The brief outlines what works in employer outreach, program design and registration, and support for employers’ mentoring and scaling efforts.

Apprenticeship training and college are often considered substitutes for each other, when they in fact work best as complements. This WorkRise resource analyzes administrative apprenticeship data to better understand how colleges have engaged with the apprenticeship system, and the experiences of apprentices in college-sponsored apprenticeship programs.

Funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Building Evidence on Employment Strategies (BEES) is a study of innovative programs designed to boost employment and earnings among people with low incomes. Programs in BEES support people with substance use disorder and/or behavioral health diagnoses and those receiving public benefits like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). In this MDRC video, practitioners reflect on being part of the study, including supporting clients, learning from other programs, and building evidence on effective employment strategies.

In recognition of Youth Apprenticeship Week in 2024, Mathematica spoke with Maryland’s Director of Apprenticeship and Training and California’s deputy chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards. This recording was supported by the Registered Apprenticeship Technical Assistance Center of Excellence and highlights in-school and out-of-school youth apprenticeship initiatives for youth ages 16–24.

Early care and education (ECE) apprenticeship programs provide structured on-the-job learning combined with job-related education or coursework and are viewed as a promising strategy to prepare people for careers in ECE or provide career pathways for the people currently working in ECE. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation learning agenda offers a strategic approach to develop a portfolio of evidence and learning about the implementation and outcomes of ECE apprenticeship programs. It presents findings from a scan of existing materials and resources on ECE apprenticeships, expert interviews, and discussions at a virtual convening. This resource summarizes what is known about ECE apprenticeships, gaps in the knowledge base, and priorities for future research.

Many human services providers struggle with recruiting and retaining staff due to work-related stress, burnout, low salaries, and lack of benefits. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief describes approaches to overcoming challenges with hiring and retaining staff for human services programs. Leaders of human services programs may find it helpful for strengthening their talent pool.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report explores how employer engagement and job development can be mutually beneficial for programs, participants, and employers. The report provides practical examples and lessons learned about strategies for engaging employers in job development. This resource is written for leaders and staff of employment programs that work with people who face complex challenges to employment.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief summarizes promising strategies used to hire and support peer support staff. Leaders of human services programs may find it helpful to draw on this information as they are considering hiring peer support staff.

The U.S. Departments of Labor, Commerce, and Education published a report, America’s Talent Strategy: Equipping American Workers for the Golden Age, which presents a bold vision and concrete actions to transform the federal government’s approach to workforce development. The strategy outlines the Trump Administration’s blueprint for how it will prepare the workforce to seize the opportunities of President Trump’s America First economic agenda and power the nation’s entry into a new Golden Age of economic growth.

This Department of Labor announcement introduces the report and outlines the five strategic pillars of America’s Talent Strategy: Demand-Driven Strategies, Worker Mobility, Integrated Systems, Accountability, and Flexibility and Innovation.

Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs support families by offering a range of services for youth, couples, and adults to increase their knowledge of healthy relationships and strengthen skills such as communication and coparenting. More than 40 HMRE programs in the current Administration for Children and Families (ACF) grant cycle chose to conduct local evaluations, and although each evaluation is designed for a specific local program, the collective learning opportunity is much greater when programs use a common framework and consistent evaluation standards and approaches.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation released this toolkit to help HMRE programs and their evaluators adopt a common approach to designing and conducting evaluations to strengthen learning and support improved outcomes. This practical resource elevates local evaluations across the HMRE portfolio and supports a unified body of evidence to inform future program design and support improved outcomes. The toolkit supports alignment, enabling ACF, program leaders, evaluators, and other interested parties to better synthesize findings across cohorts and funding cycles and make meaningful progress on helping families in a variety of circumstances.