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.

In high-demand sectors, employers often have difficulty finding applicants with the right skills, and job seekers need training to qualify for those positions. WorkAdvance is a workforce development model that treats both employers and jobseekers as customers in these high demand sectors. This MDRC brief draws on an evaluation of four WorkAdvance programs to analyze whether they impact the long-term upward economic mobility of participants. The programs were Per Scholas and St. Nicks Alliance in New York, Madison Strategies Group in Oklahoma, and Towards Employment in Ohio. The researchers analyzed economic impacts through three years of follow-up, and they found that some sector programs had positive effects that lasted beyond two years. In some cases the economic impacts strengthened after two years, especially for long-term unemployed participants who were reentering the labor market.

In this issue brief, the National Skills Coalition proposes a $500 million Career Pathways Support Fund that would allow community colleges to provide classes and support services to non-traditional and low-income students pursuing job-driven degrees and certificates. The issue brief describes the need to support the need for postsecondary education for low-income working adults, since 80% of jobs will require some postsecondary training. Arkansas, Iowa, and North Carolina have all pursued statewide career pathways initiatives and there is some federal support for career pathways, but these efforts are not sufficient to fulfill the demand for postsecondary training that leads to high-wage employment. The Career Pathways Support Fund would fund partnerships between community colleges and employers that would offer students courses and support services leading to an industry-recognized credential.

This Urban Institute report, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation describes the first year of the second round of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants Program (HPOG 2.0). Under HPOG 2.0, TANF participants receive education and training for high-demand, high-wage healthcare occupations. In this first year report, the authors describe the 21 grantees, the services they offer, and the characteristics of participants. HPOG 2.0 programs enrolled 5,150 participants in Year One and offered training in 66 different occupations, and the majority of participants were women with at least one child. Many participants remained in training after Year One, but 19% had started jobs or received a promotion.