The 100% New Mexico Initiative is a community-led, data-driven approach to ensure all New Mexicans have access to vital services, including job training, transportation, and parent supports. Local communities are guided by a seven-step process to survey community members, assess results, and target evidence-informed solutions to resolve barriers to all community members accessing vital services. This Chapin Hall research brief series describes the baseline results from 6,549 local community members from 11 counties about barriers they face accessing vital services.  

More than half of community college students nationwide intend to pursue a four-year degree; however, in Texas only one in four community college students transfer to four-year institutions successfully. To improve transfer rates and, ultimately, bachelor’s degree attainment, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) launched the Texas Transfer Grant Pilot Program with money provided by the U.S. Department of Education’s Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund. MDRC evaluated the pilot program to build evidence about its efficacy and help inform future THECB decisions about the program. This brief provides findings about the pilot program’s impact on students’ enrollment and academic outcomes at Texas four-year institutions during the fall 2022 and spring 2023 semesters—two semesters after students initially received the fall 2022 transfer grant.

With digital literacy quickly becoming essential for success in most personal, civic, educational, and career pursuits, adult educators across the country are searching for guidance on what digital skills to teach. In a national landscape scan for the Digital Resilience in the American Workforce project, numerous stakeholders—including adult educators, employers, and workforce experts—identified a need for common definitions and frameworks for digital skills. This EdTech Center resource provides the requested definitions and a compilation of digital skill frameworks.

ProLiteracy hosted a virtual training on September 25, 2023, where participants learned innovative strategies for guiding learners through the journey of career exploration and how to integrate them into classroom activities. The presenter discussed the importance of teaching essential career-related vocabulary, user-friendly tools for skill and interest assessment, and online resources that open doors to vital information about diverse careers. Attendees learned how to connect adult learners with real-world insights that will enhance their digital literacy skill set.

Existing digital employment tools and technologies often fail to meet the needs of historically underserved and marginalized communities, who experience barriers of access and digital literacy related to digital employment tools. These barriers might exacerbate existing inequities in the labor market for underserved and marginalized populations. This Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation brief focuses on digital employment tools created with Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design approaches and describes the role of digital employment tools for low-income populations. The brief details how each phase of the HCI design approach differs from other approaches to developing digital employment tools.

This Journal of Economics and Political Economy study applies the multidimensional digital inequality framework to analyze the complex ways in which digital access varies among low-income populations. This research specifically examines the results of digital skills training for individuals receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits and how it shapes their Internet use as well as returns of use. The research shows the importance of the multidimensional nature of digital inequality, focusing on how access and use of digital technologies varies among individuals with formal digital literacy skills training. Findings from the research offer insight into the need for additional technological investments and multistakeholder engagement.

This American Institutes for Research infographic presents data that highlights how states are making an impact in growing and diversifying Registered Apprenticeship Programs. It presents an overview of current federal funding to states to support apprenticeship expansion, including a map of the number of active grants in each state and territory. It also identifies states that are leading the way in registering new apprentices, increasing the percentage of apprentices in the overall labor force, and expanding apprenticeship in new industries.

Skills are emerging as a valuable new currency in the labor market, challenging traditional degree-based hiring practices. This Jobs for the Future resource delves into catalytic opportunities to drive the adoption of skills-based models and unlock the full potential of workers, including:

1. Connecting data systems
2. Improving data tools
3. Addressing trust issues
4. Accelerating narrative change
5. Aligning siloed skill movements

Without adequate skills training, many individuals, particularly those from marginalized communities, can get stuck in a “low pay, no pay” cycle. Research has shown that sector-based training programs — which train people for high-quality jobs that align with the labor force needs of employers in targeted industry sectors — can raise individuals’ employment rates and earnings. But sector-based training programs are small and expanding them to a level that meets the economic need of workers has been challenging. This MDRC brief presents results from interviews with stakeholders in the workforce development field as well as lessons learned from earlier studies of sector-based training programs.

The National Youth Employment Coalition is hosting a virtual workshop on April 11, 2024 at 2:30 ET to provide an innovative approach to mentoring that combines technical skills and emotional intelligence, focusing on adaptability and resilience. Attendees will receive a toolkit to engage youth effectively in mentorship programs, including critical thinking, problem-solving, effective communication, and resilience skills.