Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a capacity-building approach to program interventions that aims to promote soft skills, positive relationships, community involvement, family-school-work linkages, and academic engagement among youth to create a fully supportive and safe environment. The PILOT tool, developed by Child Trends, works on implementing those strategies concretely in the workforce for youth in primarily middle skill jobs. After working with five organizations to integrate the PILOT tool into their workplaces, Child Trends found that it not only improves the work outcomes of vulnerable youth populations and generates internal and external conversations about PYD, but that many places that practice these initiatives do so without formal recognition or prompting and thus go unfunded. Child Trends expects to further help program stakeholders, leaders, and funders in the next phase of their program when they look into how to systematize PYD policies.

The Health Profession Opportunity Grants Program (HPOG 2.0) provides funding for education and training initiatives to help TANF recipients gain skills for in-demand health care professions. This report is part of an ongoing series that describes the flexible programs and services states offer, catalogues the characteristics of participating individuals, and evaluates program outcomes. Thus far, one-third of participants took basic skills training and about two-thirds of those participants started health care training. Half of participants nationwide earned professional certifications and started or were promoted in a health care job. While some supportive services like case management were widely used, others like job placement or multiple certification services were underutilized. With five years of curriculum goals, HPOG will continue to publish future reports as the program progresses.

This report from Brandeis University’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy uses data on Secure Jobs participants who entered skills training to explain how Secure Jobs sites use short-term skills training programs for their participants. Key findings include: Secure Jobs participants who enroll in skills training programs are comparable to those who do not, and they show moderate employment gains, most notably in job retention. Secure Jobs participants choose training programs in subjects ranging from health care to manufacturing. About half have chosen training in health care-related fields. Participants who enter training in traditionally female-dominated fields, including health care, sales, and service, are more likely to find employment than those in traditionally male-dominated fields such as construction and manufacturing.

Because most jobs today, especially sustainable and well-paying jobs, require a college degree, those without postsecondary credentials are at risk of being left out of or underemployed in the workforce. While national attention is being focused on increasing this number in aggregate, more attention needs to be paid to populations like opportunity youth, immigrants, or the previously incarcerated that have historically had low college enrollment rates and continue to be underserved. This Jobs for the Future report details four ways that institutions can initiate and sustain guided pathways and cross-cutting policies: 1) political leadership and commitment, 2) data systems capacity and use, 3) braided funding, and 4) capacity building and continuous improvement. They also highlight four policies for students to help them connect, enter, progress through, and complete college: 1) strong on-ramps, 2) ongoing intensive student support, 3) comprehensive financial aid, and 4) robust career pathways. More information on the current conditions and policy opportunities within each category is provided in the report.

Two recent reports from the Institute of Higher Education Policy and the Education Trust found that programs offering free tuition to low-income students typically do not have the intended impact of making college more affordable. Because these programs only cover the leftover tuition of what other forms of federal and state aid do not cover, they usually do not lower other financial barriers, such as housing, transportation, or textbook costs. While some program advocates have said that these reports analyze financial aid programs in a vacuum and not in context of other forms of aid, the reports nonetheless recommend close scrutiny of free tuition programs and suggest adding other forms of financial support to fully enable low-income students to attend college.

On October 17, Mathematica Policy Research will discuss the historical trends of the work activity of people with disabilities, as well as new insights from three studies on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients. Background on the employment landscape since the Great Depression, coupled with an analysis of changes in work activities of SSDI recipients from 2005 to 2015, will contextualize the arena of disability work and insurance to inform policymakers about the obstacles to employment that this population faces.

This video from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation highlights the findings of a large-scale rigorous research study on the effectiveness of career pathways programs. Under the Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) study, an evaluation was conducted to assess nine innovative career pathways programs around the country.

To understand and better meet the needs of young parents, the Urban Institute analyzed 14 programs that serve this vulnerable and often disadvantaged group to explain common themes and useful approaches in service provision. The institute’s summary report provides demography and challenges for young parents and a historical reflection on young parent programs as well. Common services included education and credential attainment, employment assistance, and parenting help, and other supports like mental health counseling, referrals for government services, child care, and transportation assistance. Based on repeated successes and challenges across programs that serve young parents, the report recommends increased federal funding and flexibility with that funding, plus more corollary supportive services and tailored solutions based on the programs’ specific target populations.

This detailed report by the American Enterprise Institute reviews the skills gap in the labor market today and underlines the inefficiencies in coordination between the U.S. Department of Labor and programs seeking to train workers. Because there are more jobs for middle-skill workers than there are people to fill them, the Federal Government created programs like the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to upskill workers into these positions for the benefit of the workers and the economy. The report explains ways to improve workforce development initiatives by clarifying the program to grantees, improving coordination between college financial aid officers and American Job Center caseworkers, making requirements for data collection and reporting more flexible and easier to track, finding other sources of state and federal funding for WIOA beneficiaries, partnering with private businesses to offer training, and allowing training providers to transfer their credentials between states. These initiatives will streamline the workforce development process and allow for fewer inefficiencies and higher quality training.