This Annual Report provides a snapshot of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program at the end of its third year of operation. The report summarizes program operations and participant activity and outcomes from HPOG’s inception through the third year of grantee activities. (author abstract)

A substantial skills gap exists between the education and training of the labor force and the needs of employers in many high growth industries, including healthcare and manufacturing. This gap results in unemployment while good paying jobs go unfilled. At the same time, many low-skilled adults persist in low wage work with little opportunity for advancement.

Career pathways programs, like the Workforce Training Academy Connect (WTA Connect) Program, are an approach to fill a vital need for skilled workers in the economy and offer low-wage workers the opportunity to obtain occupational and other skills and advance into the middle class.

This brief was produced by Abt Associates as part of the Innovative Strategies to Increase Self-Sufficiency (ISIS) project, a random assignment evaluation of nine promising career pathways programs that aim to improve employment and self-sufficiency outcomes for low-income, low-skilled individuals. (author abstract)

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation released a report that summarizes interview data collected from 51 unmarried mothers in Southeast Michigan and Los Angeles, California. Interviews were conducted to learn about participant experiences with work, benefit receipt, overall wellbeing, material hardship, and economic coping strategies that are utilized.

Since the creation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in 1996, there has been concern about low-income individuals who may be eligible for TANF cash assistance but are neither receiving TANF nor working. These individuals are often referred to as “disconnected.” This study, Understanding the Dynamics of Disconnection from Employment and Assistance, uses interview data from a sample of 51 disconnected, unmarried mothers from Southeast Michigan and Los Angeles, California, to learn more about their experiences related to work, benefit receipt, and material hardship, the economic coping strategies they use to manage, and their overall well-being. (author abstract) 

The National Women's Law Center released a fact sheet that lists five common scheduling challenges faced by workers in low-wage jobs, and outlines their impacts on marriage, transportation, education and training programs, and arranging child care.

The Working Poor Families Project released a policy brief that explores ways to connect young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 years old to education and training programs borne out of state level policies and interventions.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) released a paper that explores four areas of work-family policy related to low-income working families: unpaid family and medical leave, extended paid parental or family leave, paid sick leave, and efforts to expand employees' control over work shifts, hours, and other circumstances of their jobs. The paper outlines the ways in which these supports can be facilitated by public policy to enact change.

In partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor launched the Registered Apprenticeship-College Consortium, an initiative that will allow graduates of Registered Apprenticeship programs to turn their years of rigorous on-the-job and classroom training into college credits toward an associate or bachelor degree. Currently, the Registered Apprenticeship system includes a network of more than 19,000 programs nationwide, offering nearly 1,000 different career opportunities.