The U.S. Department of Labor’s Chief Evaluation Office, in partnership with the Department’s Employment and Training Administration, will host a webinar on October 13, 2022 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET to highlight key findings from the recently released Career Pathways Descriptive and Analytical Project. During the webinar, there will be a screening of four short videos from the Department’s Evidence Coffee Break series, where researchers will share actionable information for practitioners thinking about designing or improving career pathways programs, and hold a live question and answer session with the study team.

Topics covered in the session include:
• How well has the career pathways approach worked?
• Launchpad occupations and why they matter for career pathways programs
• Career advancement from mid-level occupations for women and people of color
• Evidence-based insights for career pathways and other employment and training programs

Early adulthood is a critical life stage for education, employment, relationship formation, and reproductive health, but young adults’ experiences in these areas are highly varied. Using averages to describe youths’ experiences may miss meaningful differences that could alter their developmental trajectories. Understanding these trajectories—and their implications for youth of varying races, ethnicities, and genders—can help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers support young people’s development and ensure greater well-being into their adulthoods. This brief summarizes findings from a new report which reveals different employment pathways taken by young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds through the use of trajectory analysis—a person-based approach that allows clustering people into meaningful patterns based on their employment earnings and the fringe benefits they receive.

The growing effort to define program, job, and credential quality requires investments in P–20W data systems to capture measures of quality and make that information transparent to the public. The National Skills Coalition will host a webinar on September 22, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. ET, which will highlight the importance of state data systems in collecting data on program, job, and credential quality, providing timely information to the public, and using data to ensure equitable attainment of quality jobs and credentials. Two states will discuss their efforts to prioritize data collection and transparent access to information.

UpSkill America — an initiative of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program — and the Latinos and Society Program at the Aspen Institute, with support from Google.org, launched the Digital Skills and the Latino Workforce research project to better understand the challenges and opportunities that Latino workers and Latino business owners face to succeed in the digital economy. The Aspen Institute will host a webinar on September 22, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. ET during which participants will learn more about promising approaches to digital upskilling of Latino workers, students, and households implemented by organizations around the country.

Parents who work outside the home have always faced challenges finding high-quality, affordable child care that meets their needs. But the COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating consequences for the child care industry and parents’ attachment to the labor force. WorkRise, a research-to-action network on jobs, workers, and mobility hosted by the Urban Institute, held a webinar on July 12, 2022, which covered the following questions: What are the long-term implications of child care challenges for workers, families, and the economy? How have these challenges exacerbated labor market inequalities and barriers to upward mobility? What solutions are needed for families and the economy to thrive, and what role should public policy, employer practices, and advocacy play in providing them?

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration will host a webinar on September 21, 2022 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET which will focus on transforming the public workforce system by using data to support the economic mobility of historically marginalized communities in training, programs, policies, and initiatives. Presenters include representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Policy Development and Research, the city of Phoenix, Arizona, and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

This year’s publication describes how children in America are in the midst of a mental health crisis, struggling with anxiety and depression at unprecedented levels. It presents national and state data across four domains — economic well-being, education, health and family and community — and ranks states in overall child well-being. The report includes pre-pandemic figures as well as more recent statistics, and shares the latest information of its kind available.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Workforce Investment held a webinar on August 11, 2022 to support the workforce system’s understanding of the complex issues around substance use disorder and help them reach and assist individuals and businesses impacted by opioid addiction. Guest speakers from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services shared an overview of "Strategies for Serving Individuals Impacted by Opioid Use Disorder: A Toolkit for Ohio’s Public Workforce System." The Toolkit is designed to guide and support Workforce Boards and workforce development professionals as they implement policies, processes, and services. It is built around the following key pillars of success: Strong Local Partnerships; Holistic Care Management; Steps to Success; Recovery-Friendly Workplaces; and Knowledgeable Staff. Transcripts of the webinar and the Toolkit are available for downloading.

Frontline workers recently rated job growth and learning opportunities in the top three things they want in a job. Many workers, however, receive little, if any, training from their employers. This lack of investment in workers’ skills impedes workers’ opportunities for advancement, trapping many in a cycle of dead-end, low-quality jobs where women and people of color make up a disproportionate number of workers. Businesses that invest in workers’ skills development and design jobs with work-based learning (WBL) opportunities, however, offer a more promising path.

When designed well, work-based learning provides a number of benefits to workers and businesses. WBL approaches such as apprenticeship, on-the-job training, and other forms of employer-sponsored training can offer workers the opportunity for upward mobility and the chance to earn and learn at the same time while employers gain a more engaged and skilled workforce. The Aspen Institute will host a webinar on September 14, 2022 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. ET, during which presenters will discuss the following questions: How can businesses design jobs that include quality work-based learning that improves opportunity for workers and business outcomes? What barriers and opportunities do employers face in creating apprenticeship and other work-based learning models, particularly for front-line workers? What can we do to equitably expand work-based learning to workers who need it the most?

The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals will host a webinar on September 15, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT which will cover how workforce professionals have the opportunity at every customer touch point to make an impact, even through the smallest interactions.

This webinar focuses on making excellence the standard, not the exception, and identifies strategies and tactics to help professionals become more excellent. The webinar will discuss ways to increase excellence in customer interactions, in workspaces, in emotional intelligence, in connections with partners, and in programs. Learning objectives include:

• Defining and understanding what excellence is, and what excellence is not.
• Distinguishing average and excellent, and learning strategies to pursue excellence in every customer interaction.
• Role playing, using specific situations that front line staff face, and taking that situation and implementing strategies to ensure staff are operating in excellence, even in difficult situations.

A registration fee for attendance is required.