Renewable learning funds
This job quality intervention outlines how, after developing a framework, workforce and economic development agencies can set and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) to lay the groundwork for long-term success.
Learning and Development
Pre-employment training partnerships, onboarding, technical skill training, cross-training, mentoring and coaching, sponsorship, upskilling opportunities such as apprenticeship or targeted degree programs and structured promotion pathways.
How others put this principle into practice
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Founded in 1997, the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) operates in 31 cities across 12 states. It has placed more than 34,000 individuals who were formerly incarcerated in full-time employment. The center is one of the only evidence-based employment programs dedicated to working with individuals who have recently returned home from incarceration. A randomized control trial by MDRC found that CEO reduced rates of recidivism by 22% and created $3.30 in social benefit for every $1 spent on the program. This case study in Philadelphia outlines how CEO partners with local government to make an impact on the ground.
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The Maricopa Workforce Development Board partners with building and construction trade registered apprenticeship programs, including the Phoenix Painters and Allied Trades, the Southwest Carpenters Training Fund and the Laborers Training School. The workforce board provides $4,000 through Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) adult funds for related instruction and offers case management and supportive services to apprentices, generally in the first year of the apprenticeship program. In 2019, the US Department of Labor did a case study on Maricopa’s apprenticeship programs and found that WIOA Adult Program Apprenticeship participants had a 94% employment rate during the second quarter after program exit, 22 points higher than the statewide rate for the WIOA Adult Program.
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The workboard implemented the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act's on-the-job training (OJT) policies, which require that the individual participating in OJT receive the prevailing wage for the occupation. These policies also require that, for new hires, the job must be anticipated to last at least one year following the end of OJT and provide for at least 35 hours of work per week.
Ways you can get started
Springboard jobs
This job quality intervention outlines how workforce agencies can establish or advance “springboard” strategies that increase the chance entry-level low-wage jobs become stepping stones for clients, not end points.