Career Ladders and Pathways for the Hard-to-Employ

"An increasing number of workforce investment boards (WIBs) and workforce providers have been applying career ladder principles to a rather different task: training the unemployed and hard-to-employ. This strategy has shown considerable promise as away of meeting the needs of this population. Based on the successful practices employed by a range of career pathways programs for low-skill, unemployed individuals, this Issue Brief presents a set of six principles that should be the basis for the development of any program intending to use career ladder strategies as a means of bringing hard-to-place individuals into the workforce and keeping them there" (p.1). (Abstractor: Author)

• Form or expand existing employer consortium(s) to inform and design customized career pathways for low-income workers. • Conduct employer surveys and/or regional labor market scans to create training that is based on real-time employer demand. • Maintain open and on-going communication with employers and/or consortia members with the frequency that best meets their needs (monthly, quarterly, as-needed) and in the venue (on-site or off-site) that’s most convenient for them. • Develop a tiered training scheme that offers immediate access or advancement opportunities for students who want to commit to longer-term training, even if they need substantive remediation first. • Provide multiple trainings that result in “stackable” credentials recognized by employers. • Where industry-specific career ladders are not possible, design short-term trainings in multiple and related occupations that offer the opportunity for lateral movement and direct advancement. • Provide case management jointly with organizations that have relationships with career ladder participants. • Integrate training and case management. • Offer case managers and WIB staff an overview of industry basics weekend classes. • Provide flexibility around course completion when students encounter unforeseen barriers. • Develop web-based training—offered online or out of mobile sites—for individuals in rural areas who may lack access to home computers and the Internet. • Provide career-specific ESL courses to introduce participants to the career pathways. • Subsidize training to permit low-income participants with pressing financial needs to participate (p.2-4). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2010
• Author(s): Gash, Alison; Mack, Melissa
• Organizational Author(s): Social Policy Research Associates
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by:
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies