The Challenge of Repeating Success in a Changing World: Final Report on the Center for Employment...

The Center for Employment and Training (CET) in San Jose, California, was found to be exceptionally effective in providing training to young persons in two previous random assignment evaluations. CET in San Jose, with its training in a work-like setting and involvement of local employers, showed promise as a program for youth, having produced large positive effects on their employment and earnings in two earlier studies in the late 1980s.

Therefore, in 1992, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration initiated an effort to provide technical assistance to other organizations interested in replicating the CET model in other sites. Between 1995 and 1999, over 1,400 youth in 12 replication sites were randomly assigned to CET or a control group to test two ideas: 1) whether the CET model could be successfully implemented in different settings, and 2) if the program would have similarly positive effects for sites outside San Jose replicating the CET model. The final report presents findings of the program’s effects 54 months after random assignment. (Abstractor: Website staff.)

Full publication title: The Challenge of Repeating Success in a Changing World: Final Report on the Center for Employment Training Replication Sites

The report’s findings include: (1) Implementation of the CET approach was difficult, as replication of the original model varied across sites and sustainability of the CET model was a key challenge for several sites. (2) Effects on training and certificate receipt were much larger for the program group than their control group counterparts, however, effects seemed to diminish after the first year. (3) In sites that faithfully replicated the CET model, access to CET did not increase youths’ employment or earnings during the follow-up period, but there were some positive effects on young women in the early follow-up years. (Abstractor: Website staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2005
• Author(s): Miller, Cynthia; Bos, Johannes M.; Porter, Kristin E.; Tseng, Fannie M., et al.
• Organizational Author(s): MDRC
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Melissa Mack
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies