Implementation and Early Impacts from the TechHire and Strengthening Working Families Initiative

This impact analysis explores the effects of TechHire and SWFI on participation in and completion of training, receipt of credentials, and use of child care and other services, as well as on longer-term outcomes such as employment and earnings, advancement and job quality, and other, secondary outcomes such as overall well-being, health, and housing status. The RCT is assessing the extent to which TechHire and SWFI’s combination of training, case management, and support services helped people increase their employment and earnings over and above what they would have achieved in the absence of these programs. It is also looking at whether these programs led people to obtain the kinds of middle- to high-skilled jobs that the grant programs intended and receive more support—including child care—than those not in the programs.

This report presents outcomes from the impact analysis. It discusses the substantial marketing and recruitment efforts required to come as close as feasible to meeting the study enrollment requirement. The report also discusses the intake and screening procedures that preceded the random assignment of eligible individuals into either the TechHire and SWFI programs or the control group.

This report discusses key findings in eight distinct categories:

1. Variation in program participants.
2. Recruitment challenges.
3. Training skill levels-intended vs. actual.
4. Distinction between TechHire or SWFI and other skills training programs.
5. Program participation impacts.
6. Employer partnerships and engagement.
7. Career awareness, job development, and job placement.
8. Labor market outcomes.
9. Future reports, using data with up to three years of follow-up, will assess whether the increase in training participation will translate into an increase in employment and earnings.

(This report is 117 pages long.)

Findings from this study include:

• Differences in how eligibility was defined and in the level of pre-screening resulted in notable variation across the programs in program participants’ characteristics.
• Three programs struggled to meet recruitment targets; thus, the sample for the RCT was one-third smaller than intended.
• Individuals with relatively low baseline skills, such as that of the target population for these programs, would likely need considerably more support—possibly in the form of tutoring or a preparatory bridge program—to be successful in training that requires a higher level of skill.
• There was considerable variation in the extent to which the occupational skills training offered under the TechHire and SWFI programs differed from training individuals could receive from other available training programs in the community.
• Across all the programs, TechHire and SWFI staff reported that the provision of case management support was a distinguishing feature relative to training programs available in the broader community.
• One notable difference between TechHire or SWFI and other similar training programs was that there was no cost to participants for TechHire and SWFI training.
• The Wave 1 survey showed that the TechHire and SWFI programs produced statistically significant impacts on outcomes related to the provision of case management support.
• The TechHire and SWFI programs increased participation in occupational skills training relative to the control group.
• SWFI increased the likelihood of participants receiving help to find or access child care by a statistically significant amount, including receiving help to find more convenient child care.
• Employer partnerships and engagement fell short of program leadership’s expectations, especially in the provision of work-based learning and/or providing jobs for training graduates.
• Career awareness, job development, and job placement services were not fully developed or integrated with other components of the TechHire and SWFI programs.
• As expected, given the short follow-up period captured by the Wave 1 survey (7 to 14 months), there is no evidence yet that TechHire/SWFI affected labor market outcomes. However, the impacts on participation in and completion of occupational skills training, including the impact on the study’s confirmatory outcome, provide a reason to be cautiously optimistic about longer-term impacts on employment and earnings emerging.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2021
• Author(s): Tessler, B.; Schaberg, K.; Fink, B.; Gasper, J.; Metz, R.; Rock, A.; Jones, D.; Kanengiser, H.
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies