HKS Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy

As technology and automation increase economic disruption, supporting workers prior to permanent job displacement is becoming a larger priority for the workforce development ecosystem. We propose a new displacement risk framework and data product that can be used by federal, state, and local workforce development organizations to analyze jobs and areas of high risk by occupation and location.

The education-to-employment landscape of college and career pathways is complex and varies from state to state. This report investigates one of three new program quality indicators introduced under the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V), which requires state Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs to report the percentage of CTE concentrators graduating from high school having obtained a recognized postsecondary credential (5S1). Although systemic change is challenging, in our research, we find significant opportunities for the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) to leverage this new metric to spur innovation, drive systems change, increase data quality and governance, and support career-connected learning for all young adults.

In the subsequent pages, we provide a brief history on the status quo of Perkins V and details of our research methodology. Then, we walk through the definition of the 5S1 indicator; we identify concerns over differences in state interpretations and their implications for data governance in four key components of the definition: •“Percentage”: States articulate their own numerator and denominator for the percentage of students obtaining postsecondary/industry-recognized credentials. •“CTE Concentrators”: States develop their own operating definitions of this term. •“Recognized”: States have their own processes and criteria for deciding what constitutes a quality, recognized credential. •“Credential”: States define credential stackability, portability, and relevance on their own.

Across the four substantive areas, we outline five policy recommendations on non-regulatory guidance OCTAE should provide states to better align data systems and support systems change: •Issue stronger data governance practices, especially around reporting numerators and denominators. •Issue federal definitions of key terms related to “CTE Concentrator” and credentials of quality, such as “course,” program of study,” “portability,” “stackability,” and “relevance.” •Outline federal criteria and guidelines for evaluating credential quality. •Provide technical assistance on building and maintaining strong quality assurance practices. •Model inter-agency collaboration and data sharing practices across agencies and key stakeholders.

In the wake of COVID-19 and growing inequality, America needs more pathways that bridge education and career. New research from the Project on Workforce at Harvard draws on data from New Profit's Postsecondary Initiative for Equity to identify opportunities for the education-to-employment field and chart the course for connections to good jobs.

Nearly 1 in 3 American workers lack foundational digital skills. We identify opportunities and drawbacks of different scaling strategies for online resource and learning platforms and offer recommendations for connecting with users, testing assumptions, and monetizing to achieve a stronger fit in the market.

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented uncertainties in the Massachusetts healthcare workforce. In this white paper, we revisit the spring and summer of 2020 to identify and evaluate the changes, challenges, and innovations induced by the COVID-19 pandemic to the Massachusetts healthcare labor market. We aim to address three broad questions: 1) What were the most significant changes to labor supply and demand in nursing, behavioral health, and direct care at the onset of the pandemic? 2) What actions and strategies did government agencies, employers, and educators deploy to respond to rapidly changing conditions on the ground? 3) Which of these changes are likely to be temporary and which may have lasting effects?

Throughout the first wave of the pandemic, job postings fluctuated by role and setting as employer and patient needs shifted in an uncertain environment. Initial unemployment claims in healthcare occupations increased dramatically and peaked in April and May of 2020, as demand decreased for elective procedures, out-patient care, and in-home care. Following the initial volatility in the spring, the healthcare labor market stabilized somewhat in the summer months, but unemployment remained persistent. However, the numbers concealed wide variation across roles, care settings, and regions in Massachusetts.

In the nursing workforce in Massachusetts, trends in Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims and job postings varied by region and specialization in 2020. Many ambulatory care nurses were laid off or furloughed, and the shortage of Critical Care Nurses intensified. The first wave of the pandemic interrupted an already-restricted pipeline of new nurses, limiting clinical placements and increasing wait times for licensing exams. Attrition and retirements among Registered Nurses (RNs) accelerated during the spring and summer of 2020, posing long-term workforce challenges, as increasingly tough working conditions deterred an aging RN workforce.

Direct care workers were also on the front lines of the pandemic. The impact of the first wave on job postings and UI claims varied greatly for different direct care roles. Job postings for Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) positions remained high, especially in long-term care (LTC) facilities, but were inconsistent for both Home Health Aides (HHAs) and Personal Care Aides (PCAs). The already-limited pipeline of new direct care workers was interrupted during the first wave, as clinical training and licensing exams grew increasingly unavailable.

For behavioral health workers, job postings decreased in April 2020, while new UI claims increased dramatically in April and May. However, both job postings and UI claims approached pre-pandemic levels by August 2020. Consumer request for behavioral health services appeared to increase during the first wave of the pandemic, as the crisis intensified stress on mental and behavioral health issues. The use of telehealth increased in behavioral health, as virtual services were rapidly implemented to reduce in-person exposure.

As these immense and unprecedented challenges in the healthcare workforce emerged during the first wave of the pandemic, Massachusetts piloted new and innovative approaches to educating healthcare trainees, providing patient care, and filling essential roles. To help address recruitment and hiring challenges in long-term care facilities, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts developed its first-ever online job portal dedicated to these roles. As COVID reduced access to on-site classes and clinical placements for healthcare students, training providers across the state have implemented and expanded programs for healthcare students to engage in remote learning.

State and Federal regulators also responded rapidly to support healthcare workers, employers, and consumers. New policies allowed out-of-state nurses, nurses with expired licenses, and nursing students in their final semester of school to enter the nursing workforce in Massachusetts. Several CNA licensing and clinical placement requirements were also relaxed or waived. In addition, after the onset of the pandemic, both Federal and State regulators approved hazard pay for many essential workers.

While the focus of this white paper is on the initial months following the onset of the pandemic, we also propose questions for future research in student enrollment in healthcare training programs, updates to CNA curriculum and licensing, transitioning displaced workers into healthcare roles, retirement rates among nurses, shifts in care settings, and the utilization of telehealth.

How can we improve access to equitable opportunities to college and career for Boston’s youth? We conduct a feasibility study for a universal, citywide college- and career-readiness strategy in the City of Boston. Recommendations include staffing models, data infrastructure, and funding sources.

States are using different methodologies and strategies to measure postsecondary credentials in CTE. This report provides three case studies from states that elected to report on Perkins V’s 5S1 program quality indicator. We look at the different CTE programs and industry credential offerings of Delaware, Texas, and Louisiana.

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for policy recommendations, partitioning government funds to grant awardees, and overseeing the wellbeing of our nation’s workers. It utilizes government research databases such as the Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research and Health and Human Services’ Pathways to Work Clearinghouse to aid in these processes. However, these research resources are scattered and related findings not well chronicled. Locating relevant data is time consuming and cumbersome.

To mitigate this issue, the Project on Workforce Summer Fellows designed a prototype for an internal, centralized dashboard containing key insights from studies in five government research databases and one non-profit database. Furthermore, we aggregated findings on high priority initiatives including reentry, career pathways, sector strategies, and dislocated workers.

The intended primary users are the Department of Labor’s Employee and Training Administration and outside consultants. The tool enhances the evidence finding process and help advance pertinent initiatives. This report outlines the dashboard design process, tool highlights, and describes intervention insights gleaned from initial use of the prototype.

Summer Fellows with the City of Boston provide a landscape analysis of Boston’s youth employment system. Based on engagement with key stakeholders, they make recommendations to build upon existing resources to create more work-based learning opportunities and scale impact for Boston youth.

Summer Fellows with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund provide recommendations for the development of the National Black Talent Bank. They research how the Talent Bank can become a leading initiative in serving Black youth who are seeking alternative pathways to employment and education.

Summer Fellows with the U.S. Department of Education aim to reimagine guidance for institutions and organizations serving formerly incarcerated students. They incorporate new research, practice, and lived experiences from students, administrators, and subject matter experts to inform recommendations for the Second Chance Pell program.

Summer Fellows with the U.S. Department of Education present the findings of an analysis of promising state strategies to advance equity in secondary career and technical education by examining state and territory Perkins V performance.

Summer Fellows with the U.S. Department of Transportation review strategies for growing and diversifying the infrastructure workforce. This report aims to provide tools and examples for construction workforce advocates and local policymakers to create equitable access to construction workforce programs.

Summer Fellows with the U.S. Department of Commerce aim to clarify how regional workforce entities and employers can better work together. They highlight learnings for employer engagement from the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) recent American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) competitions.

Summer Fellows with the Strada Education Network aim to contribute to the dialogue about measuring the value of post-secondary education. This report builds upon existing research and calculations to offer recommendations on how to capture the socioeconomic impact of post-secondary education, incorporating both financial and non-financial outcomes.

Immigrants are critical to the U.S. workforce, but there has been limited focus on what enables them to thrive in the economy. This report draws on data from 131 applicants to WES Mariam Assefa Fund’s open grant competition to better understand the landscape of programs, policies, and practices intended to strengthen immigrant inclusion in the workforce.

Analyzing these approaches, we find that:

• Programs are 50% more likely to focus on newcomers than longer-term residents.
• Two-thirds of organizations work with economic immigrants and refugees but less than 25% focus on migrant workers or immigration detainees. -Job quality is a growing priority. Over half of the organizations focus on increasing wages, career advancement, or creating a safe and inclusive work environment.
• Skills transferability is high need, but under-resourced. Only 5% of applicants focus on helping immigrants translate their credentials and experience from other countries.
• Over 80% of organizations plan to work with employers, but only one-quarter of organizations have direct hiring relationships. Employer advisory or advocacy efforts appear to be an increasing priority. -98% of organizations have leaders with lived experience in immigrant or refugee communities.

Building the New High Road highlights organizations that are working to build an economy where all immigrants have the chance to thrive. Investing in immigrants’ human potential is an investment in our collective future.

The Options Multiplier: Decoding the CareerWise Youth Apprentice Journey, a new white paper from Harvard's Project on Workforce, uses a novel dataset from CareerWise Colorado, one of the U.S.'s most widely cited youth apprenticeship models. During the program, CareerWise students split their time between a traditional classroom and the workplace, allowing apprentices to earn a wage, while accessing meaningful work experience and debt-free college credits. Our research finds that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of CareerWise apprentices achieve the program’s stated goal of serving as an “Options Multiplier”- they transition on to postsecondary education, employment, or both. Supportive supervisors, job match, industry type, and Registered Apprenticeship status all have a significant impact on retention and completion. Better understanding these factors means that employers can structure programs that lead to apprentice success, teaching students the skills they need for a good job and generating a high return on investment for employers.

This report describes and analyzes the more than 75,000 “Eligible Training Provider” (ETP) programs in the United States. ETP programs are job training programs deemed eligible for funding under America’s primary federal workforce development law, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).[1] Among other functions, WIOA funds vouchers for unemployed or underemployed workers to enroll in job training services. The vouchers are typically used to support enrollment in short-term, non-four-year-degree programs that connect to "in-demand employment” opportunities in a regional economy. Under the law, each state and territory must maintain a list of pre-approved programs that eligible individuals may select from. The programs on these lists (commonly known as “eligible training provider lists” – ETPLs) comprise our primary unit of analysis.

We analyze federal and state data sources to better understand the publicly-funded job training landscape in the United States. We combine training provider and program data from the Department of Labor (DOL) with individual performance records and occupational datasets to study the types of providers receiving WIOA funding and the kinds of jobs for which they are training. In addition, we look at state websites for all 50 U.S. states to understand how program information is made available to potential enrollees. Our analysis seeks to answer three primary research questions:

1. What are the most common characteristics of WIOA-eligible training providers and programs?
2. Which fields of study and occupations are most commonly supported by federal funding?
3. Is federal funding for workforce training directed towards good-paying and in-demand occupations?

In this playbook, we provide a framework to help college better deliver on the American Dream. We create a coherent, comprehensive taxonomy of the landscape of college-to-jobs programs and policies through a review of the existing academic research according to a set of common criteria. With a focus on public two-year and four-year colleges, Minority Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, we identify 13 “interventions” within the college ecosystem that could be used to ease the transition into good jobs in the workforce.

Pathways to economic opportunity are broken in the United States, disproportionately affecting Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals and those from low-income backgrounds. Disrupting long-standing occupational segregation and improving outcomes for all will require a system of career navigation that gives all individuals economic agency and opportunity.

Unlocking Economic Prosperity: Career Navigation in a Time of Rapid Change dissects the evidence and practice of career navigation and sets an agenda for a more equitable career navigation ecosystem. Based on an extensive literature review and consultation with experts and frontline workers, we identify the drivers of career navigation success and lay out core design principles and recommendations for the future.

At a time of rapid technological transformation, policymakers, employers, educators, intermediaries, and philanthropies must collaborate to build a system of supports and pathways that provide all individuals with the information, skills, social capital, resources, and social structures they need to advance.