Workforce Training: What Works? Who Benefits?

A lthough some employment and training programs are promising, the results vary by program intensity and demographic group. In general, for adults, modest training and work experience programs generate modest impacts. A small number of more intensive efforts, like the National Supported Work program, have been effective, especially for hard-to-serve women. Training programs that lead to secondary or postsecondary credentials, along with work experience in key economic sectors, are consistently effective for disadvantaged workers. Typically, impacts on earnings are more positive for adult women than men. For parents, supports such as stipends and child care may make it possible to enter and remain in training programs. For youth, Career Academies, job training programs in high schools, have been shown to raise earnings by 11%, and the impacts persist over many years. For ex-offenders, evaluations of one new approach—transitional jobs—suggest a sizeable drop in recidivism for those entering guaranteed employment soon after release. In the United States each year, private employers spend an estimated $100 billion or more on employee training, easily dwarfing whatever public funds are expended in this area.1 Private individuals invest many billions more in their own colleg