Many public workforce training programs lead to industry-recognized, third-party awarded credentials, but little research has been conducted on the economic benefits of these credentials in the labor market. This paper provides quasi-experimental evidence on the labor market returns to industry-recognized credentials connected to community college…

In Mississippi, 57% of job vacancies through 2022 will be middle-skill jobs, but only an estimated 50% of the state's workers will be trained to fill these jobs. The ACT WorkKeys assessment is the primary credentialing tool for high school students entering the middle-skill labor force. The problem addressed in this study is while Mississippi uses…

A decade after the Great Recession, millions of job seekers in their late teens and twenties--especially young people of color and youth from low-income families--are still struggling to land and keep meaningful work, even as the economy improves. Traditional education and training models are failing to equip them with the skills and credentials…

GPS Education Partners is a community-based nonprofit organization and the only manufacturing-specific, statewide Department of Workforce Development Youth Apprenticeship Program in Wisconsin. During 1-2 years of study at GPS, students meet high school graduation requirements, receive industry-specific and job-specific training and technical…

Surveys of New England employers, college academic officers, and graduates find that many consider today's college graduates inadequately prepared for the world of work. In 2017, the New England Board of Higher Education convened the Commission on Higher Education & Employability, under the leadership of Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo.…

Ivy Tech State College (Indiana) is the statewide two-year college system in Indiana, with 23 campuses and a fall 2002 enrollment of 64,110 credit students and approximately 13,000 non-credit students. Ivy Tech has a long history of offering certification training and, in some cases, testing, in a variety of areas from health to business and…

Increasing concerns about the skill level of U.S. workers are driven by demographics, technological change, and international competition. Greater percentages of the labor force will be comprised of those groups that have traditionally faced the greatest barriers to full participation in the labor force. Rapid technological change is increasing…