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…

"Career Pathways" is a framework that combines education, occupational training, and support services that align with the skill demands of the local economy to help participants enter and advance in a sequence of occupations within a specific sector or occupational cluster. Career pathways programs seek to address many of the challenges…

High-quality career and technical education (CTE) and work-based learning opportunities can support students along a pathway to credential attainment, employment and upward economic mobility through intentional skill development and experiential learning. CTE concentration in high school can increase graduation rates while helping students build…

Interested in managing existing work-based learning schemes by incorporating monitoring and evaluation methods? Following a brief discussion of the concept of work-based learning, this handbook presents the rationale for monitoring and evaluation as part of good governance. The functioning of work-based learning schemes is represented by a process…

Traineeships have been shown to be successful in generating improved labour market outcomes and are often recommended as a policy option for disadvantaged youth. Regretfully data indicate that one such target group, Indigenous Australians, continues to have lower traineeship completion rates than the non-Indigenous. To address this issue, a…

This research paper specifically investigated Business Education students' evaluation of the benefits and challenges confronting Student Industrial Works Experience Scheme (SIWES) in Edo and Delta States. Two research questions were raised to guide the study and were answered descriptively. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for…

Every child deserves an education that allows the opportunity to achieve his or her dreams. This is the shared belief of The James Irvine Foundation and the Bridgespan Group. Unfortunately, California's education system is failing to provide young people the foundation for success in adulthood. Irvine believes that young people must be offered…

In the 1990s, federal education legislation and policies have encouraged state and local efforts in educational reform and placed a new emphasis on education for and about work. These initiatives have engaged the active participation of a broad range of partners and have spurred a variety of locally customized programs and practices. Nationally,…

The U.S. General Accounting Office studied the characteristics of individual participants in training provided by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), the kinds and intensity of services they received, and the occupations in which they were employed after leaving the program. Visits to 63 randomly selected service delivery areas provided…

The cooperative education program at the Mingchi Institute of Technology, a 5-year technical junior college in Taiwan, is often praised as an exemplary model. Mingchi has implemented cooperative education in cooperation with Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) for more than 30 years. The school year at the college is structured with the winter and summer…

This book on evaluating social programs is an outcome of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Evaluation Design Project, which produced a set of 10 guides for the evaluation of state and local JTPA programs. This book distills ideas from these guides and applies them to a larger context. Part 1 presents a general approach to program evaluation…

This follow-up study interviewed 720 former special-education students nine months after exiting New York schools for employment, postsecondary education, and community living outcomes. Results indicate special-education program components contributing to success included work experiences, occupational education, transition planning, and…

Economic, technological, and social changes occurring around the world have produced incredible challenges for youth, symbolized by persistently high youth unemployment rates despite increasing educational attainments and a shrinking youth population. Chapter 1 of this book provides an overview of the initiatives undertaken by Canada and the…

The Automotive Technology Department (ATD) of De Anza College (DAC) in Cupertino, California, in partnership with the Automotive Service Council of California, received funding to develop and implement a 2-year, competency-based certification program for automotive service technicians. Students in the Automotive Technician Internship Program…

The New Horizons Program of the Des Moines (Iowa) public schools provides supportive services such as counseling, attendance monitoring, career-related instruction, work experience, and coordination with community agencies to dropout-prone students and their families to improve academic achievement and increase graduation rates. Work experience is…