Pathways to Employment
Finding a good job that pays a living wage and offers opportunity for advancement is a value embedded in the American Dream. Despite this promise, many Americans are unable to receive the education and training they need to obtain stable employment with good wages, or end up in low-paying jobs that provide inadequate benefits and little opportunity for advancement. Numerous community colleges, community-based organizations and government entities have developed programs that create a pathway to employment focusing on areas such as job training, job readiness, placement, retention and advancement, and workforce supports.
Following is a list of key research that summarizes efforts to create a pathway to employment for low-income families.
A Strong Foundation: Key Capacities of Construction Pre-Apprenticeship Programs
Matt Helmer, Amy Blair and Allison Gerber, The Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative,
April 2012
Economic Security through Employment Assurance: The Missing Link in the American Welfare State
Steven Attewell, New America Foundation, January 2012
More Than a Job: Final Results from the Evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Transitional Jobs Program
Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and MDRC, January 2012
Boosting the Employment and Productivity of American Workers
Harry J. Holzer, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, January 2012
Building a Technically
Skilled Workforce
Louis Soares and Stephen Steigleder, Center for American Progress, January 2012
Opportunity Road: The Promise and Challenge of America’s Forgotten Youth
John Bridgeland and Jessica A. Milano, America’s Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, and Peter D. Hart Research Associates, January 2012
Subsidizing Employment Opportunities for Low-Income Families: A Review of State Employment Programs Created Through the TANF Emergency Fund
Mary Farrell, Sam Elkin, Joseph Broadus and Dan Bloom, MDRC and the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, December 2011
Strengthening Workplace Education Program Policies to Enable Low-Wage Workers' Advancement
Carol Clymer, The Working Poor Families Project, Fall 2011
Improving Access to Apprenticeship: Strengthening State Policies and Practices
David Altstadt, The Working Poor Families Project, Summer 2011
Merging Tradition and Innovation in Workforce Development: Health Care, Work-Based Learning, and Indigenous Americans in Jobs to Careers
Jeremy Kelley, Kimberly R. Rogers, Radha Roy Biswas, Marc S. Miller and Pieta Blakely, Jobs for the Future, July 2011
Restoring Work by Poor Fathers
Lawrence M. Mead and Ron Haskins, Center on Children & Families, The Brookings Institution, July 2011
Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge
William C. Symonds, Robert B. Schwartz and Ronald Ferguson, Pathways
to Prosperity Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education, February 2011
I Want to Make it on My Own: A Qualitative Assessment of How New Jersey’s Welfare and Workforce Development Programs Can Better Perform their Core Mission of Moving People from Welfare to Sustainable Work
Legal Services of New Jersey Poverty Research Institute, December 2010
Building a Pathway to Dignity and Work
Illinois Commission on the Elimination of Poverty, December 2010
Creating 21st Century Jobs: Increasing Employment and Wages for American Workers in a Changing World
Center for American Progress and The Hamilton Project, December 2010
Making the Workforce System Work for Public Housing Residents: How Lessons from Opportunity Chicago Can Inform Rethinking the Workforce Investment Act of 1998
Opportunity Chicago, November 2010
Building a Higher Skilled Workforce: Results and Implications from the BridgeConnect National Survey
Julian L. Alssid, Melissa Goldberg and Sarah M. Klerk, Workforce Strategy Center, November 2010
Putting Data to Work: Interim Recommendations From The Benchmarking Project
Marty Miles, Sheila Maguire, Stacy Woodruff-Bolte, Carol Clymer and Josh Freely, Public/Private Ventures, November 2010
Have Welfare-to-Work Programs Improved Over Time In Putting Welfare Recipients To Work?
David H. Greenberg, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and Philip K. Robins, University of Miami, Institute for Research on Poverty, November 2010
Pathways Out of Poverty for Vulnerable Californians: Policies that Prepare the Workforce for Middle-Skill Infrastructure Jobs
Victor Rubin and Ruben Lizardo, PolicyLink, October 2010
A Partnership for Change: How Opportunity Chicago Helped Create New Workforce Pathways for Public Housing Residents
Chicago Housing Authority, The Partnership for New Communities and the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, October 2010
Partnering with Employers to Promote Job Advancement for Low-Skill Individuals
Karin Martinson, Urban Institute, September 2010
Reentry
Opportunities in the Green Economy
The National Employment Law Project, PolicyLink and The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, July 2010
Tuning In to Local Labor Markets: Findings from the Sectoral Employment Impact Study Sheila Maguire, Joshua Freely, Carol Clymer, Maureen Conway and Deena Schwartz, Public/Private Ventures, July 2010
A Pathway to Clean Jobs and
Prosperity:
State Policies For Helping Low-Income Working Families Build Clean Energy Careers
David Altstadt, The Working Poor Families Project, June 2010
Low-Skill Workers' Access to Quality Green
Jobs
Karin Martinson, Alexandra Stanczyk and Lauren Eyster, The Urban Institute, May 2010
Aiming Higher: Removing Barriers to Education, Training and Jobs for Low-Income
Women (pdf)
Women's Economic Security Campaign, May 2010
Making the 1996 Welfare Reform Work: The Promise of a Job
Anthony J. Mallon, Virginia Commonwealth University and Guy V.G. Stevens, Federal Reserve Board
(ret.), National Poverty Center, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, April
2010
National
Service and Youth Unemployment: Strategies for Job Creation Amid Economic Recovery
Melissa Boteach, Joy Moses and Shirley Sagawa, Center for American Progress, November 2009
Green Equity Toolkit: Advancing Race,
Gender and Economic Equity in the Green Economy
Yvonne Yen Liu and Terry Keleher, Applied Research Center, November 2009
Adult Education for Work: Transforming Adult Education to Build a Skilled
Workforce
National Center on Education and the Economy, Workforce Development Strategies Group, October
2009
Strengthening
Correctional Education for Adults (pdf)
Anne Roder The Working Poor Families Project, October 2009
Reauthorizing the Workforce
Investment Act: A Down Payment on a Workforce Development System for the 21st Century
Jobs for the Future, June 2009
Working
Learners: Educating Our Entire Workforce for Success in the 21st Century
Louis Soares, Center for American Progress, June 2009
Promoting Economic Mobility
by Increasing Postsecondary Education (pdf)
Ron Haskins, Harry Holzer and Robert Lerman, Economic Mobility Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts, May
2009
Job Training That Works: Findings
from the Sectoral Employment Impact Study
Sheila Maguire, Joshua Freely, Carol Clymer and Maureen Conway, Public/Private Ventures, May
2009
Strengthening
One-Stop Career Centers: Helping More Unemployed Workers Find Jobs and Build Skills
Louis S. Jacobson, Brookings Institution, The Hamilton Project, April 2009
Increasing Employment Among People with
Disabilities
MDRC, March 2009
Preparing
Low-Skilled Workers for the Jobs of Tomorrow Kenneth E. Poole, The Working Poor Families Project, December 2008
Targeting Industries, Training Workers and Improving
Opportunities: The Final Report from the Sectoral Employment Initiative
Anne Roder with Carol Clymer and Laura Wyckoff, Public/Private Ventures, November 2008
Job-to-JobTransitions: More
Mobility and Security in the WorkforceJames Sherk,The
Heritage Foundation, September 2008