Workforce
Realigned, Vol. II

Texas State Technical College (TSTC) illustrates the benefits of outcomes-based college funding. Its state funding is now based on how many of its students obtain good-paying jobs. As a result, TSTC has increased innovation and enrollment, earning the institution a boost in state funding as its former students have earned higher salaries.

First Step Staffing uses an innovative financing model to offer training, services, and job-placement opportunities to housing-insecure and justice-involved people in partnership with employers and local governments.

Connecticut’s Office of Early Childhood launched one of the nation’s first outcomes rate cards, including financial incentives for service providers to support low-income parents in building skills to advance in the workforce.

A look at the results, data, and lessons learned from the PhillyWorks initiative originally profiled in the 2021 volume, including recent replication of the program to reach new biotech businesses beyond the initial employer partners.

This outline of the history of outcomes-based funding provisions at the federal level provides updates to a chapter in the 2021 volume.

Reprinted from 2021: Case studies on Massachusetts’ use of data and evidence to support better outcomes for key economic mobility programs.

Reprinted from 2021: Case studies around the implementation of Rhode Island’s outcomes-oriented changes to training service provider engagement.

Outcomes funds are being deployed by state and federal governments to help bridge silos and the “wrong pockets problem” to address economic mobility challenges.

To help rural communities grow their apprenticeship opportunities, Rural LISC worked with partners in the Mississippi Delta to develop an apprenticeship toolkit and launched several innovative programs in southeast Arkansas and northwest Mississippi.

To be most effective, workforce development programs must provide participants – especially women — with wraparound support services tailored to their needs, such as income during training, child care, food, transportation, housing subsidies, and health care.

The qualitative insights from learners enrolled in workforce training programs that tie funding to outcomes may offer added perspective and new considerations for these programs, enhancing future evaluation approaches of these programs and creating the opportunity for real-time programmatic adjustments to increase success and impact.

The AARP Foundation’s Upskilling Initiative piloted a promising model to train low-income older workers for roles with small and mid-sized businesses.

The Virginia Community College System’s Fast Forward noncredit workforce training program is helping to prepare more Virginians for in-demand jobs with economic mobility.

The Richmond Fed’s Survey of Community College Outcomes serves as a reminder that it’s not just about measuring outcomes, but measuring the right ones.

The New Jersey Pay It Forward program provides zero-interest, zero-fee loans for high-quality job training through a $24 million outcomes-based financing option that first enrolled participants in the fall of 2022.

The Google Career Certificate Fund uses a talent finance model to upskill vulnerable young people for jobs in fast-growing, high-demand tech industries.

The widespread use of AI has dramatically increased the skill level required for entry-level jobs. Hire-Train-Deploy intermediaries are reinventing the temporary staffing firm model to 1) enable inexperienced workers to get paid while building skills and career paths, 2) allow potential employers to try out trainees before taking them on as employees, and 3) expand the benefits of earn-and-learn apprenticeships beyond the building and construction trades.

With ramifications for training, economic mobility, and more, AI is already having an impact on workers, employers, consumers, students, and the broader economy.

Apprenticeships hold great promise for workers and businesses. But to grow apprenticeships in the US, employers need public funding as well as guidance from experienced intermediary organizations. Public support for expanding apprenticeships should tie funding to the achievement of outcomes.

Ongoing infrastructure investments are creating demand for green jobs that can be filled by workers without college degrees. Public-private Talent Finance partnerships can help train workers to fill these jobs while, in the process, benefitting the environment, the economy, and workers.

To address the national nursing shortage, the ReNEW Fund aims to help thousands of historically underserved students earn BSNs, connect them to employers who agree to repay their outcomes-based loans as a new-hire benefit and retention incentive.