APPAM Institutional Member Forum - Career Pathways Programs: What We Know and Where We Should Go From Here

February 22, 2019 08:27 AM

hosted by
Abt Associates Inc.
May 1, 2019 at The Conference Center at Heart House, American College of Cardiology, 2400 N Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20037

Enjoy the complete video recording of the forum here.

A large segment of APPAM’s membership conducts evaluation research, with substantive focus on employment, unemployment, and strategies for improving economic outcomes for those along the lower rungs of the labor market. Within this broader area fall career pathways programs and efforts.

Career pathways approaches offer articulated education and training steps between occupations in an industry sector, combined with support services, to enable individuals to enter and exit training within a pathway at various levels and to advance over time to higher skills, recognized credentials, and better jobs with higher pay. Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth of both career pathways program development and the body of research, much of it rigorous, examining the effectiveness of the approach. This creates an urgent need to both incorporate this new evidence into policy and practice and focus future research on unanswered questions identified through these studies.

In response, this forum brought together researchers, government, practitioners, and the policy community to examine the state of knowledge, including recent evaluations, priorities for future research, and implications for policy and practice. The audience was in line with APPAM’s core membership of professionals interested in the policy and practice of workforce development strategies, particularly for low-income individuals.

You can read the content highlights via live tweets!

The half-day agenda for nearly 150 registrants was:

Light Breakfast & Registration

8:00 AM to 9:00 AM

Welcome

9:00 AM to 9:05 AM

• David Johnson, University of Michigan (View video here.)

Introduction: Overview of Career Pathways

9:05 AM to 9:45 AM

Moderator: Julie Strawn, Abt Associates (View video here.)

• The Larger Employment & Training and Economic Context for Career Pathways, Dan Bloom, MDRC

• Career Pathways Programs: Evidence and Gaps, Julie Strawn, Abt Associates

Impacts of Career Pathways Programs To Date

9:45 AM to 11:00 AM
Moderator: Laura Peck, Abt Associates (View video here.)

• Impact Findings from Pathways to Advancing Careers & Education (PACE) Evaluation, Karen Gardiner, Abt Associates

• Impact Findings from the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 1.0) Program Evaluation, Laura Peck, Abt Associates

• Impact Findings from Work Advance, Richard Hendra, MDRC
• Strengthening Career Pathways by Embedding Evaluations into Routines of Practice, Rebecca Maynard, University of Pennsylvania