What do we know about the effectiveness of apprenticeship and work-based training interventions?
Labor market shifts in recent decades have reduced employment in some fields in which workers without a four-year college degree used to be able to earn a household sustaining wage (Autor, 2019). At the same time, the skills that employers require have changed (Acemoglu & Restrepo, 2021; Deming, 2017) and many employers report difficulty finding workers with skills that they require (McKinsey 2020). Work-based training approaches may help address these problems by engaging employers in training efforts and offering workers an opportunity to build skills that employers require through applied learning. Work-based training approaches involve training that occurs in a work environment or in a job-like setting. Examples of work-based training interventions include sectoral training and employment, subsidized employment, transitional employment, and Registered Apprenticeship.
| Intervention |
Description |
|---|---|
| Sectoral training and employment | These interventions provide training in specific industry sectors or occupations, as well as services such as soft skills training and case management, to prepare disadvantaged workers and workers with low income to meet the needs of employers. They may involve training that occurs in a job-like setting or opportunities for internships. They also connect these workers with employers that have job vacancies through job placement assistance and supports. |
| Subsidized and transitional employment | Subsidized employment provides wage subsidies to employers who hire workers facing challenges to employment, usually with the expectation that the employer eventually hires the worker at a competitive wage. Transitional employment interventions often involve creating temporary jobs or work-like experiences, or providing job placements, for workers facing challenges to employment. |
| Registered Apprenticeship (RA) | RA, administered by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) or a state apprenticeship agency, is a career training program that offers individuals paid on-the-job learning, job-related technical instruction, and mentorship and supervision, culminating in a nationally recognized certification upon completion. Employers and other sponsors register with DOL or a state agency to deliver specific programs that meet quality standards and often last from one to six years. |
| Workforce Investment Act (WIA) training services | WIA programs offered vouchers to individuals to apply to costs of training in locally in-demand occupations, which could include work-based training such as on-the-job training, as well as classroom training that in some cases may have been in a job-like setting. Programs also provided some supportive services to help individuals complete training. The Adult Program served people aged 18 years and older, often giving priority access to recipients of public assistance and other low-income customers, particularly if funds are limited. The Dislocated Worker Program served people who had been laid off from employment. |
| Other | Other work-based training interventions that CLEAR reviewed included mentoring at work, training provided through the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, and an accelerated schedule for a Registered Apprenticeship program. |
Sectoral training and employment programs that offered specific pathways for occupational training and other career supports improved education and training outcomes, and some improved employment or earnings.
- All of the five moderate- or high-rated causal studies of sectoral training and employment programs that reported on education and training outcomes found that that these programs improved education and training outcomes. All of those programs offered specific pathways of occupational training to obtain industry certification or postsecondary credentials, informed and supported by deep, ongoing collaboration with employers. Four of those studies examined different organizations’ implementations of the same program model (the WorkAdvance sectoral training model), which focused on career readiness, occupational training, career coaching, job placement supports, and post-employment job retention services.
- Evidence that sectoral training and employment programs improved employment or earnings outcomes is mixed. Of the six studies that looked at employment or earnings outcomes, three found favorable impacts on either employment or earnings in the short or long term (two of these studies examined WorkAdvance, and the third study examined the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership, which provided short-term training in construction, manufacturing, and health care sectors, as well as case management and job placement assistance).
Subsidized and transitional employment improved employment and earnings in the short term.
All three studies of subsidized employment that received a high causal evidence rating found increases in short-term employment and earnings.
Registered Apprenticeship (RA) improved employment and earnings, but the evidence base is small.
The one study of RA that received a moderate causal rating found increases in long-term employment and earnings. The non-experimental study examined the outcomes of a sample of 57,924 individuals, comparing outcomes for participants who completed a RA to those who did not complete the program because of ineligibility or because they chose not to enroll. The study involved over 1,000 occupations. The length of the apprenticeships varied from one to six years.
WIA training services had more favorable impacts on employment and earnings outcomes in the long term than in the short term, though these outcomes were mixed overall.
The favorable long-term outcomes were for the WIA Adult Program; three studies of it found favorable impacts on employment and earnings after roughly three to four years after program entry. For the WIA Dislocated Worker (DW) program, long-term employment and earnings impacts varied across studies, ranging from unfavorable, to mixed, to favorable. Short-term impacts (in less than 18 months after program entry) on these outcomes were found to be mixed or unfavorable for both the Adult and Dislocated Worker programs. WIA training services are similar for the Adult program and the DW program. The two differed primarily in the population served, not in services offered. The Adult program served people 18 and older, often prioritizing access for those with low incomes, while the DW program specifically served workers who had been laid off. WIA training services consisted of three tiers of successive services: core, intensive, and training. The training estimates compare outcomes for individuals who were offered all three to individuals offered only core and intensive services. Not everyone who was offered training entered training. And it is not clear how much of that training would be considered “work-based.” D’Amico et al. (2015) report that only 5 percent of the WIA-funded training received by participants in their study was on-the-job training. As such, the study’s impact estimates of training impacts may not necessarily or primarily reflect impacts of work-based training.
Where are the gaps in the research on apprenticeship and work-based training interventions?
- Future research on sectoral training and employment programs could seek to better understand the favorable findings on employment, earnings, and education and training, by exploring the conditions under which such programs work best. For example, studies could investigate how program components were implemented in successful programs and characteristics of people who participated in the programs.
- Future studies could examine longer-term outcomes of subsidized and transitional employment to see if the positive short-term impacts found in the studies reviewed here persist.
- More rigorous research is needed to understand how participating in RA affects individuals’ earnings and employment outcomes, including how impacts vary among programs of different lengths and in different sectors. CLEAR identified only one eligible study of RA with moderate-rated causal evidence.
- WIA was superseded by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in 2014. Like WIA, WIOA aims to help job seekers find training and ultimately employment. Future work on WIOA training services could build on the WIA research discussed here by examining education and public benefit receipt outcomes in addition to employment and earnings outcomes to uncover a more complete picture of their effects on participants. Because WIOA funds a variety of different kinds of training, it would be helpful to understand better how much of that training is work-based and have evidence specifically on the impacts of WIOA-funded on-the-job training or training that occurs in job-like settings.