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Building the Evidence Base
August 2022, Vol. 3, No. 2
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Welcome to Building the Evidence Base, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office's (CEO) quarterly newsletter, where we share our latest independent research, data resources and upcoming events. The latest edition is on: new Career Pathways resources and events, our engagement efforts with researchers and our latest publications.
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New findings from the Career Pathways Descriptive and Analytical Project are now available online.
Career pathways approaches aim to help workers advance to better paying jobs by earning in-demand credentials and skills through education, training and employment. The department funded three exciting studies:
The Descriptive and Analytical Career Pathways Project’s exploratory Machine Learning Study highlights new opportunities to apply machine learning in workforce development research, including in synthesizing a large body of data. Read about insights into challenges and solutions using machine learning approaches and learn more about a framework that could inform future projects.
Join Us at the Career Pathways Evidence Coffee Break
Save the date! Join CEO on Thursday, October 13, 2022 from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM ET for a webinar highlighting key findings from the recently released Career Pathways project. We will screen a series of four short videos from our Evidence Coffee Break series, highlighting actionable information for practitioners thinking about designing or improving career pathways programs, and hold a live question and answer session with the study team.
For more information, visit CEO's Events page.
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Six scholars selected for the CEO Summer Fellowship Program. CEO supports the labor research pipeline and selected six scholars as part of its CEO Summer Fellowship Program. The fellowship program supports current or recent Ph.D. candidates gain valuable experience related to labor and evaluation or data analytics research.
Three researcher teams selected for the DOL Summer Data Equity Challenge. CEO selected winners from its second annual Summer Data Equity Challenge to support the use of data to analyze how federal labor policies, protections and programs reach traditionally underserved communities. The Challenge and the research it yields will help the department understand barriers to accessing federal benefits and services and encourages scholars, especially emerging scholars, to focus on equity issues.
Sign up for updates from CEO to be the first to learn about future opportunities for researchers.
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Recent Reports, Briefs, Resources |
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Job Corps Cascades Impact Study
DOL developed the Cascades Job Corps College and Career Academy (CCCA) Pilot to provide students aged 16-21 with a career pathway from community colleges to employment into the healthcare and information technology sectors. This pilot tested a number of proof-of-concepts about a college-focused job corps model, as well as outcomes in education and employment. On outcomes, during the 28-month study period, the offer of the CCCA service did not measurably impact attainment of a college credential, though it did increase receipt of non-college-specific credentials.
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International Labor Issues
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Increasing Economic and Social Empowerment for Adolescent Girls and Vulnerable Women (EMPOWER) in Zambia
The EMPOWER project’s goal was to reduce child labor among adolescent girls by offering technical/vocational skill training as a pathway to employment. The EMPOWER intervention evaluation highlights improvements in literacy, such as the share of adolescent girls who could read a full sentence and those that recognize four-digit numbers increasing by 12 and 13 percentage points respectively; but little measurable change in technical and vocational skills.
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Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) Evidence Building and Implementation Study
The RESEA programs across the country are focused on providing evidence-based reemployment interventions and strategies to UI recipients. Read findings from the state and local implementation study, as well as new topic briefs on the pandemic and RESEA program components (such as selection and meetings, career services and individualized services) to help states improve their programs and participants' outcomes.
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CLEAR Highlights
The Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR) is the department’s central source of labor-related research and information.
To date, CLEAR has summarized 1,200+ studies and conducted over 20 evidence reviews. In 2021, CLEAR implemented a new type of systematic review that finds and reviews labor-related research based on the time it was released. Going forward, this review will help CLEAR include up-to-date literature on labor topics and identify small bodies of evidence. CLEAR is adding 168 new summaries of studies to its database now, on many new topics including compensation and workplace conditions, health and safety, worker protection, and more. Find these new study summaries on CLEAR’s Systematic Annual Search webpage or search the full database in the Search for Studies tab.
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Moving Research Forward: Staff Spotlight
Marisol Lopez came to CEO as a detail from DOL's Employment and Training Administration's regional office in Boston, where she works with the UI program to oversee regional reemployment grants and program administration and monitoring, in addition to leading technical assistance to improve local, state and regional partnerships.
Marisol helped lead CEO's Career Pathways project's efforts to develop evidence translation and communication tools, such as the Career Trajectories and Occupational Transitions (CTOT) dashboard. She recommends DOL provide grantees the CTOT dashboard to help them identify promising 'launchpad' occupations that will better serve the needs of the workforce and improve the quality of their technical assistance.
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