Education &amp; Training

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In September 2019, New Jersey became an inaugural grantee of Data for the American Dream (D4AD), an initiative to “support innovative projects aimed at expanding access to education and career information to help students and job seekers — especially low-income, lower-skilled, underemployed, and unemployed Americans — make better career decisions in a challenging economy.” The Heldrich Center is partnering with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, other state agencies, and organizations from the nonprofit sector, private sector, and academia over an 18-month period to build an interactive website containing smart disclosure tools designed to help job seekers make informed decisions about training. This website will target customers of the state’s human services programs and other disadvantaged populations. The newly available data will assist job seekers in obtaining information about their desired employment and earnings outcomes, and help employers find better-qualified employees.

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Development of an interactive website containing smart disclosure tools designed to help job seekers make informed decisions about training.

Evaluation of the Newark/Essex County, New Jersey Construction Careers Consortium Pre-Apprenticeship Program

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Evaluation of the Newark/Essex County, New Jersey Construction Careers Consortium Pre-Apprenticeship Program

Topic

admin Mon, 10/26/2020 - 23:17

Published Date

January 1, 2006

Status

Funded By

New Jersey Institute for Social Justice

Work Category

Evaluation of the Newark/Essex Construction Careers Consortium

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Excerpt

From 2006 to 2007, the Heldrich Center conducted an evaluation of a program in Essex County, New Jersey that prepares women and minorities for apprenticeships in the construction trades. The evaluation included both a process evaluation (including structured interviews with stakeholders and program staff and focus groups and questionnaires with participants) and an outcome evaluation. The center used individual-level state administrative Unemployment Insurance wage records and data on basic skill levels to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in preparing students for careers in construction. The center also used probabilistic matching techniques to create a comparison group from New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development Employment Services administrative data.

Products:

Findings from the Evaluation of the Newark/Essex Construction Careers Consortium

Tagline

Evaluation of program designed to prepare women and and minorities for apprenticeships in the construction trades.

Evaluation of New Jersey's Literacy Labs

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Evaluation of New Jersey's Literacy Labs

Topic

admin Mon, 10/26/2020 - 23:17

Published Date

January 1, 1998

Status

Funded By

New Jersey Department of Labor/New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission

Work Category

Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants

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Excerpt

From 1998 to 2000, the Heldrich Center performed two process evaluations of the newly established literacy labs in New Jersey’s One-Stop Career Centers, to inform the implementation and expansion of the effort. The Literacy Labs, which rely heavily on computer-based learning tools, are the state’s main effort to provide basic skills, literacy, and English-as-a-Second-Language training to individuals in One-Stop Career Centers. The evaluations used interviews with program staff and stakeholders as well as focus groups with participants. The center also analyzed participants’ pre- and post-participation test scores and participants’ employment experiences prior to and after participating in the program.

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Process evaluations of the literacy labs in New Jersey's One-Stop Career Centers.

Evaluation of Raritan Valley Community College’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant

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Evaluation of Raritan Valley Community College’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant

Topic

educational programs

Raritan Valley Community College

admin Mon, 10/26/2020 - 23:17

Published Date

January 1, 2010

Status

Funded By

U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration

Work Category

registered apprenticeships

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The Heldrich Center evaluated Raritan Valley Community College’s (RVCC) implementation of its workforce development programs and tracked the progress of the students who participated in those programs. Researchers worked with the college to develop an “early alert” system to help identify students who were at risk of dropping out so that services could be targeted to meet their needs and help them remain in college. In addition, the Heldrich Center calculated graduation rates and used administrative data to calculate key labor market outcomes, including the entered employment rate, average earnings, and the retention rate. Heldrich Center researchers benchmarked these outcomes by comparing the higher education and employment outcomes of participants in the college’s workforce development programs to those of similar students who participated in different programs. Throughout this process, the Heldrich Center and RVCC collaborated, and the center relayed findings from the evaluation to the college to support its efforts to continuously improve its workforce development programs.

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Evaluation of Raritan Valley Community College's workforce development programs and student progress.

Evaluation of Registered Apprenticeship Programs

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Evaluation of Registered Apprenticeship Programs

Topic

employment outcomes

admin Mon, 10/26/2020 - 23:17

Published Date

January 1, 2011

Status

Funded By

Mathematica and the U.S. Department of Labor

Work Category

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Excerpt

The Heldrich Center worked closely with Mathematica and the Jacob France Institute at the University of Baltimore to conduct a quasi-experimental evaluation of the effect of participating in a registered apprenticeship program on employment outcomes. Working with New Jersey state administrative data, Heldrich Center researchers used social security numbers of individuals who participated in registered apprenticeship programs in New Jersey and matched them to state administrative Unemployment Insurance wage records to calculate employment rates and average earnings for these individuals for up to 12 quarters before they first participated in a registered apprenticeship, while they participated in it, and for up to 12 quarters after they exited the apprenticeship. Center researchers also used a probabilistic matching technique to create a comparison group of individuals who received other forms of training and used appropriate statistical methods to calculate the differences in earnings between the two groups.

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Evaluation of the effects of participating in a registered apprenticeship program on employment outcomes.

Evaluation of Essex County College’s Predominantly Black Institutions Formula Grant

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Evaluation of Essex County College’s Predominantly Black Institutions Formula Grant

Topic

black students

educational improvement

admin Mon, 10/26/2020 - 23:17

Published Date

January 1, 2009

Status

Funded By

U.S. Department of Education’s Predominantly Black Institutions Grant Program

Work Category

Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants

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Excerpt

The Heldrich Center evaluated four diverse initiatives at Essex County College in New Jersey that were funded as part of its Predominantly Black Institutions formula grant: recitation sections for math, a learning community in English and math for remedial students, instruction of professors in how to use computer software to improve instruction in mathematics, and a college preparatory program for individuals who have dropped out of high school. For the mathematics recitation, the center conducted a quasi-experimental evaluation of the effect of the recitation on student grades and retention in college. For the others, the center conducted process evaluations using surveys, interviews, and focus groups to evaluate how well these initiatives were being implemented.

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Evaluations of initiatives at Essex County College.

Evaluation of Camden County College’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 23:17:05 +0000

Evaluation of Camden County College’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant

Topic

educational programs

Camden County College

admin Mon, 10/26/2020 - 23:17

Status

Funded By

U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration

Work Category

Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative

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Excerpt

The Heldrich Center evaluated the Camden County College’s (CCC) implementation of manufacturing and energy workforce development programs under a Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The program involved a partnership with several other colleges in the state to implement manufacturing training with the use of a mobile teaching facility and utilities training that includes an employer-based hands-on learning component. The center tracked the progress of the students in those programs, conducted an analysis of the program processes, and calculated employment outcomes for students. To document student outcomes, the Heldrich Center calculated graduation rates and used administrative data and wage records to calculate key labor market outcomes, including the entered employment rate, average earnings, and the retention rate. With this project, the Heldrich Center tested a new approach for measuring labor market alignment in the college’s programs. The approach sought to document the robustness of the program’s activities that were designed to ensure that the number of graduates and their skills match employer needs. The evaluation team sought to understand the college’s goals for meeting the needs of students and employers and then document that sound processes were used to ensure that program activities align with these goals in areas from program selection to intake to teaching and assessment.

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Evaluation of the implementation of manufacturing and energy workforce development programs at Camden County College.

Evaluation of the Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative

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Evaluation of the Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative

Topic

Northern New Jersey

admin Mon, 10/26/2020 - 23:17

Published Date

July 1, 2011

Status

Funded By

Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions

Work Category

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Excerpt

The Heldrich Center conducted an evaluation of the Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative (GNWFC) to assess its progress and outcomes over a three-year period from July 2011 through June 2014. The evaluation consisted of formative and summative components, assessing GNWFC’s implementation of initiatives to determine if the activities have been implemented as planned and identifying areas where the programs, services, and partnerships can be improved. The summative component examined the effectiveness of GNWFC toward increasing the skills and employment of low-skilled workers, helping local employers meet their workforce needs, and providing public policy advocacy.

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Evaluation of program providing workforce development solutions that enable low-skilled workers to advance in careers and businesses to compete.

Evaluation of the Newark Area Industry Linked-Information Technology Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant at Essex County College

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Evaluation of the Newark Area Industry Linked-Information Technology Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant at Essex County College

Topic

admin Mon, 10/26/2020 - 23:17

Published Date

December 15, 2015

Status

Funded By

U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration

Work Category

(OLD) Related Experts

William Mab

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The Heldrich Center evaluated Essex County College’s implementation information technology programs in the areas of cybersecurity, health information technology, and software development under a Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The program involved a partnership with several organizations, including Jobs for the Future, Wider Opportunities for Women, Social Solutions, IQ4, and the Newark Alliance to create credit-bearing courses to facilitate the knowledge, skills, and competencies required for information technology credentials and development of a database and program to match student skills with employer internship needs. The center, for the period 2013 to 2017, examined the implementation of the program, including reviewing the program progress relative to curriculum development, student assessment, and partnership roles and contributions. The center tracked the progress of the students in those programs, conducted an analysis of the program processes, and calculated employment outcomes for students. To document student outcomes, the Heldrich Center calculated graduation rates and used administrative data and wage records to calculate key labor market outcomes, including the entered employment rate, average earnings, and the retention rate.

Tagline

Evaluation of information technology programs at Essex County College.

Evaluation of Newark Workforce Investment Board Workforce Innovation Fund

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 23:17:05 +0000

Evaluation of Newark Workforce Investment Board Workforce Innovation Fund

Topic

Newark Workforce Investment Board

job seekers

Newark, NJ

admin Mon, 10/26/2020 - 23:17

Published Date

December 15, 2015

Status

Funded By

U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration

Work Category