Working with Disadvantaged Youth. Thirty-Month Findings from the Evaluation of the Center for Employment Training Replication Sites

摘要

Young people who lack postsecondary education or vocational credentials face an uphill battle in the competition for jobs. Two prior studies found that the services of the Center for Employment Training (CET) in San Jose, California, significantly increased low-income youths' and single-mothers' chances of finding employment and also raised their earnings. CET is noted for enrolling trainees with little prescreening, for providing training in a work like setting, for requiring a full-time commitment from trainees, for involving employers in the design and delivery of training, for integrating instruction in basic skills into the training, and for allowing trainees to progress as they master competencies, without any fixed schedule. In the early 1990s, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) provided funds for CET to provide technical assistance to other organizations interested in replicating the CET model, thus adding new programs beyond CET's traditional base in San Jose and elsewhere in the western states. This study examines the experiences of youth in twelve CET sites outside San Jose: six in eastern states and the Midwest begun as part of the DOL-sponsored replication effort and six western programs operated as part of CET's service network. This report summarizes the implementation findings and presents initial impact findings based on a random assignment research design and a survey conducted 30 months after application to CET.