Continual evaluation and improvement ensures programs are successfully supporting workers and meeting workforce needs. We analyze participant- and program-level data and meet with practitioners in the field to identify successes, barriers and areas for improvement. We partner with practitioners to identify approaches that lead participants into good jobs and well-paying careers. Then we work to improve programs and expand upon these successes.
Our team has analyzed administrative records for hundreds of thousands of community college students and WIOA Title I participants. We have also spoken to more than 100 frontline staff in college and workforce programs to better understand these systems. Our work has been featured in US Department of Labor national conferences and webinars and referenced in a Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) focused on WIOA Title evaluation requirements.
We partner with state agencies and networks of practitioners to paint a clear picture of what’s happening in workforce development programs and determine actionable steps for improvement.
No one understands workforce development programs better than on-the-ground staff who are delivering training and interacting with participants. We value staff expertise and aim to listen and learn from them while bringing our own expertise in data analysis. Together, we can understand and improve the workforce training programs that are so vital to preparing the workers of tomorrow.
Our efforts include completing an Economic Impacts and Student Outcomes Analysis for the Illinois Community College Board. We provided a statewide report and reports for each individual college district. We have also served as lead staff and research advisors to the IWIB Equity Task Force Data Analysis Work Group, where we provided disaggregated data analysis, including the application of disproportionate impact criteria.
In addition, we created program evaluations for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (WIOA Title I), Wyoming Department of Workforce Services (WIOA Title I) and ICCB Workforce Equity Initiative. This included:
The Illinois Works Jobs Program Act was created in partnership with the building trades and construction industry to meet the need for skilled construction workers and increase equitable opportunities in the building trades.
We partner with pre-apprenticeship program providers across the state to analyze how successfully this training program has been administered by a network of nonprofits and community colleges across the state. We analyze participant-level data to determine what’s impacting success within the program and in participants’ transitions to employment or fully registered apprenticeship programs.
As a precursor to policy development, the Workforce Policy Lab partnered with the Illinois P-20 Network and SkillsUSA Illinois to conduct a study of the current state of internships and work-based learning in Illinois. The report’s authors found that internships and apprenticeships are becoming more diverse, but that female participation in apprenticeships remains low. The authors also created two new metrics that can be used in future studies and in workforce program evaluation and improvement: apprenticeship enrollment metric and internship enrollment metric. The SkillsUSA Illinois Apprenticeship Landscape Analysis Report was published in January 2025.