Building the Framework to Identify Effective Training

The Rework America Alliance aims to identify and provide guidance on affordable and effective training programs that provide unemployed and low-wage workers—a disproportionate share being workers of color—with the skills needed to move into good quality jobs that offer strong career mobility potential, where and if education and training is needed.

The Alliance is utilizing a Job-2-Job approach to training that focuses on (1) education and training programs that develop the targeted learning and skills workers need to successfully obtain a specific good job that aligns with their interests; (2) the key outcomes from training programs that align to economic gains for workers, ensuring equitable outcomes along lines of race and other relevant demographics; and (3) the training guidance and tools to support coaches and workers in navigating an individual’s path towards obtaining a new job.

These resources are critical to making pathways to economic security accessible to impacted workers, especially those with the greatest barriers to economic opportunity.

Job-2-Job Skill Delta

To identify the targeted learning and skills workers need to successfully obtain a specific good job, the Job-2-Job approach will conduct a behind the scenes analysis that identifies (1) the skills a worker has likely built in their most recent job; (2) the set of skills that a worker would need to successfully obtain a specific new job; and (3) the Skill Delta between (1) and (2). The Alliance will identify training programs that build the learning and skills identified by the Delta analysis.

The below visual presents an illustrative, hypothetical Job-2-Job Skill Delta analysis.

Draft Effectiveness Framework

As part of this Alliance Job-2-Job approach, we are utilizing a Draft Effectiveness Framework. The Draft Framework aims to collect, organize, and present in an actionable way vital information on training programs to inform jobseekers’ navigation of the training landscape.

The framework includes:

• Effectiveness metricsKey outcomes metrics that are important indicators of training programs’ success in preparing participants for good quality jobs. These metrics are grouped into two categories to indicate priority and value to the worker in supporting actionable decision making. Metrics and data will be disaggregated by race, gender, and other relevant demographics to ensure equitable outcomes.
• Effectiveness tiersA scheme of organizing programs based on their outcomes in different metrics to make navigation of effective programs by coaches and workers more readily accessible.
• Effectiveness data sources and validityA means of differentiating data based on the reliability of its source, while sourcing data from different places based on availability.
• The effectiveness framework aims to ensure that identified training opportunities do in fact lead to economic mobility. This protects workers, particularly the most economically vulnerable, from participating in programs that do not lead to jobs and ultimately leave them in no better economic position.
• This is a draft framework, and we invite you to provide feedback on the metrics, tiers, and data sources and validity. Please send input to Effectivenessframework@markle.org.

The components of the Job-2-Job approach will combine to create clear and actionable information on training programs to support coaches and workers in identifying a promising program to pursue:

What’s Next:

The Alliance will work with our partners, collaborators, data experts, states, and other stakeholders to build resources that provide actionable, vital information on training options that succeed in preparing workers for good jobs with strong career mobility potential.