Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Highlights
- The study's objective was to examine the net impact of 12 workforce development programs in Washington state on employment, earnings, and public benefits receipt outcomes. This profile focuses on the private career school programs. The author investigated similar research questions for the net impact of other programs, the profiles can be found here:
- WIA/WIOA Adult Program
- WIA/WIOA Dislocated Worker Program
- WIA/WIOA Youth Program
- Professional-Technical Education Programs
- Worker Retraining Program
- Basic Education for Adults Programs
- Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) Programs
- Aerospace Training Programs
- Registered Apprenticeships
- WorkFirst Program
- Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) Program
- The study used a difference-in-differences design with a matched comparison group. Using administrative data, the author conducted statistical models to compare the outcomes of the program participants and the comparison group members one and three years after program exit.
- The study found that private career school program participants were significantly more likely to be employed, have higher earnings, and earn more in public benefits than comparison group members.
- This study receives a moderate evidence rating. This means we are somewhat confident that the estimated effects are attributable to private career school programs, but other factors might also have contributed.
Intervention Examined
The Private Career School Programs
Features of the Intervention
Private career school programs are workforce development programs, administered by privately owned businesses, that provide training for various occupations. These programs cannot use public state funds, so students pay for the programs with public and private grants and loans and GI Bill benefits. The Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board regulates the private career schools that provide programs that result in certificates or licenses while the Washington Student Achievement Council oversees the private career schools that provide degree programs.
Features of the Study
The study used a difference-in-differences design to examine the impact of private career school programs in Washington state on employment, earnings, and public benefits receipt outcomes. The author matched private career school program participants to similar nonparticipants using propensity scores developed from socio-demographic information. The comparison group members included individuals who registered to use Washington’s WorkSource employment centers and online job-search portals as part of the Wagner Peyser federal program, but did not participate in the private career school programs. The study sample included two cohorts. The 2014-2015 cohort included 15,227 individuals (8,317 intervention and 6,910 comparison) and over half were male (52%), primarily White (63%), with an average age of 33. The 2016-2017 cohort included 18,239 individuals (10,504 intervention and 7,735 comparison) and had equal proportions of men and women, was primarily White (59%), with an average age of 33.
The primary data sources were administrative data from the private career school programs and Washington's WorkSource employment centers and online job-search portals. The author conducted statistical models to examine differences in outcomes between the intervention and comparison groups at one year and three years after program exit. Outcomes included employment rate, quarterly hours worked, hourly wage, quarterly earnings, and quarterly Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits received.
Findings
Employment
- The study found that private career school program participants had significantly higher employment rates than comparison group members one year after program exit, but found no significant differences three years after exit. The program participants also had significantly more quarterly hours worked at both one year and three years after program exit.
Earnings and wages
- The study found that private career school program participants had significantly higher hourly wages and higher quarterly earnings than comparison group members at both one year and three years after program exit.
Public benefits receipt
- The study found that private career school program participants received significantly more in quarterly UI benefits than comparison group members one year after program exit, but did not find a statistically significant difference at three years after program exit.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The study reports a less stringent statistical significance level, considering p-values of less than 0.10 to be significant, though it is standard practice to consider statistical significance if the p-value is less than 0.05. Only results that demonstrate a p-value of less than 0.05 are considered statistically significant in this profile.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is moderate because it was based on a well-implemented nonexperimental design. This means we are somewhat confident that the estimated effects are attributable to private career school programs at community and technical colleges, but other factors might also have contributed.