Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Highlights
- The study's objective was to examine the impact of workforce partnership programs on employment and earnings outcomes. This profile focuses on the evaluation of the Partners for a Competitive Workforce: Health Careers Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati. The authors investigated similar research questions for other sites, the profiles of which can be found here.
- The study used a nonexperimental design to compare outcomes between individuals receiving services from the Health Careers Collaborative to a matched comparison group receiving state employment services. Using program and unemployment insurance wage data, the authors conducted statistical models to examine differences in outcomes between the groups.
- The study found that individuals receiving services from the Health Careers Collaborative were significantly more likely to be employed and earn more than individuals in the comparison group.
- This study receives a moderate evidence rating. This means we are somewhat confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Health Careers Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati, but other factors might also have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Partners for a Competitive Workforce: Health Careers Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati
Features of the Intervention
The National Fund for Workforce Solutions/Social Innovation fund (NFWS/SIF) is a collaboration of national foundations that invests in regional collaborative partnerships to promote employment and career advancements for low-income individuals and to ensure that employers can obtain a skilled workforce. The Partners for a Competitive Workforce: Health Careers Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati was funded by NFWS/SIF and established in 2003 to address shortages of skilled healthcare workers. The partners included Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Greater Oaks Institute of Technology, and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center of Greater Cincinnati. The program was geared toward unemployed workers interested in health care careers such as nursing, allied health, rehabilitation, health information technology, or biotechnology. Based on their employment goals, participants worked with an advisor and could receive a variety of trainings and services. The program offered job readiness training, assistance in obtaining employability and training credentials, industry focused training, and job search services as well as training focused on soft skills and financial literacy. Assistance was offered to participants to obtain a National Career Readiness Certificate, enroll in courses to receive their GED, and prepare for postsecondary education. To develop the participants’ skills and knowledge, the program worked with employers to develop health-care related training credentials. For participating in these training programs, the employers offered program participants tuition reimbursements or prepaid tuition.
Features of the Study
The study used a nonexperimental design to compare the outcomes of individuals receiving services from the Health Careers Collaborative (treatment group) to a sample of individuals who received state employment services (comparison group). The authors formed a matched comparison group that was similar to the treatment group on individual characteristics and employment histories. The treatment group included 992 unemployed individuals and the comparison group included 46,701 individuals. The majority of program participants were women (90 percent), had at least a high school diploma (92 percent), and almost two-thirds were under the age of 35 (65 percent). Data sources included Health Careers program data and employment service data that provided participant socioeconomic and demographic information upon program entry and the type of services that participants received during the study, as well as state unemployment insurance wage data that provided quarterly earnings for all participants. The authors used a statistical model to compare employment and earnings outcomes between the groups through a six-quarter follow-up period.
Findings
Earnings and wages
- The study found that treatment participants had significantly higher earnings than comparison participants for all quarters.
Employment
- The study found that treatment participants were significantly more likely to be employed across six quarters than comparison participants.
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 the Healthcare Collaboration of Greater Cincinnati, but other factors may also have contributed.