Interventions Details | Pathways to Work

WTA Connect offered occupational training, academic advising, and employment services to adults who were low skilled in order to prepare them for enrollment in the WTA.

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WTA Connect offered occupational training, academic advising, and employment services to adults who were low skilled in order to prepare them for enrollment in the WTA.

The program provided a life-skills course and internet-based instruction designed to improve math and reading skills to the ninth-grade level. After completing the initial education, participants could enroll in occupational training in certificate courses, including courses in the administrative support, health care, and manufacturing fields. Participants began with a life-skills course that lasted 17 hours, progressed to occupational training courses that lasted between 2.5 and 16 weeks, and finished with 24 hours of career-readiness training. WTA Connect was aimed at adults who were low income and who had math and reading skills at the sixth- to eighth-grade level. This study took place in Des Moines, IA. This study was part of the Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education evaluation.

Year evaluation began: 2012

Populations and employment barriers:

Intervention services: Education, Supportive services, Training, Occupational or sectoral training, Soft skills training, Work readiness activities, Employment coaching, Job search assistance

Setting(s): Urban only

Effectiveness Rating and Effect By Outcome Domain

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Outcome domain	Term	Effect in 2018 dollars and percentages	Effect in standard deviations	Sample size
Increase earnings	Short-term
	Long-term
	Very long-term
Increase employment	Short-term
	Long-term
	Very long-term
Decrease benefit receipt	Short-term
	Long-term
	Very long-term
Increase education and training	All measurement periods	6% (in percentage points)	0.12	743

* This intervention was assessed as supported for this domain, meaning it achieved one or more statistically significant, favorable effects. However, the intervention has an average effect size that is unfavorable because the average includes all effects in this domain - both statistically significant and favorable effects and statistically insignificant but unfavorable effects.