The debate on welfare reform frequently revolves around a central — and still controversial — question: To what extent should welfare-to-work programs emphasize education and training versus immediate job placement? Findings from rigorous studies show that there is a clear role for skills-building activities. The key lesson is balance. Rigid job-search-first and rigid education-or-training-first programs increase employment, but the former get people jobs sooner and at lower cost and the latter do not ultimately get people better jobs. The most successful programs use a mixed strategy — in which some people are urged to get a job quickly and others are assigned to work-focused education or training programs. Thus, there is no evidence to support a rigid education-or-training-first policy. The implication for welfare reform is that participation standards should retain their focus on work but avoid restrictions that discourage a mixed strategy. 

These findings and implications are summarized in The Role of Education and Training in Welfare Reform, a policy brief written by MDRC’s president, Judith Gueron, and senior associate Gayle Hamilton, and also in a concise, comprehensive video presentation, Effective Ways to Move Welfare Recipients into Work. The conclusions presented in both the policy brief and the video draw extensively from pioneering work done by MDRC in the Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) evaluation (which focused on California’s statewide program) and under contract to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the 11-site National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies(NEWWS). It is important to note that these studies examined the effectiveness of mandatory education and training, but did not test the effects of voluntary enrollment, or of postsecondary education programs, including ones in community colleges.

While encouraging overall, the findings provide no basis for complacency:  Most states are not operating mixed strategy programs and even the best mixed strategy programs do not lift many people out of poverty. The failure of mandatory basic education to help high school dropouts, the lack of clear guidance on what can make training effective, and the low earnings and persistent poverty of most welfare leavers point to the continued need to identify pre- and post-employment strategies that are more successful in getting people higher-wage jobs.

Projects currently underway at MDRC are investigating these very strategies. They are building on earlier investigations of mandatory welfare-to-work programs to explore how the benefits of education and training might improve the labor market prospects of a wider variety of low-income working populations who voluntarily participate in innovative, enhanced education and training programs. For example, the Center for Employment Training Replication (CET) project is investigating the effectiveness, in different locations and contexts, of a specific model that integrates vocational training and remedial education, targeting at-risk young adults. Recently reported findings reveal that if the program is implemented effectively with fidelity to the original model, CET increased the employment and earnings of young women, though it did not improve the outcomes for men. In the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project, MDRC is working under contract to HHS to examine the effects of providing ERA participants with a variety of types of supports — including education and training — before and while they are employed. In the Work Advancement and Support Center Demonstration, further education and skills training programs are likely to figure prominently in the services provided to low-wage workers to enable them to progress upwards in the labor market. And in Opening Doors, MDRC researchers are investigating ways to facilitate the enrollment and success of low-income working parents, people making a transition from welfare to work, and other nontraditional students in credential-building community college programs, by revising curricula, innovating with new forms of financial aid, and providing student supports, such as tutoring, stronger career counseling, and, if needed, child care.

Education and training are sure to remain at the forefront of the welfare reform policy debate as Congress reauthorizes federal welfare legislation and as states adapt their welfare and workforce development policies — both to meet possible new federal guidelines and to advance the prospect of greater economic security for low-income citizens.