The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) emphasizes targeting out-of-school youth with training and services that are employer driven and linked to labor market demand. Drawing upon available research and on-the-ground experience, this paper summarizes existing knowledge that can guide implementation of key WIOA provisions for serving out-of-school youth.
Publications
Evidence on Improving Employment Outcomes for Disadvantaged Youth in the United States

The Great Recession took a toll on the already dim economic prospects of low-income 16- to 24-year-olds who face structural barriers to employment. Evidence indicates that involvement of employers in devising education, training, and work experiences that meet labor market demands should be a key component of any policy response.
Improving the employment outlook of disadvantaged young people on a large scale will require a stronger focus on engaging private employers on potential solutions. On June 4, 2014, MDRC and The Rockefeller Foundation convened a group of experts to discuss such demand-driven approaches.
Evidence from the UK Employment Retention and Advancement Demonstration
This study for the UK Department for Work and Pensions explores the attitudes of a sample of participants in the UK Employment Retention and Advancement program. This rare employment study on low-paid workers in the United Kingdom offers a foundation for understanding the receptivity of low-paid workers to programs that help them remain employed and advance.
Evidence from the UK Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) Demonstration

The largest ever random assignment test of a social policy in Britain is being applied in a demonstration of the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) program. This report, written by MDRC and British colleagues as part of a consortium of social policy research firms and produced for the UK Department for Work and Pensions, examines how well random assignment worked.