America’s Promise Job-Driven Training Grants Evaluation

To address the shortage of skilled workers in high-demand industries, U.S. firms sponsored more than 100,000 nonimmigrant H-1B visas annually from 2013 to 2018 to hire foreign workers into skilled positions (U.S. Department of State 2021). To reclaim some of these jobs for the American workforce, in 2016 the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Division of Strategic Investments (DSI), awarded more than $111 million to 23 grantees for the America’s Promise Job-Driven Training Grants program (America’s Promise). These four-year grants aimed to create or expand regional partnerships to (1) identify the needs of industry sectors that typically rely on the H-1B visa program to hire skilled foreign workers and (2) implement sector-based training strategies and career pathways to prepare a domestic workforce for middle- to high-skilled jobs in those sectors (U.S. Department of Labor 2016a, 2016b).

The America’s Promise grants represent a continuation of DOL’s commitment to supporting sector-based strategies and regional partnerships that meet employers’ needs and prepare American workers for middle- and high-skilled jobs. The America’s Promise grant program encouraged regional partnerships to come together with a commitment—or a “promise”—to create a pipeline of trained workers to address regional labor market needs. To that end, the grants aimed to help prepare job seekers for locally in-demand and high-growth employment by connecting them with classroom training and work-based learning opportunities in addition to supports such as case management, job placement services, and necessary wraparound supportive services. To achieve this goal, the grants required the development of regional workforce partnerships that prioritized employers’ voices in the development of career pathways and associated education and training offerings (U.S. Department of Labor 2016a).   In May 2017, DOL’s Chief Evaluation Office contracted with Mathematica and Social Policy Research Associates to conduct an evaluation of the America’s Promise Job-Driven Training grants. The evaluation examines the implementation and impact of grants awarded to 23 organizations.