Final Report on OCWI’s Career Pathways Portfolio · Career Pathways into policy. The Act includes funding and a framework for the implementation of Career Pathways at federal, state,

Final Report on OCWI’s Career Pathways Portfolio

March 31, 2019

This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario.

Report prepared by: Blueprint

OCWI Career Pathways Synthesis Report // 2

Table of Contents Table of Contents 2

Introduction 3

Report purpose 3

Background 3

In this report 4

1. Understanding Career Pathways 5

About the model 5

Evidence of effectiveness 8

Why Career Pathways in Ontario? 9

2. About the projects 10

A. Career Pathways Demonstration Project 14

Key findings 15

Lessons learned 16

B. Enhancing Career Pathways in the Child Care Sector 16

Key findings 17

Lessons learned 17

C. Jobs at the Port 18

Key findings 18

Lessons learned 19

D. My Learning Place 19

Key findings 20

Lessons learned 21

3. Synthesis of findings 22

Key takeaways 22

Challenges and barriers 23

Opportunities moving forward 23

Appendix A: PACE and HPOG demonstrations 25

References 27


Introduction Report purpose This report summarizes findings from the Ontario Centre for Workforce Innovation (OCWI) Career Pathways project portfolio. The portfolio includes four projects focused on generating evidence about the feasibility and effectiveness of Career Pathways approaches in Ontario. The report summarizes the key outcomes and lessons learned from each project and offers overall insights about potential directions for Career Pathways approaches in Ontario.

Background Career Pathways is a model of delivering post-secondary education and training through a series of modular steps, with each step leading to successively higher credentials and employment opportunities in a specific sector or occupation. It provides a way to align education, workforce development, and support services to support learners with diverse needs to attain high-quality, sustainable employment. The model has been widely implemented with promising results in the United States (U.S.). Recognizing the need in Ontario for more and better options to help lower-skilled adults access high-quality jobs in in-demand sectors, the OCWI engaged partners to conduct four Career Pathways-focused research projects. The projects were diverse in their scale, research focus, and objectives, but shared a common focus on generating knowledge about the relevance, usefulness, and effectiveness of the Career Pathways approach in Ontario (See Table 1 for a description of the projects). Table 1 | Career Pathways portfolio projects

Project Partners Overview

Career Pathways

Demonstration

Project

• Blueprint • Conestoga College

Tested two training programs that share features with the Career Pathways approach, with additional research and consultations to explore the relevance and feasibility of Career Pathways in Ontario

Enhancing Career

Pathways in the

Child Care Sector

• Learning Enrichment Foundation

• Mothercraft College of Early Childhood Education

Explored feasibility of a Career Pathways approach in the early learning and child care sector through targeted consultations and jurisdictional scan

My Learning

Place

• Confederation College • Thunder Bay Shelter House • Thunder Bay Public Library

Delivered and evaluated training focused on essential skills for vulnerable populations to support transitions to further employment and education opportunities


Jobs for Locals at

the Hamilton Port

• Mohawk College

Consultations with employers to understand their skill-needs and inform the development of programming that leads to credentials aligned with labour market need

In this report This report has three sections:

1) Understanding Career Pathways – Provides background on the Career Pathways model

2) About the projects – Summarizes the approach, objectives, and key findings of each project

3) Overall findings – Identifies common themes and key insights from across the project portfolio

and discusses potential opportunities moving forward


1. Understanding Career Pathways This section provides an overview of the Career Pathways model, summarizes existing evidence about its effectiveness, and discusses the OCWI’s rationale for investing in learning more about the model’s applicability in Ontario.

About the model

Career Pathways is a model of delivering post-secondary education by organizing training into a series of modular steps that lead to successively higher credentials and employment opportunities in a specific in-demand sector or occupation (Estrada, 2010). The model was developed in the U.S., where it has been widely implemented and tested. The Career Pathways approach helps individuals move from unemployment, to low skilled work, to higher-skilled and higher-salaried occupations along their chosen career path. Each step along the pathway offers a discrete point of entry and exit. This flexibility limits redundant training by allowing individuals to enroll at a level that adds to their skills, while the ability to exit or re-enter the pathway at different stages accommodates individual needs, preferences, and employment prospects. A key feature of the Career Pathways model is that it provides training in industries with both high employment demand and opportunities for highly skilled employment. This requires detailed information from a labour market context in order to determine which industries meet these requirements and assess how to tailor job training to specific job levels. The Career Pathways model can also help address some critical issues within traditional post-secondary education systems by:

• Helping individuals who do not have the financial resources, skills, or supports needed to access traditional post-secondary pathways

• Addressing misalignments between sector needs and training, particularly when existing post-secondary education options do not include programs geared towards entry- and mid-level employment in specific industries (Schwartz, 2016)

Career Pathways programs share several common components designed to make post-secondary programs more accessible, provide support for non-traditional students, increase participant retention, and provide easier access to employment at each step along the pathway. Table 2 outlines these components. Figure 1 describes the steps generally included in a Career Pathways model.


Adoption of Career Pathways Career Pathways programs have been widely adopted in the United States. With the Workforce Investment and Opportunities Act of 2014, the U.S. Federal Government institutionalized the approach by integrating Career Pathways into policy. The Act includes funding and a framework for the implementation of Career Pathways at federal, state, and local levels. The approach is also supported through several government partnerships, including the White House National Economic Council, Office of Management and Budget, and 13 federal agencies. Table 2 | Career Pathways components

1

Element Purpose Example strategies

Accelerated and

accessible credentials

and placement

Minimizes time needed to obtain credentials and employment in order to minimize the economic burden of training

Modular training with multiple entry and exit points, courses focused on sector credentials, and contextualized essential skills training

Support services

Fosters completion and progress towards additional program steps

Counselling, career navigation, and case management

Employer engagement

Ensures the program is aligned with sector needs and facilitates placement of participants

Employer involvement in program design, and offering on-site training/internships

Reduced or subsidized

costs

Makes the training program accessible to low-income adults and individuals with families

Individual training accounts, providing support to cover transportation, child care and other costs

1 Adapted from Werner et al. (2013).


Figure 1 | Career Pathways model

A number of U.S. states have also implemented their own state-wide Career Pathways programming. In Texas, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has funded 28 college systems to offer basic skills and technical pathways that enable adults to enter high-demand, entry-level jobs, and the Texas Workforce Commission has funded five Mentor Colleges to assist education providers in implementing integrated pathway approaches. In Arkansas, the Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative—administered by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education—provides academic and support services at 25 sites across the state to enable low-income, low-skilled individuals to acquire the credentials needed to enter high-demand, high-wage industries. Wisconsin Career Pathways—led by a coalition of state and community organizations—has supported the creation of statewide Career Pathways programming, including bridge programs for basic skills via certificates, diplomas, and degrees. Abt Associates (2018) conducted a recent scan that identified a total of 128 Career Pathways initiatives across the U.S. and highlighted some key trends:

• Health care is the most commonly targeted sector – Health care was closely followed by

manufacturing, information technology, and business industries and occupations.

• The majority of programs focus on low-skilled or low-income individuals – Among the 110

initiatives for which a target population was identified, 85 initiatives (77%) focused on one of these two groups. The balance of initiatives targeted unemployed workers, dislocated workers, youth, under-employed workers, or veterans.


• Programs involve a wide range of partners – While Career Pathway programs are most

commonly led by community colleges, non-profit organizations, Workforce Development Boards, and other educational institutions are also involved in program design and implementation.

Evidence of effectiveness Evaluating Career Pathways programs can be challenging, given that some intended participant outcomes may take years to achieve. There are currently two large-scale demonstrations of Career Pathways models in the U.S. that are tracking participant outcomes over long periods of time: 1) Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE); and 2) Health Profession Opportunity Grant (HPOG). These evaluations are studying the effectiveness of Career Pathways programs by comparing participant outcomes with the outcomes of similar individuals not participating in Career Pathways programs. Early findings from these evaluations have demonstrated that:

• Career Pathways can significantly increase enrollment in post-secondary education – Early

results for many Career Pathways programs demonstrate that participants are more likely to obtain additional credentials.

• Career Pathways models help align demand with participants’ employment needs –

Participants in Career Pathways are more likely to be employed in the occupation in which they received training.

• There is an unclear but promising effect on wages – Although early results have not established

any effects on wages, participants in Career Pathways programs are more likely to work in occupations that require higher skill levels and report higher perceived career progression. Both findings may be early indicators of the potential for higher wages.

For more information about these studies please see Appendix A.


Why Career Pathways in Ontario? Many lower-skilled adults in Ontario face challenges in accessing high-quality jobs, especially those requiring post-secondary education. At the same time, employment demand is high in many sectors where employers are struggling to find workers with the right skills. The OCWI recognized that Career Pathways is a potential solution to this challenge. By supporting learners with lower skills to obtain labour market-focused credentials, the model can both help participants find sustainable employment and support employers to meet their hiring needs. Career Pathways can also help those already working to more effectively combine work and learning in order to upskill and progress in their careers. The multiple entry and exit points along each pathway allow individuals to transition easily between participating in the labour market and pursuing further learning. While the model holds promise for addressing some of the province’s pressing workforce development challenges, it has not been widely adopted or tested outside of the United States. Recognizing this, the OCWI invested in a number of projects focused on generating new evidence about the feasibility of this approach in Ontario, with an emphasis on:

• Exploring whether Career Pathways is a useful approach for addressing labour market needs in specific sectors

• Testing promising approaches for reaching learners with lower skills to support the first step in a Career Pathway

• Generating early evidence about the effectiveness of programs that are aligned with the Career Pathways model


2. About the projects The projects under OCWI’s Career Pathways portfolio are diverse. They range from research projects on employer needs and mapping potential educational pathways to evaluations of Career Pathways-aligned programs that provide formal credentials. Table 3 summarizes the key characteristics of each project. It is possible that due to the novelty of Career Pathways in Ontario, none of the projects tested a fully developed Career Pathways model. Instead, each project explored the development of some key program features that are included in many Career Pathways models. Table 4 summarizes the alignment of each project with these features, which are discussed in further detail below:

• Programs include rigorous, sequential, and clearly articulated stepped credentials

including accelerated and accessible training options: The Career Pathways Demonstration

Project tested two programs that offer short, labour market-focused credentials that bridge into more advanced college credentials. Other projects did not explicitly explore new credential pathways but did explore how flexible, accelerated training options with wraparound supports could support learners to pursue further training or employment.

• Employers are active partners and contribute to the design, delivery, and providing of

employment opportunities: All projects, save for My Learning Place, actively included employers

to gather information on their employment needs and assess their willingness to participate in course design and delivery.

• Partnerships across academic, community, and workforce development organizations:

This was particularly strong in the Career Pathways demonstration project, which required relationship building across the academic and workforce development arms of Conestoga College, and with local employers.

• Training targeted at in-demand jobs with clear links between specific credentials and

employment opportunities: Save for My Learning Place, which focused on pre-employment

training and basic skills, all other programs focused on specific careers and sectors that have high employer demand.

• Targeted training at multiple populations including low-skilled and low-income adults:

All projects focused on individuals who face multiple barriers to accessing further credentials and skills training. For example, in the My Learning Place project, learners faced highly complex barriers, including homelessness and addiction. Child care practitioners who were consulted for the


Enhancing Career Pathways project also faced multiple barriers to accessing further training, including family obligations and financial barriers.

• Offered wraparound supports, including academic, financial, and personal supports: All

projects considered the needs of diverse groups of learners and the supports they need to succeed.

Table 3 | Characteristics of Career Pathways portfolio projects

OCWI Career Pathways portfolio project

Project

characteristic

Career Pathways

Demonstration

Project

Enhancing Career

Pathways for the

Child Care Sector

Jobs for Locals

at the

Hamilton Port

My Learning

Place

Research or

evaluation Evaluation Research Research Evaluation

Details Evaluation of two

Career Pathways aligned programs, the Supportive

Care program and Warehouse Essentials

program

Research to explore

whether a Career Pathways approach could help address labour market needs in the early learning and child care sector

Research on

employer skill demands in Hamilton’s Port to create new, accessible educational programs

Evaluation of

a literacy and basic skills program focused on making training more accessible to marginalized clients

Focused on

formal

credentials

Yes Yes No No



Project

characteristic

Career Pathways

Demonstration

Project

Enhancing Career

Pathways for the

Child Care Sector

Jobs for Locals

at the

Hamilton Port

My Learning

Place

Details Students receive Conestoga College certificate

Research findings informed the development of a prototype training model to support entry level workers in the early childhood education sector to upgrade their skills through an accelerated academic program

Based on this research, Mohawk’s City School developed a non-credit, pre-employment course called “Careers at the Port”

No formal links to further training; graduates are given a certificate of completion


Table 4 | Career Pathways alignment of OCWI projects


Career Pathway feature

Career

Pathways

Demonstration

Project

Enhancing Career

Pathways in the

Child Care Sector

Jobs for Locals

at the

Hamilton Port

My Learning

Place

Programs include

rigorous, sequential, and

clearly articulated stepped

credentials, including

accelerated and accessible

training options

Explored applicability of accelerated and accessible training options for obtaining existing credentials

X X

Employers are active

partners and contribute to

design, delivery, and

providing employment

opportunities for

program graduates

Employers involved in planned course design and delivery

Employers consulted in design of potential Career Pathways

X

Collaborative partnerships

across multiple

organizations (e.g.,

academic,

community, and

workforce

development)

X

Provides training targeted

at in-demand jobs with

clear links between

X X


specific credentials

and employment

opportunities

Targeted at multiple target

populations including

low-skilled and low-

income

adults

Provides wraparound

supports, including

academic, financial, and

personal supports

(Inclusion of wraparound supports being explored in course development)

X X

Reduced or

subsidized costs

(Options for subsidization being explored in course development)

The remainder of this section provides a more detailed overview of the four OCWI Career Pathways projects:

A. Career Pathways Demonstration Project B. Enhancing Career Pathways in the Child Care Sector C. My Learning Place D. Jobs for Locals at the Hamilton Port

The final reports for each project can be found on the OCWI website (www.ocwi-coie.ca).

A. Career Pathways Demonstration Project The OCWI engaged Blueprint, a non-profit research organization, to lead the Career Pathways Demonstration Project. The goal of the project was to test the effectiveness and feasibility of the Career Pathways model and generate insights into the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing the approach in Ontario. Blueprint conducted conversations with senior representatives from seven Ontario colleges to gauge interest in participating in the Career Pathways demonstration project. Conestoga College expressed a strong interest


in participating in the project and had already designed two programs that share key characteristics with the Career Pathways model. Both programs provide an initial step in a Career Pathway by building the basic academic and workplace skills needed for entry-level employment in target sectors as well as a bridge to more advanced college credentials.

• Supportive Care program – A 10-week program to train entry-level health care workers in the

skills needed to provide safe, ethical, and effective care for individuals in their homes or retirement settings. Graduates of the Supportive Care program earn a Conestoga College certificate and are eligible to apply to the Link to Personal Support Worker (PSW) course which, on completion, allows them to enter Conestoga College’s Personal Support Worker (PSW) program with advanced standing.

• Warehouse Essentials program – A 12-week program to prepare participants for entry-level jobs

in the transportation and warehousing sectors. Graduates of the Warehouse Essentials program are eligible for advanced standing in Conestoga College’s Warehousing Certificate program.

Blueprint partnered with Conestoga College to implement and evaluate these programs. Given that the programs were in the early stages of testing and development and enrolled a small group of participants, Blueprint used a developmental evaluation approach focused on generating lessons and insights to inform the further development of the programs. The evaluation included participant surveys, consultations with staff and instructors, and interviews with employer partners.

Key findings

• Program reach – Many program participants were unemployed or working in precarious

employment, had lower levels of education, and/or were newcomers to Canada.

• Participant completion – Sixty-eight percent of Supportive Care participants and 73% of

Warehouse Essentials participants completed the training. College staff highlighted the importance of coaching and intensive supports for encouraging participant completion, while noting that challenging life circumstances and lack of fit for the target industries were barriers to completion for some individuals.

• Participant satisfaction – Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the programs and

felt the programs had prepared them to take the next steps in their career.

• Participant outcomes – Many participants who completed the training experienced increased

clarity in their job and career goals, and confidence in their ability to achieve these goals. Two-to-three months after graduating from the program, 89% of Supportive Care graduates and 67% of Warehouse Essential graduates were employed.


Lessons learned

Strong partnerships drive success – Partnerships within Conestoga College were critical for designing programs that offer pathways to additional credentials, while partnerships with employers were important to ensure that programs aligned with labour market need and would facilitate participant transitions into the labour market. Wraparound supports foster student success – Wraparound supports played an important role in helping participants overcome challenges, balance program demands, navigate transitions, and complete the training. Effective student supports included career advice, coaching, and referrals to other services. Challenges in recruitment and supporting student transitions – Recruitment challenges were partly attributed to negative perceptions and a lack of awareness about the target occupations. Partners highlighted the importance of having an appropriate assessment process to identify candidates who are a good fit for the programs. Ensuring that students have seamless pathways into employment and/or further training post-program are ongoing areas of focus for Conestoga College.

B. Enhancing Career Pathways in the Child Care Sector The OCWI engaged the Learning Enrichment Foundation, in partnership with Mothercraft College of Early Childhood Education, to lead the Enhancing Career Pathways in the Child Care Sector project. The goal of this project was to generate knowledge about the feasibility of using a Career Pathways approach to address needs and challenges in the early childhood education sector workforce in Ontario. The project included a jurisdictional scan and consultations with employers, post-secondary institutions, and child care practitioners to explore whether a Career Pathways approach could help address labour market needs in the early learning and child care sector. Research findings were used to inform the development of a prototype training model that will support entry-level workers in the sector to upgrade their skills through an accelerated academic program. Graduates of the program, delivered by Mothercraft College of Early Childhood Education, will receive their Early Childhood Education (ECE) diploma. Currently, there are a range of training options for individuals interested in becoming registered ECEs. One option is to complete a diploma program in early childhood education at an Ontario College of Applied Arts and Technology. Another pathway is the Child Development Practitioner (CDP) apprenticeship. Individuals working in the child care sector can register as CDP apprentices and complete both on-the-job and classroom-based training. Generally, the apprenticeship takes 6000 hours (approximately three years) to complete. Upon finishing the apprenticeship, individuals have the option of completing additional General Education subjects to meet the requirements of the ECE diploma.


Key findings

Challenges in developing a sustainable, high quality early childhood education workforce: Employers in the early learning and child care sector reported that it is extremely difficult to find and retain high quality early childhood educators (ECEs). Challenges related to public perceptions, lack of career awareness, and an unreliable pipeline of new graduates from ECE diploma programs contribute to this difficulty. A Career Pathways approach is promising: The project demonstrated that upgrading the qualifications of those working in the sector through a Career Pathways-aligned approach could help to address some of these challenges. While a small sample, many of the child care practitioners consulted for the project were generally committed to staying in the sector long-term and interested in pursuing further training, but faced barriers to pursuing traditional post-secondary programs. A Career Pathways approach that offers accelerated training opportunities and learner supports was identified as promising for addressing these needs. Promising practices to build on: Other jurisdictions are already experimenting with Career Pathways approaches in the early learning and child care sector. Key trends in these initiatives include: reducing barriers to training through financial supports and skills upgrading; providing advancement opportunities for those already working in the sector through flexible, accelerated training options and alternative delivery formats; and building stackable credentials that support continuous progression in learning and career advancement.

Lessons learned

Importance of flexible, accelerated training options: This project highlighted that Career Pathways training options should help remove barriers to further education through delivery formats and schedules that allow them to effectively combine learning and work. Employer input is critical: To ensure that training in the early learning and child care sector is aligned with employer needs and addresses current gaps in skills and capacity, it is critical to ensure that employers have input into training content and delivery approaches. Importance of career awareness and fit: Career Pathways programs should help participants learn about career opportunities in the sector and ensure that learners have the right information and advice to navigate potential career paths. Need for learner supports: To ensure learner success, programs should make certain that learners are connected to the supports needed to help them progress on their career path. This includes logistical supports (such as help with finances or child care), academic supports (such as basic skills upgrading or tutoring), and personal supports (such as counselling). The project also highlighted the importance of supporting individuals to


“earn while they learn,” recognizing that many face financial issues related both to the cost of training and the loss of income while in training.

C. Jobs at the Port Mohawk College’s City School conducted a research project at the Hamilton Port with the Hamilton Port Authority and Workforce Planning Hamilton (WPH). The goal of the project was to create new, accessible educational programs and address local economic needs, particularly for unemployed residents. The project had two specific aims:

• Identify in-demand jobs and educational pathways to build careers at Hamilton’s Port

• Establish relationships with Port employers to co-develop educational programs to meet their hiring needs

The research had two key components:

• Qualitative interviews with 24 employers from different sectors2 at the Port to capture their skill-needs, map available jobs and potential career pathways, and gauge their willingness to engage in course development and delivery

• Quantitative analysis of local labour market data, provided by WPH, to identify current and future

employment demand at the Port

Key findings

The research found that employers at the Port:

• Struggle to find highly skilled employees, especially in the context of an aging workforce

• Have a positive view of local post-secondary institutions, and see them as having a role to play in

training future employees. The vast majority of employers expressed interest in further

collaboration with the City School to design and deliver programs that are aligned with their hiring

needs.

• Have identified educational pathways that could lead to entry-level jobs at the Hamilton Port. More

than 80% of employers listed at least one educational pathway that can lead to an entry-level job at

2 These sectors included transportation and warehousing, manufacturing, construction, retail, professional scientific and technical services, health care and social assistance, public administration, and other services.


the Hamilton Port, such as engineering technology-related pathways including mechanical,

electrical, civil, computer, or chemical engineering jobs.

Lessons learned

There are opportunities for City School and Mohawk College to work with employers to design and deliver career-focused courses at the Port and to create new educational pathways for people with complex barriers. The project highlighted the importance of:

• Expanding awareness of Port businesses and career possibilities and challenging negative

perceptions and stereotypes

• Improving and expanding experiential learning opportunities

• Promoting existing employment pathways in the skilled trades

• Working closely with employers to ensure training is aligned with their skill-needs and to engage

them in training development and delivery

• Increasing the accessibility of training through financial supports, flexible training approaches, and

support to manage transitions between training and employment opportunities

Building on this research, City School developed a non-credit course called “Careers at the Port,” targeted to job seekers in priority neighbourhoods. The course provides pre-employment training to prepare people for further job-related education and job searching. It addresses multiple sectors at the Port, and maps out various career pathways to help learners progress beyond an initial job. It was delivered in January 2019 at the Eva Rothwell Centre in one of Hamilton’s priority neighbourhoods close to the Port land. Port employers participated throughout the course delivery. The research also helped Mohawk College to launch an employer engagement strategy to extend the Careers at the Port model to other sectors or employers.

D. My Learning Place Confederation College delivered and evaluated a course called “My Learning Place” in collaboration with:

• Thunder Bay Shelter House, the largest emergency shelter in Thunder Bay

• Thunder Bay Public Library (Brodie site)

The goal of the course was to make literacy and basic skills training more accessible to marginalized clients by delivering courses at the places that they frequent. This is meant to increase literacy and numeracy skills, ease the transition to life skills programs at the college, or facilitate employment. Students took an adapted


version of the 12-week Personal Career Development Program (PCP)3 that Confederation delivers on its college campus. The course had three components4:

• Academic skills – Mathematics, communications, and computer skills training to prepare students

to continue on to the Academic Upgrading program

• Education/career planning – Exploration of educational opportunities, skills identification, job

readiness and job search technique training, and career exploration

• Self-development – Training focused on planning and problem-solving skills in the areas of self,

family, community, and leisure.

Learners who met requirements for attendance were provided with a Certificate of Participation from Confederation College. Meals and travel assistance were also provided. Participants were given a small incentive of $15 per week for participating in the program. To evaluate the program, learners were invited to participate in a focus group and complete a survey. A focus group was also held with the two course facilitators.

Key findings

Thirty-six learners attended at least part of the life skills programming. On average, learners attended 2.5 weeks of the program. All of the learners reported that the basic life skills programming helped better prepare them for employment, and that they felt ready to explore additional education opportunities. During the focus group, learners also reported that they:

• Experienced increased self-esteem

• Felt heard and able to voice their opinions

• Enhanced their social supports and healthy relationships as they bonded with other learners over

shared life experiences

3 The course has three start dates per year. 4 The standard Personal Career development program includes a two-week job placement; however, the work placement was not included in My Learning Place as many course participants faced complex barriers to employment.


• Appreciated the structure and routine of the course, which are missing in other parts of their lives

• Liking the flexibility of the program, as learners often have to attend other appointments or services

Lessons learned

The My Learning Place project identified some important lessons for reaching marginalized learners who face complex barriers to further education. These lessons include:

• Importance of delivering training directly to learners’ locations in order to decrease stigma and

feelings of judgement

• Bringing together learners with complex barriers to increase peer support

• Balancing a routine with a flexible approach to allow learners with complex needs to participate in

the course

• Importance of bringing in a social work lens to provide learners with the supports they need


3. Synthesis of findings This section summarizes the overall findings from the OCWI Career Pathways portfolio and discusses the implications for adopting Career Pathways approaches in Ontario moving forward.

Key takeaways The OCWI Career Pathways projects highlighted some important takeaways about the potential value of the Career Pathways approach and what is required to ensure the success of this approach. Career Pathways has potential to meet skill-needs in target sectors

In sectors like home health care, warehousing, and early learning and child care, a Career Pathways approach could help address pressing skill-needs by offering flexible, accelerated training options and supports for participants. The approach has the potential to widen the pool of those with labour-market-relevant credentials as well as supporting learners who face barriers to traditional post-secondary education progress in their careers to find more sustainable employment. Understanding sector needs is critical

There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to Career Pathways. Designing a Career Pathways approach that meets the needs of a particular sector requires a strong understanding of the local labour market and intensive engagement with employers to ensure smooth transitions to the labour market for program participants. It also requires a strong understanding of the skills and characteristics that make someone a good fit for the target industry and to ensure participants are positioned for success. For example, an important lesson learned from the Career Pathways Demonstration Project was the need for participants to have an understanding of the demands and expectations of working in a warehousing or in a home care setting. Widening access to post-secondary programs requires a focus on initial “steps” in a pathway

For learners facing barriers to participation in traditional post-secondary programs, it is critical that the first step in a Career Pathway offers the right training and supports to build their confidence and position them for success as they transition to the labour market and/or further education. The projects in the OCWI Career Pathways portfolio highlighted the need for basic skills, employability, and career awareness training for many participants interested in Career Pathways, as well as the importance of coaching, encouragement, and wraparound supports that address participant needs. These additional supports and training options are not generally included in traditional post-secondary programs, meaning those interested in delivering Career Pathways may need to seek out creative solutions to ensure that participants have what they need. Partnerships are key


The successful implementation of Career Pathways approaches requires strategic partnerships between organizations in different sectors, including workforce development service providers, post-secondary institutions, and employers. For example, the Enhancing Career Pathways in the Child Care Sector project was an innovative partnership between the Learning Enrichment Foundation, a community services provider that operates several child care centres, and Mothercraft College of Early Childhood Education, a specialized post-secondary institution. The partnership explored the development of a Career Pathways approach in the early learning and child care sector. In the Career Pathways Demonstration Project, partnerships between Conestoga College, local employers, and community service providers were leveraged to design programs aligned with labour market needs and recruit learners interested in the programs, while partnerships across departments within Conestoga College supported the development of pathways from entry-level credentials to traditional post-secondary programs.

Challenges and barriers These projects also highlighted some potential challenges in implementing Career Pathways approaches in Ontario. Siloes between post-secondary and workforce development systems

Traditionally, post-secondary programs and workforce development programs (including employment services) operate as separate systems in Ontario. Career Pathways sits at the nexus of the two systems, combining workforce development supports and services with training that leads to recognized credentials. The OCWI Career Pathways projects highlighted the need for more work to be done to build stronger connections between these systems which will enable the further development and scalability of Career Pathways approaches.

Creating stackable credentials

Fully developed Career Pathways models offer a series of stackable credentials, from short, sector-focused basic skills training to advanced diplomas and degrees. Developing a series of shorter credentials that are more aligned with labour market need is difficult given the constraints of the current Ontario college system, which only offers funding for credential programs lasting one year. Designing stackable credentials is particularly difficult in sectors with regulated entry to practice, such as early learning and child care where participants must meet specific training requirements (e.g., a diploma program from an Ontario college) in order to practice as an Early Childhood Educator.

Opportunities moving forward


While there are barriers to the full-scale adoption of a Career Pathways approach in Ontario, these projects highlighted many promising features of the model and, moving forward, drew attention to some priorities to future test its applicability and impact.

• Deepening knowledge of promising sectors and identifying new target sectors – Working

with employers and labour market information experts to deepen understanding of labour market needs and skills gaps in promising sectors for Career Pathways (such as warehousing, early learning and child care, and home health care) is a priority. There is also an opportunity to identify other sectors and occupations where a Career Pathways approach could add value.

• Focusing on milestones and small wins – Given the complexity of Career Pathways programs,

achieving early success is important for building credibility and support. Engaging willing partners who are eager to collaborate, focusing on individual “steps” along a longer Career Pathway, and testing new programs on a small scale are important in setting the stage for longer-term success. These activities can provide an important foundation for further conversations about further developing and scaling Career Pathways approaches.

• Evaluation – Proponents of Career Pathways should rigorously evaluate programs to track the

progress of participants, assess the feasibility of the approach in different sectors and contexts, and inform continuous improvement and adaptation.

More broadly, creating the enabling conditions for Career Pathways will require some strategic shifts at a policy level, including:

• A greater emphasis on training that supports lifelong learning and career progression, in addition to labour market entry for the unemployed

• Broadening access to post-secondary programs to include groups that currently face barriers to post-secondary education

• Closer collaboration and coordination between workforce development and post-secondary organizations to support training and career progression for learners

• Releasing more flexible funding to make Career Pathways program development and delivery possible

Further dialogue with colleges and other stakeholders will be critical to further understanding the opportunities and potential challenges associated with the Career Pathways approach.


Appendix A: PACE and HPOG demonstrations PACE (Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education) is a rigorous evaluation of nine different

Career Pathways approaches designed to increase the economic self-sufficiency of low-income individuals and families. HPOG (Health Professional Opportunity Grants) program administers grant awards to entities that

provide education and training to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other low-income individuals, targeted to in-demand, well-paying occupations in the health care field. The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) is funding rigorous evaluations of both initiatives to assess their success in connecting participants to sustainable employment opportunities. PACE

PACE is evaluating the impact of nine career pathways programs across 18 locations in the U.S. The programs are offered through community colleges, community-based organizations, non-profits, and workforce agencies. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment (program) or control groups between 2011 and 2014. The study is measuring differences between treatment and control group members on outcomes such as educational achievement, employment, and earnings to assess program impacts. Evaluators are also carrying out an implementation study to assess the design and execution of the nine programs to provide context for impact estimates and guide future iterations. Results from the program implementation study and program impacts 18 months after random assignment are currently available. For this report, we analyzed impact results from these initiatives, including the San Diego Country Bridge to Employment in the Healthcare Industry (Farrell, et al., 2017), Year Up (Roder and Elliot, 2014; Zielewski et al., 2016), Pima Community College Pathways to Healthcare Program (Gardiner et al., 2017), and Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement (VIDA) (Rolston et al., 2017). HPOG

HPOG provides education and training to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other low-income individuals to prepare them for in-demand, well-paid health care jobs. Five-year grants were made in 2010 to 32 entities in 23 states. Grants were used for training, education, and supportive services such as case management, transport, and child care.


The evaluation of HPOG is focused on identifying which Career Pathways components are most helpful for low-income adults to complete training that leads to sustainable health care careers. Other key outcomes of interest included educational attainment, employment, job quality, and earnings. HPOG is using a random assignment approach to evaluate impacts for 23 of 32 program grantees. Evaluators are also carrying out an implementation analysis to assess the administrative structures and program practices used by HPOG programs. In this report, we drew primarily on the Impact Study Interim Report (Peck et al., 2018).


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The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada or the Government of Ontario.

Documents

Final Report on OCWI’s Career Pathways Portfolio · Career Pathways into policy. The Act includes funding and a framework for the implementation of Career Pathways at federal, state,