Ascendium Education Group and MDRC are pleased to announce researcher-provider partnerships as grantees in the Sector Training Evidence Building Project (STEP), an effort to invest in the next generation of evidence-building for sectoral training programs led by nonprofit organizations. STEP builds on a body of evidence from prior evaluations in the field, including MDRC’s WorkAdvance evaluation, and complements other ongoing sector-focused initiatives led by MDRC that are building additional evidence and provider capacity.

Grantees will build evidence in two areas: (1) determining the key elements needed to implement or expand access to effective sector programs and (2) assessing the effectiveness of sector programs that have not been rigorously evaluated and can expand understanding of the sector model.

The new grantee partnerships are:

Abt Global/FareStart: Abt Global and FareStart have partnered to evaluate FareStart’s Food Pathways and Barista and Customer Service culinary sector programs. FareStart, a Seattle-based nonprofit social enterprise, trains adults from low-income backgrounds, many of whom face significant barriers to employment, including individuals experiencing homelessness, impacted by the criminal legal system, and experiencing mental health challenges.

American Institutes for Research (AIR)/Per Scholas: American Institutes for Research (AIR), in partnership with Per Scholas, a national tech training nonprofit, will explore how integrating generative AI tools into Per Scholas’s job readiness curriculum can enhance job attainment supports. The study has two phases: a formative evaluation to test four implementation models, followed by a large-scale implementation study of the most robust model scaled to serve all learners.

American Institutes for Research (AIR)/Propel: AIR and Propel America are partnering on an impact study of Propel’s jobs-first, employer-embedded training program, which prepares young adults with low-income backgrounds — primarily young Black women — for high-demand, higher-wage health care careers. The program provides training through partnerships with local colleges and employers and includes wraparound supports, such as coaching, stipends, and guaranteed interviews.

EduDream/STRIVE: EduDream is partnering with STRIVE, a national workforce development organization, to evaluate the impact of STRIVE’s Health & Wellness Support System (HWSS), a trauma-informed mental health and wellness intervention. STRIVE serves and prepares adults — many of whom experience systemic barriers to employment, such as long-term unemployment, housing insecurity, limited education, and histories of trauma or interactions with the legal system — for careers in health care, construction, logistics, and office administration.

ideas42/NPower: ideas42 is partnering with NPower, a national nonprofit that provides technology career training to young adults with low-income backgrounds and to military-connected individuals, to design and evaluate a light-touch, automated, and behaviorally informed tool to help with their support services. Those support services — such as referrals to public assistance programs and coaching — are seen as critical to participants’ success in training programs but are often resource-intensive and difficult to scale. The goal for the new system is to provide automated support when feasible, allowing staff to spend more time supporting those with more intensive needs.

MEF Associates/Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC): MEF Associates and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) have partnered to evaluate how employer engagement strategies influence job-seeker outcomes in the clean energy sector. The study will focus on a network of more than 40 IREC-accredited clean energy training providers across the U.S., primarily in solar and home weatherization — two rapidly growing fields with broad geographic reach.