Association for Public Policy and ManagementAnnual ConferenceNovember, 2015Miami FL

The Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) Evaluation: Early Lessons from Interviews with PACE Participants

Kristin Seefeldt Karen GardinerUniversity of Michigan Abt Associates

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The Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) Study is supported by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (Contract #: HHSP23320072913YC).

The contents of this presentation do not necessarily represent the official views or policies of OPRE, ACF, or HHS.

Today’s Presentation

Overview of PACE and career pathways framework Highlight findings from qualitative interviews with study

participants – Motivations for enrolling in program – Definition of success and their chances of experiencing success – Challenges to participation– Supports available to them

Potential programmatic implications Questions

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What is PACE?

Evaluation of nine promising programs that aim to increase education, training, employment and self-sufficiency among low-income, low-skilled adults– Impact study using random assignment methodology– Implementation study

• In-depth qualitative sub-study is focus of presentation

Sponsored by the Office for Planning, Research and Evaluation, ACF

Led by Abt Associates, in partnership with MEF Associates and University of Michigan

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PACE Sites

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Key Career Pathways Ideas

A series of connected education and training programs and support services

Enables individuals to secure employment within a specific industry or occupational sector, and to advance within that sector

Each step prepares participant for the next level of employment and education

Partnerships between education and training providers, social service providers, workforce

Signature program components– Comprehensive assessment, basic and technical skills

instruction, academic and non-academic supports, connections to employment

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V. BA+ Programs: Upper-Skilled Jobs

IV. 1-2-Year Certificate to AA Programs: Mid-Level Skilled

Jobs

III. Short-Term Certificate Programs: Entry-Level Skilled

Jobs

II. Sectoral Bridge Programs Semi-Skilled Jobs

I. Basic Bridge Programs

Pros

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Occupational, academic, and life skills

The Basic Career Pathways Model

In-depth Qualitative Sub-Study: Interviews with Participants Goal: Gain a more comprehensive understanding of

treatment and control group members’– Motivation for wanting to enroll in a program– Expected outcomes of participating in a program– Experiences with program services (PACE or

otherwise)– Challenges to completing programs – Resources to help them succeed

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Sub-Study Methodology Two rounds of interviews

– First round conducted March to November 2014• Motivation for enrolling in the program• Definition of success• Assessment of chance of success• Perceived challenges and barriers to success

– Second round starting fall 2015 Sample of treatment and control group members who

enrolled in study approximately 6 months prior to first interviews– 146 interviews scheduled, 123 conducted (84 treatment

group and 39 controls group)– Sample not designed to be representative of all PACE

participants, but is demographically similar9

Data Analysis

Audio-recorded interviews audio transcribed into Word documents, imported into NVivo

Initial coding based on major topics in discussion guide and themes that emerged during interviews

Further coded and analyzed text segments associated with certain broad categories using an inductive thematic approach (Guest, Namey, and Mitchell 2013)

Analyses presented today for treatment group only

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Findings: Motivation to Enroll in Program Desire for a career and to leave the low-wage labor

market (n=54):

“I’m trying to find a better, more productive way to get into a career versus just working these—I mean, I have a great job. By all means, I have a great job, but, ehh, it’s a job.”

“I could be just a part of something just bigger than myself, bigger than a minimum-wage job, bigger than just getting by.”

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Findings: Motivation to Enroll in Program (cont.) For their children, to provide a better life

economically and to serve as a good role model (n = 14):

“[My kids] ask for things and I can’t give ‘em to them… I need to be better [financially]. I want to be able—my kid wants a car at 16. [If I get a better paying job]I’ll be able to give him a car at 16, if he wants to. He deserves it though.”

“Well, one of my motivations is my son. I want, when he grows up, I’m gonna be like, ‘You know, I was old, and I did it [went to school]. You could do it too.’”

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Findings: Motivation to Enroll in Program (cont.) Part of a process of self-transformation; overcoming

significant personal challenges– drug abuse, domestic violence, criminal convictions

“It's because I just had had my son, the baby one, and the father—he was very abusive and violent. I said to myself, ‘What am I doing? I have to better myself. I have to do something for me and my boys because it's just me and them,’ because the fathers are never around.”

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Findings: Motivation to Enroll in Program (cont.) Specific to health care-related fields: aligns with self-

conception of being caregivers, previous experience caring for family members

“I’ve always been a nurse. As I had mentioned, my dad was a drug addict. A lot of the times, he was very ill. I had to feed him. I had to check his blood pressure from a young age. My mom was a depressed person because of what my father would do. I had to nurse her in bed all the time, feed her and just check on her. I’m natural at it. I’ve been doing it all my life—over 30 years now, so yeah, it’s very natural to me. I love it.”

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Findings: How Participants Define Success Definition of success included

– Finishing the program (either current program or entire pathway)

– Getting a job– Getting good grades– Understanding the material covered in course work

“I wouldn’t want my nurse to only know 70 percent of what she’s talking about. You could pass with Cs, but I think I would want to know a little bit more than 70 percent to get by.”

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Findings: Do Participants Believe They Will Be Successful? Nearly all believed they would succeed:

– “I am someone who follows through”– “I’m pretty relentless”– “They've seen me rise up, kind of like a phoenix rising

from the ashes”– “I want this so bad”

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Findings: Challenges Finances are “very tight” (n=30)

“It’s been just paying bills. There’s no fun out of it. We don’t have—we can’t do what we wanted to do. We used to go to the movies, go shopping, any events that come to [the city], like the fair, none of that. It’s strictly bills and surviving.”

Loans from previous education and training (n=10)

“All the student loans was horrible… I owe maybe 13 grand or something. It was an expensive school….Now I owe a bunch of money and it’s crazy….I ended up—everywhere I looked, with their degree, or diploma certificate, it was minimum wage.”

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Findings: Challenges (cont.) For parents, guilt about time away from children

(n=16)

“It’s been very hard. I mean there’s plenty of days I feel like I barely see my sons. I mean if I’m coming home at 8:00 at night, my youngest—I normally make him go to bed—or not make him—I have him go to bed before 10:00 p.m. or by 10:00 p.m. That gives me maybe a hour and a half, because I don’t get home ’til around 8:20 p.m., 8:30 p.m. Then I’m trying to hurry up and cook and go over his homework, so it’s hard. It’s hard. I definitely feel like I’m kind of neglecting home.”

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Findings: Challenges (cont.) Material was challenging (n=20)

– Very different from what learned before (e.g., medical terminology)

– Had not been in school for many years– High school had not prepared them for this training

ESL students noted challenges due to language skills (n=9)

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Findings: Challenges (cont.) Lack of time as another commonly cited challenge

(n=19)– Many responsibilities (e.g., work and family in addition

to training)– Some difficulties finding enough time to study– Difficulty juggling multiple assignments

“It’s just the time that I would have to put in to study and not get distracted, because my husband works until 6:00 p.m., so in the meantime, I have to attend to my son and take care of the house and stuff too at the same time and pay bills. I take care of all those things.”

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Findings: Supports

Career Pathway programs provided significant financial support– Covering cost of training– Helping participants apply for financial aid– Paying for supplies

Very important to participants

“Like most people, I thought it was a little too good to be true, at the time. You’re gonna pay me to earn college credits and get a certificate? What?”

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Findings: Supports (cont.)

Career Pathway programs provided case management and academic support– Referred participants to tutoring– Case managers met regularly with participants– In some sites, participants reported the meetings as

focused on paper work and grades, not holistic case management

“They would usually see how we were doing in the week, throughout the week as we’re getting our work done… That’s pretty much it. The meetings were only for about 15, 20 minutes.”

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Findings: Supports (cont.)

Other participants were a source of support (n=31)

“A couple of us always come like an hour earlier and we’ll meet up and try to compare like, “Hey, did you get this? Did you get that? What answer did you get through? …It’s like three or four of us that kinda’ meet up before class just to go over and kinda’ double check things, so that’s helpful.”

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Findings: Supports (cont.)

Friends and family provided significant support– Low or no cost housing (n=38)– Providing child care (n=17)– Emotional support (n=75)

“[My husband and children are] so proud of me. They’re always like, “You can do this. Just focus on that. Don’t worry about anything else. Just try to finish it. Go for it.” Just being very supportive.”

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Implications for Programs Build on participants’ initial motivations, strengths,

and supports:– Find ways to involve children and other family members

Help participants address financial challenges:– Providing or linking to additional support – Providing financial literacy counseling and/or workshops

Address classroom-related and time management challenges:– Orientations to prepare for coursework– Extra support or tutoring tailored to specific material– Workshops on time management

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Questions?

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Contact Information

Kristin SeefeldtAssistant ProfessorSchool of Social WorkUniversity of Michigankseef@umich.edu

Nicole ConstancePACE Federal Project OfficerACF/DHHSnicole.constance@acf.hhs.gov

Karen GardinerPACE Project DirectorAbt Associates Karen_gardiner@abtassoc.com

Website:www.career-pathways.org

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Citation

Guest, Gregory, Emily Namey, and Marilyn Mitchell. 2013. Collecting Qualitative Data: A Field Manual for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications.

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