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The number of people in prison beginning an apprenticeship has more than tripled between 2000 and 2016. Apprenticeship programs provide people in prison with a meaningful training experience that is potentially valuable after release. This brief draws on interviews and data analysis to explore how registered apprenticeship programs operate in federal and state correctional institutions. Our findings suggest that prisons can improve their apprenticeship offerings by expanding apprenticeable occupations, raising wages, reducing disruptive transfers, ensuring they are relevant to the labor market, and engaging employers after reentry.

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To remain competitive in an increasingly global economy, we must invest in our workers and give them the training and skills to succeed. Federal, state, and local job training programs are a crucial part of that investment. But the landscape of public funding for job training is complex with multiple funding sources and streams, controlled by a variety of actors, and used differently across geographic areas. To provide a more complete picture of federal, state, and local job training investments, this report describes public expenditures for three states - Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington - and five cities - Austin, Boston, Houston, Seattle, and Worcester. Compared with the federally-funded Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, state and local investments in workforce training and related services is substantial, in some cases surpassing federal funding. States and localities demonstrate six strategies to manage funding - seeking diverse revenue sources, leveraging public- and private-funding, braiding and blending funding, using dedicated fees for training, funding sector-based training initiatives, and collaborating and coordinating to fill training gaps.

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The [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic, which has driven millions of workers and students into remote work and education, has clarified the importance of having access to and the digital skills to operate technology. It has hit older workers especially hard because they face the greatest health risks in working in jobs that cannot be done remotely. The acceleration of the shift to online and remote learning and working brings new opportunities, but it also brings the potential for further inequities in the labor market. Older workers, a group disproportionately at risk from COVID-19 that also experienced higher increases in long-term unemployment than other workers during the pandemic, stand to benefit greatly from the expanded access that online and remote learning and working provides.

This study documents some of the barriers and opportunities that exist for older workers accessing online programs, with a focus on their digital skill levels. We define older adults as those who are age 50 or older, and throughout this brief we compare these adults with those younger than 50. We analyze the 2017 Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey to explore the digital skill levels of older workers, and how older workers' race, ethnicity, income, occupation, and other characteristics are associated with digital skill levels. We also analyze American Community Survey (ACS) data to understand how older workers' poverty status and access to broadband, internet, and computers and other devices is associated with digital skill levels. The analysis is complemented by information collected during interviews with leaders of programs to support digital skill training for older adults.

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Workers with training in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are in high demand in the United States and are essential to innovation and economic growth. Apprenticeship is a proven strategy for training workers, but it is underutilized in STEM occupations. This report explores employers' experiences with STEM apprenticeship. STEM apprentices are concentrated in technician occupations that do not require a bachelor's degree. They are better paid and have higher training completion rates than non-STEM apprentices. Nevertheless, employers often struggle with adapting the traditional apprenticeship model to information technology and engineering technology jobs that do not have a history of using apprenticeship.

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