Evaluating Environmental Career Worker Training Programs: A Decade of Evidence of Program Effectiveness and Impact

Introduction.  The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) addresses critical workforce development issues directly affecting disadvantaged worker populations.  Funded by the NIEHS, the CPWR’s Environmental Career Worker Training Program (ECWTP) provides pre-employment and health and safety training to workers from underserved communities.  The program strives to empower underrepresented minorities and other underserved people with training to increase their opportunities to gain employment in the construction and environmental remediation industries and to engage in community improvement efforts.  The need for rigorous evaluations of various occupational trainings for minority workers is long established.   In response, a systematic longitudinal evaluation was designed and conducted to examine effectiveness and impact of the CPWR ECWTP programs across various communities nationwide.  

Methods.  A multi-source evaluation system, was developed to include information from each of the major program stakeholders.  This evaluation incorporates elements of both impact (i.e., what effects a program had with respect to its intended goals and objectives) and process (i.e., how and why program achieved these effects) evaluations.  The evaluation was conducted among stakeholders in several communities to gather annual data across two five-year programmatic training cycles.  In this way, best practices and lessons learned (e.g., emphasis on work ethic; provision of "real world" learning experiences; use of community advisory committees) were identified and relative effectiveness across communities and program years was compared.  

Results.  Results of the longitudinal evaluation were supportive of overall programmatic success.  Convergence was offered across sources regarding the excellence of the program including recruiting, selection, training, retention, and placement strategies.   Collectively, results suggest that programs are not only demonstrating high levels of effectiveness, but also positively influencing their students’ personal and professional lives, employment in the communities in which they work and reside, and, thereby, positively impacting the field of environmental work. Further, both quantitative data and qualitative data suggest the effectiveness of the programs in achieving their desired results. 

Conclusion.  The CPWR EWCTP provides significant contributions to environmental justice by providing training and increasing job opportunities to people from underserved and disadvantaged communities. The program enables workers to participate in addressing the needs of their communities in a more meaningful way.