Career pathways approaches to workforce development offer articulated education and training steps between occupations in an industry sector, combined with support services, to enable individuals to enter and exit at various levels and to advance over time to higher skills, recognized credentials, and better jobs with higher pay. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) contracted with Abt Global to conduct the Career Pathways Design Study to develop evaluation design options that could address critical gaps in knowledge related to the approach, implementation, and effectiveness of career pathways strategies generally, and in early care and education specifically (given the scarcity of information on it relative to healthcare).

To inform thinking about evaluation design options, Abt produced reports on (1) research and evaluation relevant to career pathways approaches, (2) the implementation of career pathways initiatives, and (3) the potential for career pathways approaches in early care and education (ECE).

This document is the second of these reports for the project—a high-level synthesis of the implementation of career pathways initiatives. The main purpose of this report is to support development of evaluation design options.