Invest in transitional jobs and career pathway programs

Transitional jobs, career pathway programs secure funding for 2010

Updated: Monday, January 11th, 2010 | By Louis Jacobson

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama said that his administration would "invest $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathways programs that implement proven methods of helping low-income Americans succeed in the work force. This investment will be coupled with other measures to encourage the private sector and state and local governments to increase their support of these effective employment programs."

The administration has begun to fund these projects, though not yet at a pace to reach $1 billion over five years.

The appropriations bill signed by the president in December allocated $30 million for transitional jobs activities, which the president's budget had described as combining "short-term subsidized or supported employment with intensive case management services to help populations with barriers to employment succeed in the labor market."

The same bill allocated $125 million for a Career Pathways Innovation Fund, a "competitive grant program for community college-led partnerships to develop or expand career pathway programs," according to the administration. These programs "will have clear sequences of coursework and credentials, each leading to a better job in a high-demand or emerging industry."

Adding these two programs together, you get $155 million, which over five years would equal $775 million if funding were to be kept constant. That's lower than the $1 billion envisioned by this promise, but Obama will have several more years to reach his goal. So we're labeling this promise In the Works.

Sources:

Text of Consolidated Appropriations Act

White House, budget request for the Labor Department, accessed Jan. 11, 2009