A Heldrich Center evaluation of the Newark/Essex Construction Careers Consortium (N/ECCC) concluded that its training program for low-income adults is an exciting model for anti-poverty efforts nationwide. Adult graduates of the pre-apprenticeship training program earned significantly higher wages after completing the program than they earned before they enrolled. Managed by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice in collaboration with community partners, N/ECCC trains low-income, minority, and female residents of Newark and Essex County to obtain apprenticeships in the construction industry. It seeks to improve the employment prospects and earnings of low-income residents with long periods of unemployment.

Evaluators from the Heldrich Center followed 230 individuals who completed the program in 2004 and 2005 for up to two years after their graduation. In the first year after completing pre-apprenticeship training, adult N/ECCC graduates earned an average of $14,778 – 63% more than they earned the year before they enrolled. Two years after completing pre-apprentice training, the adult graduates’ average earnings of $18,940 had increased 100% over their earnings two years before enrollment. Click here to read the full report.