Per Scholas Employment/Training Program for Low-Income Workers

Evidence Rating: Near Top Tier

Highlights

Program: An employment and training program for low-income adults that focuses on a specific economic sector—information technology.
Evaluation Methods: Two well-conducted randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a combined sample of 1,143 individuals.
Key Findings: The studies found that the program increased annual earnings by approximately 15% over follow-up periods of 2 years (in Study 1) and 10 years (in Study 2), compared to the control group.
Other: While the program’s sizable effects have been replicated across two well-conducted RCTs, both studies were conducted at the same program site in the Bronx. An RCT in other sites outside New York is ongoing, with the goal of establishing whether the effects generalize across different settings.

Per Scholas is an employment and training program for low-income workers that focuses on the information technology sector. Per Scholas originated in the Bronx (a borough of New York City) and now has six program sites in the United States. Participants receive 15 weeks of occupational skills training in information technology, career readiness services (e.g., assistance in resume and interview preparation), and job development and placement services. The program maintains strong relationships with local employers that hire workers with information technology skills, and the employers help shape the program’s training curriculum and other services. Program applicants are carefully screened to identify those most likely to be capable of completing training and to succeed in the information technology field, while not being so qualified that they could easily find a job without the program’s training and services. The program’s cost, which was carefully measured in the second RCT, is approximately $8,000 per participant in 2025 dollars.

Per Scholas’ program services varied modestly between the two RCTs. Each RCT summary below describes the version of the program that the study evaluated.

Click here for the Per Scholas’ website.

References

Study 1

Maguire, S., Freely, J., Clymer, C., Conway, M., & Schwartz, D. “Tuning into Local Labor Markets: Findings from the Sectoral Employment Impact Study.” Public/Private Ventures: 2010. Linked here.

Study 2

Hendra, R., Greenberg, D.H., Hamilton, G., Oppenheim, A., Pennington, A., Schaberg, K. & Tessler, B.L. (2016) Encouraging evidence on a sector-focused advancement strategy: two-year impacts from the WorkAdvance demonstration. MDRC. Linked here.

Schaberg, K. (2017) Can sector strategies promote longer-term effects? Three-year impacts from the WorkAdvance demonstration. MDRC. Linked here.

Schaberg, K. & Greenberg, D.H. (2020) Long-term effects of a sectoral advancement strategy. Costs, benefits, and impacts from the WorkAdvance demonstration. MDRC. Linked here.

Kanengiser, H., & Schaberg, K. (2022) Employment and Earnings Effects of the WorkAdvance Demonstration After Seven Years. MDRC. Linked here.

Yusim, A., Schaberg, K., Tessler, B. & Ubalijoro, A. (2025) Effects of Sector-Focused Training After 10 Years: Findings from the WorkAdvance Evaluation. MDRC. Linked here.

To see our full evidence summary:

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Top Tier

Programs shown in well-conducted RCTs, carried out in typical community settings, to produce sizable, sustained effects on important outcomes. Top Tier evidence includes a requirement for replication – specifically, the demonstration of such effects in two or more RCTs conducted in different implementation sites, or, alternatively, in one large multi-site RCT. Such evidence provides confidence that the program would produce important effects if implemented faithfully in settings and populations similar to those in the original studies.
Near Top Tier

Programs shown to meet almost all elements of the Top Tier standard, and which only need one additional step to qualify. This category primarily includes programs that meet all elements of the Top Tier standard in a single study site, but need a replication RCT to confirm the initial findings and establish that they generalize to other sites. This is best viewed as tentative evidence that the program would produce important effects if implemented faithfully in settings and populations similar to those in the original study.
Suggestive Tier

Programs that have been evaluated in one or more well-conducted RCTs (or studies that closely approximate random assignment) and found to produce sizable positive effects, but whose evidence is limited by only short-term follow-up, effects that fall short of statistical significance, or other factors. Such evidence suggests the program may be an especially strong candidate for further research, but does not yet provide confidence that the program would produce important effects if implemented in new settings.

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Top Tier

Per Scholas Employment/Training Program for Low-Income Workers

Highlights

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