Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 2.0) National Evaluation Implementation Study Report

Following on a first round of Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) awards in 2010 (HPOG 1.0), in 2015 the Office of Family Assistance of the Administration for Children and Families awarded a second round of 32 five-year grants (HPOG 2.0). Local HPOG 2.0 programs provided education, training, and support services to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients and other adults with low incomes for occupations in the healthcare field that pay well and were expected to experience labor shortages or be in high demand.

This Implementation Study Report documents how non-tribal HPOG 2.0 grantees designed and implemented their programs. It includes program contexts, administration, grant expenditures, training and support services, and employment assistance services. It also documents participant characteristics and their engagement in program services and training activities. This report does not document participants’ outcomes, which are in a subsequent report.

Key findings include:

Program Administration

• Higher education institutions were the most common operators of HPOG 2.0 programs.
• On average, HPOG 2.0 programs partnered with 23 organizations.
• All programs engaged employers as they helped participants find jobs, and many involved employers in other aspects of program operations.

Participants

• HPOG 2.0 participants were primarily women, never married, and older than students entering college immediately after high school.
• At intake, almost one-quarter were already enrolled in school or training.
• At intake, slightly over four-fifths were living in households receiving a public benefit.

Healthcare Education and Training

• All HPOG 2.0 programs offered basic skills education; about half of participants received it.
• Nearly four-fifths of HPOG 2.0 participants enrolled in healthcare occupational training courses.
• Training for Nursing Assistant was the most popular occupational training; more than a third of participants enrolled in it.
• More than two-thirds of programs offered work-based learning opportunities, such as on-the-job training or job shadowing, but few participants engaged in them.
• All programs offered other skill-development activities (e.g., work readiness, digital literacy, college readiness, CPR training); about half of participants participated in them.

Support Services

All HPOG 2.0 programs offered:

• case management and counseling services, and nearly all participants received them
• academic advising and training-related financial assistance, and more than half of
• participants received them
• personal and logistical supports, including transportation and child or dependent care assistance, but fewer than half of participants received transportation assistance and only five percent received child or dependent care assistance
• employment supports, and fewer than one-third of participants received them.