Employment Readiness Program – Outcome Evaluation
The Army Community Service’s (ACS) Employment Readiness Program (ERP) provides localized employment assistance (e.g., classes in resume writing, interviewing and the federal job search, career counseling services, employer networking, job fairs) at all garrisons. Historically, the ERP focused on helping Army spouses, who face employment challenges due to the frequent relocations, find employment opportunities at each duty station. A spouse’s ability to obtain meaningful employment may have downstream impacts on Service member retention, financial stability, and military family readiness. The Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State was commissioned by the DSC, G-9 to conduct an outcome evaluation to assess the ERP’s effectiveness with employment outcomes for all program participants, including Service members; Army Guard and Reserve members; DoD civilians; Army Survivors, retirees and retiree spouses. The evaluation had five aims: (1) examine whether the ERP improves employment related outcomes among program participants; (2) assess whether the ERP improves satisfaction with military life (e.g., readiness, retention, financial stability, and satisfaction); (3) gauge program user satisfaction with the ERP; (4) examine whether the ERP is more or less effective across different groups of participants (e.g., spouses, Service members, users of specific programs or services), and (5) recommendations for program improvement.