Even in good economic times, many adults in the United States have trouble finding jobs that pay enough to support their families. One policy response has been to help these workers build more skills, with promising findings from some sector-based programs that train individ­uals to work in specific high-demand industries.These programs have typically focused on a handful of sectors, such as information technol­ogy, health care, and construction. The clean energy sector is a natural next step, given the growing efforts to combat climate change, the rising investment in clean energy jobs, and the reported challenges that employ­ers face in finding qualified candidates to fill those jobs.

The Pay for Success Clean Energy Training project addresses these chal­lenges by providing training in clean energy jobs to individuals earning low wages and facing other barriers to employment. MDRC is working with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Social Finance (a nonprofit organization that works across the pub­lic, private, and social sectors to create partnerships and investments that measurably improve lives) to evaluate the employment and earnings impacts of the training programs as part of the Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act (SIPPRA). SIPPRA is a project of the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of the Treasury. This brief provides an overview of NYSERDA’s SIPPRA project, highlighting the participating training providers and the evalu­ation structure, and noting both the project’s successes and challenges.