Apprenticeship and Re-entry - Incite at Columbia University

People returning from incarceration face significant barriers to stable employment, particularly in accessing skilled trades that offer pathways to middle-class careers.

In partnership with Pathways to Apprenticeship (P2A), the Columbia Labor Lab has received funding from Arnold Ventures to conduct a randomized controlled trial examining the economic and criminal legal impacts of pre-apprenticeship programs designed for people in re-entry in New York.

Since 2013, P2A has successfully assisted over 300 people from low-income communities into building trades apprenticeships, two-thirds of whom have been justice-impacted. P2A provides comprehensive pre-apprenticeship training that combines technical skills with job readiness and workplace development, while leveraging direct relationships with local building trades unions to create clear pathways from training to apprenticeship to career.

Our randomized trial will leverage the program's waiting list to rigorously evaluate both economic outcomes—including employment rates, wages, and career progression—and criminal legal outcomes for participants. This research will provide crucial evidence about the effectiveness of union-affiliated re-entry programming and inform policy discussions about supporting successful reintegration through skilled trades pathways.