For many of today’s young people, the future feels closer than ever. Amid rising college costs, growing student debt, and the impact of AI and other emerging technologies on the labor market, young people must make big, life-shaping decisions earlier than previous generations.
With Workforce Pell moving from policy to practice, the stakes are especially high for young people. As two leaders committed to ensuring all learners and workers have access to high-quality education and training opportunities that lead to meaningful careers, we strongly believe Workforce Pell can have a positive impact for young people if policymakers ensure that their first step toward college and a career isn’t their last.
Pathways to College and Careers Must Reflect Young People’s Needs and Aspirations
Workforce Pell is one of the largest shifts in federal higher education policy in decades. The new law allows students to use Pell grants to cover the costs of short-term, high-quality postsecondary programs that lead to valuable credentials. Workforce Pell became law in large part because policymakers on both sides of the aisle recognize that many of today’s students want quick, flexible, and affordable postsecondary training options that connect them to meaningful careers.
This policy change reflects the fact that working adults comprise a growing share of today’s postsecondary students. But it also points to the particular realities that many young people face as they work to navigate their future. While the majority of Americans say college costs too much or doesn’t provide enough benefits, this belief is most prevalent among young people ages 18-24. Meanwhile, millions of young people are disconnected from school and work due to structural barriers.
Young people need educational pathways that address both their short-term needs and long-term aspirations.
Federal and state policymakers can draw on decades of learning in Career Technical Education (CTE) to ensure that Workforce Pell is a meaningful bridge to new college and career possibilities for young people – not a detour that constrains their futures.
Six Lessons from CTE for Workforce Pell
Over the past two decades, CTE has gone through a significant transformation to ensure it meets the needs of both learners and industry in the evolving economy. The modernization, supported by the National Career Clusters® Framework, has focused on strengthening the quality of programs, expanding to include exploration of and preparation for good jobs across all sectors of the economy, and ensuring learners gain academic, technical, and durable skills, to leave the history of tracking in the past. The work done to develop and scale high-quality career tech ed offers key insights on how Workforce Pell can be a stepping stone to college and careers.
Here are six actions that state policymakers can take to make good on that promise for young people:
- Maintain a Steadfast Commitment to Quality & Stackable Credentials
- Invest in Career and College Advising
- Use Quality Data to Design and Assess Programs and Measure Outcomes
- Align Definitions Across Workforce Pell, CTE, and Workforce Programs
- Invest in Young People Outside of the Classroom
- Commit to Learning what Works and Making Changes
A Steadfast Commitment to Quality & Stackable Credentials
To ensure that Workforce Pell delivers on its promise, eligible programs must hold true value—both for learners seeking a better life and for employers looking to build a strong workforce. States shouldn’t limit their commitment to quality to Workforce Pell. It must serve as a foundational principle for public investments in pathways and programs that lead to high-demand, family-sustaining careers.
Under federal law, eligible programs must prepare students for high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand industry sectors or occupations, meet the hiring requirements of employers, lead to a stackable and portable recognized postsecondary credential, and meet certain outcomes (a 70% completion rate, a 70% job placement rate, and earnings requirements).
States must implement Workforce Pell with a focus on value, not just volume. That means that having systems in place to ensure that eligible programs can demonstrate a solid evidence base for these standards.
The requirement that credentials earned through Workforce Pell must be “stackable and portable” is especially crucial for young people, who are at the beginning of their college and career journey. Portability expands opportunity for young people by ensuring that the credentials they earn are recognized and valued by multiple employers –giving them more options at the start of their career.
Meanwhile, stackability ensures that young people can seamlessly continue higher education if they choose without starting over or taking on unnecessary costs. In practical terms, this standard should give young people the opportunity to move between jobs and further education without having to repeat training they’ve already completed. Stackable credentials reinforce that career preparation can take many forms, across multiple institutions, and that “college” and “career” are often part of the same journey. As states implement Workforce Pell, they should also adopt and strengthen policies that make short-term credentials stackable – for example, through program articulation and credit for prior learning.
Invest in Career and College Advising
Young people are eager for affordable, flexible pathways after high school that give them more agency over their livelihood. In fact, young people are now more open to a variety of non-four year degree postsecondary options than ever before. But most don’t have the information they need to navigate those options. For example, only a small portion of Gen Z high school students (less than 20 percent) and their parents are well-informed about certificates, associate degrees, or apprenticeships.
Workforce Pell will only expand opportunity if young people have access to clear, coordinated advising across high school, college, and workforce systems. That means better training for counselors and navigators across agencies and institutions; shared and consistent information about financial aid, credit transfer, and available wrap-around supports; and a commitment to advising that expands—not narrows—options based on race, gender, income, or geography.
In particular, advising professionals across K-12, postsecondary and workforce systems must be equipped to guide young people through the full spectrum of educational options to help learners find the right path, not just the easiest or most obvious one. Young people at the start of their educational and career journey should receive counseling on the costs and economic returns of different credential and degree programs, with a clear explanation that there is a lifetime limit on Pell grants.
Use Quality Data to Design and Assess Programs and Measure Outcomes
All learners need to have confidence that the training programs they are enrolling in will lead to positive outcomes. This is true for high school CTE learners, as well as young people looking to re-engage in school and work. To build that confidence, people need trusted, actionable, and readily accessible data on program outcomes like job placement rates, wages, and long-term economic and educational mobility.
Workforce Pell implementation is sparking critical conversations about how states must strengthen their data systems to better measure outcomes. As states improve their data systems, they have a huge opportunity to make both labor market data and outcomes data more consistent and available across K-12, postsecondary, and workforce systems. Access to aligned data will enable better investments and stronger insights into which programs – whether delivered at a high school, area technical center, community/technical college, workforce training provider, or elsewhere – are leading to a better life for learners.
Align Definitions Across Workforce Pell, CTE, and Workforce Programs
Workforce Pell requires states to define which jobs qualify as “high-wage, high-skill, and in-demand.” This gives state policymakers the chance to set coordinated workforce priorities and expectations for careers targeted by public investment across CTE, workforce development, and Workforce Pell. Instead of creating a list of priority occupations that are only specific to Workforce Pell, state leaders across workforce, economic development, and education should come together and determine a common set of statewide expectations for high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand jobs in any and all settings.
In particular, Workforce Pell can and should be a catalyst for states to build unified credential lists – a single, statewide inventory of approved credentials aligned with priority occupations – that can be used across K-12, postsecondary, and workforce programs. Recent research from Advance CTE highlights the urgency of this need, finding that only three states have consistent definitions and processes related to credentials across these systems. Some states have as many as seven lists of credentials across learner levels and funding streams.
Rather than create yet another list of approved credentials and certifications, states can leverage this moment in time to pull these creation, approval, and review processes together – reducing the burden on employers and sending much clearer signals to learners about what has value and what is worth their time and effort.
In particular, Workforce Pell can and should be a catalyst for states to build unified credential lists – a single, statewide inventory of approved credentials aligned with priority occupations – that can be used across K-12, postsecondary, and workforce programs.
Invest in Young People Outside of the Classroom
CTE has taught us that learning doesn’t just happen in a classroom. Many young people want and need access to real-world work experiences. Young people often have limited professional experience, and work-based learning – particularly when it’s paid – provides a way for students to apply what they’re learning to a real career and build skills, confidence, and experience while they’re training. This is even more important as the labor market is placing more value on experience than ever before.
Career Technical Education has taught us that learning doesn’t just happen in a classroom.
Although young people are just starting to transition to college and career, many have serious responsibilities, whether that’s caring for family members or navigating economic insecurity. Supports like reliable transportation, food pantries, and affordable child care remove everyday barriers that can otherwise derail their progress, even in a short-term training program. When these investments are in place, young people are better able to complete their programs and take the next step on their journey. As states focus on implementing Workforce Pell, they can’t lose focus of the learners’ needs as whole people.
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Commit to Learning what Works and Making Changes
The CTE system has been evolving for over 100 years. With the rise of AI and other technologies, the shifts required of CTE and workforce development are only accelerating. We have seen states and communities continually step up to strengthen their CTE systems and address long-standing challenges like lack of access to meaningful work-based learning, barriers to access to programs and credentials of value, and even program design.
When it comes to Workforce Pell, states are unlikely to get everything right the first time. Implementing a major initiative like Workforce Pell requires a continuous improvement mindset – and a stated commitment to making changes along the way. States must build mechanisms for ongoing evaluation, data collection, and stakeholder feedback into their implementation plans, including feedback from the young people affected by the policies and decisions being made. By viewing the initial framework as a living document, leaders can swiftly adjust policies, refine quality metrics, and better target investments to maximize the impact of Workforce Pell dollars for all learners.
Kate Kreamer serves as the Executive Director of Advance CTE. Advance CTE represents State CTE Directors and state leaders responsible for secondary, postsecondary and adult CTE through policy thought leadership and technical assistance that strives for career and college success for each learner.
Brooke DeRenzis is CEO of National Skills Coalition. NSC works to advance policies that ensure every person in America has access to skills training, good jobs, and economic prosperity.
