- New DOL guidance on registered apprenticeships
- Arizona college keeps expanding into three-year degrees
- Kansas college to offer its first baccalaureate
- Concerns about loan services support for students
New DOL guidance on registered apprenticeships
The U.S. Department of Labor has issued guidance on registered apprenticeships to make it smoother and more consistent for interested parties to start or run the work-based learning programs.
DOL said the guidance gives apprenticeship program sponsors clearer direction on how to design registered apprenticeship programs, outlines the roles and functions of state apprenticeship agencies and councils, and clarifies how to determine apprenticeship completion rates. DOL also said its Office of Apprenticeship will commit to making final apprenticeship determinations within 30 days of receiving registrations.
In addition, DOL said it is launching an online portal with data on apprenticeship program completion rates and a webpage highlighting apprenticeship registration timelines and transparency on registration performance.
Apprenticeships for America (AFA), a national nonprofit organization focused on scaling the use of registered apprenticeships, said that, overall, there are helpful clarifications and flexibilities in the guidance that could help make it easier for program sponsors to start new apprenticeship programs quickly and efficiently. But it noted in an analysis that some details would have benefited from greater consultation with the field, particularly from state apprenticeship agencies.
AFA said that congressional reauthorization of the National Apprenticeships Act would be a better approach to “ensure rules are modernized, uniform, and clear across states, with clear input from the field.”
Arizona college keeps expanding into three-year degrees
Yavapai College is continuing to expand its venture into three-year degrees with the announcement of two new fully online optimized degree programs: a bachelor of design in visual design and a bachelor of applied science in public safety administration. Both will launch this fall.
The Arizona college was the first community college in the nation to offer a three-year bachelor’s degree. With the new programs, the college will offer a total of six bachelor’s degrees.
Last month, Yavapai College announced it was teaming with a Wisconsin technical college to offer a three-year bachelor of applied science in business degree, which launches next month.
Missouri college to offer its first baccalaureate
Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Kansas City will launch its first bachelor’s degree program this fall, focusing on respiratory care. It also plans to start an associate degree to provide a pathway toward degree advancement.
“MCC’s new respiratory care program is not just about earning a degree; it’s about empowering students with the qualifications and experience needed to thrive in one of the fastest-growing fields in health care,” MCC Chancellor Kimberly Beatty said in the announcement this week. “Graduates will enter a profession with excellent career prospects, thanks to a curriculum combining academics with hands-on training in MCC’s state-of-the-art facilities.”
The baccalaureate program’s launch is supported by nine area healthcare institutions and will be housed at the MCC-Penn Valley’s Health Science Institute.
Concerns about loan services support for students
A new General Accountability Office (GAO) report raises concerns about oversight of loan services providers in the wake of massive staff cuts at the U.S. Education Department (ED), particularly in its student aid office.
GAO said that four of the five loan servicers that ED contracts with for billing and communicating with borrowers didn’t meet the department’s performance standards for keeping accurate records and faced financial penalties. But ED has stopped assessing servicers on accuracy and call quality, with agency officials citing a reduction in staff capacity for the change, according to the report. Between January and December 2025, the number of staff at ED’s Office of Federal Student Aid dropped from 1,433 to 777.
“We recommended that Education resume these assessments. Without them, the office can’t be sure that borrower records are correct and servicers are giving borrowers quality information,” GAO said.
The department disagreed with GAO’s recommendation, arguing that it uses other methods to assess servicer performance. But GAO countered that it doesn’t think these methods are effective substitutes and maintains the importance of assessing servicer call quality and accuracy.
Democrats on congressional committees overseeing ED programs expressed concerns that student loan servicers could be making errors, such as sending bills that do not match what students actually owe, placing borrowers in the wrong repayment plan and not answering borrowers’ phone calls.
“I am gravely concerned that ED incorrectly believes it can replace real oversight of servicers with untested automation or artificial intelligence,” said House Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Bobby Scott (D-Virginia), who requested the review with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
