The U.S. Education Department (ED) will hold a series of online trainings to help campus administrators navigate changes related to Workforce Pell and their responsibilities to prevent student loan defaults.
The department this week announced a new self-paced training course to prepare financial aid professionals to administer student aid for students enrolled in approved Workforce Pell programs. The training provides an overview of approval processes, requirements for maintaining program eligibility, and how to package and award aid to students in eligible programs. It also includes training on managing Workforce Pell programs in a college’s Application to Participate in the Federal Student Financial Aid Programs (E-App) via Partner Connect and how to classify students as enrolled in a Workforce Pell program in the FAFSA Partner Portal.
ED also announced a new initiative to support institutions as they work to manage and prevent student loan defaults. It will kick off with two webinars and will eventually include additional webinars, regional workshops, conference sessions and technical support for institutions. (ED is expected to release official Cohort Default Rates [CDRs] for fiscal year 2023 this month. It will mark the first time in several years that CDRs will exceed zero percent, as borrowers were required to return to repayment in the last year of the 2023 cohort.)
The first webinar, scheduled for September 29, will focus on how to use tools available through the National Student Loan Data System, including the Delinquent Borrower report, the 24/36 Month Repayment report, the Loan Record Detail report and the draft cohort default rate calculation. The second webinar on October 13 will share promising practices to improve communication to, engagement of and support for student borrowers.
