Workforce development has become one of the most important economic challenges of our time. While headlines often focus on billion-dollar investments, new facilities or breakthrough technologies, long-term success depends on something much more fundamental: people….
Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania last week awarded millions of dollars in grants to community colleges to boost workforce programs, help adults reconnect with college and support campus upgrades. In Illinois, more than $20 million in…
The transition to a clean energy economy has emerged as a major driver of employment growth in the United States. In 2023, clean energy employment expanded at more than twice the rate of the overall…
The U.S. Education Department (ED) has approved three Workforce Pell programs in Nebraska. This means that eligible students at Metropolitan Community College (MCC) can now use federal Pell Grant dollars to enroll in its phlebotomy…
Two community colleges last month became the first two institutions to receive Education Department (ED) approval to use Workforce Pell grants for qualifying short-term programs. The next steps for the colleges include setting up needed systems…
Community colleges typically operate two houses – a for-credit side for degree seekers and transfer students, and a non-credit side for learners seeking a frictionless pathway into paid work. Recently, two-year schools have moved to…
The entire country is looking for more workers in the skilled trades. This spans the needs of electricians and HVAC technicians to heavy equipment operators and fiber optic technicians. Many of these are the backbone…
Community college leaders should pay attention to something that happened in the youth labor market this summer. After a quarter-century decline, summer employment of 16- to 19-year-olds ticked up to 35.5% from 33.8% last year,…
A new Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia study is challenging a common assumption in workforce development: that apprenticeships and college are separate or competing pathways. Instead, researchers found that apprenticeships and postsecondary education are often…
Community colleges looking to strengthen workforce programs and respond to local labor shortages have a new resource at their disposal. A new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce finds that…