Charting a Course to Quality is a comprehensive handbook designed to guide states in building and enhancing the data ecosystem necessary to evaluate non-degree credential programs. It offers practical steps and examples from states already leading in this area, so others can adapt successful models to their unique contexts. 

This publication is the final installment in a series dedicated to helping states advance their non-degree credential ecosystems. It builds on the foundation laid by our earlier works: 

• The Non-Degree Credential Quality Imperative explores how states are crafting policies to increase access to high-quality non-degree credentials. 

• State Financial Aid for Non-degree Credentials examines the financial aid strategies states employ to support students pursuing these credentials. 

Together, these publications provide a handbook for states committed to ensuring that people from all backgrounds have access to valuable educational opportunities that lead to meaningful employment. 

The post Charting a Course to Quality: A Navigator’s Handbook to a Robust Non-Degree Credential Data Ecosystem appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

For students and employers and states to benefit from non-degree credential programs, states need to design financial aid programs that take into consideration key choices, such as determining student eligibility and how to align these programs with in-demand sectors and occupations.

While there’s plenty of research and analysis into how states offer financial aid for degree programs, few—if any—existing analysis provides a look into how states are doing the same for non-degree credentials. This paper offers a unique insight into existing financial aid programs in six states that support equitable access and strong outcomes connected to NDCs—particularly for students that are not eligible for federal student aid—while also supporting the needs of industry and business.

We offer eight critical considerations for states when designing equitable and outcomes-oriented financial aid for NDC students.

The post State Financial Aid for Non-degree Credentials appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

• 84% of voters want to make federal financial aid available to anyone seeking skills training, not just those seeking college degrees
• 90% of voters want to provide access to digital skills training for workers throughout their careers so they can adapt to new technologies at work
• 91% of voters want the creation of closer partnerships between training providers and businesses to train people for the jobs that businesses need to fill.

The post Legislative Agenda for the 118th Congress appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

NSC’s new report, College and Career Possibilities Rooted in Place highlights how industry partnerships benefit rural learners and employers alike – and shines a light on the rich variety of rural contexts, state systems, investments, and policies that can help drive and sustain effective partnerships between rural community colleges and local industry.

Read the report to learn about how rural industry partnerships create place based pathways and opportunity, the key factors that make for strong, effective partnerships, and how state and local policymakers, officials, and administrators can support rural community college and industry partnerships.

The post College and Career Possibilities Rooted in Place: How Rural Community College and Industry Partnerships Help People, Communities, and Business Thrive appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

National Skills Coalition’s new report The Non-Degree Credential Quality Imperative encourages state policymakers to invest in quality NDCs; shares how we’ve worked with states to define, measure, and track quality; and offers takeaways for how to advance quality assurance so that policymakers feel confident in investing in non-degree credentials, students have confidence in their training programs, and employers know which programs effectively prepare people for careers.

The post The Non-Degree Credential Quality Imperative appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

Written by NSC’s Government Affairs team, this agenda will guide the strategic work of the organization, and our networks, aligned to our four issue campaigns that prioritize the ways that federal and state policymakers can most effectively expand high-quality skills training and drive toward an inclusive economy:

• Congress should ensure that cost isn’t a barrier to training;
• Congress should help workers and small businesses engage in industry partnerships; and
• Congress should support state and local data collection to measure equitable outcomes.

Skills policy alone can’t correct every economic inequity, but investments in inclusive skills policy can begin to address the disproportionate impact of major economic shifts on workers of color, immigrants, and workers with a high school diploma or less; the essential role of small businesses who hire locally and invest in their people; and the moral and economic imperative to dismantle structural racism within workforce education and training.

The post Legislative Agenda for the 118th Congress appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

The post Skills on the Hill Episode 15: Recess on The Hill appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

On May 24th, 2022, NSC CEO Andy Van Kleunen was joined by City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado and a panel of thought leaders for a dynamic conversation about how Future Ready is preparing Chicago residents to rebuild the region’s infrastructure, connecting employers to local talent, narrowing the digital divide, and driving a more equitable, inclusive economic recovery.

In 2021, the City Colleges of Chicago leveraged federal recovery investments to launch Future Ready, offering high-demand, short-term credentials at no cost to Chicagoans who want to advance in their job, start a new career, or harness rapidly changing workplace technologies.

Moderator: Andy Van Kleunen, CEO, National Skills Coalition

Featured Guest: Juan Salgado, Chancellor, City Colleges of Chicago

Respondents:

• Farhad Asghar, Program Officer, Pathways to Postsecondary Success, Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Julie Peller, Executive Director, Higher Learning Advocates
• Matt Summy, Vice President, Strategic Planning for Impact & Inclusion, Comcast

The post Fireside Chat: Chancellor Juan Salgado appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

Rachel Unruh and Katie Spiker get into the details of President Biden’s budget for 2023, WIOA, Short-term Pell, and College Transparency.

The post Skills on the Hill – Episode 14: Biden’s budget, WIOA, short-term Pell and college transparency appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

The post Skills on the Hill – Episode 13: Pell grant expansion and what’s next for legislation appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

Advocates can turn to these case studies for inspiration as they push for policy changes that use data to ensure equitable, high-quality credentials. 

The brief includes case studies from three states and recommendations include: 

• To improve data transparency, states can establish robust quality criteria for eligible training providers and require data disaggregation of employment and wage outcomes for participants of training programs by race and ethnicity to ensure that participants of color are being served equitably across and within eligible training programs.
• To improve data governance & use, states can leverage existing data infrastructures to reduce reporting burdens on training providers, streamline data collection processes, and expand upon the partnerships between training providers and the public workforce system.
  
• To improve data quality, states need better data about the employment and wages outcomes of non-degree credentials to truly determine what credentials have value to workers and businesses.
  

NSC’s eight-part Skills for an Inclusive Economic Recovery Policy Agenda includes a plank on public data and accountability regarding who will be included in the recovery and urges state and federal governments to report data on how different workers and businesses are faring in the recovery and hold policies accountable to equitable outcomes for those most impacted.  Improvements in data transparency, governance, and quality (as outlined in Emerging Data Innovations) are the first step. Once we have good data, we can then use it to hold our policymakers accountable to better, more equitable skills training outcomes. 

The post Emerging Innovations in Data Transparency, Governance & Quality appeared first on National Skills Coalition.

Career pathways integrate holistic supports that address people’s basic needs while they train for a quality career that offers opportunity for economic mobility. Career pathways can contribute to an inclusive economic recovery when they intentionally address the needs of workers who have been most impacted by COVID-19, as well as by structural barriers of discrimination or limited opportunity – specifically workers who earn low wages and workers of color. And, Career pathways can help small and medium businesses – those most impacted by the pandemic – train and hire workers in a changing economy. 

States have a real opportunity to advance racial equity and economic mobility by increasing access to high quality skills training & building out career pathways using funding from SNAP E&T and TANF block grants to support career pathways system development and partnerships. Yet, not enough states are using these resources in this way, meaning that states, community colleges, human service agencies and workforce development agencies are missing an opportunity to use millions of dollars to transform career pathways that could benefit people and businesses  

Building State Career Pathways Systems is a toolkit designed to help states create career pathways systems that integrate and expand partnerships between state human service agencies and community and technical college systems and institutions so that more people have the opportunity to train for a quality career. 

The toolkit includes recommendations for how SNAP E&T and TANF can support high-quality career pathways system development and partnerships with community colleges and illustrates model career pathways frameworks from Arkansas and Oregon 

This toolkit was funded with generous support from Lumina Foundation and ECMC Foundation. 

The post Building State Career Pathways Systems appeared first on National Skills Coalition.