As Texas pushes more high schoolers to get ready for college and the workforce, new research suggests that some of the ways schools count students as ready don’t equally set them up for success after graduation.

The state rewards Texas school districts for preparing students for life after graduation, tying college and career readiness to more school funding and a higher school performance rating.

The Texas Education Agency has been increasingly strict on districts about college readiness. In the 2022-23 school year, state education officials raised the benchmark for schools to qualify for an A grade in the category of college and career readiness: Schools needed to get 88% of graduates ready for life after high school, up from 60% in prior years.

Researchers from four Texas universities nearly 1 million Texas high school students across eight graduating classes from 2016-23 to see how they fared after high school, including the wages they earned as well as whether they enrolled in college and completed their degree.

While English and math college prep courses have seen a boom in enrollment, the researchers found students in those courses were 5% less likely to earn a college degree or certification within six years of high school graduation than students who were not considered college ready. They were also 18% less likely to get a degree or certification than their dual credit peers. The results of the study, , suggest college prep courses offer a false signal of preparedness.

“We could be potentially setting students up for failure because we’re saying, ‘OK, you’re college ready.’ But you actually get into college and you’re immediately taking developmental coursework,” said Jacob Kirksey, lead researcher on the study and professor at Texas Tech University. “And maybe you’ve racked up, you know, loans as a result of that process.”

Meanwhile, students who earned a credential in high school — be it an associate’s degree or a certificate — earned 15% to 20% more in wages later in life than students who were not college ready. Dual credit was also shown to predict a likelihood to enroll in and complete college.

The TEA has started a process to. To date, only a handful of English prep courses have received a . No math college prep courses have.

Kirksey has also called for Texas lawmakers and state education officials to rethink how college and career readiness is incentivized, offering public schools bigger rewards for higher-quality pathways like dual credit, and smaller rewards for lower-quality pathways like college prep classes. His previous research on the impact of teacher certification on student achievement led the state to in core classes.

“College, career and military readiness should not be treated as a black and white checkbox for students and districts,” Kirksey said. “We think by making that distinction … districts will have all the incentives they need to, again, be celebrating these better pathways.”

The rise in popularity in college prep courses were a result of schools trying to respond to the stricter standards for college readiness despite limited resources, said Gabriela Sánchez-Soto, a researcher with the Houston Education Research Consortium who studies college, career and military readiness. Prep courses were appealing because school districts were able to offer them without a massive overhaul to their curricula, Sánchez-Soto said.

“You can’t blame the players for playing the game,”  Sánchez-Soto said. “But we need to always assess how well whatever thing we’re asking students to do is actually accomplishing. … If a requirement is not fulfilling its promise, we need to do something about it.”

This first appeared on .

The governor’s convened on Thursday in Raleigh to discuss and vote on strategies that were drafted to achieve 11 goals related to workforce development in North Carolina.

In a , the council discussed the goals, .

A slew of strategies were approved in a voice vote that will be packaged into a comprehensive report to be sent to Gov. Josh Stein by Dec. 15. But “that does not end our work on this council,” said N.C. Secretary of Commerce Lee Lilley. All strategies that were presented at the meeting were approved.

The workforce goals are all on a four-year timeline, and the council will submit annual progress reports for the next three years. Lilley said the goals are time-limited, actionable, and measurable.

“Those reports will measure the progress we’ve made on all of these goals,” he said.

that contained reports on the strategies put together by the council’s subcommittees reiterated the vision for the council’s efforts.

After the strategies were approved, myFutureNC presented a proposal for a “Workforce Act,” a framework that would also contribute toward the goals outlined by the council.

Below, find an outline of the strategies approved by the council to meet its workforce goals, which are categorized by the following groups:

• Education and credential attainment,
• Work-based learning and apprenticeships,
• Employer and sector partnerships, and
• Governing and aligning a future-ready workforce.

Education and credential Attainment

Goals:

1. Ensure 2 million North Carolinians ages 25-44 will have earned an industry-valued credential or degree.

2. By graduation, every high school student will have completed coursework that results in transferable credit or credentials/certifications in preparation for the postsecondary pathway of their choice. The coursework includes dual enrollment, Career & Technical Education (CTE) concentrator, Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), Advanced Placement/ International Baccalaureate, and work-based learning courses.

3. For graduating high school students, increase postsecondary enrollment, employment, or enlistment in the military within 12 months of high school graduation.

To address those goals, the council approved the following strategies:

• Continue to develop and expand an interoperable data system (e.g., digital transcripts), that allows for real-time, seamless transitions across education, workforce and licensure pathways, along with robust tracking to understand and evaluate learner-level outcomes.
• Further align the state’s industry-valued credentials list with employer demand and expand access to relevant credentials. Leverage the list to support implementation of Workforce Pell.
• Strengthen and coordinate programs that ensure learners are on track and reengage adults who stop before finishing a credential or degree. Create clear and consistent ways to give credit for prior learning, military service, and work experience.
• Align and strategically expand funding and partnerships to support learners with essential needs like child care, transportation, food, and housing, especially for people in rural communities, justice-involved people, people with disabilities, and veterans and their families.
• Promote awareness and increase uptake of , and the NC Need-Based Scholarship to provide direct admission to North Carolina colleges and universities and financial aid to support the cost of attendance, making financial aid more flexible to cover tuition, credentials, and licensing costs — especially in high-demand career fields.
• Review and adjust high school course quality points system, encouraging parity across prioritized course types (Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate/Cambridge International Education, Career and Technical Education, and Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps).
• Ensure every K-12 student develops a meaningful career development plan, supported by well-trained advisors across schools, colleges, and workforce programs. Expand successful advising models, such as Advise NC and the NC Career Coach program, to more high schools, so all students receive high-quality guidance as they explore and prepare for their future.
• Increase the number of school counselors to ensure that North Carolina meets the American School Counselor Association student-to-counselor ratio of 250 to 1.

Cecilia Holden, president and CEO of myFutureNC, commented on the strategies as she presented them. Referring to the data system to transition students across education, workforce, and licensure pathways, she said the current systems are “disparate.”

She also said that employers say not all credentials have equal value, and that the state should prioritize higher-value credentials.

Work-based learning and apprenticeships

Goals:

4. Double the number of registered apprentices.

5. Increase participation in work-based learning.

6. Engage 50,000 employers to partner with the governor’s Council on Workforce and Apprenticeships on achieving its goals.

7. Establish and expand coordinated partnerships between education and workforce agencies and employers to increase alignment of resources to better address current and projected employer needs.

To address those goals, the council approved the following strategies:

• Develop an employer-centered model for shared training and education of talent, to create a unified, statewide, tiered employer engagement system that incentivizes varying levels of employer participation.
• Leverage existing state and local business councils, professional associations, etc. to identify barriers to the expansion of apprenticeships and work-based learning, build strategic partnerships, and recommend incentives for pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, and work-based learning opportunities.
• When possible, embed credentials and degrees into apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships programs.
• Explore opportunities to strengthen and integrate Perkins V K-14 Business Advisory Councils and local area workforce development boards to formalize commitments and shared goals among education and workforce partners.
• Across agencies, review policies and procedures to reduce regulatory burdens for employers and update policies and procedures to foster an aligned multisector ecosystem that supports ApprenticeshipNC and partners.
• Secure stable and sustainable funding to organizations that will expand apprenticeships and work-based learning to include ApprenticeshipNC, NCWorks, NC Department of Adult Correction, NC Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, and the NC Department of Health and Human Services, to meet the needs of employers as they serve people in rural communities, justice-involved people, people with disabilities, and veterans and their families.
• Grow and unify workforce professionals supporting students and engage Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in supporting priority populations and rural populations to address barriers, so that more North Carolinians can gain access to education and training that will lead to advancement opportunities.
• Extend the existing Youth Apprenticeship Tuition Waiver to all apprentices regardless of participation in a pre-apprenticeship program.

The council also approved the following additional strategies:

• Create the Apprenticeship County Match Fund that provides matching funding to counties that support registered apprenticeships by paying the related instruction at community colleges in partnership with companies who pay apprenticeship wages. Funds would be matched on a sliding scale basis based on a county’s Tier designation.
• Implement a tax credit for companies on the wages spent on apprenticeship salaries.
• Launch Apprenticeships UNC that creates new apprenticeship opportunities in areas like industrial maintenance, skilled trades, scientific associate research roles, and health care occupations (where relevant) in partnership with area community colleges.

The additional strategies were raised by J.B. Buxton, president of . When pitching the Apprenticeship County Match Fund, Buxton said that Wake County funds Wake Technical Community College to pay for related instruction for apprentices.

He also noted that because North Carolina is phasing out its corporate income tax, a tax credit for companies may not be necessary.

Employer engagement and sector partnerships

Goals:

8. Create statewide sector-based workforce development strategies for at least three key industries, including, but not limited to, advanced manufacturing, education, and health care.

9. Develop a plan to integrate AI skills development into sector-based strategies and work-based learning in key industries to build a future-ready workforce.

10. Reduce state government vacancy rate to 15%.

To address those goals, the council approved the following strategies:

• Create a governance structure to organize existing industry groups, leaders, and councils within advanced manufacturing, education, and health care to develop and refine statewide sector strategies.
• Equip local and regional stakeholders with the tools, knowledge, and support needed to implement and scale sector-based strategies aligned with statewide sector strategies.
• In collaboration with the North Carolina AI Leadership Council, develop an AI curriculum addressing needs from K-12 to postsecondary that can be integrated into existing coursework to support AI fluency for all North Carolinians, especially people in rural communities, justice-involved people, people with disabilities, and veterans and their families.
• Work with employers to understand and expand the skills related to AI adoption that are most needed by their current and future workforce.
• Improve public perception and attractiveness of state government jobs, by having a dedicated public relations effort to rebrand state government employment, enhancing competitive compensation, benefits, and opportunities for advancement. Expand the partnership with education institutions to create a workforce pipeline into state government.
• Increase use of work-based learning in state government for high-volume, entry-level positions (nurses, CNAs, direct support professionals, correctional officers, etc.) to utilize apprenticeships and trainee pathways to develop talent and fund continuing education opportunities to support retention and advancement.

The council also approved the following additional strategies:

• Charge Commerce and the regional EDPNC research partnerships to develop a comprehensive and regularly updated labor market information tool on job availability and job projections in the target industry sectors by region.
• Create a Good Jobs and Regional Competitiveness Fund to support aligned sector-based initiatives in the research partnership regions. Capitalize the fund with state funding and philanthropic dollars to serve as risk capital or matching funding to invest in a handful of eligible strategies such as supporting apprenticeship and internship funding, employer roundtables, faculty recruitment and retention in key sectors, etc.
• Launch Early College districts aligned with advanced manufacturing, education, health care, and life sciences that allow students at high schools across a school district to complete community college coursework and pathways that lead to credentials with labor market value and prepare them for jobs in target sectors.
• Develop the NC Advanced Manufacturing Credential that is the equivalent to BioWork to create a consistent and demand-side approved credential for advanced manufacturing firms.
• Add life sciences.

The additional strategies were again pitched by Buxton. He proposed adding life sciences to a list of high-demand fields the council has previously highlighted, which includes advanced manufacturing, health care, and education.

After the presentation, Lilley noted that the state’s recently met and that the majority of the conversation of that council was about workforce preparedness and “minimizing impacts of displacement.”

Governing and aligning a future-ready workforce

Goal:

11. Launch a coordinated statewide public outreach effort to broaden awareness and participation in workforce development programs by employers, learners, jobseekers, and incumbent workers, with an emphasis on reaching under-tapped talent pools like rural communities, veterans and their families, individuals with disabilities, and justice-involved people.

To address this goal, the council approved the following strategies:

• Fully fund an outreach and awareness campaign, built around a unifying theme related to “opportunity,” seeking to broaden trust and increase engagement in workforce development services across NC, among both employers and jobseekers.
• Create a single user-friendly platform that incorporates NCWorks.gov, NCcareers.org, and other statewide career resources to better assist users through seamless connectivity, elimination of redundancies, shared reporting, and overall improvement of site performance, data/information quality, and customer service.
• Deliver regular, coordinated training across schools, community colleges, NCWorks Career Centers, and community-based organizations to ensure that all counselors, advisors, and career coaches are fully equipped to guide students toward informed, seamless postsecondary and career pathways.
• Expand access to workforce opportunities that bring career services directly to residents, including people in rural communities, justice-involved people, people with disabilities, and veterans and their families.

Following the presentation of these strategies, multiple council members called for an account of all of the organizations currently working on workforce goals in North Carolina.

“I see a lot of different groups, entities — whether it’s individual hospitals, individual community colleges, school districts, community college partnerships — a lot of people are kind of doing this and trying to reinvent the same kind of work streams that we’re talking about. And it strikes me that some of what’s missing is more of a coordinated effort,” said North Carolina Community College System President Jeff Cox.

myFutureNC calls for a ‘Workforce Act’

Following the council’s vote to approve the strategies laid out above, representatives from gave a presentation that projected a shortfall on the first goal — that by 2030, 2 million 25- to 44-year-olds will have completed a high-quality credential or postsecondary degree — as things stand.

That goal, also called North Carolina’s postsecondary attainment goal, is laid out in state statute in .

Holden said the number of North Carolinians with high-quality credentials or postsecondary degrees was 1,664,892 in 2023, and though that figure is rising, it is only projected to be 1,945,174 in 2030. Holden also said that if the state wants to celebrate in 2030, the goal will have to be met in 2029, because the data takes a year to process.

Therefore, myFutureNC called for what would be dubbed a “Workforce Act,” which is a framework that “represents a roadmap, built on the collective input of all of these stakeholders for what North Carolina can accomplish over the next few years to ensure our state and our economy continues to thrive well into the future,” according to the presentation.

Cory Biggs, director of policy and advocacy for myFutureNC, finished the presentation by noting the importance of robust data collection in order to access the full , which he called “a transformational opportunity.”

He said North Carolina will have to accurately track job placement and wage outcomes for workers with credentials funded by Workforce Pell.

“The thing that I want to flag for you guys today is the fact that we’ve got to get serious about data to implement Workforce Pell well. Otherwise, we’re going to be leaving money on the table, and nobody in the state wants to do that,” Biggs said.

Admittedly, I was on the fast track toward becoming one of the or NEETs – youth between the ages 16 to 24 who are “not in education, employment, or training” – who live here in southern Nevada. I was on the verge of becoming a statistic. 

Across the country, , , were considered NEETs. Alarmingly, this propensity to disconnect seems to afflict boys more than girls. , the share of young men aged 18 to 24 who were NEETs increased from 4% to 8%. In my home state of Nevada, the percentage is 19%, the second highest in the country. Moreover, as a male in Nevada, I was 15% more likely to drop out than my sisters. 

Not surprisingly, outcomes for NEETS are troubling. About without a high school diploma are either incarcerated or on parole at any given time. Among African American males, the proportion is closer to 30%. Lower educational attainment is associated with isolation, loneliness, and addiction. 

The trajectory that I had been moving along for those first two years pivoted sharply after I landed my first job. The summer following my sophomore year, I told my parents that I wanted to work. Knowing that I was on the verge of dropping out or failing out of school, my parents were desperate. A grand bargain was struck: I could work as long as I stayed on top of my schoolwork. 

Not only did I stay on top of my schoolwork – I outperformed. Throughout my junior year and beyond, I worked at least 20 hours a week while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average and an above average course load.

Having a job was rewarding and valuable on several fronts. First, my job helped me connect what I was learning in the classroom to the real world. I am applying my health science knowledge to my work as a lifeguard. Additionally, I have invested most of my wages, which has helped me understand the importance of mathematical concepts, such as compounded interest, that previously seemed so irrelevant. Second, my work — both as a lifeguard and an internship with the county government — is teaching me important durable skills: like showing up on time (even when I’m tired), being responsible, and working with people with whom I have nothing in common. 

Finally, my employment has given me confidence and purpose and helped me realize that “” — taken from “Invictus,” a poem by William Ernest Henley that I memorized in fifth grade.

My experience is not unique. Research indicates that students who work and participate in internships, apprenticeships, and employment have better outcomes. One reported that the “evidence to date indicates that summer youth employment programs have the potential to reduce delinquent behavior, enhance academic aspirations and performance, and improve social and emotional development.” 

Youth employment programs are associated with “, who saw improvements in their sense of belonging, ability to contribute to their communities, and conflict resolution skills.”  A found that “private sector job experience significantly increases attendance, reduces course failures, and raises proficiency on statewide exams. Participants are more likely to take the SAT and enroll in college with a shift from two-year to four-year institutions.”  

According to the , “Expanding employment opportunities for opportunity youth — including through proven year-round and summer job training programs — can help improve work readiness, expand professional networks, boost earnings, and reduce interaction with the criminal justice system.” The potential cost of not helping a disconnected youth at $13,900 annually. 

While I have meaningful employment, my experience feels like an outlier, especially among my African American peers. Many friends have been looking for jobs and internships for months without success. Workforce development experts have confirmed my observation—noting that internships and jobs are rare. 

As The 74 has reported, at most 5% of students have the chance for the gold standard of work experiences: apprenticeships or internships.  As of , the U.S. unemployment rate among youth ages 16 to 24 was 10.5%, significantly higher than the national rate of 4.3%. Among African American youth, the rate was over 14%. 

Given the benefits of youth employment and the association with lower crime rates, governments and political leaders should do more to offer incentives to businesses to provide internships and job opportunities. Currently, only a handful of states provide programs to encourage businesses to hire young people. 

In , the state provides an “Experiential Learning Tax Credit Program,” which offers a $2,000 tax credit for every apprentice, pre-apprentice, or student intern that a business employs. has a Work-Based Learning Tax Credit that offers businesses a $2,500 credit if they hire a youth. Earlier this year, there was a to provide $15 million to support NEETs in Nevada. Sadly, the bill didn’t even get a hearing. 

While barriers remain, such as transportation or student schedules,  some states are getting creative to address these. For example, Indiana has that grant students funds to cover the cost of getting to work, and have rolled out more flexible school schedules in some schools so that students can work at an apprenticeship, job, or internship.��

There are millions of young people — especially young boys like me — who are wandering, feeling disconnected, and facing significant barriers. College is expensive. Jobs are hard to come by. There are fewer organized ways to engage. 

As such, opportunities to work and learn – in the form of internships, apprenticeships, and employment opportunities – are the best vehicles to help youth learn about and connect to their interests, and from that, build confidence to explore and connect to their community.  Increasing job opportunities for young people is a proposition that will benefit the entire community. 

She wanted to earn credentials that would allow her to advance in the field, but it was slow going. Briones, 55, was working 40 hours a week at the San Francisco Bay area child care center and tending to her own family. It was tough to find the time and money to attend classes on a salary of about $15 an hour.

But in 2022, she saw a flyer promoting an at nearby Skyline College and figured it was worth a try. Three years later, she has earned child care credentials that allowed her to be promoted above colleagues who have been working at the center twice as long as her. And that promotion more than doubled her pay. 

The wraparound support from counselors, teachers, peers and mentors, along with the free tuition and on-the-ground learning helped her get — and stay — on the right path, she said.

“Now I know what I need to get done because they are guiding me,” she said. “I am motivated to keep moving forward.” 

Briones is part of a of apprenticeships in nontraditional fields. While the apprenticeship model has long been successful in industries such as construction and , over the past decade or so policymakers, educators and industry have focused on how such apprenticeships can be reimagined for careers such as child care. 

In 2001, only a handful of states offered for entry level early childhood education positions, meaning an apprenticeship that’s approved by — and therefore eligible for funding by — the U.S. Department of Labor or a state agency. As of 2023, 35 states now have such regional or statewide programs according to a published by the Bipartisan Policy Center.��

To get approved, a program must meet specific criteria: It must be a paid position as part of a business/employer partnership; have structured on-the-job training; provide instruction related to their field (in early childhood that is typically in a classroom setting); earn guaranteed pay increases and an industry credential.

“We want to professionalize the field. We want to ensure that we have high quality educators and that they’re supported,” said Binal Patel, executive director of the Boston-based nonprofit , which operates a for early childhood educators in the Boston area. “However, to require degrees without providing the support that goes with it to employees who are making poverty-level wages and often working two [or] three jobs to do so is pushing people out of the field.”

And the country desperately needs child care workers; the number of child care teachers, family care providers and program administrators has dropped from more than 2 million to 1.6 million over the past decade, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center report. But workforce challenges, especially those related to compensation, make it tough to draw people to the field. Child care workers earn less annually than 98% of other occupations and face poverty rates 7.7% higher than public school teachers, the report stated. 

Apprenticeships won’t fix the myriad problems facing the country’s child care system. Besides the dramatically low wages for employees, employers struggle with wafer-thin margins and parents with paying the costs of child care. 

But they are a move in the right direction. The Registered Apprenticeship Programs can be operated or sponsored by a variety of organizations, including workforce development agencies, employers, nonprofits, community colleges or unions. 

In better resourced industries, such as manufacturing or technology, employers or unions often cover the costs of apprenticeships. In early childhood education, where there is less funding available, those sponsoring the apprenticeships — such as Neighborhood Villages — often rely on a variety of external sources, such as state, federal and private grants to cover the costs of classes and extras that may be needed such as textbooks or laptops.

The nonprofit (ECEPTS) develops and administers 35 early care and education registered apprenticeships in California — including Skyline — that have employed about 1,400 apprentices since 2019. The organization also offers technical assistance to programs and develops apprenticeships in 20 other states.

While the national completion rate for apprenticeships in all industries is about 40%, about 75 to 80% of ECEPTS apprentices finish their programs, said Randi Wolfe, ECEPTS’s founder and executive director. 

“It’s expensive and it’s not quick,” Wolfe said. “But quick doesn’t really give you what you want.”

In a about a California apprenticeship for early educators — conducted by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley — almost all of the 101 respondents said their apprenticeship increased their knowledge of child development theory, leading to changing the quality of care and instruction. The majority also said they planned to seek a role with more responsibility as a result of participating in the program.

While government funding covers the costs of most apprenticeships, the child care program the apprentice works for needs to pay for the required wage increase, which varies. That can be a sticking point.

Temple Beth Shalom Children’s Center in Needham, Massachusetts, is part of Neighborhood Villages apprenticeship program; the center has had eight apprentices in the past two years, all of them entry level workers who wanted to pursue licensing to allow them advance their careers.

Temple Beth Shalom agreed to a $2 per hour increase when an apprentice finishes the 2,000-hour program.That comes to an additional $4,000 per apprentice. 

“It was a big commitment, and we also felt like we really wanted to be a part of it,” said . Ellen Dietrick, Temple Beth Shalom’s senior director of learning and engagement. “So, we figured out how to make it work. But that was definitely a challenge.”

At Skyline, the California community college, these costs for apprenticeships are covered by  government grants. Its Early Childhood Apprenticeship Program grew out of a problem: College officials saw that it was taking on average seven years for students to get an associate’s degree in early childhood education.

Many students “were only able to take one class a semester because of personal commitments, as well as working full time,” said Michael Kane, Skyline’s dean of business, education and professional programs. “We were looking for a way to support them and allow them to at least cut that in half. The apprenticeship gave us the ability to get them full-time employment within the field, and then we could actually push them to do at least two courses per semester.”

Kane and his colleague Tina Watts, Skyline’s education and child development department coordinator and faculty member, studied the best way to run such a program for two years before applying for a state grant. An important goal, Kane said, was to make the program sustainable after grant money ran out. 

The Skyline program places apprentices with six employers who regularly communicate with college faculty about the progress of the apprentices. The apprenticeship requires students to take six units a semester, as well as complete their work and attend community practice meetings three times a semester.

In exchange, apprentices receive free tuition and potentially other financial support, as needed, for books and transportation.

Since 2021, about 40 students entered the program, the majority of them Latina women, and about half are still in it, Watts said; the others dropped out for a variety of reasons. 

There was a disconnect, Kane said, between excitement for the program, which was high, and the ability to fully commit, which was lower. “Every one of our students has complicated lives,” Kane said, adding that many applicants work two or three jobs, are living in a home with multiple generations, and are responsible for caring for their own children, or finding someone who can. Skyline has had to adjust the application process to consider the ability to commit to the program, Kane said. 

By addressing that issue, more students are in the program who are committed to finishing it, leading to fewer dropouts, Watts said. Even if they stop out, they receive support to return to the program more quickly.

As apprenticeships are , abound that the Trump administration’s proposal to consolidate numerous workforce programs into one funding stream may affect money available for registered apprenticeship programs — and that states, faced with difficult choices about resources, may not pick up the slack.

In 2023, for example, ECEPTS received a one-year $3 million contract from the U.S. Department of Labor, with an option to renew for four more years, to expand its work nationally. Recently the department notified ECEPTS, among numerous other organizations that run registered apprenticeship programs, that it would not renew the third year of the contract, Wolfe said.

For now, ECEPTS has enough of a diversified funding base to continue its work for the next two to three years, she added, but that won’t be true for many other apprenticeship programs.

And that will mean fewer opportunities for people like Rebeca Briones, who sees her apprenticeship as the beginning, not the end. She has her goals planned out now including pursuing the credential needed to become a site supervisor and trained to teach students with special needs. 

“I want to continue providing the best experiences to our children and parents [and] our community,” she said.

The $10.5 million the state provided to help people pay for job training and industry certifications ran out approximately six months ahead of schedule.

Legislators added an additional $7.5 million worth of grants to the last week during a budget hearing. The initial $10.5 million for the program was supposed to last through June but ran out in December, .

Named for former Gov. Mike Foster, the grants provide financial support for students looking to earn credentials in high-demand, skilled industries such as construction, health care and information technology.

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The money can be put toward programs at Louisiana’s community and technical colleges and the state Board of Regents has approved. Students can generally receive $3,200 per academic year or $1,600 per semester if they are enrolled full time. The award maxes out at $6,400 in total over three years.

People who qualify must come from households earning less than 300% of the federal poverty level, which is $43,740 for a single person or $90,000 for a family of four. They also cannot have previously earned an undergraduate degree, and the students must also be at least 20 years old to qualify for the current academic year.

The types of job training the grant covers include nursing degrees, masonry, roofing, plumbing, cloud computing and .

The extra $7.5 million being used to fund the programs is unspent money from 2023, the first year the grants were awarded. Not as many people took advantage of the program that year because it was new and not well known at the time, officials said.

Monty Sullivan, head of Louisiana’s Community and Technical College System, said he believed the surge in interest in the program is related to economic factors, such as the rising cost of groceries. People are seeking ways to make more money, he said.

“The program is working. That’s the bottom line,” he said.

The Louisiana Board of Regents has asked that state lawmakers double the funding available for M.J. Foster grants to $21 million for the next academic year.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

PPI Senior Advisor Bruno Manno is set to interview Governor Jared Polis, Chair of the National Governors Association, about his year-long “Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success” initiative, which emphasizes work-based learning, dual and concurrent enrollment, skills-based education and non-degree credentials. Alison Griffin will then moderate a special panel conversation, featuring such local experts as Colorado Succeeds President Scott Laband and Michael Macklin, Associate Vice Chancellor for Workforce Solutions at the Colorado Community College System.

Sign up for the Zoom or tune in to this page Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET to stream the event.

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Washington will have more than 1.5 million job openings in the next eight years but it’s not currently training enough people to fill them.

a nonprofit run by Washington business leaders, found that the state needs about 600,000 more workers with postsecondary credentials than it is on pace to have. At the same time, the number of workers with high school diplomas, or less, will outpace the jobs available to them, leaving those fields more competitive.

“Washington’s education and training systems are not producing talent with the right skills at the right levels to keep pace,” said Marc Casale, founder and CEO of Kinetic West, which led the research for the report.

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Washington’s job growth is expected to be 12.8% through 2032, compared to 2.8% nationally. Of the 1.5 million job openings through 2032, about 640,000 are new jobs and 910,000 are from retirements.

That means Washington not only needs to scale up training for new types of jobs but also for current ones that will lose employees, Casale said.

Three quarters of those jobs will require some postsecondary credentials, and 45% will require at least a bachelor’s degree.

Washington will also have about 639,000 uncredentialed workers, but not enough jobs for them to fill, leaving about a quarter million workers with few employment options, according to the report.

Counting on migration from other states is not enough to meet the job gaps, Casale said, so the state must do more to train its workforce.

To meet the growing gap, the report includes five recommendations that the state should prioritize.

The first and most important is increasing the number of people receiving bachelor’s degrees in Washington, said Brian Jeffries, policy director at the roundtable.

To do so, the state should find ways to fill open capacity at its colleges and universities, especially at regional branches and online campuses. This could be done through more guaranteed admissions programs and financial aid resources. Washington should also look at expanding applied bachelor’s programs and direct transfer opportunities at community and technical colleges.

Other recommendations include prioritizing enrollment and completion of apprenticeships, training in high-demand jobs and supporting more employer-led training programs. Jeffries said he wants the Legislature to continue investing in workforce development programs that encourage employers to take part in training their employees.

Training and education opportunities should focus on occupations with the highest need. Over the next eight years, those are likely to be in advanced computing, construction and skilled trades, clean technology, health care, business and management, and education.

Another recommendation is to provide more opportunities for K-12 students to earn postsecondary credits and to prepare for life after high school.

Part of that will come from an overhaul in the state’s graduation requirements, which the State Board of Education is preparing to do over the next few years, Jeffries said. He said the business leaders should be part of that process to make sure high school graduation requirements align with what postsecondary schools require.

Central Washington University President Jim Wohlpart said he thinks of the workforce challenge as an opportunity for the state to rethink its curriculum and higher education system to create clear pathways through higher education and into the workforce.

“We need to embed college in the high school so that the transition from high school into post secondary education is as seamless as middle school to high school,” Wohlpart said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com. Follow Washington State Standard on and .

Oklahoma colleges and universities are working to bridge gaps in the state’s health care workforce, particularly in rural areas, by incentivizing students to pursue careers in various health care professions.

Some students pursuing degrees in health professions will be eligible for tuition payments through a new partnership between Southwestern Oklahoma State University, or SWOSU, and Comanche County Memorial Hospital, while partnerships at other schools, like the University of Oklahoma’s College of Nursing, are also taking aim at meeting workforce needs.

Critical shortages can be found in nearly all of Oklahoma’s health care professions and those shortages are intensified in rural areas, according to the

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SWOSU students who are pursuing degrees in specified health care and administrative programs can receive tuition payments if they work at the Comanche County Memorial Hospital after graduation. Students will also receive hands-on experience at the hospital while in school.

“We will serve as one of SWOSU’s clinical sites for various health care related professions,” said Brent Smith, CEO of the hospital, in a statement. “We appreciate this collaborative effort and are eager to begin this program that will help meet the growing health care needs of our community.”

Joel Kendall, provost and vice president for academic affairs at SWOSU, said the partnership was modeled after a previous one between SWOSU and for nursing students.

“It’s just really important that we provide that workforce, for nursing and other allied health programs, especially in rural health,” he said. “In Oklahoma that’s critically needed right now, so partnerships like this are trying to address that.”

Kendall said around 1,500 SWOSU students could be eligible to participate in this new partnership. This includes specialties in nursing, radiologic technology, physical therapy assistant, surgical technology and health care administration among others.

He said the dollar amount for the tuition payments will be decided by Comanche County Memorial Hospital and may be dependent on how many graduates accept jobs at the hospital.

Melissa Craft, interim dean of University of Oklahoma’s College of Nursing, said OU is also working to meet workforce needs by expanding the number of students accepted into the school’s nursing program.

In a 2022 OU news release, the Oklahoma Nurses Association that the state had 712 nurses per 100,000 residents, which ranked Oklahoma 46th in the nation in terms of nurses per capita.

“Our qualifications for application and what would make someone an eligible student have always kept the same. What we changed was our ability to accept,” Craft said. “The goal is still that we accept all qualified applicants.”

Craft said “health care is needed everywhere,” not just in Oklahoma’s metro areas.

She said OU works with five regional sites in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Lawton, Duncan and Norman to provide nursing students with hands-on learning experiences, like the SWOSU students.

But beyond the learning experience, Craft said partnering with regional hospitals helps the students find and build a community with those they work with and the patients they serve.

“Nursing is about relationships … we know that if we can partner with a facility and the nursing students, while they’re in school, can feel like they are a part of that community the chance that students will go to work there is really very, very high,” Craft said.

She said that OU graduates more nursing students than “anyone else” and while it’s an honor, “we graduate them for the workforce of Oklahoma.”

Craft said that in 2020, OU’s College of Nursing graduated 313 nurses. In 2024, that number has grown to 456 nurses.

She said that OU offers financial assistance to qualifying nursing students through various grants. The offers loan forgiveness to nurses who go on to educate the next generation of nurses after graduation. The Oklahoma Workforce Innovations and Nursing offers financial assistance to dozens of advanced practice nursing students per year.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on and .

Although a handful of education issues still divide governors along partisan lines, such as whether to establish universal pre-kindergarten programs or allocate public funds for private schooling, governors from both parties want to increase teacher pay and target incentives to shortage areas, expand access to higher education and promote college and career readiness in high school. In some instances, they backed priorities that traditionally have been linked to their political opponents, with Republicans proposing initiatives to address youth mental health and Democrats supporting the expansion of reading reform.  

But governors from both parties gave short shrift to one the most pressing problems facing local school leaders: sharply higher rates of in the wake of the pandemic. Neither Democrats nor Republicans outlined new steps to spur students’ return to school.  

The states’ chief executives concentrated their 2024 education policy priorities in seven areas: child care and early learning, the teaching profession, school choice, curriculum and instruction, student mental health, higher education and workforce development.

Child Care and Early Learning

Early learning and child care were a bipartisan priority, with 17 governors proposing measures to enhance accessibility and affordability for working parents. 

Democratic governors in Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, New Jersey and Michigan championed statewide universal pre-K, while Maura Healey of Massachusetts proposed the strategy for 26 facing social and economic challenges. Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly proposed the largest single-year investment in the state’s early childhood system, while the governors of Missouri, West Virginia, Nebraska and Hawaii proposed new or expanded child care tax credits. 

The Teaching Profession

Echoing a trend from last year, governors are seeking to strengthen the ranks of public school teaching by increasing compensation, addressing shortages and expanding recruitment — three closely connected strategies. Twenty-one governors have proposed such initiatives.

While both Republicans and Democrats addressed the issue in their speeches, most concrete proposals to raise teacher pay came from Republicans in Southern and Western states, which are less unionized and where salaries tend to be lower. In more-unionized, Democratic-leaning states, proposals were generally more focused on recruiting and retaining educators. 

Democrat Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Republican Jim Justice of West Virginia proposed across-the-board 5% pay raises for teachers in their states. South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster called for raising the starting salary to $45,000 from $40,000 by 2025 and further raising it to $50,000 by 2026. Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds urged the legislature to allocate an additional $96 million, to raise starting pay to $50,000 a year — a 50% increase; establish a minimum salary of $62,000 for teachers with at least 12 years’ experience; and allocate $10 million for a merit-based grant program for educators.

Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy pitched a three-year incentive program that would offer hiring and retention bonuses ranging from $5,000 for teachers in urban areas to $15,000 for those working in rural schools. Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee announced plans to increase paraeducator pay and create incentives for more teachers to serve special-education students. Missouri Republican Gov. Michael Parson proposed an additional $6 million for the state’s teacher Career Ladder Program, a performance-based pay matching initiative — on top of new funds to raise starting teacher salaries to $40,000 statewide. 

Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced plans to launch a teacher apprenticeship program, and Kentucky’s Education First Plan provides funding for a teacher loan-forgiveness program.

Some governors are also looking for ways to lower regulatory hurdles to teaching. In Nebraska, Republican Jim Pillen proposed lowering “barriers for potential teachers to enter the workforce” by, among other things, allowing licensure reciprocity for teachers from other states. 

School Choice

School choice initiatives, particularly those involving private school options, emerged as one of the few starkly partisan issues in this year’s speeches. While both Democrats and Republicans offered charter school and public school choice initiatives, six Republicans advocated for vouchers and education savings accounts, while two Democrats strongly opposed such measures.

Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey announced legislation that would eventually provide $7,000 for every student to spend on private education, calling it her “No. 1 legislative priority.” Similarly, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee expressed support for universal private school choice through what he called “education freedom” accounts, as he in November. If they succeed, Alabama and Tennessee will join with universal or near-universal private school choice programs. Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp also pledged to push through private school choice this year.

Democrats, on the other hand, attacked public funding of private schooling. “I will continue to reject vouchers and any attempt to send public education dollars to private schools,” declared Kansas’s Laura Kelly. “Vouchers will crush our rural schools, plain and simple.” In Arizona, where Republican state leaders enacted universal education savings accounts with few limitations on the use of the funding and few reporting mandates, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs pledged to work for greater accountability, as well as a requirement for students in the program to have attended public schools for at least 100 days before they can use an education savings account. Otherwise, Hobbs said, “the current projected price tag of $1 billion is only the start.”

In a departure from last year’s addresses, several governors pledged new support for public charter schools. Idaho Republican Gov. Brad Little announced plans to introduce legislation “to cut more red tape to support charter schools while providing taxpayers transparency,” as a way of expanding school choice without diverting resources from public schools. Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis pledged to provide charter schools their full share of public education funding. And Oklahoma’s Kevin Stitt, a Republican, proposed moving high-performing charter schools into vacant public school buildings, especially in communities with underperforming district schools.  

Curriculum and Instruction

Governors signed a wave of literacy-reform legislation in 2023 rooted in the science of reading, and the leaders of nine states, both blue and red, have pledged similar initiatives this year. Healey, of Massachusetts, announced Literacy Launch, a $30 million to ensure that districts have high-quality curriculum and teacher training tied to the science of reading. New York’s Hochul called for legislation mandating evidence-based reading instruction and to train 20,000 teachers. 

New Mexico Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham announced plans for a $30 million statewide literacy institute and a free summer reading program for 10,000 students. And Iowa’s Reynolds proposed requiring education majors to pass a test of reading instruction as a way to hold education schools accountable for teaching the science of reading and ensure graduates’ competence in early literacy instruction for teacher licensure.

Other curricular initiatives were also sprinkled among the governors’ addresses, including a $10 million investment in math education in South Carolina; a proposal by North Dakota Republican Gov.Doug Burgum to require financial literacy instruction; Indiana Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s proposal to require computer science for high school graduation; and Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s plan to assemble toolkits on digital literacy and critical thinking to help students discern fact from fiction.

Student Mental Health

Eleven governors on both sides of the aisle addressed student mental health and youth behavioral concerns, supporting both school and community-based approaches. In Idaho, Little proposed a statewide student behavioral health initiative and doubled funding for school advisers. Reynolds proposed a new youth behavioral health facility. And Evers and Hochul pledged increased funding for school-based mental health services. 

Hochul was also among the governors who addressed the impact of social media, pledging to advance legislation to safeguard children’s privacy online and to regulate the algorithms that target them on social media feeds. Lee of Tennessee pledged to mitigate the negative impact of social media on children by enhancing parental involvement, and Connecticut Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont announced plans to send guidance to local school boards regarding smartphone and social media use in schools. 

Higher Education

Governors from across the political spectrum proposed steps to improve college access, starting in high school. The leaders of 17 states announced plans to expand dual high school-college enrollment, lower the cost of associate degrees and increase scholarship opportunities. Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed making two years of community college tuition-free for all high school graduates. South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem advocated free tuition for National Guard members at private colleges within the state, building upon last year’s initiative to extend free tuition at state universities. And in South Carolina’s McMaster asked the General Assembly to freeze college tuition for in-state students and increase appropriations to higher-education institutions. 

Some governors are rethinking how their states structure and fund higher education, including two that hope to shift to an outcomes-based model. In Pennsylvania, Shapiro announced a Blueprint for Higher Education that would unite state universities and community colleges under a single governance structure, funded through “a predictable, transparent, outcomes-based funding system.” Oklahoma’s Stitt similarly wants to shift to an outcomes-based model, urging legislators to “stop subsidizing institutions with low enrollment and low graduation rates.” 

Several governors announced investments in evolving and emerging job markets. Arizona’s Hobbs announced plans to expand the state’s medical schools and open new ones, and Democrat Dan McKee of Rhode Island proposed expanding a cybersecurity program into a full-fledged cybersecurity institution. Not surprisingly, governors are looking to higher education to spearhead work on artificial intelligence. New York’s Hochul announced the formation of the Empire AI Consortium, a $400 million research and development network of seven public and private universities. New Jersey Democrat Phil Murphy announced a similar initiative — what he called an . 

Workforce Development 

Fifteen governors from both sides of the aisle argued that college shouldn’t be students’ only postsecondary option and proposed ways to provide alternative pathways after high school. In at least five states, that work begins in high school. Healey wants to increase investments in “innovation pathways” that provide high school students with hands-on, skill-based learning. Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin told legislators that all high school students should graduate with both a diploma and a credential setting them up for high-paying jobs. And Missouri’s Parson proposed allocating $3 million toward expanding youth apprenticeship programs, alongside a $54 million investment in employer-driven education and training.

Some governors want to see specialized high schools focused on career readiness. Alabama’s Ivey asked the legislature to prioritize funding the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences, a residential high school designed to address the medical field’s workforce shortage. The school would offer a unique STEM-focused curriculum, along with hands-on clinical training. 

Hobbs wants to double the number of postsecondary apprenticeships in construction and trades such as plumbing, while Shapiro intends to establish a new Career Connect program to link employers with talented youth, creating thousands of internships over the next decade.

This report was produced through a partnership between and The 74.

Meghan Gallagher of The 74 developed the interactive maps. FutureEd Research Associate Jingnan Sun contributed to the analysis.

Featured on our online panel: Dr. Keeanna Warren, associate executive director, PPHS Network; Dr. Gary Bertoline, senior vice president, Purdue University; former Indiana state Rep. Mary Ann Sullivan; The 74 Senior Reporter Jo Napolitano; and Purdue Polytechnic junior Raina Maiga. PPI’s Taylor Maag moderates. 

Sign up for The 74’s newsletter to follow our coverage of America’s innovative high schools and learn about future events.

Related coverage: 

• Rethinking High School: Upending Traditional Subject Structure at Purdue Polytechnic High School
• In This School District’s ‘Test Kitchen,’ Teens Go Beyond the Classroom to Build Drones, Research Cancer & Try Out Careers
• Indiana Looks to Make High School Curriculum More Focused on Career Paths
• Michigan Teens, Schooled in an Old Museum Without Classrooms, Eclipse Status Quo

Featured on our online panel: Dr. Keeanna Warren, associate executive director, PPHS Network; Dr. Gary Bertoline, senior vice president, Purdue University; former Indiana state Rep. Mary Ann Sullivan; The 74 Senior Reporter Jo Napolitano; and Purdue Polytechnic junior Raina Maiga. PPI’s Taylor Maag will moderate. Please join us at 2 p.m. Eastern. 

, or tune in here at 2 p.m. to livestream the event.

Related coverage: 

• Rethinking High School: Upending Traditional Subject Structure at Purdue Polytechnic High School
• Watch: Educators & Experts Talk About How High Schools Are Innovating to Better Prepare Teens for College & Work
• Robotics-Themed NYC High School Fills Roster in Inaugural Year
• Watch: Inside Indianapolis’s Purdue Polytechnic High, an Innovative School Built Around Design Thinking That Offers a Direct Pathway to College

That will be the key question on the table Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern, when the Progressive Policy Institute and The 74 present a special live streamed panel on the “Future of High School,” featuring Maryland state Sen. Alonzo Washington; Dr. Julius Davis of Bowie State University; Dr. Daria Valentine, principal of the Academy of Health Sciences at Prince George’s Community College; Dr. Jean-Paul Cadet of Prince George’s County Public Schools; and Sidney Foster, a sophomore at the academy. 

Panelists will examine a unique partnership between the Prince George’s County district and Bowie State, focused on developing strong college and career pathways for high-schoolers in the field of medicine. 

or refresh this page at 2 p.m. to watch the presentation right here. 

Background reading: Some recent coverage about how high schools and career preparation are changing:

• Changing Course: Indiana Looks to Make High School Curriculum More Focused on Career Paths
• Innovation in Iowa: Teens Are Spending Less Time in Classrooms, and Succeeding More — Here’s How
• Big Investment: $2.5M Gen Z Program Aims to Expand Career Options for High School Students

As more Virginians pivot from the traditional path of going to college and earning a degree, state and federal policymakers are considering expanding government programs designed to encourage college enrollment to cover training for middle-skilled positions in high demand.

Two of Virginia’s congressional representatives — Reps. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, and Abigail Spanberger, D-Prince William — are backing one such proposal that would let families saving for college through 529 accounts to use that money to pay for workforce credential expenses such as examinations, certifications and licenses to operate equipment.

“Whether you’re a young adult just coming out of high school, or you’ve been in the workforce for a while and you’re looking to gain some additional skills — or pivot careers completely — there are opportunities for folks to grow professionally,” said Mary Morris, CEO of Virginia529, the state’s college savings program. “More and better programs exist than ever before, and the fact that you can’t use a 529 account for some of those just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Beginning in the 1980s, states began offering 529 plans to help families save for college expenses, including tuition, fees and books. The tax-advantaged investment accounts for educational savings are today offered in most states. Virginia created its 529 program in 1994.

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While 529s provide flexibility for account holders in that they can be used for colleges, universities, vocational schools, registered apprenticeships and most public, private or religious K-12 tuition expenses, Morris said the plan is primarily used for eligible educational institutions that qualify for federal financial aid. If a student chooses not to go to college, the funds can be withdrawn, but the account holder may be subject to taxes or penalties.

An employment gap

Analysts and advocates for improving skills training said employers are facing a shortage of trained workers to fill middle-skilled positions, or jobs that require more than a high school diploma and less than a four-year degree. Some of those jobs include electricians, nurses, dental assistants, teacher assistants and firefighters.

, the Virginia Community Colleges System reported an estimated 300,000 jobs were vacant in the commonwealth, with about half of them considered middle-skilled. The total increased to 333,000 as of January, according to by the Virginia Employment Commission.

This January, newly hired VCCS Chancellor David Doré said one of his priorities is to address the skills gap, which is the disparity between the skills employers expect their employees to have and the actual skills employees possess.

“The skills gap is a national crisis, frankly, and certainly, that’s not unique to Virginia,” Doré said. “I think that the Virginia community colleges will play the pivotal role in really addressing the skills gap in Virginia.”

But while from the University of Virginia’s StatChat noted a third of U.S. adults have a high school degree as their highest level of education, almost two-thirds of jobs require postsecondary training.

“Is there a solution to this dilemma?” wrote author Spencer Shanholtz in the report. “Shall we begin to rethink the traditional education model by focusing in between the two extremes of either ‘no college’ or a full four-year degree?”

Cultural shifts

The traditional process of graduating from high school and going to college is changing in Virginia. According to analysts and data, fewer students are finishing school and more are looking to opportunities besides earning a four-year college degree.

Between 2017 and 2022, fall college enrollment in the commonwealth declined by 3%, from 521,445 students to 519,531, according to data collected by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. The commonwealth recorded a low in the fall of 2021, when 516,980 students enrolled in college.

Data from the , a nonprofit that provides colleges and universities research services, shows that student career interests also appear to be changing, with growing enrollment in programs in fields such as computer sciences, engineering, health and education.

“Our nation and economy are not the same as they were 15 or 20 years ago – it’s critical that we equip our students to excel in the future workforce,” Wittman said in a statement. “Not only are the current requirements to obtain [career and technical education] and STEM educations incredibly costly, but we’ve seen that the high school degree does not necessarily provide the same career opportunities it once did.”

A total of 72% of Virginians who were contracted to do jobs said they would be interested in completing training or education to acquire new job skills, according to a by a Virginia Department of Labor task force.

That report also found substantial declines in employer contributions to employee training, as well as the will to invest in independent contractors.

Virginia efforts

Since taking office in January 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration has advocated for strengthening the commonwealth’s workforce and expanding career and technical education.

Youngkin has said one key to workforce development is to have every high school student graduate with a credential that can be used in the workforce. In December, he go to the Virginia Community College System to expand dual enrollment programs that allow high school students to take college-level courses or classes that count toward industry credentials. The amendment, like other proposals to update the state’s biennial budget, remains tied up in negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.

Other proposals through career and technical education failed during the last General Assembly session, including bills to for community college students interested in high-demand industries.

Nevertheless, Wittman said the administration’s work aligns with the federal legislation he and Spanberger are carrying in recognizing the importance of career and technical education and ensuring Virginia students enter the workforce with valuable, in-demand skill sets.

Other state efforts predate Youngkin’s term, including the tuition assistance program called Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead, or G3, for qualifying residents seeking a career in the commonwealth’s most in-demand industries, including early childhood education, health care, information technology, public safety and skilled trades.

Virginia has also administered apprenticeship programs and training programs through the commonwealth’s 23 community colleges, while VCCS launched , an initiative to support middle-skilled positions.

“We’ve had many conversations about advancing educational opportunities and educational access across Virginia, and that’s what Virginia 529 is all about,” Morris said. “And a big piece of that is workforce training. It’s becoming more and more important as an opportunity for students.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on and .

The modern economy and the education system’s ability to better prepare students with the skills they’ll need for the jobs of the future was the theme of a recent expert panel discussion organized by The 74 and the Progressive Policy Institute. 

Panelists included Maryland state Sen. Jim Rosapepe; Don Fraser, Education Design Lab chief program officer; and Lateefah Durant, vice president, Cityworks DC. The event was moderated by Taylor Maag, PPI’s director of workforce development efforts. You can stream and replay the full conversation right here.

Recent news coverage about schools and preparing students for careers: 

Indianapolis Students Get ‘Leg Up’ On Careers With European-Style Apprenticeships

Irked by Skyrocketing Costs, Fewer Americans See K-12 as Route to Higher Ed

‘Academic Career Plans’ Have Students Exploring Careers as Early as Kindergarten

New Data: Female College Enrollment Drops at Twice the Rate of Male Students

Panelists include Maryland state Sen. Jim Rosapepe; Don Fraser, Education Design Lab chief program officer; and Lateefah Durant, vice president, Cityworks DC. Taylor Maag, PPI director of workforce development, will moderate. or watch the livestream at The74Million.org beginning at 2 p.m. ET Thursday.

Recent coverage from The 74 about schools and careers:

• Indianapolis Students Get ‘Leg Up’ On Careers With European-Style Apprenticeships
• Irked by Skyrocketing Costs, Fewer Americans See K-12 as Route to Higher Ed
• ‘Academic Career Plans’ Have Students Exploring Careers as Early as Kindergarten
• New Data: Female College Enrollment Drops at Twice the Rate of Male Students

As it did in workplaces worldwide, the killing of George Floyd — just a few miles from its offices in Minneapolis — led to deep introspection about diversity and fairness at the Solve advertising agency.

The company was more than 80 percent white, and part of an industry in which Black and Hispanic employees are drastically underrepresented compared to their proportions of the population.

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“It obviously pushed the entire industry to reflect, ‘Are we doing enough?’ ” said Andrew Pautz, a partner in the firm and its director of business development. “And the answer was really no.”

To respond, Solve looked 1,100 miles away, to Baltimore. That’s where it found a historically Black university, or HBCU — Morgan State University — that was willing to team up to create an entry-level course to introduce its students to careers in advertising.

“Advertising isn’t on the radar of diverse candidates when it really counts, when they’re trying to find a career to engage in,” Pautz said. So he and his colleagues asked: “Where is there a high concentration of diverse students? And that’s what brought us to HBCUs.”

It’s not only Solve that has come to this conclusion. So have some of the nation’s largest employers, who are descending on HBCUs to recruit the workers they need to meet diversity promises or expanding collaborations that already existed — often underwriting courses and programs and the technology needed to provide them.

These employers include Google, IBM, Northrop Grumman, Novartis, NBCUniversal, the airlines United, Delta and Southwest, and even the NFL, which teamed up last month with four historically Black medical schools to boost the number of Black team physicians and medical professionals.

“At many HBCUs, the phones have been ringing off the hook,” said David Marshall, professor and chair of the Department of Strategic Communication at Morgan State. “Given that these institutions are producing some of the highest numbers in terms of Black and brown students in some professions, it’s a natural development to come to where the students are.”

About one in 11 Black college students are enrolled in the nation’s 101 HBCUs, which produce more than a quarter of Black graduates with degrees in math, biology and the physical sciences, the National Science Foundation reports, and 50 percent of Black lawyers, 40 percent of Black engineers and 12.5 percent of Black CEOs, according to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

“People who have attended HBCUs, we know the value,” said Cheyenne Boyce, a graduate of historically Black Spelman College and senior manager in the Education Partner Program at the software developer and marketing company HubSpot, which also teams up with HBCUs to find interns and employees. “We’ve always known that. But it does help to have additional external validation.”

No one tracks how many companies are teaming up with HBCUs to find workers. But many such affiliations have been announced over the last two years. There’s been “a significant uptick,” said Marshall, at Morgan State. “It’s been deeper over the last couple of years,” said Lydia Logan, vice president for global education and workforce development and corporate social responsibility at IBM. Added Yeneneh Ketema, university relations diversity program lead at Northrop Grumman: “From what we’ve heard from our campus contacts, yes, there are a lot more companies coming there.”

This expanding pipeline to jobs with top employers could attract more students to HBCUs, whose enrollment overall declined by 15 percent in the 10 years ending 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Education — although about a third of the schools have seen a rebound in response to racist incidents at predominantly white institutions, the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions reports.

“Having companies really be willing to make investments, it benefits the students. It’s great for the parents. It’s great for the universities,” Boyce said.

For HBCU students who are lower-income or the first in their families to go to college, closer relationships with corporate recruiters and mentors also could help offset the advantage long enjoyed by wealthier counterparts who can network their way to jobs.

“I as a rich white kid might have, not just the relationships to get into the door, but also the perspective to know that working at a bank doesn’t just mean being a teller,” said Jeffrey Moss, founder and CEO of Parker Dewey, which helps employers and colleges arrange short-term internships. “Or maybe if my mom or dad works at [the management consulting firm] McKinsey, I could get a job there.

“What’s exciting to see coming out of the HBCUs right now are these opportunities to build real relationships,” Moss said.

That’s because many employers are investing more than an occasional campus recruiting visit. They’re showering HBCUs with technology and other support, mentors and money to help develop talent.

“The old model is, you bring a fancy table to the career fair and you give out brochures,” Marshall said. “The second tier is that there have always been occasional internships. The shift now is looking for more meaningful relationships.”

IBM in May announced that it would underwrite new cybersecurity centers at six HBCUs: Morgan State, Xavier, North Carolina A&T State, South Carolina State, Clark Atlanta and Louisiana’s Southern University System.

HBCUs produce more than a quarter of the Black graduates with degrees in math, biology and the physical sciences and 50 percent of Black lawyers, 40 percent of Black engineers and 12.5 percent of Black CEOs.

In addition to supplying academic content, the company will furnish experts to conduct guest lectures and even simulated hacking events.

“This is our next new big thing with HBCUs,” said Logan, at IBM, which already had a program to recruit students from historically Black schools.

“We’ve had a long commitment to diversity. For other companies it’s newer. For everyone, it’s gotten deeper over the last couple of years,” Logan said.

There’s not only now a social imperative for these companies, but an economic one: a huge demand for workers — not just in cybersecurity, but in other fields that require education in science, technology, engineering and math.

“We have a talent shortage,” Logan said. And “if you’re looking for diverse talent in STEM, it’s a natural fit to recruit from HBCUs.”

Consumers and activists are also pressuring employers to live up to promises that they will diversify their workforces.

“Especially for those companies that are consumer brands, their customers are saying that they want to see something happen,” Marshall said.

In some industries, such expectations can have an immediate and tangible effect on the bottom line. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say their perception of a brand’s diversity through its advertising affects whether they will patronize it, for example, according to a survey by the marketing analytics firm Marketing Charts. More than half of Black respondents said they won’t do business with a company that doesn’t represent Black people in its ads.

“Whether it’s about race or religion or gender, perspective is everything in advertising,” said Pautz, of Solve, whose clients include True Value, American Standard and Rust-oleum. Having a diverse workforce can broaden a company’s perspective, he said. “We have to understand how people think. It’s all about getting into a target audience’s shoes.”

Google’s Grow with Google HBCU Career Readiness Program provides digital education and funding to help expand the pipeline of Black tech workers, who represent only 4.4 percent of Google employees in the United States, even though 13.4 percent of the U.S. population is Black. Last year —facing criticism, including from one of its own former diversity recruiters that it previously didn’t seriously consider Black engineers from HBCUs for jobs — the company’s CEO met with the presidents of five HBCUs. Google has now added a new program called Pathways to Tech to provide those universities with technology resources.

To recruit new airline pilots , fewer than 4 percent of whom are Black and another 14,500 of whom the Bureau of Labor Statistics says will be needed each year through at least the end of this decade, United Airlines has teamed up with historically Black Delaware State University, Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina and Hampton University in Virginia. Delta has formed a partnership with Hampton, too, and Southwest with Texas Southern University in Houston.

The NFL announced last month that it would offer month-long clinical rotations to students from the historically Black Howard University College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science as a way to increase diversity among NFL physicians, only 5 percent of whom are Black.

“It’s really important for us to have that pipeline” from HBCUs, said Ketema, at Northrop Grumman, which also has collaborations with HBCUs and this fall will hold its fourth annual “HBCU Invitational,” during which it invites students to interview for jobs and participate in workshops and other activities.

It’s important that employers give more than lip service to these partnerships, Ketema’s colleague, Chris Carlson, Northrop’s director of university recruiting, said.

“One thing that we all know from working with HBCUs is the students can truly tell if a company is there to check a box — just showing up at a career fair to collect resumes — or if the company is in it with a school,” Carlson said.

Marshall agreed that the onus is on employers to live up to their diversity goals.

“This is not a story about HBCUs,” he said. “It’s about companies and corporations that are under increased pressure from their stakeholders, their shareholders, their customers saying, ‘You can no longer sit on the sidelines. You’ve got to do something.’ ”

“I don’t think the burden is on the HBCU side. I think the burden is on the corporations that suddenly woke up and found Jesus.”

In the meantime, HBCUs are indisputably enjoying a surge of employer interest.

“It’s great for HBCUs to get this attention,” said IBM’s Logan. “For a long time I think they were overlooked and now they’re getting the recognition they’ve always deserved.”

This story about was produced by , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, and published in partnership with the .��

One is the transition from eighth to ninth grade — if students don’t make it smoothly, they are more apt to struggle in high school or even drop out. Another is the shift from high school to college; strong alignment at this juncture measurably improves the chances for postsecondary success.

Schools often treat these inflection points as just that — moments breaking up a timeline — when they should instead be seen as part of an integrated continuum, from the end of middle school through the start of careers.

Call it the decade of difference.

Between the ages of 14 to 24, young people undergo an enormous transformation. These are the years in which they fully develop their attitudes and personalities, their aspirations and a sense of purpose. Their , changing in ways they hadn’t since early childhood, become increasingly plastic, making connections that allow them to engage in increasingly complex thinking.

At the same time, young adults are seeking meaning within their own and other peer groups, as well as in the wider world. They crave deeper social connections, as well as outlets for their creative and intellectual passions.

All these changes demand classroom schedules that allow young people to experience learning outside of school — at colleges and at the workplace — through internships and other opportunities for professional networking. The strength of the workforce also depends on innovative ways to keep these future employees engaged, on track and connected to college and fulfilling careers.

Across the country, state and local education leaders are embracing the knowledge of what young people in this decade need to succeed — and prioritizing programs that create seamless transitions to the world after high school.

In California, lawmakers are considering a $2 billion budget appropriation to create and expand pathways that combine rigorous academics with career training and quicker routes to higher education. These include dual enrollment, which allows students to earn college credits while still in high school. This is a critical investment: As more students, particularly those from underserved populations, have disconnected from learning during the pandemic, there is a growing recognition that theirs is talent California cannot afford to lose — and that college is too late to start connecting young people to the workforce.

Pathways like those powered by the approach known as bring high school, careers and college together with hands-on learning and academics that show the relevance to work. This keeps students engaged in ways that help them become both technically competent and emotionally mature. Combined with more thoughtful advising and other supports, clear pathways also help smooth transitions at a time, post-high school, when many students fall off track.

For example, the at Linda Esperanza Marquez High School partners with local hospitals and biomedical research facilities to provide students with hands-on learning and internship opportunities, opening the door to a wide variety of careers. While the institute focuses primarily on sports medicine and biomedical science, students practice a wide variety of skills in different areas of interest. To study the health impacts of environmental factors like a local battery plant, students test air, water and soil samples, conduct research and share their findings with their community — including in presentations to the city council.

In San Bernardino, students can combine environmental sciences, technology and building trades at . They prepare for and take the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners assessment, which awards an industry certificate in the alternative energy field. By their senior year, CORE Academy students are putting what they’ve learned into practice by installing solar panels for low-income community members in partnership with a local energy company.

Statewide, over 100,000 young people in 51 districts are pursuing pathways like these, preparing for success in college and careers in engineering, natural resources, health care, education and other high-earning fields.

Such efforts are also in place in states far from California. In Kentucky, the recently formed is working to ease students’ transitions between high school and the workforce or college with measures such as enhanced advising, early exposure to college and careers, partnerships between educators and industry, and expanded opportunities for dual enrollment. The Kentucky Community & Technical College System recently unveiled a mapping tool designed to show how well the colleges’ programs align with workforce needs in every county in the state. The colleges will then use the information to design policies to respond to those needs.

has recommended several ways to help prepare high school students for the academic and work lives that follow graduation. These include developing and expanding clear pathways to postsecondary education, providing students with more effective counseling, and making better use of data to improve postsecondary and workforce outcomes.

Reaching these goals means transforming high schools so they provide more coherent pathways to college and high-skill, high-wage careers. That requires connecting young adults’ academic, social and economic needs. Fortunately, President Joe Biden has proposed a $200 million , aimed at rethinking grades 11 to 14 and bridging the boundaries between high school and higher education. If Congress adopts this program, students across the country, particularly the underserved, could benefit from these life-changing programs.

The pandemic has only underscored the fragility of the crucial 14-to-24 decade: High school graduation rates are down, and college enrollment, particularly at the two-year institutions that educate nearly half of all college students, has markedly declined. The decreases are especially pronounced among students of color, low-income students and students learning English.

This is a make-or-break decade for young people and for the future of our country’s workforce. We would be wise to take full advantage of it.

Deborah S. Delisle is president and CEO of All4Ed, formerly the Alliance for Excellent Education. Anne Stanton is president of the Linking Learning Alliance and principal architect of the Linked Learning movement.

Chris Riback: Hi, welcome to the studio. Thank you for coming.

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Thank you for having me.

Chris Riback: So my first question is, should I be calling you Council Member Farrar-Myers, Mayor Pro Tem Farrar-Myers, or do you prefer Doc FM?

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Well, my students would say Doc FM, right?

Chris Riback: I’ve heard that.

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Yes. You could just say Victoria is fine.

Chris Riback: Okay. We’ll go with Victoria. But I got to say I was really looking forward to Doc FM, but I’ll stick with-

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Well, if you’d like that, that’s fine.

Chris Riback: I’ll stick with Victoria.

Victoria Farrar-Myers: I’ve answered to that for 25 years. It’s good.

Chris Riback: Describe Arlington for me, if you would. What’s the community like, and what are the biggest challenges sitting between Dallas and Fort Worth?

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Well, certainly. Arlington is 99 square miles. It’s got 393,000 people, which to any other place would seem like a large city.

Chris Riback: It’s a large city.

Victoria Farrar-Myers: It’s smack dab between, we’re the 48th largest city, but smack dab between Dallas and Fort Worth, obviously get a little overlooked, but Arlington certainly has in the last six years I’ve been in council, we’ve done so much in terms of adding a lot to our entertainment center. But certainly we have a large University of Texas at Arlington is now an R1. We have a feeder school, Tarrant County College, that’s feeding a lot of our student population. We’re seeing a lot of growth.

Chris Riback: What’s the state of early childhood learning in Arlington?

Victoria Farrar-Myers: We’re trying to catch up, frankly. The fact that we’re just adding pre-K now is a little disconcerting, really what we’re working on though with the city, and some of the other initiatives is zero to three, because as you know, all the brain synapses you’ll ever develop is in that area of time. We want to really get our students a good head start by getting in there.

Chris Riback: Tell me what you’re doing zero to three. Then I want to ask you about how are you getting it done. But first, what are you doing?

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Sure. Well, one of the things we’re doing is converting some of our old childcare centers and particular school centers to be for zero to three. More infant centers, which has been innovative in the way we’re using our old resources to tackle this particular problem.

Chris Riback: Smart.

Victoria Farrar-Myers: So that’s one of the things that we’ve been doing. How we got it done, we have an Arlington Tomorrow Foundation, which years ago, some brilliant council members prior to me, decided to take all our gas well money and invest it into a Tomorrow Foundation. And through that, we’ve been able to give some strategic funding to these areas.

Chris Riback: In some ways you touched on this, but beyond your public service role, you have a PhD in political science.

Victoria Farrar-Myers: I do.

Chris Riback: I believe it is. You taught at UT Arlington for a number of years. You’re now in the city council among other roles. What should the relationship be between government and local capabilities and early childhood learning? What’s the role for local government?

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Well, you think about local governments are interested in workforce development. They’re also interested in how to make sure you have a well-educated, for economic development purposes, right, a well-educated workforce. How do you do that? You’ve got to do that, and you can’t just start at the college level. You’ve got to start earlier working with your ISDs, and you have to start really, if you really want to make an impact in the earliest, so that zero to three.

It’s really, as we put, I think a lot of people call it cradle to career. I think that’s a perspective we really are trying to take in Arlington to try to figure out, how do we allow that pipeline to be so smooth so that our students don’t just attend our university and leave our city, but become part of that very healthy, vibrant workforce that will attract businesses, that will attract a vibrant community and who better to want a city to move to. All of us are trying to compete with each other, whether it’s economic development or whether it’s residency. We really want to make sure that we have that dynamic environment for our kids, for our parents of today and for our kids of tomorrow.

Chris Riback: How has the business community reacted to your efforts?

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Very well actually. Our Chamber of Commerce has been extremely innovative in terms of educational outreach. We’ve had a lot of good entrepreneurship programs. We’ve started a consortium of entrepreneurship programs. We’ve also been working in providing apprenticeships as well as providing ongoing initiatives at the lower level, so not just high school, but really reaching down in the sixth, seventh and eighth, that middle years where you tend to lose the learners. Then also most recently, T3, which the Rainwater Foundation started. It’s Tarrant County two and through. Arlington, Texas is in Tarrant County. We’re starting to see some innovative programs where parents are starting to be involved as well. We’re one of the most diverse cities in the nation. We’re really trying to get to parents as well to show parents that this is a way for you to better a lot of first generational students. This is why it’s higher ed, maybe not [inaudible], but maybe it’s career formation. We’re seeing a lot of innovations.

Chris Riback: How are you getting through to them and with them? I think that’s something that a lot of communities want to do, may have some challenges with. Particularly now coming out of COVID, all parents have so many challenges, health, environment, education. How do you get through to them to inspire them that put more energy here?

Victoria Farrar-Myers: I think you made a great point. Prior to COVID, I was working on workforce and childcare and early learning, and they seem to be, I don’t want to say pedestrian issues, but they seemed like perennial issues that everyone just said, “Oh, cities have those issues.” Now post COVID, they’ve become red hot and red centered. Full-on center. A lot of people are looking at it going, “Oh, wait a minute. We really got to go back to the basics.” One of the things I think is we’ve got to establish a trust and also a conversation at the early levels. What I mean by that is not just assume or presume that we know what parents need or what schools need, but also really open up conversations and dialogue. One of the things I will say that pandemic has done for us is open up opportunities for innovations like no other because people are looking for different ways to do things.

The old way just doesn’t work. Going back to the old way is just going to create old issues. Why not take what could be a really negative piece of our history, and you and I both know there’s going to be reverberations for education is going to be for decades to come. How do we not lose these generations?

But then how do we also make sure that we prepare for the next generation? It’s learning. It’s teacher support. It’s innovative ways the business environment can be involved with it. I think it creates more ownership though because businesses are like, well, we’re not getting workforce ready students. Well, help us figure that out with you and help us, okay, by the way, when you’re doing that, help us create an internship program or an externship program or apprenticeship. Then there’s a real buy-in. Then I think one of the things that a lot of parents say to me is, “You’ve made it real now for me. I can see the reality of the future.” It’s not just a thing that we talk about or something that’s going to be expensive, but we understand why the investment needs to be there.

Chris Riback: What a super point. I agree with you. People are more open-minded now to new ideas. We know that after what we’ve gone through, we need new ways to try just about everything. What’s next?

Victoria Farrar-Myers: A lot of work. It’s figuring out what are the most, I think, I’m a problem solver in something, looking at early wins. What kinds of things can we adjust really quickly to get people feeling like, okay, we can do this. Then looking at the longer term picture and try that cradle to grave seems a little bit, or the cradle to career. It just seems so daunting. How can we look at those pieces? Zero to three, how do we focus there? What are the main needs? K through 12 and the seamless transition to post-secondary degrees, what are the main transition periods there? How do we listen to businesses and figure out how can we work with the higher education institutions to figure out, do I need more computer scientists?

Chris Riback: Yes.

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Or to put myself here? Do we need political scientists? Maybe not so. But that’s okay. I think it’s really having some of those really frank discussions about what it is we need to move forward. Cybersecurity is a huge issue, but yet we don’t have a lot of students who are getting into data analytics. I teach statistics. Most of my students don’t want to be in my class. Yet what I talk to them about is this is one of the best skills that I can teach you.

How do we make it real? For years, I’ve always struggled to try to make it real for my students to answer the why. What’s in it for me? Why is it so important to be in front of me in my classes? We’re just doing that with parents now. We’re doing that with educators now. We’re doing that with our business community. We’re doing that to tell the story economically for our cities. So cities can convene. I’m not saying cities are going to solve the problem, but we have to be integral partners to be able to convene a lot of the dot connectors of this process. I think that’s really where I see the future going.

Chris Riback: Well. I hear that connecting from you, Victoria, Doc FM. Thank you so much for joining us.

Victoria Farrar-Myers: Thank you. It was a pleasure speaking with you today.