Making Workforce Pell More Workable: Takeaways from a CAEL and MUS Member Webinar

If you’ve been following the news in higher education and workforce development, you know that Workforce Pell is a hot topic, especially as we approach the July implementation date. Recently, I had the pleasure of hosting a joint member webinar with our partners at Midwest Urban Strategies, bringing together practitioners who represent major stakeholders in this work - community colleges, universities, systems, workforce boards, training providers, local, state, and federal government officials, consultants, and nonprofit organizations. The expansion of Pell Grants, which have been around for quite some time, to short-term programs (as short as eight weeks!) can be viewed as a win for adult learners and employers. However, this change comes with a high bar for accountability and many unanswered questions that pose real challenges for the colleges, universities, and other organizations that are providing the training - not to mention the coordination required at the state level. Our panel of experts, comprising Casandra Blassingame, M.Ed., president & CEO, Continuing Education Unit Accreditation Council; Tracey Carey, executive director, Midwest Urban Strategies; Dr. Andrew Gardner, associate vice president of workforce strategies, North Carolina Community College System; Rachel Hirsch, vice president of public partnerships, CAEL; Fahim Karim, manager of economic stability and mobility, Employ DMV; and Julie Straub, president & principal consultant, Future Ready Consulting came together to unpack some of these hurdles and offer up learner-centered guidance to leverage this opportunity.

The shift toward Workforce Pell is more than a policy update; as our panelists recently discussed, it is a "system design moment" that requires us to rethink our own roles in how we support adult learners, and how we measure and track success.

This is also an “all hands on deck” moment - each stakeholder has an important role to play to mobilize the power and resources within their ecosystem beyond those explicitly mandated in the law:

• Higher Education: Beyond just being the "front door," colleges must lead in credit for prior learning (CPL) and articulation agreements to support stackability and lifelong learning.
• Workforce Boards: Serving as the data aligners and funding integrators, helping to braid WIOA and Pell resources without conflict.
• Training Providers: Building and deepening partnerships with colleges and universities to enhance curriculum, strengthen noncredit to credit pathways, and fill in the gaps.
• Community-Based Organizations: Providing basic needs and community navigation services to holistically support your community’s learners and workers.

• Local and State Government: Keeping a close ear to the ground as policy becomes practice - ensuring voices are heard, hurdles identified, and collaboration is possible.

• Accreditors: Navigating the challenge of accrediting non-credit programs and ensuring they meet federal standards.

While building a stronger ecosystem is exciting, it’s important to be honest about the hurdles we're clearing together. We know that real growth comes with growing pains, particularly as we work to bridge the "language gap" between higher education, workforce boards, and employers. Tracking metrics is another challenge - our data systems are still catching up, don’t talk to one another, and often struggle to track noncredit success or employment outcomes. There’s also a very real concern about the "performance gap"—the fear that a learner’s choice to keep learning might be misread as a failure in placement metrics. Navigating these challenges requires a healthy dose of "grace" and a commitment to keeping the individual's long-term journey at the heart of everything we do.

One of the most profound takeaways from our discussion was the need to bridge the gap between noncredit training and credit-bearing degrees. If a student completes a short-term credential using Workforce Pell, that shouldn't be the end of their journey. This means that CPL will continue to build the bridge between experience, learning, and credit. We must ensure these short-term wins stack into long-term career stability. As Julie Straub noted, “Workforce Pell doesn't really fix the misalignment, but it exposes it ... if nobody owns that bridge [between noncredit and credit], then the funding will be misaligned."

Action Steps for Our Community

To turn this policy into progress, here are some places of focus our panelists recommended:

• For Faculty & Administrators: Audit your short-term programs now. Do they meet the 70/70 performance thresholds?∗ Start building the "bridge" by creating clear articulation pathways from non-credit to credit.
• For Workforce Professionals: Reach out to your local community college counterparts. Identify how you can "braid" funding—using WIOA for child care or transportation while Pell covers the tuition.
• For Everyone: Connect with your state legislators and governor’s office to align the work. Focus on strengthening local relationships across the ecosystem to identify resources, efficiencies, and shared services.

Success in this new era won't and can’t happen in a vacuum. As we look toward the July implementation, the recurring theme from our speakers and audience is clear: Local collaboration is the key to success. We must all work to build and strengthen local and regional relationships to ensure our programs are stackable, our data is aligned, and our supports are braided to truly serve the adult learner.

*The 70/70 performance thresholds are accountability standards that short-term programs must adhere to to be eligible for Workforce Pell Grant funding - 70% completion rate - 70% of students enrolled must complete it within 150% of “normal time” for completion- and 70% job placement - 70% of program completers must find employment in a field related to their training within 180 days of completion.