New high school graduates who don’t want to enroll in college could qualify for federal financial aid for the first time this year to pursue short-term workforce training programs.
The Trump administration earlier this month issued final regulations for the Workforce Pell Grant program, which is an idea that’s been debated for years and was included in last year’s Working Families Tax Cut Act, known by its supporters as the One Big Beautiful Bill.
The program takes effect July 1 and will allow students from low-income families to use federal Pell Grant money for certificate programs ranging from eight to 15 weeks that are offered through eligible colleges and universities and authorized by the federal government and state governors. Those programs should yield certificates in high-demand fields.
Traditionally, Pell Grants have been available to financially needy students pursuing postsecondary degrees. Students couldn’t apply them toward programs that lasted less than 15 weeks, excluding much short-term workforce training.
Now, “you can go in and get certifications and go ahead and get into the workforce and get a job,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said of the Workforce Pell on Fox News on May 18. “And it’s just fantastic that this is going be able to happen. It’s going to be a cheaper way to get certifications. You can stack these credentials, you know, and [study] electrical work, HVAC, carpentry, a lot of the skills and workforce that we need because we are desperately in need of this workforce development.”
Amy Loyd, the CEO of All4Ed, a nonpartisan group in Washington that works for equity in education, said a workforce Pell Grant program has been a bipartisan goal for years.
“It certainly resonates with this moment, with the need for stronger opportunities for young people and adults to earn meaningful credentials,” said Loyd, who was assistant secretary for career, technical, and adult education in the U.S. Department of Education under President Joe Biden.
But she cautioned that much work remains to be done to ensure that the new program achieves its goals.
“I don’t know that we know enough about whether or not these programs are going to make a meaningful difference for young people,” she said. “This world of short-term credentials is fraught with lots of smoke and mirrors and dead ends.”
Bruno Manno, a former assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, said the new program holds promise for the many new high school graduates for whom traditional two- or four-year colleges are not the right path, at least not right away.
“High school counselors and other mentors of young people need to know that this is now out there as an alternative, because it does make available to young people financial support for non-degree pathways,” said Manno, now a senior adviser with the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington.
Shorter programs mean prorated grants
The $41 billion Pell Grant program is a central element of federal student aid, providing financially needy students grants of as much as $7,395 for the academic year that begins July 1.
The Education Department estimates the Workforce Pell Grant program will cost a total of $3.2 billion over the next 10 years.
Workforce Pell Grants are meant for programs aligned with high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand occupations as defined by each state, and the credentials must be stackable and portable, meaning students can accumulate them and apply them toward a degree.
The workforce grants will be prorated based on program length. The policy group New America estimates that students participating in an eight-week training program would receive a maximum award of $1,260, while those in a program just under 15 weeks would get a grant of $4,310.
Policymakers were concerned with accountability measures surrounding the program, and the law requires that participating certificate programs demonstrate a 70 percent completion rate and a 70 percent job placement rate. (Completion is measured within 150 percent of the normal time for completion of the program, while job placement is measured 180 days after completion.)
The law also provides that beginning in 2030, the programs must meet a “value-added” earnings requirement, which means the published tuition and fees for Workforce Pell-eligible programs may not exceed the “value-added earnings” of those students who complete them with federal student aid over a three-year time period.
“Those are some of the minimum standards set in the federal law,” said Christopher Madaio, senior adviser for federal and state accountability at The Institute for College Access and Success, a higher education-focused research and advocacy group. “We have been saying that states should, of course, review [programs] for those, but in addition, consider additional minimum standards.”
He adds that “these short-term programs certainly can provide connections to economic mobility and a pathway to financial stability for students. But many programs that are this short, unfortunately, do not.”
Manno of the Progressive Policy Institute notes an industry figure that there are 1.8 million different job and skills credentials in the United States, in such fields as building trades, healthcare, technology, and others.
“There has been a proliferation of all kinds of certifications, microcredentials, and badges,” he said. “How do you make judgments here about which ones are valuable? The Education Department, I think, has at least given a framework for making that happen. Now it’s up to the states to really make this work.”
The law, and the new regulations, make clear that governors have a key role in that they must establish rules for the program and approve all participating providers.
The National Governors Association held a three-day conference earlier this month to discuss the role of states in the new program.
“Non-credit workforce programs have long operated disconnected from financial aid records, labor market outcomes, and credit articulation data,” an NGA summary of the conference says. “Workforce Pell is forcing states to close that gap quickly.”
A slow buildup is predicted for Workforce Pell
Loyd of All4Ed notes that researchers have found that some credential programs do not lead to significant wage gains, which is all the more reason the new program’s accountability provisions need vigilant enforcement.
“In this moment in our nation, there’s such a critical focus on economic security for people because so many people are struggling economically,” she said. “Workforce Pell does present this really important opportunity to make short-term credentials more accessible for people who have not been able to access them because of finances. But the challenge is that we need to make sure that the credentials that students earn actually deliver on the promise of economic and social mobility.”
Madaio of The Institute for College Access and Success noted that the credential programs must have been operating for at least one year to be eligible to accept Workforce Pell grants, so only established programs will become available in the short term.
“I know that we’ve heard from community colleges in various states that they are going to go slow,” he said. “Every state’s going to be ready at different times. … So I think it will go slow at the beginning in terms of number of states and number of programs that are ready to be approved. But you can certainly see growth over time as schools open and then get approval.”
