Workforce Development in Rural America: The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce recently published a report on the challenges and strengths of small-town America. Researchers discovered that working adults in rural America are almost as likely as working adults in urban America to have a good job – an occupation that pays a minimum of $43,000 for workers aged 25-44 and $55,000 for workers aged 45-64.

More findings and insights below:

• The rural workforce accounts for 13% of the total 25-64-year-old population and holds a proportionate share of roughly 12% of the country’s good jobs.
• The number of colleges offering middle-skills programs is 13 times greater in very urban areas than very rural areas.
• Workers with an associate degree or some college hold a larger share of good jobs in rural areas than in urban areas.
• Across rural areas, the South has the highest rate of non-participation in the labor force (29%) followed by the West (26%).
• White employees hold a larger share of good jobs in rural areas than in urban areas.
• Women workers are less likely to have a good job in rural areas than in urban areas.

Meeting the Workforce Demand of Clean Energy: A recent report by the National Skills Coalition examined the labor supply and demand and potential talent shortages that may be generated by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act. Researchers found that an average of 2.9 million jobs per year are expected to be generated by these investments.

Here are more details on the impacts of these new laws:

• 69% of jobs created by the laws will be available for workers without a bachelor’s degree. 
• Newly created jobs are projected to pay a median hourly wage of $26.20 an hour or 10.5% higher than current U.S. workforce median hourly wage.
• Multiple occupations will face an anticipated labor shortage of 1.1 million workers with the necessary skills to fill these jobs.
• Approximately two in three jobs will be directly created by the three laws within construction and manufacturing, amounting to about 680,000 total new jobs.

Lessons from the New Skills for Youth Initiative: Advance CTE in collaboration with Education Strategy Group recently released a report that shares the challenges and successes of sustaining the work of the New Skills for Youth (NSFY). The analysis describes outcomes such as improved training and support for CTE teachers, increased usage of data for addressing equity gaps and expanded access to regional and statewide career pathways, among others.

In addition, the authors made the following recommendations:

• Form industry partnerships with intentionality for regional and statewide career pathways to ensure that partners have fully bought into the career pathways vision.
• Emphasize that projected successes from career pathways grant funds will not show up immediately.
• Advocate for dedicated line-item funding at the state level to help sustain organizational work.
• Provide one-on-one assistance to local leaders to help meet demand for scaling career pathways and support the needs of local sites.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union Address.  

National security considerations loomed large over the whole speech. In the remarks, Biden prioritized assuring access to humanitarian assistant to Gaza amid the ongoing war, while advocating for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Biden also pressed Congress to pass the national security supplemental package to continue sending aid to Ukraine. 

However, President Biden did make a few references to education, including more access to preschool, high-quality tutoring and summer learning, and college affordability, as well as a nod to raising teacher salaries. In relationship to CTE, at about the halfway point in the speech, Biden said, “I’m also connecting businesses and high schools so students get hands-on experience and a path to a good-paying job whether or not they go to college.” Additionally, Biden recounted a meeting with the leaders of the Business Roundtable. They were critical of his education budget. He mentioned that when he was Vice President, they said they needed a better educated workforce, and that his proposals would provide them the “best-educated workforce in the world.”  

Among the invited guests sitting with First Lady Jill Biden was Samantha Ervin-Upsher. Ervin-Upsher is an apprentice with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She met the First Lady during a visit highlighting the Investing in American Workforce Hub, which is an Administration initiative that seeks to build career pathways through high schools, community colleges and unions to job opportunities. Rashawn Spivey, the founder and owner of HERO Plumbing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was also in the box as a graduate of Milwaukee Area Technical College and former apprentice. Additionally, Mayor Garnett Johnson of Augusta, Georgia was among the guests. Augusta is one of the five cities the White House designated as Investing in America Workforce Hubs. The Augusta Workforce Hub is led by a partnership between Mayor Johnson and three Augusta regional education institutions focused on training students in growing sectors, such as advanced manufacturing and construction skilled trades, to prepare the next generation for technical jobs in the region. 

A recording of the address can be found here. 

This week, Congress was once again focused on trying to complete the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 appropriations process, and another continuing resolution (CR) was needed to avert a government shutdown. Reportedly, congressional leaders have almost finalized six of the twelve FY 2024 funding bills, but they were not ready by today’s original March 1 deadline. Instead, Congress voted on a new CR that results in funding for these six bills now expiring March 8. The remaining bills are now set to expire on March 22. The Labor-HHS-Education bill has not yet been finalized, but Congress is hoping to finalize the remaining six bills before the March 22 deadline, so stay tuned! In other news this week: 

• ACTE and Cardozo Education Campus Host Annual CTE Month School Visit: On February 27, ACTE celebrated CTE Month with Cardozo Education Campus in D.C. alongside staff from the Department of Education’s Office of Career and Technical and Adult Education, Capitol Hill and other partner organizations.
• Lawmakers Include Pell Grant Change in CR: Included in the CR was a technical fix to the way the Department of Education calculates the amount of financial aid a dependent student qualifies for each year under the Pell Grant program. This change addresses a potential shortfall that could have been triggered by the original provision. The CR also adds $7.7 billion in mandatory funding to support Pell Grants. Not all Members of Congress were supportive of the change, however, with House Education and Workforce Ranking Member Bobby Scott issuing a statement in opposition.  
• Secretary Raimondo Delivers Update on CHIPS and Science Act: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo delivered a policy address on the implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act, stating that new investments would put the U.S. on track to produce 20% of the world’s logic chips by 2030. Companies that produce advanced semiconductors have also now requested over $70 billion in federal subsidies, about twice as much as there is available.  
  
• Biden-Harris Administration Releases Resources to Support Early School Success: The Department of Education released guidance for how states, local educational agencies and schools can utilize Title I funding to expand access to high-quality preschool for younger children in settings such as schools, Head Start and community based organizations. This also notes the need for educational equity.  
  
• US, Japan Launch Workforce Development Exchange: The Department of Labor’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Brent Parton, visited Japan to facilitate technical exchanges on workforce strategies for advanced manufacturing and the semiconductor sub-sector in the two nations. 

On Thursday, lawmakers averted a partial government shutdown after both the House and Senate cleared a two-step continuing resolution (CR) to allow final FY 2024 appropriations work to wrap up in the coming weeks. The CR moves the funding deadlines from March 1 and March 8 to March 8 and March 22.  

The vote will set up a first tranche of six full-year spending bills that the House is expected to vote on next Wednesday. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that legislative text for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy and Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development will be released over the weekend.  

Reports state that the second batch of bills, which includes the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies funding bill, will be considered by the March 22 deadline, although no details about this bill have been released.  

Included in the CR was a provision that makes changes to the FAFSA Simplification Act. Lawmakers are describing the change as a technical fix to the way the Department of Education calculates the amount of financial aid a dependent student qualifies for each year. It also adds $7.7 billion to support Pell Grants over four years. Without this technical correction, the Pell grant program would have faced a significant shortfall for fiscal year (FY) 2025 because more dependent students would be receiving larger Pell grants that Congress intended when it most recently updated the formula for calculating financial aid eligibility.  

As the appropriations process wraps up in the coming weeks, ACTE will keep you informed on the funding levels for the Department of Education and continue to advocate for the highest level of Perkins funding possible! 

On February 27, ACTE partnered with the Cardozo Education Campus to host the annual 2024 CTE Month School Visit to highlight the incredible programming, students, teachers and faculty at Cardozo. Cardozo is also home to ACTE’s CTE Teacher of the Year, Mr. Aris Pangilinan, known as “Mr. P.” 

The event began with opening remarks by ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Curry, followed by remarks from Cardozo Principal Arthur Mola, Senior Deputy Chief of SEAD Strategy at D.C. Public Schools Glenn Starnes and Cardozo CTE Director Cheryl Rodgers. Mr. P followed these remarks with an inspiring speech, detailing how he grew into his role as a CTE teacher and the incredible experiences he offers to his students. 

A student panel took center stage following Mr. P’s remarks, moderated by and featuring several CTE students pursing pathways in engineering, computer science and similar fields. Students on the panel had hopes of pursuing careers in neuroscience, diplomacy, cybersecurity and more. These students spoke about the impact that CTE has had on their education and their career prospects, giving examples of how CTE has strengthened their employability skills, confidence and networking abilities. They also shared some of the incredible opportunities CTE has opened for them, including internships. Most notably, the students discussed policy changes they need to see in how Congress and local leaders approach CTE. The overwhelming consensus was a push for more funding. Students explained how an increase in funding would help to ensure they all had access to laptops and other learning materials for home use, proper preparation for internships both on behalf of the students and organizations hosting the internships, and more programming that could send students abroad to expand their scope of understanding. 

After the student panel, ambassadors from Mr. P’s class guided guests through several stations in his classroom, sharing work students have accomplished in robotics competitions, programs such as the Rotary Club that open doors for students looking to help local and global communities, and examples of past students who have gone on to exciting careers and postsecondary opportunities.  

Lastly, guests were guided to visit two additional classrooms that were part of the school’s Engineering and IT programs. Guests had the chance to listen to Mr. Richards and Ms. Monsey’s lessons and see their classrooms and equipment. Groups were accompanied by student escorts who shared their experiences and gave insight into the structure and pathways that Cardozo has to offer. 

ACTE is grateful for the enthusiasm and collaboration with Cardozo Education Campus in hosting this insightful event in celebration of CTE Month. Specifically, ACTE extends a warm thank-you to CTE Director Cheryl Rodgers, Mr. Aris Pangilinan and Dr. William Blake from Cardozo, Crystal Smith and Iris Wilson from DCPS, the wonderful guests from the Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, or “OCTAE”, our guests from partner organizations and the generous sponsor for this event, the National Association of Homebuilders. 

ACTE has published CTE: Developing the Biosciences Workforce, the latest in our revamped series of Sector Sheets describing CTE’s role in growing the workforce for vital industry sectors. The Sector Sheet series is published with support from ACTE’s long-time partner Pearson.

These revised Sector Sheets include job opportunities in each sector and descriptions of how CTE prepares learners for the workforce in each sector, all in a new format featuring more streamlined text and additional graphics to make these advocacy tools even more effective.

This Sector Sheet describes how CTE supports the biosciences workforce, which employs over 2.1 million people nationwide across more than 127,000 business establishments. It also shares information on occupations, earnings and credentials that enable individuals to succeed in the laboratories, medical equipment and devices, and pharmaceutical manufacturing sub-sectors. Finally, the Sector Sheet demonstrates the importance of CTE in developing this workforce by describing how CTE prepares learners through courses, industry credentials, work-based learning, career and technical student organizations and more.

As we move forward with the revamped Sector Sheets, both the newer and older Sector Sheets will remain available on the ACTE Sector Sheet webpage for download and use. We encourage you to share these tools with students, families, counselors, policymakers and others to spread the message about CTE and its benefits for learners and the workforce.

Alternative Credentials Models: The Online & Professional Education Association in partnership with Wal-Mart recently published a report that examined the landscape of alternative credentials with an analysis of the programmatic and industry partnership models that are necessary to support and sustain them. The authors of the study noted that postsecondary institutions are increasingly opening up to alternative delivery models and credentials such as non-credit certificates, professional certificates, badges, bootcamps, massive open online courses (MOOCs) and more.

The following list includes key insights from the publication’s postsecondary administrator survey:

• 94% of respondents said that their institutions offer alternative credentials.
• 84% of institutions reported offering non-credit certificates, 82% offer professional certificates, 80% offer badges, 45% offer bootcamps and 26% offer MOOCs.
• 67% of institutions reported offering stackable credentials.
• Institutions use multiple models to finance alternative credentials: 75% of institutions reported using fee-based business models, 65% use revenue share, 57% use a self-funded entrepreneurial model and 54% use an employer-funded model.
• 71% of respondents reporting co-creating curriculum through employer engagement or partnership.
• Only 55% of institutions have a consistent process for the development of new alternative credentials.

Researchers also recommended including alternative credentials as a strategic priority within institutional plans, bringing in employers and corporate partners to contribute during the program development process, and avoiding “one size fits all” solutions.

Inequity in Degree Attainment: The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce has published a report on recent trends and insights concerning degree attainment, value and inequity. Researchers ascertained that although postsecondary degree attainment increased by 6.7 percentage points from 2010 to 2020, gaps across racial and ethnic groups remained significant.

More statistics and insights below:

• Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Pennsylvania saw the most gains in the number of adults with an associate degree or higher.
• Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino adults experienced a nationwide degree attainment increase of 11% and 15% respectively, with Texas and Minnesota among the leading states showing gains.
• 26% of white adults hold a bachelor’s degree, 10 percentage points higher than Black/African Americans, 12 points higher than Hispanics/Latinos and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, and 15 points higher than American Indian/Alaska Natives.

Researchers recommended strategies such as increasing access to career counseling, investing in high-quality credential programs, expanding financial aid for low-income students and rooting out occupational segregation as key actions that leaders can implement to combat attainment and access gaps across the board.

Federal Pandemic Relief Funding at Community Colleges: A report recently published by the Community College Research Center examined how money from the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund was distributed across community colleges, the extent to which these institutions spent their funds and the variation of allotment that occurred by institutional and student characteristics. Researchers analyzed over 900 colleges and found that nearly half (484) were total spenders, disbursing around 100% of their funds.

More findings and insights below:

• Lower spenders served higher numbers of underrepresented and Pell grant students than total spenders (43% vs. 35%).
• Per-student HEER awards averaged $9,179 for lower spenders and $5,044 for total spenders.
• States with larger community college enrollments like California, Florida and Texas received the highest amount of funds.
• Postsecondary institutions were awarded funds within a range of $306,000 to $25.3 million, depending on student enrollment numbers.