Credential Quality and Transparency: With nearly one million unique credentials issued by 500,000 providers in the United States, both data transparency and credential quality assurance are essential for learners to make informed decisions about their futures. The National Skills Coalition (NSC) has released a toolkit providing a guide for how states can help to improve credential quality and transparency. The toolkit recommends states use a four-criteria framework developed by NSC to assess the quality of non-degree credentials and map results to an open-access tool, currently being built by Credential Engine, that learners can access to obtain trusted information on credentials.
State Authorization for Short-term Credentials: The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) released a report intended to assist states in developing authorization and regulatory policies for short-term credential programs. The researchers examined legislative documents and interviewed leaders from state agencies and private organizations in five states that have already implemented these regulatory policies, including California, Georgia, Illinois, New York and Washington. Their findings informed the following recommendations for policymakers and state authorizing agencies to consider when crafting short-term credential regulatory policies:
- State authorizing agencies should collect and publish outcome data on all postsecondary credentials in the state and create a database of high-quality short-term credential programs.
- Policymakers should develop a state longitudinal data system that includes employment and earnings data.
- State authorizing agencies should assist credential programs in the authorization process and encourage postsecondary institutions to accept stackable credentials toward an associate or bachelor’s degree.
- Policymakers should expand Pell Grant programs and state-based financial aid to support non-degree skills training and incentivize institutions to forge relationships with employers.
Improving Career Education Pathways into California’s Workforce: The Public Policy Institute of California released a research report detailing challenges faced by career education students and programs in the California community college system. The study looked at the trajectories of nearly one million students who have pursued career education at the state’s community colleges and interviewed stakeholders. Researchers described the following key findings:
- On average, it takes 2.5 years to complete a credential. Black, Latino and younger students are less likely to earn a credential.
- Students who complete at least one full-time term or who received Pell Grant funding have significantly higher completion rates.
- While only 25% of students who pursued career education earned a credential and 5% completed a stackable credential pathway, many students re-enrolled within three years of completing their first credential, indicating a desire to further their education.
- Stakeholders cited challenges to partnerships with employers and stated that current programs do not provide enough support systems for adult learners.
The report offered five priorities to ensure student success and high-quality workforce training in California’s community college system: provide support systems to help students complete credentials, address equity gaps in student achievement, increase understanding of students’ goals, improve collaboration among colleges and employers, and create statewide coordination and goals.
Which College Programs Give Students the Best Bang for their Buck: Third Way published a report outlining which college programs give students the best return on investment (ROI). The report analyzed nearly 2.2 million graduates from 40,000 college programs using data from the U.S. Department of Education. Researchers determined a program’s ROI by calculating how long it takes to recoup the costs of earning a credential, based on the earnings premium the typical graduate obtains after completing a program. The report describes the following findings:
- Nearly half of all college programs find their graduates earning enough to recoup their costs in five years or less and two-thirds do so by 10 years after graduation. But almost one quarter of all programs show their graduates fail to earn enough to recoup their costs within 20 years after graduation.
- While a larger portion of bachelor’s degree programs have positive ROI for graduates, students who earn an associate degree have the highest likelihood of recouping their costs within the first five years. Similarly, almost half of all certificate programs experience a high likelihood of recouping costs in the first five years.
- Programs at public institutions have the highest likelihood that graduates will be able to recoup their costs within five years (56%) and 10 years (73%) and over half of private non-profit institution programs show that graduates are able to recoup their costs within 10 years. Conversely, nearly half of programs at for-profit institutions show no ROI at any point.
- Bachelor’s degree and associate degree programs see higher ROI in higher-paying fields such as science, engineering and health. Certificate programs report higher ROI in fields with high-demand skills such as trucking.
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