Education officials have had high hopes for this month’s launch of the long-awaited Workforce Pell program. For the first time ever, students attending short-term vocational programs in fields like healthcare support and the skilled trades will be eligible for federal grant aid, just like their peers studying English or biology at a university — a potential “game changer” for career training, in the recent words of Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent.
Workforce Pell does indeed promise a step toward rectifying the imbalance in federal funding for college-going Americans and those who seek to join the workforce sooner. But higher education leaders might need to temper their expectations, at least early on. No matter what, it will take at least a few years for states to fully implement Workforce Pell, which requires them to decide which programs will be eligible and track their results. Design choices by the federal government, as well as the basic realities faced by short-term job training programs, may limit the program’s initial potential, too.
That’s the conclusion I’ve reached after conversations with multiple community college system leaders in recent weeks, who I offered confidentiality in order for them to speak freely.
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