At a time when polls show two-thirds of Americans think higher education is no longer worth the price, Forsyth Technical Community College has a message for them.
“College,” the school says, “could cost you nothing.”
The planned marketing slogan highlights the new Workforce Pell Grants, the most dramatic expansion in more than 50 years of federal grants for education after high school — and the challenge of getting the word out about it. Few consumers know that hundreds of millions of dollars will be available as soon as this summer for nondegree programs, according to educators, researchers and policy analysts.
Previously limited to students seeking associate or bachelor’s degrees, Pell Grants will be extended to nondegree job training programs in high-demand fields including nursing, phlebotomy, child care, truck-driving, welding, car repair and HVAC.
The lack of awareness about the money becoming available has been compounded by the fact that many states — which are responsible for implementing it — aren’t ready.
“There’s a huge awareness gap with people not understanding what it is, what programs are eligible and how much they can get,” said Devin Purgason, associate vice president of student experience, marketing and outreach at Forsyth Tech, which is in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Fewer than half of people who could most benefit from these nondegree programs know about them, a survey by the higher education technology company Ellucian found.
Also known as short-term Pell, the new policy widens the scope of federal Pell Grants by helping lower-income learners pay for job training programs that are as short as eight weeks. This comes at a time when two-thirds of registered voters think a four-year degree is no longer worth the cost.
Passed last summer as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Workforce Pell has had to be set up so quickly that the National Governors Association calls it “one of the most consequential near-term policy challenges” states have faced.
While the provisions formally take effect July 20, states and institutions are allowed to get started as early as July 1. But most states are still scrambling to figure out which training programs will satisfy the dozens of pages of eligibility requirements, according to the National Governors Association. The group has counseled its members to approve only a limited number of the highest-quality programs at first. Those are mostly likely to be offered by community and technical colleges, though some programs at private, for-profit schools may also qualify.
“I don’t know that this is going to be a ribbon-cutting kind of moment on July 1,” said Autumn Rivera, senior policy specialist for state and federal education and workforce at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “It’s one of those things where the states are trying to wrap their heads around this still.”
As many as 28,000 training programs may eventually qualify for the new student financial aid, according to Nicholas Kent, undersecretary of education. However, only as few as several hundred are expected to initially meet the eligibility criteria, which include requirements that at least 70 percent of learners successfully finish and get jobs within six months that pay enough to justify the cost, the Education Department said.
More than half of nondegree programs in the trades and business and about half in health are expected to qualify, but few may make the cut in such fields as early-childhood education, retail and culinary fields, fashion and interior design, the department estimates.
In one state, North Carolina, a consultant hired to compare all kinds of community college nondegree programs with the requirements of Workforce Pell found that only about 4 percent were eligible.
While 4 million students a year take nondegree courses at community colleges alone, the Education Department expects between 184,000 and 188,000 per year to benefit from Workforce Pell. The Congressional Budget Office projects the number will be closer to 100,000. That compares to 7.4 million recipients who get Pell Grants annually for bachelor’s and associate degrees.
Payouts averaging about $2,200 each will be available to learners in nondegree programs. These include courses leading to certificates, occupational licenses and certifications.
“It’s a way that learners can really think about, ‘Hey, I can go back and get that critical credential of value to become upwardly mobile,’ ” said Priscilla Camacho, chief legislative, industry and external relations officer at the Alamo Colleges District in San Antonio.
Like Forsyth Tech, Alamo is gearing up to promote its Workforce Pell-eligible programs — in its case, with a one-minute video that avoids insider lingo. “Your fast path to in-demand careers,” it calls the programs, simply.
“Even though we offer these opportunities for short-term learning, the folks we talk to in focus groups don’t see themselves as students,” said Kristi Wyatt, Alamo’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, marketing and brand experience. “Many of them are working adults with families, and they are looking for the quickest way of upskilling themselves.”
The average age of people traditionally enrolling in nondegree courses is 38, according to research based on data from occupational training in Texas, which makes them harder to find and recruit than, say, students in high schools.
Not even college counselors and career advisers are prepared to advise consumers about the kinds of programs covered by Workforce Pell, a survey by the National College Attainment Network found. Fewer than one in 10 said they felt very confident about explaining the programs.
There are other hurdles. The legislation left it mostly up to states to determine what fields are in highest demand and which programs meet the requirements, such as showing graduates getting jobs and earning salaries that justify the cost of the training. At least a quarter of states haven’t previously collected this data.
Without the stringent earnings requirements, advocates fear that the sudden infusion of federal cash could lead to the deceptive recruiting tactics and other risks to consumers that have historically characterized some nondegree programs.
In the past, “short-term programs were attractive to abusive colleges because they could churn a lot of students through in a short amount of time,” said James Kvaal, undersecretary of education during the Biden administration.
Returns on the investment in these programs vary widely. One study by researchers at the University of Michigan and the Strada Education Foundation found that graduates from nondegree programs at community colleges in Texas earned about 4 percent more, two years after finishing, than they made before enrolling. But the increase for those trained in transportation and engineering technologies was two to four times higher, while learners who studied business, marketing, information sciences, communication and design saw essentially no gain at all.
Providers said they are eager to get started.
“The opportunity is going to be great,” said Forsyth Tech’s Purgason. “I just think we’re going to be very slow at this.”
This story about Pell Grants for job training was produced by the Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
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