In 2019, North Carolina adopted bipartisan legislation establishing a goal for 2 million North Carolinians ages 25-44 to hold an industry-valued credential or postsecondary degree by 2030. North Carolina leaders established this bold goal in response to the growing share of jobs in the state (68%) that require training beyond a high school diploma and the barriers that many learners face in accessing these credentials. Employers were also having difficulty filling in-demand positions. Many of these challenges stem from difficulties North Carolinians face in accessing and earning quality non-degree credentials (QNDCs), particularly the lack of clear pathways and effective career navigation. Few learners receive meaningful guidance or information to inform their decisions. And without this, learners are left in the dark about quality jobs where opportunities exist and the training programs that can lead them there.
myFutureNC set out to address these challenges by bringing together education, business, government, and community partners from across North Carolina to advance the state’s 2030 educational attainment goal. myFutureNC focused on turning that shared vision into action by aligning partners, identifying and addressing barriers, and strengthening pathways from education to meaningful careers.
National Skills Coalition (NSC), a longtime champion of QNDCs and leader in state policies to reduce barriers to attainment, teamed up with myFutureNC in 2024 to support its efforts to meet the state’s attainment goal.
This partnership began with NSC producing a landscape analysis to identify policy opportunities for strengthening financial and holistic supports for QNDC seekers in North Carolina. NSC collaborated with myFutureNC on a series of virtual and in-person work sessions throughout 2025 with partners from across the state. The North Carolina Community College System, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, NCWorks Commission, Department of Public Instruction, and many others participated in these sessions and helped to identify specific barriers to credential attainment in North Carolina.
These barriers included:
As part of Lumina’s Future Ready States Initiative, the group also consulted with other states addressing challenges in their short-term credential ecosystem. NSC also helped to facilitate the expansion of the partners involved as the group’s work progressed.
Shifting from identifying barriers, the partners elected to focus on two workstreams earlier this year:
For the near term, the design workgroup focused on advocacy for the Workforce Act of 2026 and a funding mapping project led by NSC to identify potential opportunities to better leverage federal funding to support credential attainment.
Building on the group’s previous work, myFutureNC helped shape the Workforce Act of 2026, which lawmakers introduced in this year’s legislative session to address many of the barriers learners face in attaining short-term credentials. The legislation called for increasing state investment in demand-driven career navigation, improving the transfer and reverse credit transfer system, increasing funding for work-based learning including apprenticeships, and financial assistance for short-term credentials in the form of short-term workforce development grants.
The House version invested in bonuses to incentivize Career and Technical Education teachers to teach high-demand pathways, to help address shortages of qualified instructors to train the future workforce. The Senate version included substantial reporting requirements to track outcomes data which are key to accountability and allow for course correction in the systems that support workers and learners.
The Workforce Act reflects the collaborative approach that guided the North Carolina partners’ work from the beginning. As Cecilia Holden, President and CEO of myFutureNC, shared, “The strength of the Workforce Act is that it was built collaboratively from the start. Partners across education, workforce, and human services came together to identify the barriers North Carolinians were facing—and then asked what we could change, in policy and in practice, to remove them. The result is a stronger, clearer path from education to opportunity and family-sustaining careers.”
Building on that cross-sector collaboration, myFutureNC worked with partners to introduce the bill and provide advocacy materials explaining its purpose and the benefits of eliminating barriers to career pathways for workers, learners, employers, and North Carolina’s economy.
While the standalone bills did not move forward this legislative session, substantial workforce funding was allocated through the budget passed on July 7, 2026:
As advocacy for the Workforce Act advanced, the Deployment work group of North Carolina partners focused on developing “guides” for leaders and practitioners serving three key constituencies:
Each of these guides is designed to help practitioners:
The work is not done. myFutureNC and its stakeholders plan to continue to:
These next steps reflect a broader commitment to building a workforce system that helps more North Carolinians navigate clear pathways to quality credentials and family-sustaining careers. As Cory Biggs, Director of Policy and Advocacy at myFutureNC, reflected, “It’s not really about passing a piece of legislation. We want every North Carolinian to understand which credentials lead to real economic opportunity, find a pathway that works for them, and get the support they need to complete it. We’ve built the partnerships and identified many of the changes needed to get there, and now we have an opportunity to keep building on that momentum.”
That vision continues to guide the partners’ work as it builds on the progress made this year and pursues lasting systems change that expands access to quality credentials and economic opportunity for all North Carolinians.
