Across the country, states are grappling with rapid technological change, demographic shifts, and evolving labor market demands. Employers in healthcare, clean energy, and the skilled trades need workers with strong technical skills, yet millions of adults who want to train for these careers face the same barrier: pay the bills or pursue education that could change their lives. Even when tuition is free, non-tuition costs such as rent, food, transportation, childcare, and essential equipment can make participation out of reach.
This national challenge is documented in a new report from the California EDGE Coalition. The Missing Piece: Building an Inclusive System of Flexible Financial Support for Workforce Learners shines a light on a reality faced across the country: our financial aid systems were not built for today’s workforce learners, and broad, cross-sector coalitions must lead the way in reimagining them. The report offers a roadmap not just for California, but for coalitions nationwide seeking to strengthen the workforce pipeline.
As part of NSC’s SkillSPAN Network, the California EDGE Coalition brings together more than 1,000 leaders in business, labor, social justice, education, and workforce development committed to economic mobility. In 2024, EDGE surveyed its statewide network to help identify its top workforce priorities and inform its 2025 policy agenda. The results, including a focus on apprenticeships, state budget stability, career education planning, and stronger advocacy training, helped shape the recommendations in The Missing Piece and grounded them in the shared priorities of advocates, training providers, workers, and learners.
California’s training ecosystem is one of the largest and most diverse in the country, but one of its core challenges, the lack of flexible financial support, is shared by many states. Addressing this challenge will require systems change – and that’s exactly what coalitions are well-positioned to lead.
EDGE and its partners have spent years mobilizing around statewide priorities, from High Road workforce programs to Breaking Barriers to Employment investments and modernizing financial aid, demonstrating how sustained advocacy can shape funding, program design, and policy. When workforce providers, unions, community-based organizations, employers, and advocates align around a shared vision, they can elevate learner experiences, surface gaps in policy, and advance solutions that reflect on-the-ground realities.
Even with tight state budgets, there are low-cost ways to expand access now by improving existing programs and leveraging federal dollars. Over time, investments in financial support for under-resourced learners pay off through stronger employment outcomes, reduced public benefits usage, and a more resilient workforce.
Leverage Federal Opportunities
Beginning in 2026, the new Workforce Pell program will allow students in short-term training programs to access federal grants. To maximize this opportunity, states should:
As in California, Coalitions can help coordinate implementation by convening partners, identifying barriers, and advocating for learner-centered guidance.
California is one of seven states approved to implement its own “Ability to Benefit” criteria, a policy that allows adults without a high school diploma to access Pell Grants when enrolled in career pathways. Other states can follow a similar approach by using coalitions to push for adoption, alignment, and implementation support.
Use State Policy to Fill the Gaps
California’s behavioral health workforce investments demonstrate how states can use sector-specific funding to support training. New Proposition 1 funds and the BH-CONNECT program, which leverages Medicaid funding for behavioral health training, illustrate both the opportunity and the limitations of current investments. While federal dollars often cover tuition or loan repayment only, Proposition 1’s more flexible Mental Health Services Act funding can help workers afford living expenses during training.
California’s Cal Grant C mirrors a national trend: state aid programs originally designed for” traditional” students no longer match the needs of working learners. California’s Cal Grant C program was designed to support students in vocational and career training, but outdated rules have left it underused. Although nearly 8,000 awards are authorized annually, fewer than 2,500 were issued in 2023–24 and over half went to for-profit institutions.
Across the country, state aid systems designed decades ago often fail to serve working learners. California’s experience with Cal Grant modernization underscores the need to:
States pursuing financial aid reform can draw lessons from California’s efforts and use coalitions to shape modernization efforts.
California’s High Road Training Partnership and Breaking Barriers initiatives show how programs can offer stipends, wages, or supportive services to help workers afford training. Yet even with these models, only a fraction of participants currently receive assistance. States can strengthen outcomes by requiring, or incentivizing, direct financial support and by increasing transparency on who receives aid.
Build Sustainable State Funding Streams
Across states, adult school students, noncredit learners, and participants in nonprofit training programs often have the least access to financial aid, despite facing the greatest financial strain. EDGE recommends creating a state-level flexible-aid fund providing monthly stipends or basic-needs support for learners ineligible for federal aid. A pilot phase could test the model before scaling statewide.
Such programs should be designed around learner experience: simple applications, flexible uses of funds, and strong protections against benefit cliffs. This recommendation builds on prior efforts, including the California Student Aid Commission’s Student Success Blueprint, which calls for coordinated financial aid structures that support adult learners and short-term programs by 2030. California has previously attempted to create such a fund, notably through Senate Bill 61 in 2021, which proposed a $50 million pilot aligned with the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force recommendations. While SB 61 did not advance, it provides a strong legislative foundation for future proposals. Additional examples in Washington, Ohio, Nevada, Illinois, and Connecticut offer replicable models for statewide financial support systems.
Many states already have strong training ecosystems, urgent employer demand, and motivated learners. What’s often missing is a coordinated system of flexible, student-centered financial support that meets the needs of today’s workforce learners.
EDGE’s long-standing advocacy shows how sustained coalition engagement can shape practical policy reforms. These examples underscore the critical role advocates can play in advancing coordinated, student-centered financial support systems in their own states.
California’s approach offers powerful lessons, but coalitions everywhere can drive similar progress. When state agencies, advocates, training providers, employers, and learners work together, policies become more responsive, more equitable, and more effective.
