Making Workforce Pell Deliver for Workers, Local Businesses, and Shared Prosperity  

Congress just passed Workforce Pell into law – a breakthrough our coalition has championed for more than a decade. For the first time, learners can use Pell Grants to afford accelerated, career-focused programs connected to good jobs. This marks a major step forward for access to skills training, but our work doesn’t stop with the law’s passage. National Skills Coalition will keep pushing to ensure the new law is implemented in a way that truly delivers for workers and local businesses. We’ll also advocate for Workforce Pell to be a catalyst for complementary workforce policies that are essential to shared economic prosperity.

Workforce Pell – a Quick Explainer 

Workforce Pell expands Pell Grant eligibility to high-quality training programs between 150–600 clock hours and eight – fifteen weeks. That means that people with low incomes can now use the largest federal student aid grant program to participate in programs that quickly prepare them for in-demand jobs, opening the door to economic mobility. Before this policy change, adults with low incomes who wanted to train for jobs like phlebotomists, commercial truck drivers, HVAC maintenance technicians, and IT support were paying for programs out of pocket, piecing together different types of assistance, or sidelining their career ambitions all together.

The passage of the law in July 2025 changes that. It’s a long-overdue recognition that today’s students are working people and parents, career changers, and frontline workers who need fast, affordable ways to gain credentials that unlock new opportunities. At the same time, employers know their competitiveness depends on workers with industry-recognized skills. Workforce Pell has the potential to expand access to exactly the kind of short-term, high-quality programs that prepare people for the jobs employers are looking to fill, gives employers access to a pipeline of trained workers, and helps them hire with confidence.   

Based on the new law, people can only use Workforce Pell for short-term training programs at institutions of higher education that meet the following requirements:

• Prepare students for high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand industry sectors or occupations (as determined by the Governor or state workforce board)

• Meet the hiring requirements of employers

• Lead to a stackable and portable recognized postsecondary credential

• Have a 70% completion rate, a 70% job placement rate, and meet earnings requirements

While the new law is a big win, there are lots of details that need to be worked out to implement these requirements by July 1, 2026, when Workforce Pell is set to go into effect. And while Workforce Pell is one essential piece of making college work better for working people, it’s not the whole solution.

Why Implementation Matters  

The law that establishes Workforce Pell sets guardrails meant to ensure that eligible training programs deliver for learners, employers, and local economies. In key ways, the law’s requirements align with criteria that NSC and state leaders have used to define what makes a training-related credential high quality. Similar to NSC’s criteria, the program requirements set by Workforce Pell emphasize labor market relevance, credential stackability and portability, and employment and earnings outcomes. While the law’s requirements are not perfect, they are intended to ensure that students and businesses get what they want most from non-degree credentials — recognition of skills, and pathways to better pay and advancement.

But federal and state policymakers, workforce boards, institutions of higher education, and advocates have a lot of work to do to ensure those requirements translate to real value for the workers who stand to benefit the most, and for employers who are looking to hire and retain diverse workers with industry-specific skills. 

That means implementing Workforce Pell in a way that intentionally expands opportunity for learners who are already using non-degree credential programs to improve their careers and have often faced unfair barriers in higher education and training — including Black, Latino and Indigenous working-age adults, women, and parents balancing their training with work and caregiving. For these learners, the promise of a short-term, flexible, and affordable path to a good job is especially powerful. These programs can offer real economic mobility – but only if they are high quality, connect to good jobs, and promote fair outcomes instead of perpetuating inequities.

Workforce Pell must also be implemented in a way that intentionally and continuously engages local industry leaders. Local businesses’ skill needs evolve as industry practices and technology rapidly change. To be high-quality, short-term training programs that qualify for Workforce Pell must be responsive to industry needs and connected to substantial in-demand job opportunities.

Such programs can also support skills-based hiring (the practice of prioritizing applicants’ skills, competencies, and experiences over four-year degrees). Skills-based hiring has the potential to connect employers with a broader, more diverse talent pool. But for it to work, businesses must trust training and credentials as validators of skills and competencies. To meet the needs of both workers and local businesses, Workforce Pell must be responsive to essential, in-demand industries in the local labor market while unlocking equitable career opportunities for learners.

Workforce Pell is a Catalyst not a Cure-All

Implementing Workforce Pell in a way that makes high-quality, short-term training more affordable and equitable is necessary. But truly unlocking economic opportunity for all working people will require more of our workforce systems. Policymakers must approach Workforce Pell as one tool in the toolbox, not the toolbox itself. To do that, policymakers should also pursue workforce strategies that can leverage and complement Workforce Pell to help put learners on path to economic prosperity:

• Sector partnerships between local businesses, community colleges, worker organizations, and others to create tighter connections between training programs, real-world careers, and business needs. These partnerships can additionally benefit workers and employers by improving job quality in an industry, diversifying hiring networks, and expanding advancement practices.

• Supportive services, like child care, transportation, food assistance, and health care that make it possible for people to train and give people stability as they embark on a new job or a career change.

• Data gives learners clear and accessible information on the economic and career outcomes of programs. When disaggregated by race/ethnicity, gender, and geography, data can be used to drive fairer opportunities for everyone.

• Career navigation gives people career exposure, guidance, and social capital so they train for in-demand jobs that also meet their interests, career ambitions, and financial goals, and don’t get steered or tracked into one program over another based on race/ethnicity or gender.

With policies that put these complementary strategies in place, Workforce Pell can be part of an engine of economic mobility for workers and a reliable talent pipeline for employers.

What Advocates Can Do Now

Right now, federal and state leaders are deciding how Workforce Pell will actually work in practice. They’ll be deciding which programs qualify, how data are tracked, and how guardrails are enforced. This is the moment for advocates to shape those decisions.

At the federal level: the Affordability and Higher Education Access and Delivery (AHEAD) Committee will conduct Workforce Pell rulemaking for the Department of Education. They will engage in two weeks of in-person rulemaking throughout the winter to determine implementation procedures for states and institutions. NSC will weigh in before any final regulations are enacted — keep our networks informed, engaged, and activated at key steps along the way. 

In the meantime, we must continue to advocate for workforce policies that would complement and strengthen Workforce Pell, including the College Transparency Act (CTA), which would support data needs and a bipartisan suite of workforce bills that NSC and its partners have longed championed to drive forward industry partnerships, supportive services, and work-based learning.

At the state level: State advocates and leaders shouldn’t wait until July 1, 2026, to prepare for Workforce Pell implementation, even as the AHEAD Committee and Department of Education work on federal rules. Here’s the checklist of things that state advocates and leaders can begin work on now:

• Learn from other states. Together, 32 states have invested over $5.6 billion of their own funds in short-term credential programs. States that have existing state-funded financial aid programs that support students pursuing short-term education and training programs have a leg up in preparing for the launch of Workforce Pell and can offer practical lessons for other states.

• Set the table to identify eligible programs: Governors, state workforce boards, and higher education agencies play a critical role in determining which training programs should qualify for Workforce Pell in accordance with the law. These leaders should come together to build relationships, share resources for identifying target industry sectors/occupations, and utilize existing systems for assessing which training programs and credentials meet quality criteria.

• Establish data sharing policies and agreements. Data will be key to assessing which training programs are eligible for Workforce Pell. Just as importantly, learners and employers need robust data on programs to measure and assess their quality. States can chart a course to high-quality Workforce Pell programs by building their data ecosystems now.

• Secure state resources to invest in complementary workforce policies. Instead of simply supplanting state investments in short-term credential programs with Workforce Pell, states should use their own resources to invest in complementary workforce policies like industry partnerships, work-based learning, career navigation, supportive services, and data systems. Such state investments will be particularly essential at a time when learners will have less access to other resources, like federal safety net and workforce programs.

What’s Next 

Stay tuned for more from NSC as we work to shape rulemaking and influence the implementation process to ensure that Workforce Pell delivers on its promise. And join us at the 2026 Skills Summit where we’ll work to protect the policies workers and businesses count on, and fight for our vision of America where every person is guaranteed skills training, good jobs, and economic prosperity.