Brian Bosworth FutureWorks 1 NGA December 10, 2002 New Perspectives on Workforce Development Post-Secondary Education Opportunity for Working Adults

Brian BosworthFutureWorks

1NGA December 10, 2002

New Perspectives on Workforce Development

Post-Secondary Education Opportunity for Working Adults



Post-secondary Credentials Are More Important Than Ever

• More education (with credentials) = more earnings, more assets, more wealth.

• Increased education and skill content in new jobs.

• Demographic trends suggests potential serious shortages of educated adults.

• Better educated workforce = greater productivity.



This Is a Higher Education Problem,

Requiring a Higher Education Response

• Not a "workforce development" problem that can be solved by reliance on short-term, job specific training financed by employers or the second chance job training and placement systems of poorly funded workforce development agencies.

• Requires a comprehensive response by federal and state policy-makers and higher education officials.



More Federal $ for Higher Education Than for Workforce Development

Pell Grant

SEOG

Perkins Loans

Direct Loans

Federal Family Education Loans

Adult Basic Education

Carl Perkins VocRehab

USDOL ETA adult employment & training

USDOL ETA dislocated workers

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Fiscal Year 2001 $ in millions



Working Adults Beginning To Figure This Out

• 90 million adults were in some form of adult education in 1999, up from 58 million in 1991.

• Almost half of these were enrolled in work-related education and 18 million were seeking a post-secondary credential.

• About 3.5 million were seeking their first post-secondary credential.



But They Are Not Getting Much Help

• Higher ed financing, credentialing, and governance still skewed toward traditional students coming from high school.

• Working adults, with full-time job and family responsibilities, lack the time, money, and flexibility to fit mode.

• Adults can often sustain intensive short-term programs of evening and weekend study for perhaps six to eight weeks.

• But, on a 15-week semester basis, they can rarely take more than a single three to four credit hour course at a time.

• In absence of modular, incremental programs and credentials, “success” takes forever.



Higher Education Act Not Helping Very Much

• Title IV is not designed for working adults.

• In 1999-2000, only 7.7% of working parents enrolled less-than-half-time received any federal, state, or institutional aid.

• 3.5% of all working parents received Pell Grants.

• We estimate that 12.5% of apparently Pell-eligible working parents actually got a grant, compared to 78% of eligible younger traditional students.



What’s the Problem?

• Title IV loans - must enroll half-time or more.• Pell grants - financial need formulas are designed for

traditional students and their budgets; for working adult students, cost of attendance is too low and incomes too high to qualify for aid.

• Time and scheduling constraints discourage working adults from enrolling in traditional Title IV-eligible programs and institutions. Non-traditionals programs and institutions not eligible.

• Most state programs follow Title IV requirements.• Hope & Lifetime Learning Tax Credits not helping.



What are Some Solutions?One Approach:

Change Title IV eligibility requirements that limit aid to working adults

• Allow less-than-half-time students to take federal student loans

• Change Pell grant formulas to expand cost of attendance estimates

• Change institutional eligibility requirements



Limitations Of This Approach

• Not enough Title IV aid for traditional students.

• Budget restrictions during this cycle of HEA reauthorization translate to “no new aid.”

• Higher Ed establishment will oppose “diversion” from traditional to non-traditional students

• Does not involve state governments or leverage their funds.

• Does not encourage a hard look at the numerous policy and practice barriers to higher education faced by working adults.



Another Approach:Create a new federal-state partnership under HEA that includes:

– Explicit focus on working adults and credentials.– Incentives for state governments to assess need &

opportunities and to modify higher education policies.– Modest federal money for time-limited, state-

managed demonstrations to test new ideas and approaches (no new student entitlements).

– Expanded waiver authority for institutions to experiment with new strategies for working adults.



Conclusion

• There is potential to better support working adults under HEA.• It is very important to do so.• We need to think through the best and most feasible solutions and

policies.• The feds can help; but the real innovation will have to come from

the states.• Requires new strategy for state workforce development leaders.

Documents

Brian Bosworth FutureWorks 1 NGA December 10, 2002 New Perspectives on Workforce Development Post-Secondary Education Opportunity for Working Adults