Higher education, including quality career-focused, short-term programs and credentials, can offer a bridge to meaningful employment, career advancement, higher pay, and future education and quality job opportunities. Yet many people face challenges in accessing and completing college, and at the same time, businesses need more trained workers to fill growing and in-demand jobs.

These challenges stem, in part, from the fact that many of our nation's higher education policies – some developed over fifty years ago – often do not meet the needs of today's students or the rapidly changing skill needs of today's labor market. The new student majority on college campuses is made up of working people, adult learners, students of color, first-generation college students, immigrants, parents—students who don't fit the mold around which our higher education system was originally built.

It is time to modernize higher education policies to ensure equitable college access, completion, and connection to quality careers that lead to economic mobility—and help businesses thrive by training talented workers that can fill in-demand jobs. We must center students' lived experience and expertise in our policy change efforts to begin to redress structural racism in our education and training systems and to make college accessible to all people, particularly those who have faced systemic barriers to educational opportunity.

NSC's Making College Work Campaign is fighting for the following policy goals to increase college access, completion, and economic mobility for all people: 

• Cover the Costs of College: increase equitable access to financial aid and debt-free postsecondary pathways – including high-quality, short-term programs and credentials. 
• Support Students Holistically: ensure all students have the support they need to access and complete college – including access to public benefits, child care, transportation, and coaching and navigation services. 
• Strengthen Partnerships & Create Career Pathways: support community college and industry partnerships and career pathways programs that lead to quality careers.
• Use Data to Drive Equity and Outcomes: ensure equity, quality, transparency, and accountability through improved data collection, analysis, and reporting. 
   

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