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Sign-on Letter: Investments in Short-Term Skills Training Strengthens the Workforce and Businesses

May, 2022

 
Dear Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, and Leader McCarthy, 

Thank you for your leadership on workforce and education policy issues throughout the 117th Congress. As you conference the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (USICA) and the America COMPETES Act of 2022 (COMPETES), the undersigned businesses [and organizations] urge you to consider the inclusion of short-term Pell Grant eligibility and the College Transparency Act in the final package. 

Currently, eligibility for the Pell Grant program is limited to education and training programs that are at least 600 clock hours (or two-thirds of a typical academic year) and 15 weeks in length.  This creates a financial barrier for students seeking non-degree credentials for high-demand jobs in sectors such as health care, manufacturing, and IT. 

Our postsecondary education and training system continues to evolve to meet the needs of business and students. It is important that our federal financial aid system also adapt to the needs of today's students. Even prior to the pandemic, there was an increasing demand for greater flexibility in how students access education and skills training, including the ability to earn a high-quality credential in a shorter time frame. A greater emphasis on skills-based hiring among businesses reflects this shift away from a traditional postsecondary framework.  

Our nation faces a skills mismatch between the existing workforce and job openings, including in sectors such as manufacturing, allied and direct health care, and infrastructure. The pandemic dramatically altered the economy and the workplace, including an accelerated adoption of new technologies. Employers need higher education to help workers rapidly re-skill for new jobs or upskill for current jobs to be successful in this new economy. Failure to address this need for additional skills training could leave millions of jobs unfilled, and impact productivity, innovation, and U.S. competitiveness. 

We also urge the inclusion of the College Transparency Act (S. 839, H.R. 2030) in the final competitiveness package, which creates a secure data system within the Department of Education to track student outcomes. The system would utilize existing federal and institutional data to calculate aggregate information on enrollment, completion, and post-college success. This will better inform institutions on ways to support student success and provide improved consumer information to students and families as they select postsecondary education and training programs. Wage and earnings data by major, for example, will help students identify in-demand fields leading to employment, helping to reduce the skills mismatch.  

Expanding Pell Grant eligibility to shorter-term education and training programs will help create affordable and accessible pathways to postsecondary credentials for tens of thousands of students, while meeting demands of the business community. While enhanced data transparency will enable consumers to make more informed choices regarding such education and training programs. We encourage you to include these provisions in the final competitiveness package using the House-passed Levin/Gonzalez/Krishnamoorthi/Steil amendment, the College Transparency Act, and the bipartisan JOBS Act (S. 864, H.R. 2037) as a benchmark. Thank you for your consideration.  

 

CC: Senator Patty Murray, Chair, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Senator Richard Burr, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, 
Representative Bobby Scott, Chair, House Committee on Education and Labor,   
Representative Virginia Foxx, Ranking Member, House Committee on Education and Labor,
Senator Tim Kaine, 
Senator Rob Portman, 
Representative Andy Levin, 
Representative Anthony Gonzalez 

 

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