The Biden-Harris Administration Shares Detailed Summary of Efforts to Expand the Workforce Highlighting the Success of Career Pathways, Apprenticeships, and Free Community College Programs

Overview
Yesterday afternoon the Biden-Harris Administration – including President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, hosted approximately 200 education and workforce leaders during the Administration’s “Classroom to Career” Summit.

The summit called the nation’s attention to the Administration’s Investing in America (www.whitehouse.gov/invest/) agenda, successful efforts to expand high-quality career pathways and workforce development programs in every community, and new actions in support of evidence-based, high-quality career and technical education programs and affordable community college pathways.

In an email notice providing details about the Summit, the Administration stated that the Investing in America agenda “is creating millions of good-paying jobs—many of which do not require a four-year college degree—and its investments will continue to drive job creation for years to come. The Summit will highlight record progress to expand career pathways to these good-paying jobs in infrastructure, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and more.”

Continuing, “The Summit will bring together Cabinet members and other senior Administration officials, state and local elected officials, community college presidents, K-12 leaders, unions, workforce development leaders from the nine White House Workforce Hubs (www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/25/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-workforce-hubs-to-train-and-connect-american-workers-to-good-jobs-created-by-the-presidents-…) and other communities across the country, business leaders, representatives of philanthropic organizations, and students.”

During the event President Biden highlighted that more than $80 billion from his American Rescue Plan has now been committed to strengthening and expanding the American workforce, helping to meet the promise of these historic investments—from supporting high-quality free community college programs in high-demand fields, to expanding Registered Apprenticeships, to attracting and retaining a skilled, diverse workforce in critical industries. These efforts are helping students and workers—including those without four-year degrees—access good-paying opportunities spurred by the Investing in America agenda.

A comprehensive list of the programs within the Departments of Education, Labor, and Commerce are provided in the White House’s fact sheet. (www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/11/13/fact-sheet-white-house-hosts-classroom-to-career-summit-celebrates-successful-efforts-to-expand-high-quality-career-pathways-and-work…)

The Summit also included a forward facing discussion focused on the economic imperative for career-connected education and how education and industry leaders can build high-quality pathways from classroom to career. Leaders from across the Biden Administration, as well as institutional, state, and industry experts, used this opportunity to discuss efforts to address workforce needs by aligning education with high-demand careers.

Key Summit Highlights

  • First Lady Jill Biden announced that 34 states and Washington, DC now have a free community college program. In total, over 400 colleges, cities, and states now offer tuition-free college and job training—up from about 50 programs when she, President Obama, and then-Vice President Biden launched the America’s College Promise Initiative in 2015. Several of the newest free community college plans were launched with support from American Rescue Plan funds. As First Lady, Dr. Biden has championed community colleges and workforce training programs, traveling the country to highlight evidence-based models and promising practices that connect high school and community college students to good-paying jobs.
  • The Department of Education (ED) will publish new analysis of ED data on postsecondary programs that provide pathways to jobs created or fueled by the Investing in America agenda. The Department will also release a mapping tool to help the public find those programs and a public-use data set that will allow researchers and policymakers to further explore these connections. This analysis comes on the heels of a years-long effort to better connect both high schools and postsecondary programs to career pathways through the Unlocking Career Success Initiative, which invested (cte.ed.gov/unlocking-career-success/news-and-guidance/CCHS-grants) $31 million in building model career-connected programs in high schools that will provide up to 120,000 students with pathways to high-wage, high-demand careers.
  • The Department of Commerce (DOC) will announce that over one-quarter of states and territories have proactively allocated more than $300 million in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding towards workforce development initiatives. These states are building the skilled construction workforce needed to connect every American to reliable and affordable high-speed Internet by investing in community college job training programs, Registered Apprenticeships, and sectoral partnership training models.
  • DOC will also announce that more than 80 community colleges across 22 states have created or expanded programming to train semiconductor workers for advanced manufacturing jobs spurred by the President’s CHIPS and Science Act. In addition, ten states have announced new dedicated state funding for workforce development investments to support CHIPS facilities.

What’s Next
CSPEN will provide details on some of the new initiatives that our sector is eligible to apply to participate in, even as the clear intent of the current Administration is to promote student enrollment in other sectors of the higher education community.