By Michelle Van Noy, Katherine Hughes, and Wendy Sedlak
Many students enrolling in short-term workforce programs aren’t new to college. They’re coming back.
In interviews with 83 students at three community colleges, we found that most had pursued college degree programs, many right out of high school. Some made multiple attempts, but cost, competing responsibilities, academic challenges, or life circumstances interrupted their paths.
Interest in community college short-term credit workforce programs—such as those in healthcare, IT, and trades—is high. The cost of four-year degree programs turns many Americans off. States are investing more funds to make shorter workforce programs more affordable, and Workforce Pell could further expand access. Yet we know very little about the experiences of learners pursuing these pathways. This is much of what drove our research to learn about their motivations, goals, and factors that influenced their decision to enroll in their particular programs.
The students in our interview pool were predominantly adult, female, and racially and ethnically diverse, ranging in age from 18 to 60, with most between 25 and 49. Many were financially insecure.
So, we wanted to know what brought them back to college now, years and in some cases decades later. We asked: Why now?
Students cited various reasons for interrupted college pathways, such as lack of motivation or maturity, poor academic preparation, lack of interest in courses, and financial and personal challenges.
They shared the things that pushed them towards re-enrollment—losing a job, needing a better income and stability, encouragement from family members. For some parents, their children getting older meant that they could re-enter the workforce, but they needed new skills to do so.
Along with these personal circumstances, they described the pull factors—the factors that drew them to short-term workforce programs. First, the programs were free or low-cost. Actually affordable. Additionally, the programs were available at nearby community colleges and were short-term, with convenient course schedules and immediate start dates. Enrollment seemed feasible.
One 41-year-old woman who enrolled in a medical billing and coding program at Northern Virginia Community College explained it this way:
“Well, it’s a good fit for me and my future goals because it gives me the blocks to, or gives me the, you know, the information so I can have a better job,” she told interviewers. “Because I’ve been out of work for so long, everything has changed. So, it gave me an insight on the new ins and outs of what’s going on in the medical field.”
She went on to describe why the program’s flexibility and duration mattered.
“I get overwhelmed with all the prerequisites that you need to take before you take your main subject,” she said. “And I’ve been in school before this, and I always got overwhelmed, because of home life and school life. But this was very easy. It was in the evening, and three hours. And it was just very good. And it actually looks good on my resume.
“So, this is the first thing that I’ve started and completed.”
Our study did not follow these individuals into the workforce, so we do not know if their new skills and credentials ultimately fulfilled their goals. Yet we learned these programs are often the rational responses to a system that feels too slow, too risky, or too expensive.
As states expand investments in these programs and as Workforce Pell reshapes the national policy landscape, understanding who these learners are, what motivates them, and what they need to succeed is no longer optional. Future research must also examine whether and how short-term programs yield career advancement and long-term economic mobility, and how they better connect to credit-bearing pathways.
If we design and support workforce education well, post-high school education could be more attainable for learners who have waited a long time for a door to reopen—or open at all.
Michelle Van Noy is director of the Education and Employment Research Center at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. Katherine Hughes is senior research consultant with the EERC. Wendy Sedlak, Ph.D., is the strategy director for research and evaluation at Lumina Foundation.