With rising job vacancies and a workforce and society that are aging, the United States already has a reservoir of human capital that is not fully tapped: The millions of U.S.-born and immigrant college graduates who are in jobs requiring no more than a high school credential or who are unemployed. This human capital, if…

Engineering occupations are some of the highest-paying and most prestigious in the US labor market, but they are also some of the least diverse. Mission Not Accomplished: Unequal Opportunities and Outcomes for Black and Latinx Engineers finds that of the nearly 1.7 million prime-age engineering workers in the United States in 2019, 81% were either…

This year has been like no other in the history of the United States. More than 550,000 people (and counting) have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. That is more than the number of Americans killed in World Wars I and II combined. But the pandemic’s devastation has not been distributed equally. Communities of color…

Almost all states across the country have estab­lished ambitious college completion goals for their population. Most states’ goals emphasize achieving specific target rates and types of post-high school credentials required to address their workforce needs and improve people’s ability to thrive in a changing economy. Adult learners, that is, students ages 25 to 64, play…

Given the rapid growth in short-term programs, and policymakers’ fast-growing interest to invest federal higher education dollars into very-short-term credentials, we explore what the research does—and does not— show us about such credentials’ utility in the labor market. With concerns about equity, our review of the literature guides us towards caution, as a strong push…

Spring 2021 issue of Focus magazine shows how college advising is moving to the next level, in three student stories.

Seven state leadership organizations and five workforce, education and data advocacy/technical assistance experts have come together to build awareness, understanding, and demand for how policy can integrate credential transparency into education and workforce development state strategies. A new brief from Credential Engine explores the ways that credential transparency can be supported, integrated, and leveraged within…

Discover new insights on worsening job quality during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020 Great Jobs Report, a research partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Omidyar Network and Lumina Foundation.

A $1.5 trillion infrastructure program from the Biden-Harris administration would be good medicine to nurse the economic wounds inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to this report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The report states that the infrastructure stimulus could create or save 15 million jobs—most for workers with no…

Entering the fall 2020 term, higher education was reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. Enrollment was down—particularly among students most at risk of basic needs insecurity; fewer students had completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid; and college retention rates had dropped. Students and faculty were stressed and anxious. And by the end of the…