The NGA Center partnered with Strada Education Network from 2019 through 2021 to focus on supporting state efforts that connect and align their postsecondary institutions to state workforce needs. The project will have a strong focus on the engagement of adults in education and training pathways.
- Phase One – Leveraging Data to Empower Changemakers
- Phase Two – Prioritizing Strategies for Change
- Phase Three – Implementing the Long-term Change Process
Selected states (Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wyoming) received an initial grant of $100,000 as well as technical assistance from NGA over the course of 18 months to refine their data-driven approaches to anticipating and meeting future workforce needs. Moreover, each grantee received access to state-specific, proprietary data from the Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Survey – a unique data set comprised of interviews from more than 330,000 individuals of various backgrounds and education levels.
Grantees pursued a variety of policy changes including financial aid reform, improved cross-agency collaboration and innovative interventions to better serve their identified target population. The project launched with a cross-state meeting in St. Louis, Missouri
Ohio Virtual Site Visit
NGA’s Educate for Opportunity project held a virtual site visit to Ohio to learn best practices on adult learning on September 16 and 17th. View/download the three content webinars delivered during this visit:
- Institutional Debt Forgiveness: Lessons from Michigan
- Fulfilling Ohio’s Adult Learner Promise: Report of the Adult Learner Working Group
- Improving Attainment: Ohio Excels Statewide Action Plan
Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Insights
The nation’s largest data set of consumer insights on pathways from education to employment. The purpose of Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Insights is to listen to and empower the voice of the consumer to strengthen education to employment pathways for all Americans.
Articles
- Six states to develop data-driven workforce strategies
- Pa. tapped for $2.3M, six-state workforce development effort
- Mass. to receive $100,000 workforce development grant
- Education Consumers Are Speaking; Policymakers, Educators, Employers Must Listen
- What Moneyball can teach the states about connecting education to jobs
Resources
Building An Adult-Friendly Postsecondary Policy Framework
In this webinar Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit committed to accelerating the transformation of the American workforce and education systems, presented their state policy framework for engaging and supporting adults through college and toward fulfillment of their career goals. JFF highlighted both proven and emerging strategies that states and community partners can undertake to better serve adults, especially at a time of massive disruption to the economy and higher education.
Addressing College Students’ Basic Needs: Housing And Food Insecurity
This webinar highlighted state efforts to address the basic needs of college students, described policies and practices that can help coordinate the provision of student support services, and shared resources for addressing students’ basic needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Report from Strada Education Network: Back to School? What Adults Without Degrees Say About Pursuing Additional Education and Training
