As President Obama noted in his first address to Congress in 2009, the future growth of our economy will depend on having more workers with post-secondary credentials.
In the last three decades, the number of occupational licenses, industry certifications, and other post-secondary credentials awarded has jumped 800percentt.
One piece of good news is that six Midwest states under the auspices of the Joyce Foundation's Shifting Gears initiative are developing policies to help low-skilled adults obtain post-secondary credentials.
Perhaps even more promising is the Institute's relatively new Manufacturing Skills Certification System, a composite of stackable secondary and post-secondary credentials that prepare people with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in manufacturing.
As demand and enrollment for post-secondary credentials increased in recent decades, academic administrators both at college and university campuses discovered that it was much more cost-efficient to hire teaching staff on a part-time, per course contract basis, rather than as full professors.
Policy makers can help expand the number of low-skilled adults who enroll in education and skills development programs and obtain post-secondary credentials that can facilitate economic mobility; eliminating the ability to benefit provision of the Pell Grant Program is a policy going the wrong way as it will limit economic opportunity for parents in working families.
So, though we've seen a major surge in the attainment of post-secondary credentials, we must quicken our pace if we are to build a 21st-century workforce and equip more people with the skills required to earn family-sustaining wages.
An argument that for-profit colleges are essential to the growth of the economy is implicitly suggesting that minorities, women, and low-income adults need an expensive post-secondary credential to participate in the workforce of the future.
At least 65percentt of the 55 million new jobs forecasted for the next decade will require a formal post-secondary credential.
Prior to joining our program, Year Up, he was 24 years old, underemployed, without a college degree or post-secondary credential and with little prospect of achieving either.
In turn, it's impossible to attain a post-secondary credential, from a vocational certification to a four-year college degree, without basic skills mastery.
