Credentialing programs are bridging gaps between employers and workers.
High school graduates with no further education often have limited economic opportunities. At the same time, employers fret about the “skills gap” that separates existing employees and potential hires from the knowledge and hands-on training they need to help drive successful businesses.
It’s for those reasons that states across the country are going full-bore on funding and otherwise supporting non-degree credentialing programs that serve to speed the talent pipeline and produce positive outcomes for workers. In the spring of 2024, the education consulting firm HCM Strategists identified 69 short-term credentialing initiatives across 31 states totaling $5.6 billion invested, a significant increase from the $4 billion invested in 2023.
“The geographic diversity of these investments — ranging from traditionally conservative states to more liberal ones — underscores the broad appeal,” reported HCM, “of skills-based education as a critical element of workforce development.”
Since 2023, according to HCM, eight additional states — Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia — have launched new initiatives aimed at supporting short-term credential programs. To borrow a phrase, it’s about meeting job aspirants where they are.
“These initiatives reflect varied approaches to ensuring that learners and workers have access to affordable, targeted education and training opportunities.”
— HCM Strategists
“These initiatives,” states the report, “reflect varied approaches to ensuring that learners and workers have access to affordable, targeted education and training opportunities.”
Ohio’s Employer-Friendly Approach
The types of credentials offered nationwide number in the hundreds of thousands and tend to be consistent from state to state. They span such far-flung, in-demand disciplines as cloud computing, cybersecurity, advanced machining processes, toolmaking, health care, truck driving, electronics, robotics, coding, plastics and office management. Categories and sub-categories are seemingly endless, with some skills spanning multiple job classifications.
“When we analyzed the data,” says Tim Mayle, executive director of the Center to Advance Manufacturing in Northwest Ohio, “one of the things that popped out is that Microsoft Excel is one of the top certificates that’s taught among tech employers. That might seem surprising, but there’s a lot of different ways that you can use that, and a lot of people can utilize that training.”
Mayle is a big supporter of Ohio’s TechCred program, which has awarded more than 100,000 technology-focused credentials since its launch in 2019 under the guidance of Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who also serves as director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation.
“Ohio’s TechCred program is an innovative pathway for employers to upskill their current and future employees,” Husted said in a statement, “ensuring Ohioans earn in-demand credentials that meet the needs of today’s job market. The program’s success as a national best practice is a testament to its impact, with other states looking to model our approach to strengthen their own workforces.”
Designed to be employer-friendly, TechCred allows employers of all sizes and industries to deploy workers to approved, tech-focused training programs and receive reimbursements from TechCred that can total up to $180,000 per business per year. Those full reimbursements, officials say, arrive within a matter of weeks of trainees obtaining their certifications.
“I can’t emphasize enough,” says Michael Kahoe, who administers the program as Workforce Program Manager at the Office of Workforce Transformation, “that this is not your usual federal workforce program that will drag you through the mud to get a penny out of it. We make this a lot easier than what you’re probably used to dealing with with the government.
“We view it as a win-win,” says Kahoe, “because employers get employees that are more productive, and then employees gain skills to make them a more valuable employee in the future.”
Alabama: Ranking Credentials of Value
Not all credentialing programs are created equally. Consider, for example, the numerous truck driving credentials offered strictly online. Through its Compendium of Valued Credentials, Alabama has emerged as another leader in credential validation, having established a highly structured process for identifying credentials that are of value to both employers and workers.
In Alabama, a Committee on Credentials and Career Pathways, established by the Alabama Workforce Council, identifies in-demand occupations, career pathways and credentials of value. The committee subjects credentialing programs to annual reviews for on-going inclusion in a statewide registry that connects employers to potential hires. It is composed of educators and industry experts across 16 designated clusters, according to Nathan Rankin, director of Alabama’s Office of Education and Workforce Statistics.
Photo: Getty Images
“We lean on and trust the people who work in these industries day-in and day-out,” Rankin says.
Does a training provider have a national accreditation? Is it recognized by relevant industries? Are the credentials offered “stackable” and transferable to other training institutions?
“We ask that credentials lead to specific employment, and so we really prize the ones that train you very specifically for a very specific job,” Rankin says. “We want to be offering credentials that lead people into valuable occupations, something that’s going to sustain a family. So, what is the wage floor? And then we value alignment to our state’s data-driven, in-demand occupations.
“Everyone who is training people on behalf of the state,” says Rankin, “we want them to be sure that they are giving people skills, rather than just teaching them and then not verifying.”
Approved credentials feed into the registry found at alabamatalenttriad.com, “a kind of place,” says Rankin, “for folks to shop for something that might improve their life’s career trajectory.”
