What's New in Workforce Investment?

Jobs for the Future (JFF) has announced that five states-Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina-will each receive a $1.6 million grant to help more workers earn valuable credentials needed for today's good jobs through innovative adult education programs. The grants are part of Accelerating Opportunity: A Breaking Through Initiative, an $18.5 million strategic collaboration of diverse philanthropies including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, and the University of Phoenix Foundation.

JFF, which manages the initiative, has engaged the National Council on Workforce Education, the National College Transition Network at World Education, and the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges as partners.

The goals of Accelerating Opportunity, which will run through 2014, are:

At least forty colleges across five states will be implementing Accelerating Opportunity pathways in multiple professional/technical areas.

• At least 40,000 students will be progressing through pathways to marketable, stackable, credit-bearing credentials.
• At least 18,000 students will have in hand at least one marketable, stackable credit-bearing credential and at least one term's worth of credit; they will also be ready to enter additional college-level programs without enrolling in developmental education.
• States policies and financing models will sustain effective Accelerating Opportunity programs and expand them to assist many more adult learners in obtaining postsecondary credentials.
• States will have engaged community colleges in a learning network to facilitate the adoption and scale-up of Accelerating Opportunity pathways.

News Release