RD226 - Workforce Credentials: The Pathway to Virginia’s New Middle Class


Executive Summary:
Increasingly, workforce development is economic development. Credentialing Virginia’s workforce is essential to diversifying our economy and boosting our competitiveness. Together, we face considerable economic challenges from a dynamic global economy that undermine our ability to sustain a vibrant middle class. In addition, Virginia must deal with the adverse economic pressures brought by the losses of tobacco and coal industries, as well as the looming threat of further federal sequestration. Coupled with those related job losses is the imperative to reintegrate our veterans into the state economy. Put simply, how can the Commonwealth best position its workforce to meet the requirements for indemand jobs today? Addressing this need is perhaps the most pressing higher education issue that we face. It is also the basis for this report, "Workforce Credentials: The Pathway to Virginia’s New Middle Class."

This report meets the charge contained in Item 213, Chapter 665 of Virginia’s 2015 Appropriation Act directing Virginia’s Community Colleges to, “develop a specific plan to expand the number of workforce training credentials and certifications to a level needed to meet the demands of Virginia’s workforce. The plan should be outcome-based and include recommendations with regards to programs, accessibility, leveraging private investment, measuring outcomes and funding.”

According to a recent study, Virginia must fill an estimated 1.5 million jobs by the year 2022. While as many as two-thirds of those jobs will require postsecondary education, most will not require a bachelor’s degree. Instead, businesses will seek applicants to fill jobs who hold associate’s degrees and/or industry-recognized certifications.

Something must be done; Virginia has too few of those today – a view shared by economic and labor analysts, higher education leaders, and, perhaps most importantly, Virginia’s businesses.

More than 1,500 business and community leaders from every corner of Virginia contributed to this proposal by participating in nearly two dozen town hall meetings. We further consulted with more than a dozen workforce-focused associations, organizations and agencies along the way. While the VCCS is responsible for compiling this information, make no mistake about it – this is Virginia’s report.

What those conversations revealed, and research has verified, is that Virginia’s challenge with producing enough credentials to meet the middle skills job needs, occurs on four fronts, creating four significant barriers to Virginians along the pathway to the new middle class:

• The Skills Gap: Virginia businesses cannot find enough qualified in-state candidates today to fill the vacancies they have in middle class careers;

• The Interest Gap: Too few people pursue these middle class careers because of outdated societal stigmas or they are unaware of them, how well they pay, the advancement opportunities they offer, or even how to secure the credentials necessary to pursue them;

• The Affordability Gap: The financial aid that supports Virginians pursuing traditional degrees is insufficient for those pursuing short-term training, despite evidence that they exhibit the greatest need for such aid. Moreover, those who most need the credentials can least afford the training; and

• The Competitiveness Gap: Businesses need a workforce that can grow, learn and change to compete in a global economy, and they are not afraid to relocate to find it. Virginia has limited tools to help an existing business refresh its skill-set, even when it is beneficial to the Commonwealth.

While 19 other states already fund the training that leads to credentials required for well-paying jobs, we are offering an innovative and unique approach, one that is performance based, emphasizing the direct return Virginia would earn through a public investment. Virginia’s Community Colleges stand ready to lead this effort. We look forward to the conversations this report will inspire, and we savor the chance not just to elevate Virginia’s middle class through these credentials, but also to boost Virginia’s reputation for workforce quality and competitiveness.

Sincerely,
Glenn DuBois