America Achieves, in partnership with the National Governors Association, has released an overview on how states can prepare to leverage this new federal funding stream
Beginning in July 2026, H.R. 1 — enacted by Congress last year — will take effect, creating “Workforce Pell” and expanding Pell Grant eligibility to short-term, career-focused training programs that meet defined quality requirements. Research shows that while some programs generate strong labor market returns, many do not — and better outcomes are not automatic. Success will require governors to lead in the coming months with a sharp focus on good, in-demand jobs, and on ensuring those jobs actually deliver real economic independence.
Seizing the opportunity. The urgency and opportunity are both real. Governors have substantial authority to set the standards in their states for this new Workforce Pell funding that will begin flowing later this year, and to leverage the opportunity to better align quality standards and outcomes measures across workforce funding streams. To do so, governors do not need to rush to approve programs, but should instead take the time to thoughtfully set standards, build processes, establish needed data infrastructure, and roll out the program over the coming months and years. Moreover, proposed regulations published March 9, 2026 open a public comment period closing on April 8, which presents a meaningful opportunity to shape the final rules. America Achieves can help states develop comments. Contact info@goodjobseconomy.org.
Below are America Achieves’ top recommendations for how governors and philanthropy can leverage Workforce Pell to advance good jobs outcomes in states.
Higher education and workforce programs have too often been organized around activities — seat time, enrollment, even completion — rather than the outcomes those activities are supposed to produce. Governors should establish a clear north star for everyone working on this: the goal is good jobs that pay a living wage, enabling genuine self-sufficiency and economic independence. Every decision about program approval, standards, and accountability should be evaluated against that outcome.
To make the standard concrete and defensible, governors should anchor key definitions, such as the requirement that programs align to a high-wage, high-skill, or in-demand job, around wage baselines — such as the MIT Living Wage Calculator, for example — so that what counts as a living wage reflects real costs in real communities rather than a flat statewide number. Federal law sets the floor just above the poverty line, which falls far short of what it actually takes to support a family. States that simply accept that floor risk treating any job just above poverty as success. Programs should be approved only if they prepare people for good jobs that meet that standard directly, or are real, stackable, documented pathways landing participants in programs that do.
Governors will need to own this outcome themselves, especially for the next four years, because federal accountability on value-added earnings — a relatively low bar to start — will likely not go into effect until 2030, due to a statutory requirement that earnings be measured for students who completed programs three years prior to each award year. The Department of Education has asked in the NPRM for feedback on how to address the question of ROI in the first several years. But the NPRM makes clear that governors have the authority, from the very start, to approve programs based in part on anticipated return on investment, and to make wage and earnings data publicly available before federal measures kick in. Governors who act on both will drive Workforce Pell toward good jobs from day one.
States are not required to be fully operational on July 1 — programs can come online throughout the 2026–27 award year and beyond. A state that rushes to approve a large portfolio with weak standards will spend years dealing with the consequences. Initial standards are also not permanent: nothing prevents a state from updating quickly if early data reveals problems.
Governors should require that programs demonstrate real employer validation. While the law envisions employer input in multiple places, requiring states to approve programs that are in-demand, that meet “employer hiring needs”, that lead to industry-recognized certificate or certification (or state licenses or Registered Apprenticeships) — and that employers help validate the portability and stackability of programs — governors still have considerable room to define how they meaningful capture that input across requirements. We recommend that governors require serious employer validation of programs in order to be approved, including strong validation such as commitments to interview or hire program completers. At the very least, governors must require employers to confirm that a specific program is aligned to skills and roles those employers project they will actually be hiring for. Evidence of engagement is not enough; what matters is whether employers have put their name behind the program as a genuine pipeline for real jobs.
States should ensure a regularly updated understanding of not just what jobs are in-demand — but what specific skills and competencies employers are actually seeking. This means drawing on real-time data sources, including job postings and employer surveys, and validating findings directly with employers — covering not just roles being filled today but the sequence of predictable roles in an industry over time. This kind of intelligence can drive effective Workforce Pell implementation and help focus workforce systems statewide on jobs and skills that matter.
Governors should also factor in longer-term trends. Many sectors facing the greatest near-term retirement-driven hiring needs — including health care, advanced manufacturing, and the skilled trades — are also projected to face less near-term exposure to AI displacement, making them strong candidates for durable credential pathways. Governors should supplement real-time labor market data with the best available projections of how AI will reshape local labor markets, and prepare now by identifying at-risk occupations in advance, so that when displacement happens, short-term credentials are already serving as clear on-ramps to more durable careers, connected to and complemented by longer pathways where needed.
Governors should use this as an opportunity to start or strengthen the setting, measuring, and tracking of goals for labor market outcomes–including but beyond Workforce Pell. To make this possible, states need to link labor market outcomes data to non-credit programs, verify if program graduates are employed in fields related to their training by integrating Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes, and better understand if program graduates pursue or complete relevant further education by collecting information on credit transfer and articulation agreements. Many states lack the ability to do these. But consequences and transparency on outcomes matter and making this a reality requires these steps.
The standards, data systems, and employer relationships built for Workforce Pell can form the foundation of the infrastructure a state needs for a nimble, outcomes-driven workforce system positioned to respond as AI reshapes labor markets. Governors should designate a cross-agency working group with a mandate that goes beyond Workforce Pell compliance. America Achieves’ six interdependent elements of an effective state talent system provides a practical structure for that work. We have been collaborating in Oklahoma to use this framework to carry out a diagnostic on Oklahoma’s statewide strengths, areas of development, and priority actions. We are partnering with Governor Moore’s team in Maryland to provide technical assistance as it implements Workforce Pell in the state.
Governors should also use this moment to task their working group with a broader data system overhaul — enhanced wage records, improved integration across labor market data sets, and the analytical capacity to use that data to drive decisions and action, not just collect it.
We recommend that the philanthropic community actively incentivize and support states that set high standards and commit to effective, outcomes-driven implementation. This includes:
Federal law and the draft regulations require that Workforce Pell programs be stackable — connected to additional credentials and portable across employers, so workers can keep building skills and wages over time rather than stopping at a single certificate. But requiring stackability and building the architecture that makes it real are two different things. Philanthropy can invest in the design and coordination work that turns a sequence of programs into a genuine career launch, including earn-and-learn models, articulation agreements, and advising infrastructure. Philanthropy can also fund the student navigation infrastructure that research shows makes the difference between a credential that leads somewhere and one that doesn’t. In North Carolina, America Achieves’ Good Jobs Fund is helping community colleges — including in communities hit by Hurricane Helene — build and modernize programs culminating in good jobs and meeting high standards including those associated with Workforce Pell.
Many strong programs won’t qualify at launch because they haven’t existed for the required year or lack historical outcomes data. Philanthropy can bridge that gap — seeding new evidence-informed, data-driven programs and helping existing ones build the track record of quality needed to qualify.
Workforce Pell creates an opportunity for both natural experiments across 50 states, and for the design and funding of randomized control trials that evaluate program design. Philanthropy can support those types of efforts, covering evaluation infrastructure costs that states and programs rarely have resources to build themselves, as well as longitudinal outcome tracking and findings disseminated in forms policymakers can actually use. Engaging researchers early on is far more effective in tracking and improving results than retrofitting evaluation after the fact.
Philanthropy can also fund the labor market intelligence states need to identify in-demand jobs, knowledge, skills and competencies to inform what constitutes genuine employer hiring needs and where this funding can best address them. This should focus on specific industries with the greatest concentration of hiring needs for good jobs and upwardly mobile careers.
Philanthropy should take the lead by putting more dollars into the programs getting the best results, incentivizing them to expand, and using rigorous research to build the evidence base that supports others to adapt those programs elsewhere. What starts as a philanthropic proof point becomes a replicable model others can adopt at scale. Governors should consider aligning public funding incentives in the same direction.
Governors have clear authority to set the bar higher than required by the federal statute. Philanthropy can support high standards by directing resources, technical assistance, and recognition to states that set ambitious quality standards and build genuine interim accountability on wages which will create a direct incentive for states to raise the bar.
To help states prepare for Workforce Pell, America Achieves, in partnership with the National Governors Association, is developing a library of resources, including playbooks, fact sheets, and other guidance. States can use these tools to drive toward smart implementation of this program, while taking steps to modernize their education and workforce systems more holistically.
We’ll be publishing materials throughout spring and summer of 2026. This roll-out will provide responsive, current information. We are grateful to our partners at JPMorganChase for funding this work.
Workforce Pell: An Overview For Governors
Published March 11, 2026
This memo provides governors with:
In the coming weeks and months, we will publish additional practical resources here, including details on data infrastructure, guidance to leverage philanthropic and state funding, and a dictionary of Workforce Pell-related terms, among other materials. We invite you to subscribe to our mailing list to stay tuned.
Get Involved: We welcome conversations from any governor’s office, state workforce leader, nonprofit, or philanthropic partner. Contact us at info@goodjobseconomy.org.
