In Brief:
- A shortage of skilled workers is holding back growth in sectors across the American economy.
- Community colleges are essential to training workers for these jobs, but few students make it through two-year programs in two years.
- Colleges in 21 states have implemented programs that can speed progress from the classroom to employment.
There’s a fundamental barrier to boosting American industrial strength: 71 percent of employers are struggling to find skilled workers.
Training programs at community colleges can help change this, but many who enroll have family, work or other obligations that push them offtrack. Only 13 percent earn an associate degree within two years.
Since 2020, more than 100 colleges in 21 states have implemented programs to shorten the time it takes to get from the classroom to a good-paying job. This work has been facilitated by the nonprofit Education Design Lab.
The Colorado Community College System is among those offering “micro-pathways” to skilled careers. They are built with courses that can be as short as 10 to 15 hours, giving students knowledge or certificates that accumulate over time (“stack”) and provide workforce competencies piece by piece.
The intent is that within a year, a micro-pathway will lead to a job at or above a community’s median wage. Those who find jobs can continue to stack credits that lead to career advancement and degrees.
Michael Macklin, who leads workforce development efforts in the Colorado system, implemented its first micro-pathway a year ago, to address a behavioral health worker shortage in his state. The numbers of Coloradans needing behavioral health help and unfilled positions are both “staggering,” he said.
In the year since the program began, more than 750 students have enrolled. Macklin likes what he’s seen so far.
Proof of Concept
Jobs in the behavioral health field often require advanced degrees. “We worked really closely with the lab and with employers to identify entry-level roles that would provide people who may have not seen themselves in behavioral health a path to direct employment,” Macklin says.
The district developed curriculum with help from a statewide advisory board that included large hospital systems and community-based providers. Education Design Lab's criteria also informed curriculum development. Macklin confirmed with employers that they would in fact hire individuals with credentials from the courses created through this process.
Within weeks or months, students can attain a certification that opens the door to an entry-level job as a behavioral health assistant, addiction recovery assistant or patient navigator. While they work, they can accumulate credentials that help them earn more and move toward a degree.
Macklin is stepping up the pace further by providing scholarships to high school teachers so they can learn to deliver behavioral health credential training at their schools.
“The original kind of pathway [for behavioral health professionals] was going straight into a master's degree, having a pretty large amount of debt, studying for eight years before you would see a patient or a client,” he says.
In-depth outcome evaluation is still to come, but Macklin has enough anecdotal evidence from students and employers to support applying the micro-pathway model to other industries. He’s considering aerospace, clean tech and construction.
Serving a New Majority
Foundations across a wide ideological spectrum, from Koch to Bloomberg, have supported this effort to use micro-pathways to connect learners to employers who need skilled workers.
This work began in 2020 and now encompasses 100 colleges in 21 states. The more than 150 micro-pathways developed so far cover careers in manufacturing, construction, information technology and transportation. More are in the pipeline.
The micro-pathway approach is particularly aimed at the “new majority learners” at colleges, says Lisa Larson, Education Design Lab’s CEO. Today, around 40 percent of all college students are older than 22. Nearly 70 percent work while they take courses. One in five have children.
The challenge, says Larson, was to create models and pathways that could help these nontraditional students get into a high-demand job with great pay and see a way forward to a great career. Over the past five years, the nonprofit has refined a process to make this possible. Larson’s team can help colleges with design, including bringing colleges and employers together.
Covering Costs
Community colleges in 35 states offer free tuition to those who meet specified criteria. Additional support for career education will soon be available through a provision included in the Big Beautiful Bill. Pell grants will be extended to students participating in short-term training programs. “Workforce Pell,” first proposed more than a decade ago, garnered support from both parties. This “gift aid,” which doesn’t have to be repaid, can now be used for accredited programs as short as eight weeks. Implementation will begin in July 2026.
In some cases, Larson says, governors have announced that they will fund tuition for students in micro-pathway programs. A hospital that needed medical assistants offered to pay them full-time salaries while they worked part time and continued to stack credentials.
“Ecosystem partners are stepping up,” Larson says. “They own part of this opportunity, and the responsibility to create the talent pipeline that they need or that the state needs.”
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