States Connecting Learners to High-Demand Careers
Across the country, states are leading the way in helping learners from low-income backgrounds access high-quality careers. As more responsibility for postsecondary education and workforce training shifts to the state level, Ascendium is supporting this work by helping states coordinate the people, processes, and systems required to connect learners to in-demand jobs. From regional partnerships in the Midwest to statewide reforms in Colorado, states are showing what’s possible when purpose and collaboration come together.
How States Are Leading the Way
States that are most effective at linking postsecondary education and the workforce start with a clear purpose: ensure learners gain the skills and credentials that lead to upward mobility and meet workforce needs. From there, state leaders create the infrastructure and partnerships to make that vision possible — using data to identify opportunities, aligning funding and policy, and creating learner pathways that respond to employer demand.
States’ Spotlight: Michigan and Ohio
Two states that Ascendium has supported are working with their community colleges to modernize how they prepare students for the future workforce. The Michigan Community College Association (MCCA) and the Ohio Association of Community Colleges (OACC) are helping colleges design new training pathways that prepare learners for high-demand jobs in their own communities. This includes coaching college leaders to use labor market data to shape programs, developing completion plans tied to local industry needs, and creating “navigator” roles that help colleges keep students on track from enrollment to employment.
Schools like Lorain County Community College in Ohio and Macomb Community College in Michigan are building or expanding programs in electric vehicle technology and advanced manufacturing — sectors expected to drive their regions’ economic future. The intended result: more learners earn high value credentials relevant to their local job markets.
State to Watch: Colorado
In May, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed an executive order directing state agencies to align their efforts around this expansive goal. The order brings together key state departments — including labor, economic development, and education — to streamline how learners access programs that lead directly to employment. Building on this momentum, the Colorado Department of Higher Education is leading a new statewide consortium to help colleges embed industry-aligned, work-based learning experiences into their courses, strengthening the connection between classroom learning and career success.
Colorado’s community colleges are key to this vision. Across the state, they’re working with employers and industry groups to better connect postsecondary education and workforce training to real job opportunities, particularly in fast-growing sectors like construction, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing. For example, new partnerships are helping students earn stackable credentials and gain on-the-job experience before graduation, so they can move more smoothly from school to skilled careers.
Business and industry groups are also playing an important role in expanding work-based learning and apprenticeship opportunities into new sectors. Colorado stands out as one of the few states with a legislative commitment to a system where postsecondary education and industry are purposefully coordinated, and where colleges and employers are already showing what that looks like in practice.
Data Innovation: Turning Insights into Action
With support from Ascendium and others, the Coleridge Initiative’s Democratizing Our Data Challenge is helping states link postsecondary education and workforce data so policymakers can make decisions based on evidence, not assumptions. In Indiana, Coleridge is working with the state’s Department of Workforce Development and Ivy Tech Community College to connect credential data with employment and wage records. This work is helping Indiana track how short-term training and micro-pathway programs translate into real jobs and earnings, and it will ultimately power a new “Return on College” app to help learners compare programs by career outcomes.
Now in its third round, Coleridge’s Data Challenge is enabling other states such as Illinois, Kentucky, and Wisconsin to build tools that make it possible for policymakers to see how credentials lead to family-sustaining wages and which programs need to evolve to meet labor market demand.
Meanwhile, the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) is helping states produce more timely, localized labor market projections that reflect what’s really happening in communities, rather than just at the state level. This information helps colleges, workforce boards, and training providers make better-informed decisions about where to invest. For example, a community college in rural North Carolina might use new substate data to identify growing demand for advanced manufacturing technicians and launch a short-term credential program aligned to that need.
Looking Ahead
States are proving that coordinated, data-informed action can drive real change. Yet much work remains. Anticipating workforce trends, improving program quality, and ensuring learners from low-income backgrounds can build skills for in-demand careers will require continued commitment from postsecondary education, industry, and government partners alike. Together, these efforts can reshape how learners move from training to opportunity.
