By Klaudia Wiacek and Megan Anderson
Short-term workforce credentials are one of the fastest-growing offerings in higher education. Thirty-four states have already invested more than $8.81 billion in short-term credential programs, much of which is funding student financial aid. As the national investment increases, examining Virginia’s Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3) program offers valuable insights into how these initiatives are implemented.
Started in 2021 as a pandemic workforce recovery strategy, G3 was designed to ease the financial burden for low-income Virginia Community College System (VCCS) students in high-demand, short-term workforce programs. A last-dollar scholarship aimed at increasing enrollment and completion in a specific set of occupational training programs, G3 covers tuition remaining after financial aid, provides stipends for basic needs and living costs for full-time students, and offers advising and support services to help students navigate their programs. G3 was also structured to allow students to earn short-term workforce credentials, enter the workforce, and later return to school to build toward longer-term certificates or degrees through stackable credential pathways. After its initial success, G3 continues to support VCCS students in high-demand fields.
In 2022, CCRC, in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (UPenn GSE) and VCCS, launched a study to examine G3. Findings from that study offer the field important lessons on this type of financial aid program. A quasi-experimental analysis found that G3 significantly increased FAFSA completion and enrollment in aid-eligible workforce programs. The research also found that G3 implementation increased enrollment in target programs and supported the development of the college infrastructure needed to build effective stackable credential pathways toward longer-term educational attainment.
In 2026, Congress extended eligibility for federal Pell Grants to include high-quality, short-term training programs that last between 8 and 15 weeks, known as Workforce Pell. This new source of workforce financial aid joins an already robust set of funding options in Virginia, including G3 as well as FastForward, which focuses on short-term, noncredit programs. Similar to G3’s stackable pathways model, Workforce Pell is intended to support short-term credentials that can be applied to longer-term education programs and be recognized by multiple employers.
With funding from IES, CCRC, in partnership with UPenn GSE and VCCS, launched the Examining Workforce Financial Aid in Virginia: Policy Opportunities and Challenges project this fall. Building on research conducted between 2022 and 2025 on the early implementation and outcomes of G3 at Virginia’s community colleges, the project will explore longer-term G3 outcomes and questions about Virginia’s broader workforce financial aid landscape. Because it is not yet clear how these financial aid sources will interact, studying this now provides an early look at how colleges, students, and employers navigate this complicated environment.
The Examining Workforce Financial Aid in Virginia project will provide insight into the short-term credential financial aid landscape, including career alignment and labor market outcomes, and the use of stackable credentials and transfer pathways. It will also offer early lessons about how colleges are integrating Workforce Pell alongside existing financial aid programs, generating timely, actionable evidence for colleges, state systems, and policymakers interested in funding short-term credentials.
