The Great Alignment? College and Student Responses to Virginia’s Workforce-Focused Free-College Initiative

By Daniel Sparks and Sade Bonilla

Virginia implemented its Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3) initiative in 2021 with the express intent of increasing community college enrollment post-pandemic and increasing the number of credentialed workers in high-demand fields. To accomplish these goals, the policy covers low- and middle-income students’ unmet financial need if they pursue degrees in one of five areas: early childhood education, health care, information technology and computer science, manufacturing and skilled trades, and public safety.

In a new working paper, we carry out a descriptive analysis that explores whether and how institutions and students responded to the policy’s free-college messaging. Results from the paper offer several lessons and takeaways for states that may be interested in developing their own tuition-free community college policies.

1. Institutions provided more workforce-aligned programs.
   Virginia community colleges responded to the policy by increasing program offerings in G3-eligible fields by about 30% after the policy was implemented. This level of responsiveness runs contrary to the common narrative that community colleges are inflexible. It also highlights the potential for community colleges to better align programming with local labor market needs, which is likely to continue to be a priority for these institutions going forward.
2. Students enrolled in workforce-aligned programs at higher rates.
   We found that students are also responsive to the policy’s free-college messaging. After G3 was implemented, first-time-in-college entrants were 30% more likely to enroll in a G3-eligible field. The enrollment effects also influenced continuing students: We found that students who enrolled both before and after G3 started were more likely to switch into G3-eligible programs after it was implemented.
3. Policy impacts were driven by students from marginalized communities.
   Importantly, these enrollment effects were most pronounced for first-generation college students, students of color, and students with reported family incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty level. Recent work from our colleagues at CCRC highlights how strategies to communicate the benefits of G3 to students may contribute to our observed effects on student enrollment.

Limiting G3 eligibility to workforce certificate and applied associate degree programs in high-demand fields has tradeoffs. Our results suggest that G3 likely diverts some students away from pursuing transfer-oriented degrees that can lead to higher earnings trajectories, conditional on degree completion. While early results highlight positive effects of G3 on pandemic enrollment recovery and improved alignment between program offerings and local labor market needs, it will be important to consider the longer term effects on student outcomes, including credential completion and career trajectories. Our forthcoming research will explore these outcomes in greater depth and offer more insights into the efficacy of this type of free-college policy design.

Daniel Sparks is a postdoctoral research fellow and Sade Bonilla is an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.