Interest in how community colleges can improve short-term occupational training programs is gaining momentum. Virginia’s Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3) program—a last-dollar scholarship that supports community college students enrolled in high-demand workforce programs—is a forerunner of this trend. The policy requires stackable credentials, front-loaded industry skill instruction, and dedicated advising to support recruitment, persistence, and completion in high-demand programs in fields such as healthcare, manufacturing and skilled trades, and information technology. Together, the design features position G3 not only as an affordability strategy for low-income students but also as a state policy tool for strengthening the workforce relevance and long-term value of postsecondary education and training. With the federal Workforce Pell program on the horizon, models like G3 will be critical as nationwide interest in short-term, high-demand training continues to grow.
Drawing on three rounds of site visits to eight community colleges in 2023 and 2024, this brief examines how Virginia community colleges implemented the institutional components of G3, and it offers insights and recommendations for Virginia and other states and colleges considering a policy like G3. The authors address the following questions:
- How did colleges determine which short-term, high-need programs to make G3-eligible?
- How did colleges create pathways from short-term certificates to longer-term programs and degrees?
- How did colleges deliver advising and career services?
The authors found that colleges responded to the call for short-term programs that aligned with strong labor market demand. Still, resource availability and lengthy program approval processes limited colleges’ ability to offer or expand some in-demand programs. Colleges welcomed the opportunity to develop foundational program pathways that can scaffold students well for longer-term programs and the workplace. At the same time, many colleges had not fully developed the structures or supports needed for students to use these pathways. The authors also found that G3 advising funds appeared to enhance student support for persistence and completion and were prompting some colleges to expand career services.