Tennessee’s community colleges awarded $7.6 million grant to expand short-term career certificate programs eligible for Workforce Pell grants for students

A consortium of Tennessee’s 13 community colleges has been awarded a $7.6 million U.S. Department of Labor grant for workforce development activities, including the creation of short-term career certificate programs eligible for new Workforce Pell student scholarships.

The proposed Workforce Pell-eligible programs will be developed within five high-priority industry sectors identified by the state, including Advanced Manufacturing, Logistics and Distribution, Information Technology including Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare, and Sustainable and Nuclear Energy.

Workforce Pell is an expansion of the federal government’s Pell Grant program. The expansion, designed to support America’s workforce needs, allows students enrolled in high-quality, short-term career-education programs to qualify for Pell Grants for the first time. Eligible workforce programs must meet specific federal and state criteria, including class duration of eight to 15 weeks, 150 to 599 clock hours of instruction, and be offered by an accredited postsecondary institution that has operated for at least one year. Programs must also align with high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand industry sectors, lead to a recognized postsecondary credential or industry-relevant certification, and pass defined student completion, job placement, and value-added earnings metrics.

Because Workforce Pell went into effect only three months ago, the state has too few short-term programs available and enrollment in these programs remains limited. The core component of the grant, called TalentTN, will help Tennessee’s community colleges develop the short-term certificate programs in the five workforce training priority areas the state has identified.

TBR – The College System of Tennessee will administer the grants for the 13 community colleges in the system. Pellissippi State Community College will serve as fiscal agent for the grant, which will be funded over four years.

The grant is awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor through its Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants program. The Tennessee consortium is among groups of community colleges in seven states awarded a total of $65 million in the sixth round of Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants announced by the department. All seven grants are focused on developing short-term programs that can qualify for Workforce Pell funding. 

In addition to the core TalentTN component, which is targeted to receive $7.2 million of the grant, the College System will also use smaller portions of the grant to:

• Expand its Reimagining the Community College Experience initiative, designed to improve student success through more extensive career exploration, career advising and a workforce-focused certificate in a student’s first semester.
• Expand its Open Education Resources (OER) work. OERs are instructional materials in the public domain that can replace commercially published textbooks, courseware and other proprietary information sources, to substantially reduce costs for students.

Pellissippi State and the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) submitted the grant proposal developed by a team representing all 13 community colleges, the TBR offices of Academic Affairs, External Affairs, and Policy and Strategy, several state agencies, and 17 major workforce partners across the state.

“This grant, one of the largest our system has received, will enable us to build the kind of short-term training programs that Tennesseans need to launch successful careers in a broad range of fields that employers and our economy need,” said Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Flora W. Tydings. “This is a major addition to our toolbox of academic, career and technical education programs that build careers and strengthen communities.”

“Pellissippi State is proud to be a part of the team that developed the grant and is excited to work with TBR and our peer institutions to develop short-term certificate programs in several key areas. The work will be challenging, but the payoff for students and the state should be significant,” said Dr. L. Anthony Wise Jr., president of Pellissippi State.

“Tennessee’s community colleges have long been leaders in connecting students to career opportunities through strong relationships with employers.  TalentTN gives us the ability to build upon that strong foundation by expanding short-term training pathways that respond directly to employer needs while helping more students access high-quality credentials that lead to meaningful careers and continued education,” said Dr. Amy Moreland, TBR vice chancellor for research and innovation, who helped draft the proposal.