At a time when polls indicate two-thirds of Americans believe a higher education is no longer worth the expense, Forsyth Technical Community College has a message for them.
“College,” it says, “could cost you nothing.”
The planned marketing tagline refers to the most significant expansion in over half a century of federal grants for postsecondary education — and the fact that few consumers are aware they could qualify for the types of programs that will have hundreds of millions of dollars available as early as this summer.
The lack of awareness is compounded by the fact that many states responsible for implementing the policy are not yet prepared, meaning only a relatively small number of consumers will initially be able to access the funds for a limited selection of programs.
“There’s a huge awareness gap with people not understanding what it is, what programs are eligible and how much they can get,” said Devin Purgason, associate vice president of student experience, marketing and outreach at Forsyth Tech, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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The new policy, known as Workforce Pell, expands the reach of federal Pell Grants by enabling lower-income learners to pay not only for associate or bachelor’s degrees, but also for nondegree job training as brief as eight weeks — previously ineligible — in high-demand fields such as nursing, phlebotomy, child care, truck-driving, welding, car repair and HVAC. This comes at a moment when two-thirds of registered voters believe a four-year degree is no longer worth the cost.
Approved less than a year ago as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Workforce Pell has had to be implemented so rapidly that the National Governors Association describes it as “one of the most consequential near-term policy challenges” states have encountered.
While the provisions officially take effect July 20, states and institutions can begin as early as July 1. However, most are still working to determine which training programs will meet the dozens of pages of eligibility criteria. The governors association has advised members to initially approve only a limited number of the highest-quality programs.
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“I don’t know that this is going to be a ribbon-cutting kind of moment on July 1,” said Autumn Rivera, senior policy specialist for state and federal education and workforce at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “It’s one of those things where the states are trying to wrap their heads around this still.”
One consequence is that, despite how significant a change Workforce Pell may appear, it is almost certain to begin on a small scale. As few as several hundred of the tens of thousands of nondegree programs available are likely to initially meet the eligibility criteria — which include requirements that at least 70 percent of learners successfully complete programs and secure jobs within six months that pay enough to justify the cost — according to the U.S. Department of Education.
As many as 28,000 may eventually qualify, Nicholas Kent, undersecretary of education, told a conference of education journalists.
More than half of nondegree programs in the trades and business, and about half in health, are expected to be covered, but as few as 4 percent will qualify in “public service and consumer” fields, which include areas like early childhood education, retail and culinary arts, fashion and interior design, the department estimates. In one state, North Carolina, a consultant hired to compare all types of community college nondegree programs with Workforce Pell requirements found that only about 4 percent were eligible.
While more than 4 million students annually take nondegree courses at community colleges alone, according to the American Association of Community Colleges, the Department of Education expects between 184,000 and 188,000 per year to benefit from Workforce Pell. The Congressional Budget Office projects the number will be closer to 100,000. That compares to 7.4 million recipients who receive Pell Grants annually for bachelor’s and associate degrees.
Related: Five big changes coming to higher education July 1
Still, payouts averaging about $2,200 each will become available beginning this summer to learners in nondegree programs who previously lacked access to federal Pell Grants. These include courses leading to certificates, occupational licenses and certifications.
“It’s a way that learners can really think about, ‘Hey, I can go back and get that critical credential of value to become upwardly mobile,’ ” said Priscilla Camacho, chief legislative, industry and external relations officer at the Alamo Colleges District in San Antonio, Texas.
Like Forsyth Tech, Alamo is preparing to promote its Workforce Pell-eligible programs — in its case, with a one-minute video that avoids complex insider jargon. “Your fast path to in-demand careers,” it calls them, simply.
“Even though we offer these opportunities for short-term learning, the folks we talk to in focus groups don’t see themselves as students,” said Kristi Wyatt, Alamo’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, marketing and brand experience. “Many of them are working adults with families, and they are looking for the quickest way of upskilling themselves.”
The average age of people traditionally enrolled in nondegree courses is 38, according to research based on data from occupational training in Texas, which makes them harder to locate and recruit than, for example, high school students.
Surveys show that fewer than half of people who could most benefit from these nondegree programs are aware of them.
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Not even college counselors and career advisers are prepared to advise consumers about the types of programs covered by Workforce Pell, a survey by the National College Attainment Network found. Fewer than one in 10 said they felt very confident explaining the programs, while 40 percent said they were not very or not at all confident.
“A lot of these populations don’t know this exists,” said Rivera, of the association of state legislatures. “That’s one of the main concerns our membership has raised.”
There are other obstacles. The legislation largely left it to states to determine which fields are in highest demand and which programs meet the requirements, including graduates securing jobs and earning salaries that justify the cost of training. At least a quarter of states have not previously collected this data, research shows.
Where such information is available, it is often spread across different agencies, is incomplete and limited, and excludes people who are self-employed or work for the government or military, which are not part of the unemployment insurance system commonly used to track employment histories, an analysis by the consulting firm HCM Strategists found.
Without solid reporting on outcomes, advocates fear that the sudden infusion of federal cash could lead to deceptive recruiting tactics and other risks to consumers that have historically characterized some nondegree programs.
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In the past, “short-term programs were attractive to abusive colleges because they could churn a lot of students through in a short amount of time,” said James Kvaal, undersecretary of education during the Biden administration and now vice president of the National Program at the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Navigating the vast number of credential programs of all kinds has only become more difficult. There are nearly 1.9 million such programs offered in the United States, by 134,491 providers, including both degree and nondegree, according to the nonprofit Counting Credentials project.
Related: Faster, thinner: Colleges are swiftly trimming a B.A. degree to three years
Returns vary widely. One study by researchers at the University of Michigan and the Strada Education Foundation found that graduates from nondegree programs at community colleges in Texas earned about 4 percent more, two years after finishing, than they made before enrolling. But the increase for those trained in transportation and engineering technologies was two to four times higher, while learners who studied business, marketing, information sciences, communication and design saw essentially no gain at all.
A separate study of 23,000 nondegree credentials by the American Enterprise Institute and the Burning Glass Institute found that slightly more than one in 10 resulted in a 10 percent or higher increase in pay.
Still, there is pushback from providers — many of them for-profit schools — that teach programs almost certain to be disqualified from Workforce Pell. Eighty-three percent of the objections to it during a comment period were in defense of schools that teach those subjects, an analysis by higher education consultant Phil Hill and Associates found. Nearly 93 percent of cosmetology programs won’t meet the requirements, for example, Hill has calculated.
Those with programs that likely will qualify, meanwhile, said they are eager to get started.
“The opportunity is going to be great,” said Purgason, at Forsyth Tech. “I just think we’re going to be very slow at this.”
Contact writer Jon Marcus at 212-678-7556, jmarcus@hechingerreport.org or jpm.82 on Signal.
This story about Pell Grants for job training was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast.
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by Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report June 11, 2026