Connecting Adults to Postsecondary and Workforce Success

Enabling Adults without Degrees to Achieve Economic Mobility

The number of jobs requiring education and training beyond high school is expected to increase by 30 percent over the next decade. Yet today there are 40 million Americans who have some college credit but no degree. Municipalities have a key opportunity to connect these individuals to pathways that allow them to complete credentials and attain higher quality jobs. Creating a stronger ecosystem of support for adult students will propel them on a path to greater economic mobility and strengthen cities workforce and economy.

The Municipal Action Cohort: Connecting Adults with Postsecondary to Workforce Success is a partnership between the National League of Cities (NLC) and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). This partnership brings together NLC’s decades-long history of hands-on experience and CAEL’s postsecondary expertise to provide municipal leaders timely technical assistance, assessment, peer learning, and resources to strengthen pathways to postsecondary and workforce success.

This initiative is made possible through the generous support of the Kresge Foundation and Strada Education Foundation.

Municipal Action Cohort

The Municipal Action Cohort will engage four cities through 2024 and 2025 to help cities connect adults with postsecondary educational opportunities that lead to good jobs – particularly those with some college and who may be close to a terminal credential.

Cities will receive technical assistance to:

Strengthen collaboration between city leaders, postsecondary, and workforce partners.
Better understand the needs and desires of potential adult students and the barriers they are facing or may have previously faced during prior postsecondary experiences.
Develop action plans to re-engage adult learners and support students through completion of a credential.
Access the latest data on in-demand skills and opportunity occupations in their community, to ensure that institutions recruit adult students for education and training relevant to jobs available in their local labor markets.
Create innovative programs, policies, and practices to successfully bring adults back into postsecondary education settings that provide upward economic mobility.
Establish stronger city-led, cross-sector ecosystem of support for adult college students, including their critical basic needs.
Pioneer inventive and scalable solutions to build toward national movement of supporting postsecondary success and strengthened communities and economies.

NLC welcomes proposals from all cities in California, Florida, Michigan and Texas willing to work closely with postsecondary institutions, workforce development boards, community-based organizations, and other cross-sector partners to implement inventive programs, services, and policies to create a strong ecosystem of support to complete credentials on the path to high quality jobs.

Municipal Action Cohort

Cities will receive technical assistance to:

Strengthen collaboration between city leaders, postsecondary, and workforce partners.
Better understand the needs and desires of potential adult students and the barriers they are facing or may have previously faced during prior postsecondary experiences.
Develop action plans to re-engage adult learners and support students through completion of a credential.
Access the latest data on in-demand skills and opportunity occupations in their community, to ensure that institutions recruit adult students for education and training relevant to jobs available in their local labor markets.
Create innovative programs, policies, and practices to successfully bring adults back into postsecondary education settings that provide upward economic mobility.
Establish stronger city-led, cross-sector ecosystem of support for adult college students, including their critical basic needs.
Pioneer inventive and scalable solutions to build toward national movement of supporting postsecondary success and strengthened communities and economies.

Apply today to join the Municipal Action Cohort: Connecting Adults to Postsecondary and Workforce Success. Download the RFP now.

Deadline to submit all materials is January 15, 2024. Selection announcement will be later in January. For more information about this initiative, please contact the Education and Expanded Learning team at educationexpandedlearning@nlc.org.

Register for the December 11th Info Session!

Register for this informational webinar on December 11, 2023 at 2:00PM ET, to learn more about how joining this cohort could help residents in your city as well as to get your questions answered about the RFP process.