Webinars
The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) is hosting a webinar series highlighting recent work of the Noncredit Research Collaborative.
The series is funded by Lumina Foundation.
May 12, 2026
Researchers Katherine Hughes and Nicole Sandelier Boyd presented findings from a study released earlier this year titled, Why Now? Understanding Pathways to Enrollment in Community College Noncredit Workforce Programs. The study, authored by Katherine Hughes, Nicole Sandelier Boyd, Maria Luz Espino, and Michelle Van Noy focused on noncredit workforce students at three community colleges. They shared what students are saying about their experiences in noncredit education.
February 26, 2026
Di Xu presented evidence from Virginia’s FastForward program on the labor market impacts of noncredit workforce credentials, highlighting significant earnings gains and pathways into higher-paying industries for adult learners.
December 3, 2025
Millions of community college students enroll in noncredit programs every year—most in occupational training—but there are few large-scale studies of how these programs affect students’ labor market opportunities. In this webinar, Peter Bahr discussed his recent research with Rooney Columbus on the returns to community college noncredit occupational education in Texas. Bahr highlighted the implications of their findings for the implementation of Workforce Pell Grants and state-level policy initiatives aimed at strengthening workforce readiness in priority industries—efforts that often rely on community colleges as central partners.
October 7, 2025
Michelle Van Noy and Mark D’Amico shared information about the recently passed Workforce Pell legislation and lessons learned from the State Noncredit Data Project. They used data learned from eight partner states to describe some of assets and gaps in state noncredit data that will have bearing on pre-identifying potentially eligible programs and proposed a series of recommendations about how to move toward successful Workforce Pell implementation.