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Starting today, a federal program will pay for short-term workforce training. It's an expansion of the Federal Pell Grant program, which helps low-income students pay for college. But as NPR's Elissa Nadworny reports, very few existing programs will actually qualify, at least at first.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: In a night class at St. Paul College in the Twin Cities...
MELISSA SIEBENALER: Get in your groups, and let's get started.
NADWORNY: ...Instructor Melissa Siebenaler is helping students practice their nursing skills.
SIEBENALER: I'm pouring fake urine into a catheter bag so that they can practice emptying a catheter bag.
NADWORNY: It's a certified nursing assistant program. Their state exam is in a few weeks.
What are you guys working on now?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oh, we're still doing the same practice with the bed pan.
NADWORNY: The class was exactly what members of Congress were targeting when they allowed using Federal Pell Grants - free money for low-income students - to help pay for these short-term programs.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: We're going to measure urine. It'll be interesting. Hopefully not smelly (laughter).
NADWORNY: All across the country, CNAs are in demand, and getting the certificate leads to a good-paying job. But like thousands of existing workforce training programs, this one doesn't meet the stringent rules of the new law. None of St. Paul College's workforce programs do.
JENNIFER HUSTON: I think maybe a year ago, I was living in a world where I was like, oh, my gosh, July 1 is going to be so great, and we're just going to start, you know, handing out money to people.
NADWORNY: Jennifer Huston runs workforce training at St. Paul College.
HUSTON: Slowly, as we got closer and closer to July 1, you realize, like, no. It's going to take us a while to get there, but we're going to get there.
NADWORNY: In addition to being an in-demand field and having demonstrated higher earnings, programs have to be at least 150 instructional hours.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: And then can you turn around for me?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: And grab the arms of the wheelchair and then sit down.
NADWORNY: This CNA class at St. Paul is only 112. All across the country, community colleges are finding many of their workforce training programs are too short or too long.
CARRIE WARICK-SMITH: There is still a great amount of optimism. I think the reality that's setting in is that July 1 is not a floodgate. It is a start point of the marathon.
NADWORNY: Carrie Warick-Smith oversees federal policy at the Association of Community College Trustees.
WARICK-SMITH: And what I have been telling colleges from the beginning is that they should really treat this year as a pilot year.
NADWORNY: St. Paul College, for instance, is going to lengthen its CNA class by combining it with another medical certificate program. In addition to meeting the length qualifications, colleges need good employment data and state approval and federal approval. But there are colleges that are further along.
LLOYD DUMAN: We sit on Lake Coeur d'Alene, which is a huge lake, and it's just beautiful.
NADWORNY: About 1,500 miles away from St. Paul, Lloyd Duman has been the interim provost at North Idaho College for the past four years. It is submitting five programs for Workforce Pell - in welding and HVAC and their CNA program, which does qualify.
DUMAN: Hopefully, our workforce training introduces students into particular programs.
NADWORNY: He sees this expansion as a pipeline opportunity for students.
DUMAN: So they could come in and get skills, go out into the workforce, maybe decide that they need more skill, come back to the college. That's what we hope (laughter) it might be. And this is kind of the beginning of that.
NADWORNY: From a workforce training program to an associate's degree, maybe even onto a bachelor's. For most students, though, that journey and the free money to start it isn't likely to begin until at least next spring. Elissa Nadworny, NPR News, St. Paul, Minnesota.
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