Goal: Increase Postsecondary Credential Attainment
Year 1 Priorities:
- Execute strategic communications plan that effectively relays the benefits of postsecondary education for individuals, communities, and employers
- Establish web-based, interactive data dashboards displaying the connection between specific credentials, employment and outcomes, including how specific credentials lead to specific jobs and wages.
- Conduct regional analyses to determine the degree to which residents have access to a full complement of postsecondary education options
- Conduct regional analyses to identify the largest structural barriers to postsecondary retention and attainment with a focus on transportation, internet access, and availability of childcare.
- Identify research-based best practices aligned to supporting and retaining students through to credential attainment
- Conduct analyses and consult postsecondary fiscal policy experts to identify reinvestment strategies aligned to increasing postsecondary attainment
- Delineate linkage between reinvestment dollars and attainment and other critical state outcomes
- Identify the most effective strategies enacted in other states to increase the attainment levels of adult students
Goal 2: Ensure Afffordable Pathways to Postsecondary Credentials
Year 1 Priorities:
- Compile and make available comprehensive information regarding college costs and all types of available financial aid, and net cost of college attendance
- Facilitate the expansion of dual credit funding and enrollment with an emphasis on underserved students and accumulating credits towards workforce-relevant credentials
- Facilitate the expansion of enrollment in CTE aligned with workforce-ready credentials and the number of postsecondary credits obtained upon high school graduation
- Facilitate the expansion of transfer policies, including short-term and micro-credentials, and other postsecondary learning
- Conduct analysis to assess the effectiveness of existing PA state aid programs in maximizing affordability and reducing student debt for different economic brackets.
- Work collaboratively with PA Department of Labor & Industry, PDE and other stakeholders to effectively deploy Workforce Pell grants.
- Explore options to eliminate or reduce additional tuition paid by community college students who do not reside in sponsoring school districts or counties.
- Facilitate the expansion of higher education apprenticeships pathways for high demand, high value career fields and participation in other paid work experiences and skills building (e.g., internships, co-ops, practica, service learning, utilizing ‘research-innovation’ assets as worksites, etc.).
Goal 3: Support the Economic Development Needs of the Commonwealth
Year 1 Priorities:
- Ensure higher education is included in statewide, cross-agency strategic efforts to advance economic development
- Strengthen and expand existing regional economic development partnerships by ensuring strong postsecondary engagement
- Recommend strategies and incentives for aligning postsecondary institutional priorities with regional and statewide economic development goals
- Communicate the value of higher education to the economic well-bring of communities and the Commonwealth
- Recommend policies, resources and incentives to support the commercialization and transfer of R&D in Pennsylvania
- Recommend policies, resources, and incentives to support the commercialization and transfer of R&D in Pennsylvania
- Recommend policies and resources to attract our of state students to Pennsylvania’s postsecondary institutions and retain them in Pennsylvania, post graduation.
Goal 4: Support the Workforce Development Needs of the Commonwealth
Year 1 Priorities:
- Strengthen and expand existing regional workforce development partnerships by ensuring strong postsecondary and employer collaboration in identifying credentials of value.
- Recommend policies and resources that expand postsecondary opportunities aligned to workforce needs in rural communities.
- Ensure that regional variations—in particular, the specific needs of rural and urban communities—are understood and factored into workforce development strategies.
- Utilize labor market information, cross-sector partnerships and employer engagement to identify credentials of value needed in each region and statewide.
- Assess and streamline the deployment of existing or new resources to expand opportunities for students (e.g., adults, working professionals, justice-oriented individuals and modern learners) to earn a credential of value.
- Monitor current trends impacting the intersection of work and higher education, including technological advancements and labor market trends
- Create web-based interactive tools that can be used to identify local and regional employment opportunities and the credential programs aligned to them.
- Strengthen existing and develop new partnerships among postsecondary institutions, employers, labor organizations and workforce systems to expand opportunities for participation in paid work experiences and skills building (e.g., apprenticeships, internships, co-ops, practica, service learning, utilizing ‘research-innovation assets as worksites).
- Identify and recommend policy and resource opportunities to implement proof of concepts and best practices to scale the delivery of workforce education and training aligned to employer demand
- Collaborate with key stakeholders, including K-12 and postsecondary institutions, employers, and local workforce development boards, labor organizations, and industry representatives, across Pennsylvania to develop and execute Workforce Pell strategies aligned with high-demand, high-value short-term credentials.
Goal 5: Ensure Accountability and Efficient, Effective Use of State Funds
Year 1 Priorities:
- Identify and recommend best-in-class strategies for aligning state resources to critical student- and institutional-level goals
- Identify and recommend strategies to better define sector-specific missions and align efforts and resources to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and reduce unnecessary duplication
- Develop template of data elements needed to prove transparency and illustrate higher education contributions
- Utilize already-existing state, federal and national data to minimize burden on higher education institutions
- Develop a repository of examples of how institutions and sectors are effectively using state funds to advance state and regional goals
- Engage key stakeholders regularly in the development of the data dashboard
- Update the data dashboards annually
Goal 6: Strengthen the Fiscal Health and Stability of the Higher Education Sector
Year 1 Priorities:
- Identify and disseminate best practices to promote efficiency and cost-savings without sacrificing educational quality (e.g., shared back-office services; institutional partnerships)
- Identify state of the art predictive analytics and estimation tools for institutions exploring solutions to fiscal instability and make available on SBHE website
- Create an advisory group to assist on such issues
- Identify state of the art tools and materials for institutions exploring mergers and closures and make available on the SBHE website
- Create an advisory group to assist on such issues