WIOA State Plan Common Elements

In 2013, Vermont passed a law requiring flexible pathways toward college and career readiness for all Vermont public students. Several components of this legislation are directly relevant to improving access to post-secondary credentials for Vermonters. As of November 2015, all seventh and ninth grade students have a personalized learning plan in place. A core component of these learning plans, typically crafted with school advisee-advisor periods, is the identification of relevant workforce opportunities for students along with educational pathways that are necessary to obtain such opportunities. The core partners will work together to ensure that relevant employment information, including the findings from the workforce assessment work, are made available to middle and high school educators so they may use this information to better inform students. Ensuring that graduating students have a clearer sense of exactly what type of post-high school educational credentials or high-quality certifications are necessary for specific jobs is critical to ensuring workforce success statewide.

Vermont also offers a robust, state-funded dual enrollment system to all high school students. Students are eligible to take two courses for college credit while they are still enrolled in high school, using these experiences to get a jump start, both experientially and financially, on their post-secondary endeavors. Some students leverage these dual enrollment opportunities with work-based learning in apprenticeships and industry shadowing opportunities to develop quite sophisticated personalized learning plans that have them on their way to college completion and workforce success upon high school graduation. In recent years, Vermont has also expanded its funding and opportunities related to early college, where high school seniors can unenroll from secondary school and enroll at select state colleges and universities during their senior year. 

In Act 80 of 2019, Vermont also set a goal that 70% of working-age Vermonters will hold a credential of value by 2025. It adopted a policy to “promote awareness of career pathways and the value of postsecondary education and training; expand access to postsecondary education and training to students of all ages; increase completion of postsecondary education and training programs by ensuring that Vermonters have the supports they need to succeed; and maximize partnerships across and within sectors to achieve State workforce development and education goals.” The core partners are working together, and as a state cohort receiving technical assistance from ETA, OCTAE, and OSERS on ways to define, develop, and promote more training opportunities that result in a credential. Further, the state’s aim to double the number of registered apprentices by 2023 and establish a system for approving pre-apprenticeship programs will help to bridge learning opportunities and increase the postsecondary credential attainment rate of Vermonters. 

The state’s Perkins V plan similarly tracks Vermont’s goal of prioritizing trainings that result in portable and stackable credentials that align with the state’s employment demands. WIOA partners and secondary and post-secondary CTE providers are working closely together to support the development of non-duplicative sequences of secondary and postsecondary courses within a CTE program of study to ensure that students transition to postsecondary education without duplicating classes or requiring remedial coursework. They are also developing clear, easy to understand systems of stackable credentials for secondary and adult students to reference as they work toward their career goals.