US Labor Department awards $65 million to build Workforce Pell training programs

The U.S. Department of Labor announced on September 23, 2026, that it had awarded $65 million in grants to community college consortia in seven states. The money is meant to help colleges develop short-term training programs that can qualify for Workforce Pell Grants, the federal student aid for short workforce programs that became available on July 1.

The awards form the sixth round of the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants, administered by the department's Employment and Training Administration. Lead recipients are in Colorado, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas. Individual awards ranged from about $6 million for the Community College of Rhode Island to $10.8 million for a consortium led by Hawkeye Community College in Iowa. The department said training will span sectors including artificial intelligence infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, construction and skilled trades, nuclear energy, information technology and shipbuilding, and that improved data integration between education and state workforce systems is a key component of this round.

UPCEA, an association for online and professional education, wrote that Workforce Pell covers programs of 150 to 599 clock hours, or 8 to fewer than 15 weeks, and that a governor must approve a program before an institution can submit it to the Department of Education. By late September, it said, fewer than two dozen programs, all at community colleges in five states, had cleared federal review.