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Indiana has more than 500 job openings for medical assistants, but training for the job isn鈥檛 cheap 鈥� between $1,500 and $4,000 at lower-cost schools, such as Indiana鈥檚 Ivy Tech Community College.

The reduced $1,500 tuition for low-income people the college offers is still a challenge for students trying to bootstrap their way to an entry-level job.

But a major expansion of Pell Grants, long a key part of college financial aid, will soon pay for a big part of career training programs and can make some programs like Ivy Tech鈥檚 essentially free to low-income students. 

New Workforce Pell Grants created by Congress last year and rolling out this summer, will help pay for training for career credentials taking less than four months, potentially in fields such as nursing, commercial truck driving or cosmetology. The change breaks Pell鈥檚 longstanding restriction to only pay for degree programs, which usually take two years or more.

With Americans losing faith in colleges and seeking less-costly, less time-consuming ways to train for jobs, short-term programs that help students earn credentials have grown in popularity, tripling by some measures. 

Quick credentials rarely lead to jobs with middle class pay 鈥� some less than $30,000 a year. Experts say students should look at them as just a building block to adding skills over time, but the grants will help students start working for more than minimum wage. 

鈥淭his is going to give students a real opportunity to enter into higher education for the first time, where they’re going to take on little to no debt鈥�and get into the workforce faster,鈥� Nicholas Kent, federal under secretary of education, told reporters earlier this year.

Grant amounts depend on a student鈥檚 finances, but those with low income can receive as much as $4,000 to cover training costs, depending on the length of the program. Students in Ivy Tech鈥檚, at just eight weeks long, would receive about $1,800, leaving a few hundred dollars extra to pay for books and transportation.

鈥淭his is going to be a huge benefit to both students and employers,鈥� said Molly Dodge, senior vice president of workforce and careers at Ivy Tech. 鈥淲e can reach more students who have financial need and support their education and training.鈥�

Iris Palmer, an analyst for non鈥攑rofit think tank New America, agreed that Workforce Pell will be a big help to some students. She pointed to an analysis last year by the Pew Charitable Trust showing most people are paying for the costs of work credentials out of pocket, without help from loans or grants. 

鈥淚t will help a group of people not pay for these things on their credit cards,鈥� Palmer said.

Originally created by Congress as Basic Educational Opportunity Grants in 1972, the Pell Grants are the single biggest source of federal financial aid grants for low- and moderate-income students attending college. Students receive between $740 and $7,400 a year, depending on family size and income, toward associates and bachelors degree programs.

Making smaller Pell Grants available for work training has been a goal of some legislators and advocates for two decades or more, and was even tested as a pilot at a few colleges between 2012 and 2017.

After years of debate, Congress created the Workforce Pell as part of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill last summer. The U.S. Department of Education released detailed rules in May to make sure grants cover training with a track record of helping students and the program officially launched July 1.

Rollout will be slow, though, as states sort through requirements that programs serve in-demand jobs, have a shorter length than traditional Pell (150 to 599 clock hours over 8 to15 weeks), show that students are hired quickly after finishing and lead to pay of at least $24,000 a year, all factors that vary by program and local economies. 

States have to approve programs individually, before sending them to the U.S. Department of Education for a final decision, which has states at varying stages of accepting, reviewing and approving applications from colleges. In many cases, income data for each program isn鈥檛 readily available or existing programs are a little shorter or longer than the new requirements, so they are not eligible without changes.

鈥淚t’s going to take a while for states and institutions to figure out,鈥� said Randall Stamper, who leads work training efforts at Virginia鈥檚 community colleges. 鈥淚t’s just not plug and play.鈥� 

The U.S. Department of Education has only approved one 鈥� a 14-week EMT training program at Iowa Central Community College 鈥� while other states are still deciding which programs to even submit for federal approval. 

Ohio, for example, has received applications from six community colleges for 10 programs ranging from firefighting to nursing and Emergency Medical Technician training. Ohio鈥檚 Department of Higher Education has rejected a few applications for not meeting requirements and has yet to approve any to pass on to Washington.

In Indiana, Ivy Tech, the statewide community college, its Certified Medical Assistant training was the only program that could immediately meet all the requirements. The state submitted that program for federal approval in July but is still waiting for a decision.

Dodge said the school is looking at other programs it can adapt, sometimes by adjusting training length, or if there are new ones it can create with businesses to help fill their needs for employees.

鈥淲e really wanted to enable our campuses to have a program right off the bat to help us test this model,鈥� Dodge said. 鈥淚t’s brand new 鈥� We want a program that we can pilot, learn from, and then take those lessons learned into new program offerings.鈥�

Stamper said Virginia has few programs that immediately qualify, despite a statewide effort called Fast Forward aimed at helping students earn credentials at community colleges as fast as possible. Sometimes students can earn a credential in six or seven weeks or in just 80 to 120 hours 鈥� too fast, he said, to fit the Workforce Pell rules.

Virginia, like other states, is exploring whether to adjust programs by a few hours or bundle training for a few certificates into one program, but Stamper said it won鈥檛 add extra hours only to qualify.

鈥淚f a student can go to a college and earn a valuable credential in four weeks that will get them employed鈥�I am reluctant to force that student to stay twice as long simply to be able to apply for a portion of federal money to pay for the tuition,鈥� he said.

Stamper understands why Congress and the Department of Education set the rules, though.

鈥淒o I think that some valuable programs are not going to be eligible because they miss that duration? Yeah, I do,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I recognize the need to try to have some way to ensure value to a student if they’re going to receive Pell to pay for it. It’s a hard needle to thread.鈥�

With so few programs immediately matching Workforce Pell鈥檚 requirements, it鈥檚 hard for students to know if and when they might receive the help pursuing their field. But experts offer some hints at which fields are likely to have qualifying programs.

Georgetown University鈥檚 Center on Education and the Workforce, at the request of 91涩漫, combined income data it tracks with a list of fields that require training that roughly meets the range covered by Workforce Pell. Researchers there found that training for welding, auto repair, cosmetology and early childhood education could potentially qualify, along with the fields colleges are already applying for.

A separate analysis of earnings of training programs in Washington state by American University鈥檚 Postsecondary Education and Economics Research (PEER) Center found that 

training for fields such as vehicle maintenance, medical assisting, and clinical lab science are likely to qualify, but programs for practical nursing and cosmetology may not meet income requirements.

PEER鈥檚 analysis differs from Georgetown’s, notably, on cosmetology, which often has such low pay that people often earn less than people with just high school degrees even after paying for training and earning a license.

Cosmetology is one field where low pay will make Workforce Pell approval variable, depending on program cost and local demand and pay. But advocates say requiring programs and states to find real hiring and income data is forcing hard looks at the real value of all training programs, not just those applying for Workforce Pell, that should eventually weed out programs students may be wasting time and money on now.

Jeff Strohl, director of Georgetown鈥檚 center, said students should consider the pay a program leads to carefully. Though a quick credential can give students an immediate pay boost, that credential alone is usually not enough to earn middle class wages over time. Students should consider them a first step and stack other credentials or degrees together as they go.

鈥淣ot many of these bring a non-poverty wage if that’s all you get,鈥� he cautioned. 鈥淲e have to be really, really careful trying to sell youth that you can go take a six-week course and expect to be getting a living wage.鈥�

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