The TAACCCT Grant Program

Through the TAACCCT grant program, the federal government charged community colleges across the country with two things: training adults who had lost their jobs so they could regain employment and providing the education needed for those still working to be able to move up career ladders.

Credential attainment linked to good jobs was the centerpiece of TAACCCT, and this policy trained impressive numbers. Over 2,500 occupational-focused programs of study were created or improved in this large-scale nationwide effort to implement career pathways. In preliminary data reported on all four rounds of TAACCCT, a team of researchers at the Urban Institute reported in 2017 over 300,000 enrollments by mostly adult learners representing a diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds, primarily white, Black, and Latinx.¹ Persons with disabilities, veterans, Pell-eligible, and Trade Adjustment Act (TAA)-eligible recipients enrolled in TAACCCT, though their numbers were more modest than hoped.

Results of the TAACCCT grant program continue to emerge since federal funding ended two years ago, in fall 2018. Now, as health and economic concerns rise in this time of COVID-19, disproportionately impacting racially minoritized populations, low-income groups, and women,² we need to understand how the TAACCCT investment worked and how it could inform future policy and practice. Gathering information on career pathways is important to addressing persistent inequities in education and employment. Researchers at Georgetown University note the potential of career pathways contribute to educational attainment and upward mobility.³ Claiming college degrees go hand in hand with good jobs, they argue populations detrimentally impacted by crises such as the Great Recession and now COVID-19 have much to gain from a robust career pathways approach.