These actions further align the postsecondary and workforce education programs of ED and DOL and will position DOL as the central hub for America's postsecondary education and workforce development programs. Through the agreement, Labor is essentially administering ED grant programs, while ED continues to set the budget, criteria and priorities for the programs and manage hiring and other HR processes.
The XRP is already used in 180 countries, as well as six graduate courses here at Cornell. And the governors of New Hampshire, Minnesota and Ohio have pledged and are already working toward putting at least one in every high school.
The funding marks the sixth round of Strengthening Community College Training Grants, administered by the department's Employment and Training Administration. Community colleges will be able to receive awards up to $11 million to support their efforts to create Workforce Pell-eligible programs. The money can also help community college systems or consortia develop processes for tracking outcomes data required by Workforce Pell.
Care for children from 6 weeks to age 2 is complex, workforce intensive, and costly to deliver. If universal child care is going to become a reality, it must be built with, not merely for, the providers who already carry the system. To ensure it is sustainable, equitable, and grounded in operational reality, we must include family child care providers, community based nonprofit organizations, and long standing neighborhood institutions that have served working families for decades.
The campaign points employers to our Industry Support Hub, a central conduit that helps businesses hire students, build internship programs, collaborate with faculty and utilize our campus facilities. This work complements and supports CUNY Beyond, our university-wide initiative to foster career readiness. Launched in the fall, CUNY Beyond is all about preparing students for what comes next. Power Your Business with CUNY brings employers into that journey, connecting classroom learning to workplace opportunity.
According to federal data, 24 percent of New York adults are at the lowest levels of literacy, defined by the advocacy organization Literacy New York as being either functionally illiterate (reading below a fifth grade level), lacking a high school diploma, or being unable to speak English. That same data shows Brooklyn and Queens rates are roughly ten percent higher than the state average, and in the Bronx, a whopping 50 percent of adults do not have basic literacy skills.
Brown reached an agreement with the Trump administration last summer to restore millions of dollars in federal research funding and to end federal investigations into the institution. In exchange, the university agreed to pay $50 million to organizations in Rhode Island focused on workforce training over the next 10 years. Several other universities reached similar deals with the administration to restore federal funding, though the details of what the schools would pay vary greatly.
We are proud to begin implementing this historic partnership that will not only create a better coordinated federal approach to postsecondary education and workforce development, but will also ensure that students pursuing higher education pursue programs aligned with their career goals and workforce needs," Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education David Barker said in a statement.
The Learning and Development (L&D) landscape relied on the same standardized programs and inflexible slide decks for decades. This model complied with basic training on a repeat basis. Basic training overshadowed what true talent development could (and should) offer. The pace of business transformation has surpassed our capacity to keep curricula up to date. Today, the old training model isn't just inefficient; it is insufficient.
Think about an employee who wants to improve their skills and knowledge. They work hard to grow both personally and professionally through continuous learning. Now, think about someone who doesn't want to change and sticks to their old habits. Who would be a better asset to your business? It's clear that staffers who focus on self-improvement are much more valuable. They contribute to a culture of learning and support leaders in growing the business steadily.
At the Center for Academic Innovation, my role as the inaugural Chief Education Solutions Officer (or CESO) is to open a new learning innovation horizon for the Center and help U-M achieve its next tier of educational impact. I do this by creating sustainable strategic partnerships that enable us to serve workforce and talent development needs of external organizations.
A new global survey encompassing the views of 1,540 board members and C-suite executives reveals that while corporate leaders are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) with optimism, a far more profound and existential talent crisis is emerging: the disappearance of the pathways that traditionally developed senior-level strategic expertise. AI is exposing not merely a lack of technical skills, but a critical thinking gap threatening the organizational pipeline needed to oversee and optimize these powerful new systems. In a moderated discussion with Joe Kornik, Senior Director, Editorial Programs, Protiviti, a series of experts and top executives from the consulting firm revealed the biggest concerns on executives' minds heading into 2026, during a lunchtime panel in New York City.
