Paul Fain

Washington, D.C.

Journalist and Analyst at Freelance

Editor, The Job at Open Campus

Writes about connections between education and work. Not here much.

Articles

Big Goals, Bigger Budget Cuts

1 week ago | workshift.org | Paul Fain |Elyse Ashburn

An outline emerges of Trump’s plan to unify federal job training, boost apprenticeship, and give state governments more control of the money. But experts say the administration’s huge proposed budget cuts say more than its vague rhetoric. Also, an essay on covering living expenses for learners in short-term training.
Open edX Platform for Training on Real-World Skills Expands its Reach

2 weeks ago | workshift.org | Paul Fain

The online titan Western Governors University is experimenting with an open-source learning platform. So are Verizon and the Indian government. And the platform’s leaders want to help community colleges take the plunge on competency-based education. Open edX was created in 2012, and later powered edX, a groundbreaking online learning venture managed by MIT and Harvard University.
White House Aims to Boost Apprenticeship

3 weeks ago | workshift.org | Elyse Ashburn |Paul Fain

President Trump released a series of education-focused executive orders Wednesday, including ones on artificial intelligence in K-12 education, reforming higher education accreditation, and registered apprenticeship. The Details: In the executive order on workforce training and apprenticeship, the White House directed the secretaries of the Labor, Commerce, and Education Departments to develop a plan for the United States to reach at least 1M new active apprentices.
Calbright Sees Promise with Personalized Timelines for Earning Certificates

3 weeks ago | workshift.org | Paul Fain

Part of the mission of California’s Calbright College is to serve as an R&D lab for the community college sector. And early results are in from the online college’s successful experiments in meeting the needs of working learners, with potentially broad applications for higher education. Calbright had a slow start after its creation in 2018 by California’s Legislature.
Training EV Technicians

3 weeks ago | workshift.org | Paul Fain

Startup creates transferable training for EV technicians to close an education gap and boost sagging numbers of certified automotive technicians. Also, governors get creative to reshape workforce systems but are held back by federal rules, and Trump’s budget slashing hits nonprofit workforce training providers. The U.S. market for electric vehicles has been bumpy of late, with cooling demand and partisan headwinds.
Manufacturing Apprenticeships

3 weeks ago | workshift.org | Paul Fain

The Trump administration promises to train millions of Americans for jobs in high-tech manufacturing. Apprenticeship will be part of the solution if the industry expands, including creative takes like a new apprenticeship degree in Tennessee. Also, essays on how to fix credential chaos, and on the CredLens experiment. It remains unclear if President Trump’s on-and-off tariffs are intended to “reshore” U.S. manufacturing capacity.
Shift to Skills

1 month ago | workshift.org | Paul Fain

Indiana will need to upskill or reskill more than 82K working learners with nondegree credentials every year for the state to meet its workforce demands and ensure economic growth. That’s the bottom-line finding of a new study from Ivy Tech Community College, the state’s two-year college system, and TEConomy partners, a research firm. Ivy Tech currently enrolls 25K learners annually in skills training and other workforce-related programs, such as apprenticeships.
Indiana College System Taps Employers as Co-Developers of Talent

1 month ago | workshift.org | Paul Fain

Indiana will need to upskill or reskill more than 82K working learners with nondegree credentials every year for the state to meet its workforce demands and ensure economic growth. That’s the bottom-line finding of a new study from Ivy Tech Community College, the state’s two-year college system, and TEConomy partners, a research firm. Ivy Tech currently enrolls 25K learners annually in skills training and other workforce-related programs, such as apprenticeships.
Start-Up Aims to Push Transferable Training for EV Technicians Nationwide

1 month ago | workshift.org | Paul Fain

The U.S. market for electric vehicles has been bumpy of late, with cooling demand and partisan headwinds. Yet EV sales still grew rapidly last year in this country, and the industry is expected to drive substantial job growth across manufacturing and , as well as for automotive technicians.
More Apprenticeship Cuts

1 month ago | workshift.org | Paul Fain

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has put a dent in optimism among workforce pros that the Trump administration will back nondegree training with money that matches its rhetoric. In addition to apprenticeship-related federal cuts we reported on last week—including grants for apprenticeship-degree programs and research projects—budget slashing at the U.S. Department of Labor is coming into focus.