With the inauguration behind us and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris officially at the helm, the work of federal agencies to carry out the Biden-Harris agenda is in full swing. The First 100 Days are critical to setting the tone for an agency's priorities. ED2WORK's Marie Cini and Steven Taylor share their perspectives on how the new administration can best support working learners as they navigate an uncertain economy.

At the root of our collective response to COVID-19 is a deep fear that the world as we know it will be fundamentally changed. News of college and university closings, enrollment drops, rising unemployment, and the break in the strong historical link between postsecondary growth and social/economic mobility has most of us reeling. But if higher education can use this time to transform and develop new ways to serve individuals across the lifespan, all can benefit.

Twenty-eight organizations came together following the presidential election to urge President-Elect Biden and his transition team to prioritize higher education in the incoming Biden Administration. The letter, spearheaded by Higher Learning Advocates, urged the President-Elect to select a Secretary of Education and other senior officials who will understand key higher education policies and the needs of today’s students.

The pandemic created a deep anxiety about the future and hit some communities harder than others. In this piece, ED2WORK's chief strategy officer, Marie Cini, articulates a vision for a post-COVID higher education system that embraces "both-and" thinking to prepare all learners for careers that will shift and adapt over several disruptions across a longer career and life. She argues that as a society we must collectively embrace equitable outcomes for all rather than maintain the artificial inequities inherent in traditional higher education.

A new ED2WORK white paper by ED2WORK's Marie Cini and Steven Taylor analyzes a novel high school for working students in Montgomery County, Maryland, the TranZed Academy for Working Students (TAWS). The authors highlight how and why today’s students can benefit from simultaneous work and learning when intentionally designed to complement one another. The paper shares how a collaboration of leaders across government, education, and business came together to develop a new model to support the growing number of students for whom the traditional high school model no longer works.

A new article by ED2WORK CEO, Steven Taylor, and Chief Strategy Officer, Marie Cini, provides insights on what a growing gig economy means for employers, the talent marketplace, and what's needed for gig workers and freelancers to succeed in an increasingly competitive labor market. The authors suggest a national policy discussion is needed to support gig economy workers.

In a new Real Clear Education article, ED2WORK chief strategy officer, Marie Cini, and advisory council member Eric Bing share how colleges can address the COVID-19 challenges head-on by employing strategic blended learning, short-term credentials, and PLA strategies to better serve the students who need postsecondary education the most.

In a new study, Wendy Kilgore of AACRAO, Steven Taylor of ED2WORK and ACE, and Karina Pineda of ACE explore how students around the U.S. experience the credit transfer process. The study point to the importance of academic advising and clear communication from institutions. It also highlights transfer students' opinions about the application and award of their transfer credit, the enablers and barriers to their successful transfer of credit, and how they felt about the credits that did not transfer.

As the COVID-19 brings to light many of the pressing challenges facing higher education, experts are looking to alternative models, like the intentionally designed continuous learning model, to solve problems of inequity, inaccessibility and inflexibility. ED2WORK's Steven Taylor, founder and CEO, and Marie Cini, chief strategy officer, share how higher education and employers can leverage the challenge of the time to create positive, lasting change.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many students and schools to realize the importance of increasing access to education through digital channels. ED2WORK's Marie Cini, chief strategy officer, shares insights from her decades of experience leading online learning at institutions to share what schools can do to offer high-quality programs in more ways than ever before. The article, "The 3 Keys to Developing Successful Online Education Programs" is published in Education and Career News.

Following its earlier support to expand access to high-quality internet in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19 and shift to remote work and learning, ED2WORK joined 60 other education, workforce and community groups to endorse the Emergency Broadband Connections Act. The Act provides support to workers who have been laid off or furloughed, aids workers and families that need broadband to find jobs and access health care, education and other services

On April 24, 2020, ED2WORK and 52 other higher education and related organizations and leaders sent a letter to Congressional leadership "to act swiftly to support today’s students by bolstering broadband connectivity for postsecondary students through COVID-19 emergency response legislation."

A new article in the peer-reviewed journal, New Directions for Community Colleges, discusses issues that arise when trying to assess the quality of credentials in a new credentialing market and presents elements of an evolving outcomes-based quality assurance model.

With more college graduates than ever embarking on unanticipated career paths, faculty and institutional leaders should be providing curriculum to students that will serve them beyond their specific fields of study and allow them to be better prepared for a changing workforce, according to a new paper published by ACE.

To reduce the financial burden that graduation and other fees place on students, especially in rural areas, ED2WORK removed that burden for students at Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College with a sponsorship to cover costs associated with Spring 2020 commencement, and to establish a fund for students' membership dues to Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges.