Workforce Pell is practical work. Collaborate with your colleagues to review programs, gather evidence, assign responsibilities, and make implementation decisions with confidence. This page helps colleges start with the basics: who should be involved, what to review first, and which documents to prepare before a program moves forward for deeper consideration.
What to do first:
- Form a small review team with financial aid, workforce or CTE, curriculum, IR, and leadership representation.
- Select one potential pilot program.
- Use a standard intake form to capture core facts about hours, length, credential, labor market relevance, and current program status. (see form 1)
- Create an evidence checklist for each program under review. (see form 2)
- Decide early whether missing outcomes, unclear credential value, or weak employer alignment are likely to delay progress.
Potential early hurdles:
- Starting with debate instead of a standard review process.
- Assuming every short-term program will be a good Workforce Pell candidate.
- Waiting too long to define data and evidence expectations.
- Treating the issue as a financial aid question rather than a cross-functional institutional effort.
First template set
Your first template set should be simple, reusable, and easy to adapt (see our free recommendation set). The goal is to create a shared campus process that surfaces the right questions quickly.
Start with the Short-Term Program Intake Form 1 (or your edited version) to capture the basic facts about the program, its credential, workforce relevance, available data, and any early compliance questions. Once that first review is complete, the remaining forms can support your team to organize evidence, assign responsibilities, prepare leadership recommendations, and track outcomes over time.
Start with Form 1: Short-Term Program Intake Form
