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Miami Herald
10-07-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
To fill seats, more colleges offer credit for life experience
PITTSBURGH - Stephen Wells was trained in the Air Force to work on F-16 fighter jets, including critical radar, navigation and weapons systems whose proper functioning meant life or death for pilots. Yet when he left the service and tried to apply that expertise toward an education at Pittsburgh's Community College of Allegheny County, or CCAC, he was given just three credits toward a required class in physical education. Wells moved forward anyway, going on to get his bachelor's and doctoral degrees. Now he's CCAC's provost and involved in a citywide project to help other people transform their military and work experience into academic credit. What's happening in Pittsburgh is part of growing national momentum behind letting students - especially the increasing number who started but never completed a degree - cash in their life skills toward finally getting one, saving them time and money. Colleges and universities have long purported to provide what's known in higher education as credit for prior learning. But they have made the process so complex, slow and expensive that only about 1 in 10 students actually completes it. Many students don't even try, especially low-income learners who could benefit the most, according to a study by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, or CAEL. "It drives me nuts" that this promise has historically proven so elusive, Wells said, in his college's new Center for Education, Innovation & Training. That appears to be changing. Nearly half of institutions surveyed last year by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, or AACRAO, said they have added more ways for students to receive these credits - electricians, for example, who can apply some of their training toward academic courses in electrical engineering, and daycare workers who can use their experience to earn degrees in teaching. Related: Interested in innovations in higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter. The reason universities and colleges are doing this is simple: Nearly 38 million working-age Americans have spent some time in college but never finished, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Getting at least some of them to come back has become essential to these higher education institutions at a time when changing demographics mean that the number of 18-year-old high school graduates is falling. "When higher education institutions are fat and happy, nobody looks for these things. Only when those traditional pipelines dry up do we start looking for other potential populations," said Jeffrey Harmon, vice provost for strategic initiatives and institutional effectiveness at Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey, which has long given adult learners credit for the skills they bring. Being able to get credit for prior learning is a huge potential recruiting tool. Eighty-four percent of adults who are leaning toward going back to college say it would have "a strong influence" on their decision, according to research by CAEL, the Strada Education Foundation and Hanover Research. (Strada is among the funders of The Hechinger Report, which produced this story.) When Melissa DiMatteo, 38, decided to get an associate degree at CCAC to go further in her job, she got six credits for her previous training in Microsoft Office and her work experience as everything from a receptionist to a supervisor. That spared her from having to take two required courses in computer information and technology and - since she's going to school part time and taking one course per semester - saved her a year. "Taking those classes would have been a complete waste of my time," DiMatteo said. "These are things that I do every day. I supervise other people and train them on how to do this work." On average, students who get credit for prior learning save between $1,500 and $10,200 apiece and nearly seven months off the time it takes to earn a bachelor's degree, the nonprofit advocacy group Higher Learning Advocates calculates. The likelihood that they will graduate is 17 percent higher, the organization finds. Related: The number of 18-year-olds is about to drop sharply, packing a wallop for colleges - and the economy Justin Hand dropped out of college because of the cost, and became a largely self-taught information technology manager before he decided to go back and get an associate and then a bachelor's degree so he could move up in his career. He got 15 credits - a full semester's worth - through a program at the University of Memphis for which he wrote essays to prove he had already mastered software development, database management, computer networking and other skills. "These were all the things I do on a daily basis," said Hand, of Memphis, who is 50 and married, with a teenage son. "And I didn't want to have to prolong college any more than I needed to." Meanwhile, employers and policymakers are pushing colleges to speed up the output of graduates with skills required in the workforce, including by giving more students credit for their prior learning. And online behemoths Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University, with which brick-and-mortar colleges compete, are way ahead of them in conferring credit for past experience. "They've mastered this and used it as a marketing tool," said Kristen Vanselow, assistant vice president of innovative education and partnerships at Florida Gulf Coast University, which has expanded its awarding of credit for prior learning. "More traditional higher education institutions have been slower to adapt." It's also gotten easier to evaluate how skills that someone learns in life equate to academic courses or programs. This has traditionally required students to submit portfolios, take tests or write essays, as Hand did, and faculty to subjectively and individually assess them. Related: As colleges lose enrollment, some turn to one market that's growing: Hispanic students Now some institutions, states, systems and independent companies are standardizing this work or using artificial intelligence to do it. The growth of certifications from professional organizations such as Amazon Web Services and the Computing Technology Industry Association, or CompTIA, has helped, too. "You literally punch [an industry certification] into our database and it tells you what credit you can get," said Philip Giarraffa, executive director of articulation and academic pathways at Miami Dade College. "When I started here, that could take anywhere from two weeks to three months." Data provided by Miami Dade shows it has septupled the number of credits for prior learning awarded since 2020, from 1,197 then to 7,805 last year. "These are students that most likely would have looked elsewhere, whether to the [online] University of Phoenix or University of Maryland Global [Campus]" or other big competitors, Giarraffa said. Fifteen percent of undergraduates enrolled in higher education full time and 40 percent enrolled part time are 25 or older, federal data show - including people who delayed college to serve in the military, volunteer or do other work that could translate into academic credit. "Nobody wants to sit in a class where they already have all this knowledge," Giarraffa said. At Thomas Edison, police academy graduates qualify for up to 30 credits toward associate degrees. Carpenters who have completed apprenticeships can get as many as 74 credits in subjects including math, management and safety training. Bachelor's degrees are often a prerequisite for promotion for people in professions such as these, or who hope to start their own companies. Related:To fill 'education deserts,' more states want community colleges to offer bachelor's degrees The University of Memphis works with FedEx, headquartered nearby, to give employees with supervisory training academic credit they can use toward a degree in organizational leadership, helping them move up in the company. The University of North Carolina System last year launched its Military Equivalency System, which lets active-duty and former military service members find out almost instantly, before applying for admission, if their training could be used for academic credit. That had previously required contacting admissions offices, registrars or department chairs. Among the reasons for this reform was that so many of these prospective students - and the federal education benefits they get - were ending up at out-of-state universities, the UNC System's strategic plan notes. "We're trying to change that," said Kathie Sidner, the system's director of workforce and partnerships. It's not only for the sake of enrollment and revenue, Sidner said. "From a workforce standpoint, these individuals have tremendous skill sets and we want to retain them as opposed to them moving somewhere else." Related: A new way to help some college students: Zero percent, no-fee loans California's community colleges are also expanding their credit for prior learning programs as part of a plan to increase the proportion of the population with educations beyond high school. "How many people do you know who say, 'College isn't for me?' " asked Sam Lee, senior advisor to the system's chancellor for credit for prior learning. "It makes a huge difference when you say to them that what they've been doing is equivalent to college coursework already." In Pittsburgh, the Regional Upskilling Alliance - of which CCAC is a part - is connecting job centers, community groups, businesses and educational institutions to create comprehensive education and employment records so more workers can get credit for skills they already have. That can provide a big push, "especially if you're talking about parents who think, 'I'll never be able to go to school,' " said Sabrina Saunders Mosby, president and CEO of the nonprofit Vibrant Pittsburgh, a coalition of business and civic leaders involved in the effort. Pennsylvania is facing among the nation's most severe declines in the number of 18-year-old high school graduates. "Our members are companies that need talent," Mosby said. There's one group that has historically pushed back against awarding credit for prior learning: university and college faculty concerned it might affect enrollment in their courses or unconvinced that training provided elsewhere is of comparable quality. Institutions have worried about the loss of revenue from awarding credits for which students would otherwise have had to pay. That also appears to be changing, as universities leverage credit for prior learning to recruit more students and keep them enrolled for longer, resulting in more revenue - not less. "That monetary factor was something of a myth," said Beth Doyle, chief of strategy at CAEL. Faculty have increasingly come around, too. That's sometimes because they like having experienced students in their classrooms, Florida Gulf Coast's Vanselow said. Related: States want adults to return to college. Many roadblocks stand in the way Still, while many recognize it as a recruiting incentive, most public universities and colleges have had to be ordered to confer more credits for prior learning by legislatures or governing boards. Private, nonprofit colleges remain stubbornly less likely to give it. More than two-thirds charge a fee for evaluating whether other kinds of learning can be transformed into academic credit, an expense that isn't covered by financial aid. Roughly one in 12 charge the same as it would cost to take the course for which the credits are awarded. Seventy percent of institutions require that students apply for admission and be accepted before learning whether credits for prior learning will be awarded. Eighty-five percent limit how many credits for prior learning a student can receive. There are other confounding roadblocks and seemingly self-defeating policies. CCAC runs a noncredit program to train paramedics, for example, but won't give people who complete it credits toward its for-credit nursing degree. Many leave and go across town to a private university that will. The college is working on fixing this, said Debra Roach, its vice president of workforce development. It's important to see this from the students' point of view, said Tracy Robinson, executive director of the University of Memphis Center for Regional Economic Enrichment. "Credit for prior learning is a way for us to say, 'We want you back. We value what you've been doing since you've been gone,' " Robinson said. "And that is a total game changer." Contact writer Jon Marcus at 212-678-7556, jmarcus@ on Signal. This story about credit for prior learning was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast. The post To fill seats, more colleges offer credit for life experience appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
Canada Standard
03-07-2025
- Business
- Canada Standard
Canada Signs On as Co-Convener of Global Methane Pledge
Canada is receiving international praise after signing on as a co-convener of the Global Methane Pledge, a 2021agreement to cut methane emissions 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. As part of a wide-ranging joint statement last week, Canada and the European Union agreed to co-convene the global pledge, first adopted at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, in which more than 100 countries representing more than 70% of the global economy agreed to a minimum 30% methane cut by 2030. The coalition has since grown to more than 160 members, Global Methane Hub CEO Marcelo Meno wrote on LinkedIn. Methane is a climate super-pollutant with about 84 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over the crucial 20-year span in which humanity will be scrambling to get climate change under control. View our latest digests Canada also signed on to the Global Energy Transition Forum, an EU initiative "to deliver on the goals of tripling the world's renewable energy capacity and doubling the global annual rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030 in parallel to a transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems." In March 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified methane reductions, along with rapidly scaling up energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment, as the quickest, cheapest routes to the deepest reductions in climate pollution by 2030. But that memo doesn't appear to have landed in Alberta, where the provincial government recently eliminated its ceiling on methane gas flaring after the oil and gas industry blew through the regulatory limit in 2023 and 2024. In the months before countries adopted the Global Methane Pledge at the Glasgow COP, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the UN Environment Programme concluded that a 45% methane reduction this decade could shave almost 0.3C off future global warming by the 2040s. That was an achievable but considerably more ambitious target than the one enshrined in the global pledge, but on track with a trilateral agreement that Canada, Mexico, and the United States reached in June, 2016, before the U.S. withdrew all support from international climate initiatives for four deeply dysfunctional years, and now the beginning of four more. But last month's announcement still drew recognition from the CCAC. "Reducing methane emissions remains one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to combat climate change," Environment and Climate Minister Julie Dabrusin said in the release. "Canada recognizes the urgency of driving progress toward the global goal of significantly cutting methane emissions. We're proud to stand alongside other global leaders taking meaningful action to reduce methane, both at home and around the world." The Global Methane Hub's Marcelo Meno said Canada's new role as a co-convener for the pledge reflects its "growing leadership in tackling one of the fastest and most cost-effective levers for climate mitigation: methane reductions." Canada "has set an ambitious domestic target to cut methane emissions from oil and gas by at least 75% by 2030," Meno wrote. "With new regulations expected this year, the country is sending a clear signal: major emitters must act-and fast." The methane and energy transition pledges were part of a broader statement released jointly by the EU secretariat in Brussels and the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa. "We stand united in our objective to forge a new ambitious and comprehensive partnership that responds to the needs of today and will evolve to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future," the statement said. "Our citizens are looking for responses to the unprecedented challenges we face. This is why it is more important than ever to work together to promote our shared values and the rules-based international order. We will also pursue our common interests, while continuing to promote and deepen our vibrant trade and investment relationship, and our strong people-to-people contacts." Source: The Energy Mix
Canada News.Net
03-07-2025
- Business
- Canada News.Net
Canada Signs On as Co-Convener of Global Methane Pledge
Canada is receiving international praise after signing on as a co-convener of the Global Methane Pledge, a 2021agreement to cut methane emissions 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. As part of a wide-ranging joint statement last week, Canada and the European Union agreed to co-convene the global pledge, first adopted at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, in which more than 100 countries representing more than 70% of the global economy agreed to a minimum 30% methane cut by 2030. The coalition has since grown to more than 160 members, Global Methane Hub CEO Marcelo Meno wrote on LinkedIn. Methane is a climate super-pollutant with about 84 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over the crucial 20-year span in which humanity will be scrambling to get climate change under control. View our latest digests Canada also signed on to the Global Energy Transition Forum, an EU initiative "to deliver on the goals of tripling the world's renewable energy capacity and doubling the global annual rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030 in parallel to a transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems." In March 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified methane reductions, along with rapidly scaling up energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment, as the quickest, cheapest routes to the deepest reductions in climate pollution by 2030. But that memo doesn't appear to have landed in Alberta, where the provincial government recently eliminated its ceiling on methane gas flaring after the oil and gas industry blew through the regulatory limit in 2023 and 2024. In the months before countries adopted the Global Methane Pledge at the Glasgow COP, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the UN Environment Programme concluded that a 45% methane reduction this decade could shave almost 0.3C off future global warming by the 2040s. That was an achievable but considerably more ambitious target than the one enshrined in the global pledge, but on track with a trilateral agreement that Canada, Mexico, and the United States reached in June, 2016, before the U.S. withdrew all support from international climate initiatives for four deeply dysfunctional years, and now the beginning of four more. But last month's announcement still drew recognition from the CCAC. "Reducing methane emissions remains one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to combat climate change," Environment and Climate Minister Julie Dabrusin said in the release. "Canada recognizes the urgency of driving progress toward the global goal of significantly cutting methane emissions. We're proud to stand alongside other global leaders taking meaningful action to reduce methane, both at home and around the world." The Global Methane Hub's Marcelo Meno said Canada's new role as a co-convener for the pledge reflects its "growing leadership in tackling one of the fastest and most cost-effective levers for climate mitigation: methane reductions." Canada "has set an ambitious domestic target to cut methane emissions from oil and gas by at least 75% by 2030," Meno wrote. "With new regulations expected this year, the country is sending a clear signal: major emitters must act-and fast." The methane and energy transition pledges were part of a broader statement released jointly by the EU secretariat in Brussels and the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa. "We stand united in our objective to forge a new ambitious and comprehensive partnership that responds to the needs of today and will evolve to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future," the statement said. "Our citizens are looking for responses to the unprecedented challenges we face. This is why it is more important than ever to work together to promote our shared values and the rules-based international order. We will also pursue our common interests, while continuing to promote and deepen our vibrant trade and investment relationship, and our strong people-to-people contacts."
Irish Independent
18-06-2025
- Automotive
- Irish Independent
Government advisers call for tripling of EV grants in bid to slash transport emissions
A new top-rate grant of €10,000 would apply to smaller models costing less than €35,000, with priority given to lower-income households in areas lacking public transport. The cost would be at least partly funded by increased taxes on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. The calls come from the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC), which says the Government is stalling on steps to achieve the dramatic cut needed in greenhouse gas emissions from transport. In a report published today, the council says sales of new EVs fell 24pc last year and there were just 72,640 electric cars on the roads – a figure that must increase almost 12-fold to meet the 2030 target of 845,000. Public EV charging points are only one-third the EU average rate – seven per 10,000 people compared to 20 per 10,000 across the EU. School buses carry just 18pc of pupils, with hundreds of thousands left to be ferried by car every day. Re-alloaction of road space to cycle lanes and safer footpaths has been 'incremental' instead of transformational. Ireland is one of the few EU countries without Low-Emission Zones that designate certain urban areas for EVs, bikes and pedestrians only. Transport emissions fell by 1.3pc last year – the first reduction since the temporary fall during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, emissions need to reduce by 50pc over the next five years and the CCAC says there is no sign of this happening. Transport uses more energy than any other sector in Ireland and it produces the second most greenhouse gas emissions after agriculture, accounting for 21.5pc of the national total. ADVERTISEMENT Public transport passenger numbers are rising and EV numbers are increasing but the growing population and increasing size of cars cancels out the gains. 'Urgent and decisive action must now be taken by Government to end our reliance on fossil fuels and deliver the kind of transformative change that is required in this sector,' said CCAC chair Marie Donnelly. Recommended actions include a revamp of EV supports, retaining the existing €3,500 grant for new cars up to the value of €60,000 but offering the much greater incentive for smaller, more efficient cars to applicants in lower income brackets and certain geographic areas. Scrappage schemes for petrol and diesel cars and supports to buy second-hand EVs are also recommended, including possibly interest-free loans. The CCAC is also urging much greater investment in all forms of public transport and a substantial widening of eligibility for the school transport scheme. Concerns are also raised about the vulnerability of key transport infrastructure – in particular ports – to extreme weather events such as Storm Éowyn last January.
RTÉ News
17-06-2025
- Automotive
- RTÉ News
CCAC recommends extra €10k in grants over purchase of EVs
The Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) is recommending that the Government provides an additional €10,000 in grants to low income households for the purchase of electric vehicles, particularly in areas with limited access to public transport. It is also calling for scrappage schemes and other transport-related incentives to help accelerate the switch to battery-electric vehicles and decarbonise private transport. The transport sector already accounts for 43% of all energy used in Ireland. However, the sale of highly efficient battery electric vehicles fell by 24% last year, while greenhouse gas emissions reductions from public transport and more efficient cars were effectively wiped out because of the growth in demand for transport. The CCAC is alarmed by these trends, especially since a 50% reduction in transport emissions must be delivered by 2030. Its annual review of the transport sector calls for urgent Government intervention to support sustained emissions reductions and more to be done to encourage people to switch to public transport. It notes that 773,000 primary and post-primary pupils do not have access to the School Transport Scheme; that 50% of students travel to their place of education by car; and that almost one in five car journeys nationwide are for the purpose of education. The council says it strongly supports expanding eligibility for the heavily subsidised school bus scheme as well as greater integration of school transport and public transport services. It is also calling for an expansion of the Safe Routes to School Programme to support the required shift in the sector. According to its report, the total stock of Battery Electric Vehicles on Irish roads at the end of last year was 72,640. This is just 3.05% of the total passenger car fleet. The Climate Change Advisory Council wants existing incentives for electric vehicles to be maintained and enhanced but says the EV grant system needs to be refocused. Its call is for increased supports for purchasing more efficient and cheaper electric vehicles, including second-hand EVs. However, it says those additional supports should be focused on areas with the poorest access to public transport services and Just Transition Principles. Additional grants of up to €10,000 for fully electric vehicles costing less than €35,000 for lower income households will be key, it says. It is also calling for an accelerated roll-out of publicly accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure alongside the ambitious roll-out of electricity network reinforcement. At the end of last year there were 2,802 publicly accessible "slower" AC charging points and 786 fast DC charging points for electric vehicles. This equates to seven charging points per 10,000 people in Ireland, which is considerably below the EU-27 average of 20 charging points per 10,000 people, or the average of 13 per 10,000 people in the UK. Over €294 million was allocated in funding for active travel infrastructure this year, bringing the total investment since 2020 to over €1.25 billion. In terms of mode share, cycling increased slightly from 1.8% of journeys in 2022 to 1.9% in 2023. Meanwhile, walking declined from 19.3% of trips to 17.7% overall. Commenting on the launch of the Transport Review, Marie Donnelly, Chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council said: "Transport is Ireland's biggest source of energy demand, and emissions from the sector must reduce by half if the sector is meet its target. "To achieve this, urgent and decisive action must now be taken by Government to end our reliance on fossil fuels and deliver the kind of transformative change that is required in this sector. "We have seen signs of progress in public transport with more than half of the redesigned BusConnects network in Dublin implemented, a 48% increase in passenger boardings on redesigned routes, and a significant growth in the number of EV and hybrid buses on our roads. "However much more must be done to improve the integration of school transport with public transport services, which will be vital in helping to reduce car journeys and tackle emissions."
