S + A has been writing Department of Education (ED) TRIO proposals since dinosaurs walked the earth. The ED TRIO programs have been around for decades—they are outreach and student services programs designed to help individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (i.e., low-income, first-generation college students, and those with disabilities) succeed in education from middle school through post-baccalaureate levels. The name “TRIO” refers to the original first three programs (Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Student Support Services), which eventually expanded to eight programs. These programs provide a mix of academic tutoring, counseling, mentoring, financial guidance, college preparation, etc.
Given this history, I was surprised this week to find in grants.gov that the Department of Labor (DOL) has published the FY ’26 Talent Search NOFO and EOCs NOFO program “on behalf” of ED. Wait, what? I assumed that this might be because the Trump Administration is no fan of ED and has eliminated about 35% of jobs there. I thought perhaps there’s not enough ED program officers left to run these competitions. But I was wrong, at least if one believes the reasons provided by DOL and ED.
It turns out that this is due to an interagency partnership between DOL and ED to better align postsecondary education programs with workforce development, which I had not heard about previously. The March 17 publication of the Talent Search NOFO was the first grant competition under their post-secondary education partnership. The EOCs NOFO soon followed.
The main stated reason for this arrangement is to correlate the fed’s grant programs for high-quality postsecondary education with workforce training like Registered Apprenticeships and similar efforts to engage disadvantaged students in the skilled trades to achieve improved long-term employment outcomes and earnings. It supports a broader Trump Administration effort, “America’s Talent Strategy,” a comprehensive workforce development blueprint released in August 2025 by DOL, ED, and the Department of Commerce, which I also did not know about until writing this post. It outlines a plan to align federal education and workforce programs with industry needs, reindustrialization goals, AI-driven economic changes, and efforts to create high-wage job opportunities.
While DOL is handling the grant solicitations and will issue TRIO awards, ED continues to set priorities, criteria, and oversight. This is supposed to streamline operations for students, institutions, and grantees, while positioning DOL as a central hub for related federal programs. Call me cynical but I don’t think the words “streamline” and “federal programs” in the same sentence is believable, but that’s the pitch. Unsurprisingly, some advocacy groups have raised concerns about potential shifts in focus toward workforce pathways, but the core mission of serving disadvantaged students remains the same.
Whether intentional or not, this effort to intertwine post-secondary education at IHEs (ED-speak for colleges and universities) with training in the trades is well articulated with the AI-generated rapid shift in living-wage employment prospects from white-collar to blue-collar jobs. While estimates vary, at least 10 million white-collar jobs will be gone in five to ten years, mostly in the kind of entry-level slots (i.e., junior analysts, coders, administrators, etc.) that are filled by recent college grads. Yikes! So much for the “experts” screaming “learn to code” for the past decade.
Regarding the trades, about 500,000 new skilled trades workers will be needed by 2030 to meet growing power demand at burgeoning data centers, including construction workers, electricians, HVAC technicians, line workers, etc. Data-center construction alone has already added 216,000 jobs since 2022. Even more revealing is that there are currently 500,000 unfilled manufacturing and related blue-collar jobs right now. Skilled trades demand is growing three times faster than professional/white-collar roles, including robotics technicians, +113%; HVAC engineers, +78%; industrial automation, +51%; and general trades (i.e., electricians, welders, construction, etc.), average +30%.
This shift in federal policy is obviously needed. While the feds have dozens of training programs, not only in DOL, but also random departments like EPA and HUD, most workforce development funding is via Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) programs. WIOA has been around in various incarnations since the 1980s but has always focused on short-term training for entry-level jobs in healthcare, retail, hospitality, etc., not the skilled trades. The only longer-term federal program that I’m familiar with that provides relatively long training in general construction skills is DOL’s YouthBuild program (originally operated by HUD). Still, YouthBuild training is actually pre-apprenticeship training and supportive services that lasts about nine months. In contrast, it typically takes 4 – 5 years to become a fully qualified journeyman licensed electrician or carpenter, primarily through a paid apprenticeship that combines on-the-job training with classroom instruction. Double Yikes!!