Chronicle panel highlights apprenticeships, micro‑credentials and the college‑to‑workforce gap

At a Chronicle of Higher Education panel in Washington, D.C., Louisiana Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reid and visiting fellow Ben Woldofsky laid out differing but complementary approaches to connecting higher education with employer needs, emphasizing state program redesigns, apprenticeships and more rigorous measurement of outcomes.

The discussion was hosted by Eric Keldren, senior writer at the Chronicle of Higher Education, who framed the session around a long decline in college enrollment since the post‑2009 peak and growing public questions about the economic value of college credentials.

Reid described a recent effort in Louisiana to redesign roughly 19–20 academic programs so they embed work‑based learning, apprenticeships and stronger career pathways. "We had a grant that allowed us to have, about 19 or 20 programs redesigned, faculty…