The ELEVATE Postsecondary Network aims to ensure postsecondary programs provide transferable skills, reduce barriers and connect learners to quality jobs.

Across the country, millions of learners are investing time and money in postsecondary credentials that don’t consistently translate into quality jobs or long-term economic mobility. At the same time, colleges and universities are navigating rapid labor market shifts including the rise of artificial intelligence, alongside growing skepticism about the value of higher education.

The pressure is increasing on colleges and universities to demonstrate clearer returns on learners’ investments. For Jobs for the Future (JFF), these pressures signal not retreat, but reinvention.

JFF’s American Job Quality Study found that roughly 60% of U.S. workers do not have quality jobs, illustrating a significant disconnect between education and employment. In 2025, JFF launched the ELEVATE Postsecondary Network, a national, state-driven platform designed to strengthen education-to-employment pathways and ensure credentials lead to real economic opportunity. The network builds on more than a decade of JFF’s work with postsecondary networks, which have helped states strengthen guided pathways, improve student success structures and center learners in policy decisions.

Kresge spoke with Sylvia Cini-Grenada, senior manager of solutions design and delivery at JFF, about what motivated the launch of ELEVATE and how it’s “meeting the moment” in higher education.

Q: How does ELEVATE respond to emerging needs to ensure learners access real opportunity and economic mobility?

A: ELEVATE brings together state-level leaders — from student success centers and state departments of education to higher education agencies, system offices and institutions —  who are committed to three priorities:

• Ensuring credentials have value, meaning they represent dynamic, transferable skills that connect to quality jobs.
• Reducing credential costs by minimizing time, financial burdens and structural barriers while ensuring strong returns on investment.
• Maximizing learning by embedding universal supports that help students build skills aligned with good jobs.

To turn those commitments into action, ELEVATE coordinates state impact projects focused on strategies such as skills-first and competency-based education, credit for prior learning, holistic advising, responsible AI integration, corequisite education and two-generation supports for student parents.

By piloting and scaling these approaches in partnership with states and institutions, we’re working to ensure learners can access credentials that truly unlock economic mobility.

This work is made possible through partnerships with philanthropic supporters as well as federal and state agencies that share a vision for stronger postsecondary systems.

Q: What does this collaboration look like in practice?

A: Collaboration is the defining feature of the ELEVATE network. ELEVATE brings together a broad coalition of state and institutional leaders, including student success centers, state departments of education, higher education agencies and associations, and two- and four-year institutions, alongside organizations with statewide or regional influence.

Through project-based state initiatives, virtual Action Labs and an annual in-person convening, members co-design and test solutions, share tools and data, and learn from peers facing similar enrollment, funding and workforce pressures. These initiatives are structured to produce action, not just conversation.

This approach has already begun to generate cross-state insights. For example, Arkansas, Maine, North Carolina, and Wisconsin have been working on two-generation supports, a strategy that helps student parents attain credentials that connect to quality jobs. The work brings together postsecondary institutions, state agencies and community-based organizations to identify and remove systemic barriers student parents routinely face. You can see some examples of our work here.

Q: How does ELEVATE address inequities in credential attainment and postsecondary success?

A: In 2023, JFF adopted a bold North Star: By 2033, 75 million Americans facing barriers to economic advancement will have quality jobs. That includes people without a four-year degree, people of color and women across educational backgrounds, people with criminal records and others who face systemic barriers.

We design programs with these populations in mind and include representative learners and workers whenever possible to ensure we’re addressing real-world barriers.

ELEVATE advances evidence-based practices such as corequisite education, competency-based models and two-generation approaches, that have been shown to increase attainment of credentials of value, reduce time and cost of college, strengthen alignment with quality jobs and shift state and institutional policies so changes are sustained over time.

In addition to tracking progress against our North Star, JFF has partnered with Gallup, the Families & Workers Fund, and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research to measure workers’ experiences to assess job quality across the U.S. workforce. This body of research, the American Job Quality Study, will continue to inform ELEVATE’s work over time.

Q: How might the principles and practices emerging from ELEVATE influence broader policy or institutional change?

A: ELEVATE is intentionally structured as an action-oriented network. Through state impact projects and communities of practice, we pilot and scale strategies that can reshape policy and institutional design. We also document policy changes, program redesigns and outcomes in partner states to build a body of evidence that makes the case for disruption of our higher education systems.

We want ELEVATE success stories to not only inspire other states to test reforms like competency-based education, credit for prior learning, and holistic student support; we want to give them blueprints, toolkits and resources that save them time and money.

For example, ELEVATE recently published the Direct Assessment Competency-Based Education: Implementation Blueprint, a flexible tool designed for colleges at all stages of readiness in developing and implementing direct assessment programs. Developed with eight California community colleges and multiple statewide partners, projects like this demonstrate how cross-sector collaboration can accelerate meaningful change.

Over time, the principles that guide ELEVATE —  credentials of value, lower-cost and faster pathways, and learning that truly connects to quality jobs —  can be part of a shared vision, informing everything from legislative agendas and funding models to institutional change efforts on the ground.