Rio Salado College Receives $1.5 Million Grant to Expand Adult Education and Ensure Student Success Beyond College Completion
Strada Education Network selected Rio Salado College to receive a Phase 2 grant through the $10 million Beyond Completion Challenge. Strada awarded this grant as part of an effort to support higher education institutions substantially expand promising efforts to improve long-term outcomes for many more students, especially those who historically have faced the greatest barriers in education and the workforce. In addition to Rio Salado College, three other institutions received grants: Arizona State University (ASU), the University of Texas, and the University of Utah.
“These four institutions have already found ways to support the success of their learners beyond completion,” said Stephen Moret, Strada Education Network president and CEO. “We are excited to provide these grants so they can reach more learners than ever before and expand to new communities and even other institutions that are joining their efforts. We are honored to have the opportunity to support such forward-thinking and acting partners.”
“Workplace skills and requisite knowledge are changing more rapidly than ever, leading to more adults coming back to college to unlock greater opportunities in their chosen profession,” said Rio Salado President Kate Smith. “Rio Salado and community colleges across the country are answering the call. Through this support, our Custom Academic Readiness and Essential Employment Reskilling program (CAREER) will now be able to equip 5,000 adult learners with the tools and resources they need to select and complete valuable certificates, credentials, and degrees, which translate into real- world earnings and strengthen local economies.”
Rio Salado, along with the three other grantees, represent the second phase of Strada’s $10 million Beyond Completion Challenge. The $1.5 million grant will be used to expand Rio’s adult education initiatives over a three-year grant cycle through the CAREER program. CAREER helps adult learners seeking basic literacy, GED® test preparation, workforce preparation and career training to build the academic and employment skills needed to access, persist, and complete college-level coursework and seek fulfilling careers that provide family-sustaining wages. The project will improve equitable access to college and career navigation services.
“As we developed the Beyond Completion Challenge, we were motivated by what students, families, and employers are seeking from higher education today: postsecondary education that provides greater certainty about employment and social and economic mobility beyond degree completion,” said Ruth V. Watkins, Strada president of postsecondary education. “Phase 1 grants brought forward a wide range of innovative ideas for how two- and four-year institutions can respond to these changing expectations. The projects supported in Phase 2 allow the smaller set of partner institutions to make big bets on the approaches with highest potential for delivering the outcomes students, families, and employers now seek. We look forward to learning with these partners how postsecondary education can fulfill its promise.”
These are the programs awarded Beyond Completion Challenge Phase 2 grants.
Rio Salado Community College will expand its Custom Academic Readiness and Essential Employment Reskilling (CAREER) program, which helps learners seeking basic literacy, GED® test preparation, workforce preparation and career training to build the academic and employment skills needed to access, persist, and complete college-level coursework and seek fulfilling careers that provide family-sustaining wages. The project will improve equitable access to college and career navigation services for over 5,000 adult learners through the creation of a turnkey college and career navigation system, leading to more credentials, certificate and degree completion, and post-completion employment.
Arizona State University (ASU) will expand and export its Work+ program, which also received Strada funding in the first phase of the Beyond Completion Challenge. The program is reshaping the experience of learners directly employed by the university. Through mentorship, peer feedback, and educational programming, Work+ supplements existing student employment and increases learners’ career readiness. This grant will support the expansion of Work+ to cover all 12,000 working learners at ASU. Additionally, it will support the launch of Work+ pilot programs at eight other two- and four-year institutions across the country, with the potential of reaching a total of 19,000 students.
The University of Texas system will expand the system-wide Texas Credentials for the Future initiative, which also received Strada funding in the first phase of the Beyond Completion Challenge. This initiative infuses career readiness into the undergraduate curriculum by including relevant industry microcredentials and skills badges at no additional cost to the learners. The initiative will continue to focus on majors often associated with low earnings while expanding efforts to include other majors in which significant post-graduation earnings disparities exist. The initiative will reach 30,000 students across the system’s 13 institutions.
The University of Utah will scale the University of Utah West Valley College2Career program to support the underserved community of West Valley, Utah, by providing college and career navigation services, career pathways, and financial aid support for in-demand health care careers. The program creates clearer and more supportive pathways for students and adult learners to pursue health careers. Building on the University Neighborhood Partners’ place-based approach, the partnership between the West Valley community, University of Utah, and University of Utah Health and hospital system will serve at least 3,600 students from low-income communities and communities of color.
About the Beyond Completion Challenge
The $10 million Beyond Completion Challenge partners with higher education institutions and provides vital funding to launch, test, and scale initiatives designed to ensure that students — especially people of color, first-generation students, and those who struggle to pay for their education — are positioned to succeed long after graduation. Learn more about Strada’s Beyond Completion Challenge here.
About the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity
Strada’s core partner for the Challenge is the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity, a community of three dozen presidents and chancellors representing nearly 100 public, private, two-year and four-year institutions and 2.4 million students. The Taskforce was launched in 2020 to address the challenges of the pandemic, income inequality, the changing nature of work and unemployment among recent college graduates. Learn more at taskforceonhighered.org/.
Strada Education Network is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people take advantage of education and training after high school that helps them secure a good job, do meaningful work, contribute to their communities, and lead a fulfilling life. Strada helps students succeed beyond completion of a certificate or degree through its research, charitable grants, and social impact investments, as well as through the work of Strada-supported nonprofit organizations, CAEL, Education at Work, InsideTrack, and Roadtrip Nation, which directly serve learners and workers. Learn more at stradaeducation.org.
