California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week unveiled a framework for the state’s new Master Plan for Career Education. It includes plans to remove degree requirements for tens of thousands of state jobs, create a “Career Passport” that emphasizes skills over degrees, and expand efforts to translate work experience into college credits.

The full plan, which will be released in early 2025, builds on previous funding efforts for workforce boards, adult schools, and apprenticeships. It aims to increase coordination among different agencies and programs to make it easier for job seekers to find meaningful and well-paid jobs. 

Newsom announced the creation of the new plan last year, recognizing the need to increase access to well-paid jobs as AI and other emerging technologies transform the employment landscape. In recent decades, Californians with a bachelor’s degree have increased their wages, while households with no degree-holder have seen them decline.

Newsom said the plan is designed to include “those who don’t have the desire, need, or capacity to imagine a four-year college degree or even a two-year associate degree, those who simply want to have a vibrant and outstanding career.”

Skills Over Degrees

A major component of the master plan is increased investment in providing community college students with college credit for work experience, including military and volunteer service. CalMatters reports that many colleges are already doing this, but the plan would create a statewide system so more people could benefit.

“For military members who had basic training, they shouldn’t have to come back to a community college and take courses that they’re well familiar with and basic requirements for their education that they’ve already received in the military,” Newsom said. “So they get credit for prior learning. The framework is around credit for prior learning.”

Another major component is the creation of the “Career Passport”—a type of learning and employment record (LER) that would verify job seekers’ skills, even if they don’t have a degree and college transcript. California joins a handful of other states that are also investing in creating LERs.

Christopher Nellum, executive director of EdTrust-West, says he anticipates that securing funding for the plan and communicating what a career passport is—and how it benefits employers and job seekers—will be challenging. 

“When the legislature comes back in January and we see the first look at the proposed budget, hopefully we’ll get some more insight,” Nellum says. “It’s going to be a challenge getting the legislature to fund this at the level it’s needed to be successful.”

Enhancing Coordination

As part of the master plan, a new statewide planning and coordinating body will be created to bring together the various state agencies, educational institutions, workforce training providers, and employers. This includes aligning college and career advising and improving labor market information to ensure education programs include in-demand skills.

Nellum was surprised to see the creation of a statewide coordinating body included in the master plan.

“It’s something that sort of happened in the past but hasn’t really been embraced,” he says. “I think the questions are: How is it going to work in practice? How is power sharing going to work? Will resources be redistributed in any way? What will the representation be on the coordinating body?”

In the press conference, Newsom emphasized that the plan had bipartisan support, and that it will look different in each of California’s diverse regions.

“Localism is determinative,” Newsom said. “This is not a patronizing plan where we are selling down a vision for the state. This is a vision that is informed by leaders all throughout the state of California.”