Why It Matters

High-social-value professions like teaching, nursing, and social work face critical workforce shortages despite their essential role in community wellbeing.

The Big Picture

These shortages particularly impact rural and urban communities, with specific skill gaps in areas like special education, mental health services, and specialized nursing roles.

Key Challenges

• Regulatory barriers and clinical requirements make it difficult for working adults to transition into these careers
• Traditional education models often include costly, non-essential coursework
• Tuition costs frequently outweigh potential salary earnings

Emerging Solutions

• Employer-funded education programs with service commitments
• Technology-enabled learning replacing traditional lecture formats
• “Grow your own” programs helping organizations develop internal talent

What’s Next

Success requires coordination between policymakers, educators, and employers to create more accessible pathways into these vital professions while ensuring proper skill development.

The Big Picture

Higher education needs to intentionally develop critical thinking and cognitive abilities – not just technical skills – to prepare students for the modern workforce.

Why it matters

• Employers increasingly value “soft skills” like communication, emotional intelligence and critical thinking alongside technical expertise
• Even with AI’s rise, human cognitive abilities like asking good questions and applying knowledge remain crucial

The bottom line

While technical skills matter, higher education’s greatest value comes from developing students’ broader cognitive abilities to think critically and apply knowledge effectively across contexts.

By President Anne M. Kress, PhD

Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) consistently looks for opportunities to respond to demand signals from regional employers and, thereby, build pathways to jobs that help Virginians climb the economic ladder. When new fields, such as data center operations, emerge in our region, we partner with industry leaders to create training that opens doors to jobs in those fields. In a landscape of changing skills, technologies, and careers, NOVA is also dedicated to understanding our residents’ and businesses’ evolving employment needs and seeking innovative, cost-effective ways of responding.

Many signals indicate that young people increasingly seek to enter the workforce quickly and recognize that real-world experience is what will position them for success. Recent national survey results reveal two-thirds of high school students prefer their postsecondary experience to include hands-on or on-the-job learning. An April 2024 report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found more students earned a certificate from an institution of higher education during the 2022-2023 academic year than in any of the last 10 years. Slightly more than half the growth was attributed to first-time certificate earners who were 18- to 20-year-olds: they know that work-based learning matters more than ever.

At the same time, businesses in many states across the country, including Virginia, are experiencing severe labor shortages, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce also reports the top concern of businesses in the Commonwealth is access to qualified talent. More than half strongly agree Virginia should make investments that increase the number of paid internships, co-op programs, and other work-based learning experiences available to college students. Like the students themselves, Virginia businesses know that hands-on experiences both expand and strengthen the early-career talent pipeline.

One way NOVA is responding to both students and businesses is by innovating the internship. Our goal has been preserving what makes an internship so valuable: it is a real-world learning experience that enables students to develop professional skills, create networks, and discover potential career opportunities. Central to a successful internship has long been strong faculty and supervisor mentorship. NOVA’s task was to keep these elements while making the traditional concept relevant to today’s learners and employers.

Our reimagined internships differ in two ways from the traditional model. First, NOVA offers internships to new groups of students. Internships and work-based learning opportunities have long been available to those pursuing associate degrees directly connected to careers, such as health care or information technology (IT). NOVA knew that if internships made the difference for students’ economic advancement, they needed to be available across the curriculum. And second, NOVA saw that the traditional length of internships was a barrier to entry for students who were balancing college with work and caring for children and family members. Internships needed to be reimagined as shorter-term assignments focused around project-based assignments rather than the more common semester-length or summer experiences. This targeted approach could also have the benefit of isolating and validating in-demand skills.

One of NOVA’s most exciting internship initiatives, called Real World Experience (RWX), involves creating opportunities for learners in the NOVA Workforce division, a novel concept in internship design. Envisioned to last 40 hours, these internships will be made available to students who have completed IT courses and passed the relevant certification exam, earning industry-recognized credentials in CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+, for example. Although these industry-designed courses prepare students for established positions, NOVA believes the addition of a small, concentrated amount of hands-on experience will ensure students can enter the workforce without delay.  Beginning in late spring, our college will pilot the effort, and the first interns will intern with NOVA IT professionals throughout the college.

NOVA students following humanities/liberal arts pathways also find internship opportunities designed specifically for them, thanks to a grant from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. These internships, offered in a range of employer settings, including NOVA departments, will allow students to build high-value, high-demand technical and professional skills while gaining exposure to jobs in fields they might not have previously considered. NOVA has validated these skills with local employers, so we have confidence that the skills and knowledge students acquire in the classroom as English or psychology majors combined with those built in the workplace will position graduates to enter meaningful, well-paid positions in our local economy.

NOVA’s partnership with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art exemplifies our doubling down on innovation in internships. Any NOVA student can apply to participate in the museum’s prestigious, well-paid summer internships. In addition to learning about museum work in general, interns are matched with one department relevant to their interests or career goals. Our interns have contributed so much to the museum that, for the fourth year in a row, it has set aside half of all internships specifically for NOVA students. NOVA student London Allen called the museum internship “a unique and exciting time” that was “essential for [my] growth both as a student and as a young career professional.” It’s hard to imagine a more powerful endorsement of the value of an internship. From the galleries of the Smithsonian to the servers at our college to the seats in our classrooms, NOVA is committed to connecting all interested students with internships that fast track the path from learning to earning.