Six states have published Workforce Pell approval frameworks, with eligible-occupation lists running from Pennsylvania's 19 to North Carolina's 364. The federal law lets a program qualify if it is high-skill or high-wage or in-demand, but every state has layered its own screens on top of that floor. This page compares those frameworks side by side, for state and federal readers tracking what other states are doing: how long the list is, how high the wage bar sits, and what each state demands beyond it.
The first approved-program rosters land this summer. Pennsylvania (window closed Apr 17) and Iowa (closed May 15) are reviewing applications; Texas (through Jun 19) and Minnesota (through Jun 30) are accepting now; Michigan notifies institutions in August; North Carolina reviews quarterly once its window opens. The federal final rule published May 19; programs go live July 1.
The same federal statute produced lists ranging from 19 occupations to 364, a roughly nineteenfold spread. Two philosophies: curate a short, high-confidence list, or publish a broad list and do the real filtering at the program level.
Scroll horizontally to see all six states. Each column links to the state's primary source.
The convergence is procedural, mostly forced by federal law. The divergence is philosophical, and it is where states are making real choices.
A common implementation worry is over-enrollment: too many providers piling into the same occupations. For the four occupations on every published list, the numbers run the other way. Certificates the federal data can see are a small fraction of projected annual openings.
| Occupation | Short-certificate completions (2023) | Projected annual openings | Pipeline fill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians | 12,056 | ~81,000 | ~15% |
| HVAC mechanics and installers | 11,341 | ~40,100 | ~28% |
| Plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters | 1,068 | ~40,000+ | ~3% |
| Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers | 278 | ~240,300 | <1% |
Completions: IPEDS 2023, certificates under one year (award levels 1 and 2), first majors, each occupation's primary CIP. Openings: BLS Occupational Outlook projected annual openings (electricians, truck drivers).
The gap is mostly noncredit training. CDL schools, community college workforce divisions, and continuing-education programs generally do not report completions to IPEDS, and most sit outside Title IV, so they are invisible in federal data. Those are exactly the programs most likely to seek Workforce Pell approval; North Carolina's toolkit targets continuing-education courses directly. Noncredit programs can qualify only by building a credit bridge: the final rule requires that completion "lead to academic credit, either at the same institution or another institution" (91 FR 29254), so a college can convert its CE programs internally or through articulation with a partner institution. Standalone providers outside Title IV (most CDL schools) cannot participate at all, and outsourcing instruction to them through a written arrangement is capped at 25 percent of the program unless it is a Registered Apprenticeship. Over-enrollment can still surface locally, or in licensed trades where certificate completers can outrun apprenticeship slots, and the occupation-matched placement measure that would catch it does not begin until award year 2029-30. As of today, the consensus occupations are undersupplied by Pell-visible providers, not oversaturated.
The cleanest way to read it: Iowa gates hardest on definition (all three criteria at once), Pennsylvania gates softest on wage (a poverty-line floor) but hardest on list size (19 occupations), Minnesota gates hardest on wage (a family-sustaining benchmark) while carving out priority sectors, and North Carolina keeps the widest list (364) while pushing the real filtering down to the program level. Same statute, very different doors.
Counts are distinct occupations on each state's published eligible-occupation list, retrieved and verified June 8, 2026. Pennsylvania (19) and North Carolina (364) are the states' own stated figures; Minnesota (22), Iowa (248), and Michigan (273) are counted directly from the published list files. Texas's THECB publishes a "Workforce Pell Eligible Occupations and Programs" file listing 25 occupations crosswalked to 362 eligible programs (363 SOC-CIP pairings), drawn from the Texas Workforce Commission Target Occupations List. Iowa's 248 occupations map to roughly 3,338 occupation-program pairings in its SOC-CIP crosswalk.
Definitions of high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand, the wage thresholds, and the program-level screens are taken from each state's published policy and methodology documents: Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas. For where every state and DC stand in the approval pipeline, see the State Readiness Tracker.
Workforce Pell was created by H.R. 1 (2025), amending section 401 of the Higher Education Act, and implemented through the U.S. Department of Education's final rule of May 19, 2026. The state instruments compared above are administrative actions adopted under that authority: the NCWorks Commission policy statement (NC), the Governor's Workforce Development Board determination policy (MN), THECB program guidance (TX), LEO program determination policies (MI), PDE application guidance (PA), and Iowa Department of Education program guidance (IA).