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In legislation newly signed into law, the state will bolster its efforts to build tailored career development pathways by creating a short-term credential framework to offer hands-on workforce opportunities.
Senate Enrolled Act 448 requires the state to develop a plan and build a framework to provide opportunities and encourage students to participate in work-based learning before they graduate from high school.
Gov. Mike Braun signed the legislation Thursday.
Sen. Greg Goode, R-Terre Haute, has repeatedly said the bill is intended to prepare students for jobs of the future.
The measure builds on recent education efforts to “reinvent high school,” meaning a curricular change to create additional high school credit pathways in addition to college prep.
The state has redesigned its high school diploma requirements to offer more opportunities for career development, specifically work-based learning experiences.
Indiana’s baseline diploma is 42 credits, but students can elect to earn one or multiple “readiness seals” for enrollment, employment and enlistment. Those seals can be upgraded with honors and honors plus distinctions.
Goode and state leaders believe careers in industries including life sciences and advanced manufacturing can provide students with beneficial employment and higher wages without necessarily requiring a college degree.
Leaders have sought to develop a curriculum of stackable credentials, or short-term higher education certificates that allow a student to learn immediately usable industry skills that build on each other through additional coursework.
“This is a tremendous bill that really helps us kick-start that program and get it up and off the ground,” said David Becker, co-chair and CEO of First Internet Bank, during an early February committee hearing. “It bridges education and workforce, establishes a market-driven, stackable credential and qualifications framework that ensures students graduate with real skills aligned to industry demands.”
A coalition of major industry, state and education leaders have sought to create opportunities for 50,000 student apprenticeships by 2034. The initiative aims to bolster the state’s efforts to improve education outcomes and build a more capable workforce.
The Center on the Economics and Management of Education and Training Systems Implementation Laboratory, or CEMETS iLab Indiana, is building the apprenticeship network and curriculum.
The group is making four industry pathways—banking, health care, life sciences and advanced manufacturing— available to students. It is currently developing openings, curriculum and dispersing $1 million in grants to get the effort off the ground.
The first occupation pathway—likely banking, since there is existing infrastructure—could debut as early as the 2025-26 school year.
SEA 448 seeks to create a system to coincide with this effort.
The state Department of Education must prepare a plan to develop a market-driven credential program with at least three industry pathways and necessary benchmark skills. The legislation does not specify those focus industries, but the state has emphasized building the advanced manufacturing or health care workforce.
Higher education institutions will need to provide recommendations in the final report. Several colleges, especially Ivy Tech Community College, have already begun developing short-term stackable credentials for emerging industries.
The department’s plan will need to be completed by Nov. 1.
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