Our State Policy & Research Director, Stephanie Murphy, provides a 2025 update, our most comprehensive update to date, to HCM’s typology and policy landscape analysis of state investments in short-term credential pathways (originally published in 2023 and updated previously in 2024). Her latest analysis shows that overall state investments now cumulatively total at least $8.1 billion.

HCM’s State Policy & Research Director, Stephanie Murphy, delves into the latest update to HCM Strategists’ 2023 typology and policy landscape analysis of recent state investments in short-term credential initiatives across the United States. States continue to embrace skills-based education as a key component of workforce development, with growing bipartisan support. As of November 2024, states have invested more than $5.6 billion in short-term credential pathways.