Education and Workforce: Partners, not Proxies
By Dr. Amy Loyd, CEO of All4Ed
With a split vote along party lines, last week the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced three of President Trump’s U.S. Department of Education nominees for key leadership posts to a future full Senate vote. Among them is the nominee for Assistant Secretary for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), the role I once held.
The HELP Committee hearing raised serious concerns about the potential transfer of OCTAE to the U.S. Department of Labor. During the hearing, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) noted, “I just learned this morning that there is a plan to transfer career and technical education from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor. That is a huge change, so I just want to go on the record that I need much more information to justify that change.” This proposed move is not a new idea—the Heritage Foundation recommended this in its guidebook for the Trump Administration, Project 2025. And this proposed move would be detrimental to our nation’s students.
Across America, our young people are diving into fields like cybersecurity and AI. Community colleges are graduating in-demand professionals like nurses and welders. Adults are returning to the classroom to learn English, earn their high school diploma, or reskill for a new economy. From a 16-year-old taking a college course in advanced manufacturing technology and earning dual credit for it, to a 76-year-old grandmother taking evening adult education classes to improve her literacy skills so that she can read to her grandchildren, learners of all ages are showing up with determination and hope—ready to grow, contribute, and build a better future.
All these students need and deserve education systems that support their lifelong aspirations, not workforce systems that measure their potential and success by short-term outcomes like job placement statistics. That’s why OCTAE must not be merged with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA).
I championed cross-agency collaboration between Education and Labor; for example, I co-presented with my counterpart at ETA across the country and internationally, ETA and OCTAE co-created and co-issued guidance to the field, our offices communicated multiple times a week, and my office created guidance that cross-walked ETA’s work in Registered Apprenticeship programs with career and technical education. But a merger of OCTAE into ETA would conflate two distinct missions: education and employment. OCTAE supports learning. ETA supports labor market participation. Both are vital to our nation, but they are not the same.
At its core, career and technical education (CTE) is education. It lives in classrooms, guided by dedicated educators and grounded in academic standards. It prepares students for choice-filled lives—lives where they have the agency to choose a fulfilling career, continue their education, and contribute to their communities. OCTAE’s work through the Carl D. Perkins Act builds pathways that begin in middle and high school and continue through community college, blending rigorous learning with real-world relevance. CTE programs don’t just train students for a good job; they educate them to navigate life. They build the critical thinking, civic engagement, and adaptability that students need to thrive in our ever-changing and complex world.
Through the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), OCTAE invests in adult learners who are often overlooked: those building foundational skills, earning their high school credentials, learning English, obtaining in-demand credentials, or reentering education after years away. These learners are not only job-seekers—they are parents, first-generation students, workers seeking to level up in their careers, and future college graduates. Adult education is about lifelong learning, not just workforce entry. Through adult education, those who are furthest from opportunity can pursue postsecondary education, better participate in civic life, and support their children’s learning, strengthening generations to come.
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is administered by both the Departments of Labor and Education. Labor leads programs that help individuals with barriers to employment through training, job placement, and employer engagement. It also helps dislocated workers get back to work as quickly as possible and supports youth (14-24), with an emphasis on out-of-work youth, in preparing for and securing employment. These efforts are critical, but they are distinct from the developmental, identifying-shaping work of education. Two significant programs under WIOA are led by Education: AEFLA is administered by OCTAE, and Vocational Rehabilitation, which serves individuals with disabilities and is administered by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. While AEFLA lives in the WIOA statute, it is not a workforce-only program. It is an education program grounded in academic advancement and personal growth, and it is a springboard for economic and social mobility.
Merging OCTAE into ETA risks stripping the “education” out of adult education and career and technical education. It risks treating high school diplomas and their equivalences, like GEDs, as endpoints, not entry points. It risks preparing our young people for today’s vacancies instead of equipping them to lead tomorrow’s industries. It risks recreating a tracking system in which academics and career-connected learning are distinct endeavors, perpetuating the stigma of CTE as being “lesser than,” and taking agency away from students and parents with schools determining who is “college material” and who should go straight to work. And it risks severing the vital connections between CTE, adult education, and higher education—and shortchanging the learners who rely on community colleges to bridge those worlds.
Yes, we need better alignment between education and workforce systems. Let’s strengthen collaboration, break down silos, align credentials, and co-invest in talent development. But let’s not confuse connection with consolidation. A merger would flatten and weaken both systems, not integrate them.
Adult learners are students. CTE students are innovators. Family literacy is a catalyst for intergenerational mobility. These efforts belong in a Department of Education—where the whole learner, the whole family, and the whole college and career pathway are the focus, not just labor market participation.
Let’s build stronger bridges between education and employment and keep the foundations of each intact. That means keeping OCTAE in the U.S. Department of Education, where it stands proudly for the power of learning across the lifespan.
America’s learners deserve nothing less.
Meet The Author
Amy Loyd
Chief Executive Officer
