Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Expands Pell Grants For Trade School Certificate Programs Amid Continued Labor Shortages

By Robert Romano

One provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act expanded the use of Pell Grants for trade schools with short term certificates — between 150 and 599 clock hours at a minimum of eight weeks — that could help pay for trade school certifications for about 100,000 students every year, a big boost for trades where, like other sectors of the economy, there are growing labor shortages amid the Baby Boomer retirement wave where about 900,000 seniors are leaving the labor force every year and climbing.

Every year, about 7 million Pell Grants are awarded nationwide, but only a small percentage about 450,000 or about 6.4 percent go to for-profit institutions offering certificates including trade schools for electricity, plumbing, carpentry and so forth with 600 or more clock hours. The rest of it — more the 93 percent — goes to colleges and universities public and private for degree programs, even though only about two-thirds of college aged individuals go to college.

That means there’s room to prioritize funding for the trades and to recruit prospects who can fill a critical need. Connecting with today’s eleventh and twelfth graders — but also eligible twenty-somethings — to promote the new opportunities could help boost Americans into these kinds of jobs.

A large part of the gap is the perception of blue-collar professions that pay less than jobs that four-year degree holders attain. Also, those with some college or degrees generally have lower unemployment rates. So, the incentives are built in to emphasize producing academics.

But not everyone needs to go to college, and there are lots of jobs that don’t require college that we definitely need to fill.

The expansion of the program to include shorter term programs could help alleviate some of jobs shortages—there are currently 7.4 million job openings including 25,000 in mining and logging, 246,000 in construction, 415,000 in manufacturing, another 315,000 in transportation, warehousing and utilities and 273,000 for other services.

The shortages should only worsen as another 27.2 million currently 55-to-64-year-olds start flooding into the retirement system over the next decade. A lot of people retiring will not be replaced on a net basis as many self-employed entities fade away.

But the labor shortages, largely driven by lower fertility since 1960, could be some good news for future prospects, as it means wages will have to rise substantially to meet the demand.

Over the years, the numbers will continue speaking for themselves as most adults continue enrolling in colleges and universities that more needs to be done to promote the trades. Incentives work, and so it could be that boosting trades schools via the Pell Grant program can begin to shift the perceptions of younger Americans to pursue careers to meet recruitment goals. These are tough jobs, and with more flexibility in these federal funding for the workforce, the next generation will have an opportunity to get more of them done.

Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.

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