Every finding above is built into SkillsFirst, the career readiness platform colleges and workforce programs have used since 2005.
Visit SkillsFirst ↗Career research on the moments that decide a hire, built into SkillsFirst, the career readiness platform colleges have used since 2005.
New paths to work, with a hard 70% placement bar.
Federal Pell grants can now pay for short-term job training, a new path for people who need it most. Every approved program has to place 70% of its graduates in jobs. Getting people hired is our work, so we keep the national record: every approval and state list, cited.
33 of 52 jurisdictions have published lists; 5 more run an approval process without one. Verified current 2026-10-20 · approvals list last changed 2026-10-20
How real jobs are moving away from the federal standard.
We read postings sentence by sentence against the O*NET task standard, because you can’t prepare for a job you can’t see clearly.
What hiring software actually reads in a resume.
Most applications pass through an applicant tracking system first. Our independent check shows exactly what it pulls out.
Where a resume points, and whether that job is growing nearby.
Most people look for work where they live, so we pair each match with local pay and the state’s own growth projections.
Every finding above is built into SkillsFirst, the career readiness platform colleges and workforce programs have used since 2005.
Visit SkillsFirst ↗One autonomous engine, five stages: pull the live postings, isolate the duty sentences with a language model, match each against the federal O*NET standard, validate what's new, write the report. No analyst in the loop. What comes back is what employers in that market actually ask for, and where it has drifted from the federal standard.
National scale, regional focus
The engine that read postings across 138 metros now runs one market at a time: the employers, duties, and openings behind a specific program in a specific region. The national totals are our scale; the regional run is what you get.
NC placement evidence → · See it on one occupation → · Methodology →Look at the record for free, bring us a question, or put it to work on placement.
Every Workforce Pell approval and every state eligibility list, cited to a primary source and verified on a schedule. Public API and CSV export.
Which programs qualify under your state's gates. How your state's list compares to its labor market. Where your curriculum misses what employers ask for. Scoped in one conversation.
For certified programs: a placement guide from the local market, and tools for every completer on SkillsFirst, where the coach can see the search.
33 states have published eligibility artifacts, and no two look alike. Each one verified against primary documents and mapped to IPEDS.
Open the tracker → Live chartOne law, 52 starting positions: 6 states have finished, 6 are mid-track, and 19 haven't left the gate. 51 institutions are running — 21 of them in North Carolina.
See the chart → Placement evidence · North Carolina5,579 postings behind NC's 43 certified programs: 134 jobs on screen, 38 actionable today, and what actually moves the number.
Read the analysis →Tell us your institution, your programs, and your state. We'll tell you where to start.
Contact usWork in state government? Talk to us about your state →