Virginia enters 2026 facing workforce shortages that can’t be solved by business as usual. Hospitals are contending with some of the highest nursing vacancy rates in the region. School divisions — from Hampton Roads to Southwest Virginia — continue to grapple with teacher shortages that strain classrooms and accelerate burnout. And employers across the Commonwealth cite persistent difficulty filling roles in technology, cybersecurity and business operations.
These challenges touch every corner of Virginia’s economy. They affect how quickly patients can be seen, how many students a teacher must support and how prepared our communities are for emerging industries. They also point to a truth we can no longer ignore: we will not meet Virginia’s workforce needs by depending on the traditional pipeline of recent high school graduates. We need statewide, flexible, skills-based pathways designed for the thousands of working adults already living and contributing here.
Higher education stands at a similar crossroads. The competitive model that rewards enrollment wins and institutional prestige was not built for a workforce moment defined by upskilling, mid-career retraining and the growing number of Virginians who must balance education with jobs and caregiving. In many communities, especially rural ones, the distance between talent and opportunity is widening. No single institution can close that gap alone.
Across Virginia, employers, community colleges and training providers are already experimenting with new ways to close that gap. Healthcare systems are launching residency-style models to help working LPNs become RNs. School divisions are building paraprofessional-to-teacher pipelines in response to ongoing vacancies. Cybersecurity employers are shifting toward skills-based hiring and seeking candidates with industry certifications rather than traditional time-based degrees. These efforts point to the direction we must go: more alignment, less fragmentation.
That collaborative mindset is what drew me to this work. I grew up in a part of rural America where opportunity rarely found its way to students like me. I see those same barriers in parts of Virginia today, and education became my way out and my way up, and it is why I believe so strongly in building systems that make advancement possible for the people who are already here; people who simply need a chance, time, and a clear path.
In Virginia, collaboration is not a “nice to have.” It is the only realistic solution to the scale of our workforce needs. When community colleges, four-year institutions, employers, and training partners work together rather than in parallel, we create real mobility: LPNs who can move more efficiently into RN roles; paraprofessionals who can become licensed teachers without leaving the classroom; IT workers who can earn the competencies needed to step into cybersecurity jobs without starting over. Higher education must evolve alongside employers if we expect working adults to view advancement as truly accessible.
Partnerships like these are not theoretical. They are underway right now in Southwest Virginia, Northern Virginia and the Tidewater region. But they require consistency, shared credit frameworks, employer tuition support and pathways that recognize skills, not just seat time. They also require higher education leaders to rethink how institutions measure success. The goal must be readiness, placement and long-term community impact.
Virginia’s next chapter in higher education will be written by those willing to break out of long-standing silos. This is the moment to prioritize credit transfer agreements that actually transfer, to scale employer-education partnerships that remove financial barriers for working adults, and to make skills-based instruction the norm rather than the exception.
If we meet this moment with collaboration instead of competition, Virginia can strengthen its workforce in ways that benefit the entire Commonwealth, not just the few who have historically had the easiest access to opportunity.
Dr. K.L. Allen is the regional vice president for the Northeast region at Western Governors University.