I was speaking with a colleague in the PCO/E space and the question came up again about which new online program should universities be launching in the next twelve months. My first instinct was to say a full specialized Bachelor of Professional Studies degree in a hot field built for working adults. But the timing for full degree programs is wrong. At most universities, a full degree takes 2 years to design, another year to get through governance, and by the time it enrolls its first cohort you've lost market share on something that still has to prove itself in a soft product space.
Like a broken record, I started babbling again about Workforce Pell. Credit AND non-credit programs between eight and fifteen weeks are now Pell eligible for the first time, and it's a funding source that is just going to grow. So the answer isn't a new degree, it's short-term stackable credentials, built with named employers or workforce partners already attached, that ladder directly into a degree program you're already running. This does three things a full program can't. First, it launches fast, inside a policy window that's open now and will only get wider. Second, it gives you real completion and placement data before you ever have to defend a bigger investment. And third, it uses the infrastructure your PCE/E unit already built for adult learners, which is exactly the asset the rest of your institution doesn't have.
A good plan violently executed treats this as a pilot. One program, one partner, three month development, and tight scope, and prove the stackability works before you scale it.
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