Clearinghouse Partners with OneTen to Expand Sustainable Career Development Opportunities for Black Talent Without College Degrees

HERNDON, VA – (OCTOBER 31, 2022) – The National Student Clearinghouse, the nation’s trusted source for and leading provider of higher education verifications and electronic education record exchanges, announced today that it has teamed up with OneTen, a coalition designed to close the opportunity gap for Black talent in the United States by working with America’s leading executives, companies and talent developers to hire and advance one million Black Americans without four-year degrees into family-sustaining roles.

Through this partnership, the Clearinghouse will enable OneTen to identify strong opportunities to expand employment pathways for Black talent. The Clearinghouse will work with post-secondary institutions within identified metropolitan regions and provide data, research, and other services to OneTen during this initial endeavor. It will identify postsecondary institutions where potential candidates self-reported as Black or African American, last participated in postsecondary coursework from 2010 to 2020, and lack a four- year degree or higher credential. Exact metropolitan regions for this partnership launch will be announced in the coming weeks.

While the job market is booming, the racial wealth gap in America remains vast, largely due to the lack of access to quality, well-paying jobs that do not require college degrees: 79% of jobs paying more than $50,000 require a four-year college degree, which automatically excludes the 76% of Black talent over age 25 with relevant experience who don’t have baccalaureate degrees. In an economy where Black people only own 1.5% of America’s wealth, harnessing multi-stakeholder partnerships is vital to spearheading diversity and fostering pathways to earned success.

The Clearinghouse joins more than 70 companies and 100 talent developers that have committed to OneTen’s mission to significantly increase the hiring of Black talent without four-year degrees into family-sustaining jobs by improving their hiring, retention, upskilling and advancement practices to support a more diverse workforce and advance economic prosperity for all. Data needs and uses are evolving, and this collaboration showcases the Clearinghouse’s ability to help schools identify and re-engage their learners in support of the nation’s education-workforce ecosystem by leveraging verified data.

Nationwide, more than 39 million Americans have some college and no credential (SCNC), according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Of the 7.2 million students (about the state of Arizona’s population) with some college, no degree that entered college in 2013 or later, 19.6% were Black. The May 2022 research revealed that the academic year 2020-21 re-enrollment share by Black students was 17.6%. In addition, 42.7% of the Black “SCNC” students who earned a credential in 2020-21 completed a certificate; 28.7% earned a bachelor’s degree; and 28.6% obtained an associate degree.

“We believe that this is a potentially landscape changing opportunity, to work in tandem with OneTen to realize their significant and imperative goal to support one million Black individuals who lack a four-year college degree pursue and advance their career opportunities,” said National Student Clearinghouse President and CEO Rick Torres. “Our work at the Clearinghouse, in partnership with our participating institutions, will provide the powerful combination of data intelligence with actionable outcomes to assist OneTen.”

“In order to hire and advance Black talent, we first must be able to reach them,” said Maurice Jones, CEO of OneTen. “We’re delighted to team up with the National Student Clearinghouse, which holds verifiable and trusted data of millions of Americans. We are in a moment of incredible opportunity and economic resurgence, and this partnership will allow us to more easily identify talent and help them realize their ambitious career goals.”

About OneTen

OneTen is a coalition of leading chief executives and their companies who are coming together to upskill, hire and promote one million Black individuals who do not yet have a four-year degree into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement over the next 10 years. OneTen connects employers with talent developers including leading nonprofits and other skill-credentialing organizations who support development of diverse talent. By creating more equitable and inclusive workforces, we believe we can reach our full potential as a nation of united citizens. OneTen recognizes the unique potential in everyone – every individual, every business, every community – to change the arc of America’s story with Black talent. Join us at OneTen.org, where one can be the difference.

About the National Student Clearinghouse^®

The National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit formed in 1993, is the trusted source for and leading provider of higher education verifications and electronic education record exchanges. Besides working with nearly 3,600 postsecondary institutions, the Clearinghouse also provides thousands of high schools and districts with continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics on their alumni. Education partners throughout the nation trust the National Student Clearinghouse because they know we take our commitment to student privacy very seriously. We focus on serving our customers with high-quality services that they expect from us. The Clearinghouse is scrupulous in its concern for student privacy and compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which protects students’ privacy rights in their education records. For more details, visit studentclearinghouse.org.

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