The Path to 70% Starts Here.
Across Pierce County, education, business, and community leaders are building one shared strategy to reach 70 percent postsecondary credential attainment by 2030. Today we stand at 45 percent. Closing that gap happens when the right partners sit at the same table, work from the same data, and hold each other accountable over time. This is the work that brings them together.
Join the Path to 70%
Affordability
Closing the distance between what a credential costs and what families can carry.
Navigation
Helping students make sense of postsecondary options.
Workforce Readiness
Aligning credentials with jobs that pay living wages.
Rising demand. Disconnected talent. A widening gap.
Why connecting Pierce County residents to credentials matters now.
Projected job openings across Washington over the next decade.
3 in 4 require a credential beyond high school.
Young adults ages 16–24 in Pierce County who are neither working nor in school.
Unchanged since 2013. Steady for over a decade.
Washington's projected shortfall of credentialed workers, if trends hold.
A widening gap between careers and credentialed workers.
Three Pathways
The path to 70% is built on three core pathways where aligned action closes the widest gaps in opportunity. Each has a measurable target and a network of partners accountable to it.
Affordability
This network takes on financial aid, basic needs, and the everyday expenses that pull students away from school. It works to expand FAFSA and WASFA completion, build a county-level College Promise, and advance institutional policies so that cost never decides whether a student enrolls or stays.
Navigation
This network focuses on the handoffs between systems, the transitions where students are most likely to fall through, and where a trusted adult and a clear next step change the outcome. It strengthens regional advising and builds the guidance students need to explore, enroll, and stay on their chosen path.
Workforce Readiness
This network brings education and employers around shared, specific needs so the path from credential to career is one students can see. It deepens employer relationships, clarifies career pathways, and supports students from graduation into sustained employment.
One Shared Goal
Each focus area is guided by a Leadership Table and powered by an Action Network. Both work in concert toward the same measurable targets, in different but complementary roles.
Leadership Tables
The strategic decision-makers with the authority to commit resources, advance policy, and align their institutions. Table members work from regional data to set shared targets, establish accountability agreements, and guide the broader network toward measurable change.
Action Networks
The practitioners working directly with students every day. Network members use shared data to identify what works, align their efforts across sectors, and turn shared targets into real progress for students.