The University of Maine System, which oversees the state’s public universities, will now accept credentials that high schoolers earn through the long-time Jobs for Maine Graduates program as course credits. University officials see the move as a way to boost college aspirations as universities face a decline in student enrollment.

In Jobs for Maine Graduates, Maine high school students, who may face barriers to learning, work with specialists to develop their professional soft skills. Once students have mastered the skill, they will earn a credential, which students can now bank for college credit at a public university in Maine, starting this academic year.

The Jobs for Maine Graduates program must meet college-level standards of learning to show that students have mastered the material. For instance, students must receive 10 or more hours of instructional time and complete assessments to show what they have learned, said Samantha Warren, the system spokesperson. 

Faculty evaluated and accepted eight credentials for credit: leadership development, personal growth, entrepreneurial mindset, multicultural foundations, pathway navigation, job and career readiness, financial literacy, and digital literacy, according to Jobs for Maine Graduates.

The move comes as the state continues to try to boost postsecondary enrollment after high school. Currently 60 percent of Maine students seek a postsecondary degree, according to state data. And only 55.5 percent of the state’s working-age population has completed a postsecondary degree or training program, according to MaineSpark, a coalition that aims to address workforce issues. 

MaineSpark is now pushing for 70 percent of Mainers to have postsecondary training by 2035 after the state did not meet a previous goal of getting 60 percent of Mainers to earn higher education or workforce certification by 2025.

University system Chancellor Dannel Malloy told The Maine Monitor that the number of students who pursue degrees after high school is too small for Maine’s workforce needs. Accepting credentials for credit through Jobs for Maine Graduates can help boost the number of students going to college, he explained.

“We think this is the right thing to do to help Maine be prepared for what could be too few college graduates in the not-too-distant future,” Malloy said.

At the university level, in-state student enrollment decreased from just over 18,000 students to about 16,300 students — even including online learners — between the 2021-2022 and the 2025-2026 academic years, according to a report on enrollment at the system’s seven universities. Overall undergraduate enrollment of in- and out-of-state students across all seven public universities has risen about 1 percent in the past five years.

The percentage of students now seeking a college degree for the first time at both public and private universities in Maine is below 2020 levels, while the percentage of those first-time students seeking an education at a community college has shot up, federal data shows. 

Jobs for Maine Graduates President Kim Acker Lipp said that the organization, which has long taught competency-based skills to students, aims to give students educational currency by allowing students to earn credentials, which can be stepping stones to postsecondary degrees, she said.

“Having this framework is a way for them to make their learning visible, portable. They can take it with them,” Acker Lipp said. “I think that this is going to open the doors and open the awareness for so many students who would not otherwise think of themselves as college-going. And they can start now visualizing that much sooner in their learning experience.”

The organization’s programming serves 13,000 Maine students in middle and high school each year. More than 70 percent of the students come from low-income households, and almost 70 percent come from families where neither parent went to college. About a third of these students have a disability, according to the group. 

While only 60 percent of Maine students who graduate from public high schools go on to pursue postsecondary education, the rate is lower for certain groups of kids: Only 54 percent of boys and 46 percent of low-income students enroll in postsecondary programs. Nearly 32 percent of students with disabilities continue education after high school.

Maine faces another problem: There are not enough people entering the workforce as the state’s population ages. Much of Maine’s working population has decreased faster than the national average as many people have retired, according to a state 2025 workforce report.

With a limited number of children graduating high school and entering the workforce, Maine’s public university system has pursued a variety of solutions to keep students interested in continuing their education. 

Warren, the system spokesperson, said that the university system is being proactive in trying to recruit students. For instance, the system has a guaranteed admissions program for qualifying students attending community colleges in Maine that allows them to seamlessly transfer their education from a college to a university. The university system also offers an early college program where high schoolers can take college classes. 

“Not waiting for people to come to us — but really going directly to them,” Warren said. “That’s so important in a state like Maine where there is relatively low postsecondary educational attainment. For many of these people, their parents didn’t go to college, and we know that their guidance counselors in high schools, that maybe used to be able to focus more on college application and support, are maybe now really focused on helping students meet their most basic life needs.”

Malloy, the chancellor, said there are many underlying reasons why some students don’t pursue higher education. Schools and families might not be convincing students in high school that they would do well in college, for instance, and there are “ebbs and flows in support of higher ed,” Malloy said. But students who graduate from universities will earn more in Maine, he said. Initiatives such as the Jobs for Maine Graduates program can help those students better understand what’s possible.

“We see this as an additional tool to reach folks just like early college has helped us do that,” Malloy said. “What we’re trying to do is make sure that we’re reaching [out] to the students in Maine and that they understand that we have a university for them.”

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit civic news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.