Higher education and business leaders say Texas is reimagining workforce development through legislative and educational strategies aimed at transforming how students prepare for careers in the world’s rapidly changing economy.

The Dallas Regional Chamber held a higher education forum Tuesday to give officials an opportunity to showcase efforts to adapt to evolving workforce needs.

Those efforts matter across Dallas-Fort Worth, where graduates from over 70 accredited colleges and universities contribute over $120 billion annually to the region’s economy, and the school institutions collectively contribute $37 billion and employ over 300,000 people, according to the Dallas Regional Chamber (The Chamber is a supporter of the Future of North Texas initiative at The News.)

These findings come as parts of North Texas continue to struggle with poverty, which can hinder one’s ability to obtain better jobs, advocates say. In Dallas County, two out of three young adults cannot afford essential living costs, including food, shelter and health care, according to the Commit Partnership. (Commit is a supporter of the Future of North Texas initiative.)

Colleges and businesses have to do more to prepare students for the workforce in order to uplift residents and sustain Texas’ standing as the world’s eight-largest economy, said Wynn Rosser, the state’s higher education commissioner.

“The state can’t achieve its education and workforce goals without the Dallas-Fort Worth region,” Rosser said.

Here are five takeaways from the higher education forum.

Career training efforts

Dallas-Fort Worth will soon have a new program designed to support young adults who are neither working nor in school, said Kerri Briggs, executive director of Educate Texas, a public-private initiative of the Communities Foundation of Texas. (The Communities Foundation of Texas is a supporter of the Future of North Texas initiative.)

The DFW Opportunity Youth Collaborative will seek to reconnect schools and businesses with over 60,000 adults, ages 19 to 24, Briggs said. She said her organization is excited about creating a new learning collaborative on artificial intelligence and education leadership.

“We’re also working closely with Dallas College and Workforce Solutions to grow access to apprenticeships, which ensures a welcome workforce for our booming, booming business sector,” Briggs said. Workforce Solutions refers to the local workforce development boards in Texas that provide career development services to individuals seeking jobs.

Legislative support for students

New laws passed by state lawmakers could help make higher education more accessible for students, Rosser said.

Effectively immediately, sixth-grade students will be required to create an early career profile on the My Texas Future website to help them explore potential career paths and understand the credentials needed for different jobs, according to Senate Bill 2314.

This law also requires high school seniors to participate in direct admissions, a process that allows students to automatically learn which universities they qualify for by submitting self-reported academic information.

Another new law, Senate Bill 2231, establishes a free college application week during October, eliminating application fees for students. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board also received an additional $328 million for need-based scholarship programs, and is improving how students can transfer financial aid between institutions, Rosser said.

“We now, because of the changes in policy and the additional dollars, will be able to tell the top 25% of eligible students that they will be receiving state need-based aid,” Rosser said, referring to the students who qualify for financial aid based on their academic performance and their family’s income.

Workforce gaps

One of the challenges Texas faces is addressing its labor shortage, officials said, noting that there’s a critical need to develop more technicians and specialized workforce pipelines, particularly in sectors like semiconductors and logistics.

Koushik Venkataraman, director of workforce development for Texas Instruments, said the region needs a lot of people who have earned either an associate’s degree or a level one certificate in electronics, robotics, mechatronics, HVAC, mechanical and electrical.

He recalled how his company discovered at one point that among the 150,000 students enrolled at DFW’s community colleges, only about 1,000 of them took courses related to those fields.

“Even if you just look at the North Texas region … you would need more technicians,” Venkataraman said. “With this number, you’re not going to be able to meet that requirement.”

Efforts to address this gap in high-tech manufacturing fields include increased exposure to those jobs, such as through career exploration programs for middle school students and adults, Venkataraman said.

He lauded the Texas Education Agency for its work to develop a regional program of study for electronic technology and manufacturing, as well as work among the high schools that now offer level one certificates in electronic technology.

Leadership in research and innovation

Despite gaps in workforce skills, Rosser said Texas now leads the nation with the highest number of designated research universities.

Texas now has 16 doctoral degree-granting institutions that conduct research, surpassing both California and New York, Rosser said. The state’s standing comes as Texas has set goals to increase research and innovation spending to $4.5 billion and to award 7,500 research doctorates.

As of 2023, Texas has increased research and innovation spending to $4.2 billion and has awarded more than 6,200 doctoral degrees annually.

This is the first time Texas “has led the nation” in this category, Rosser said, who added that “we do not intend to lose that spot.”

Credential diversity

One of the biggest takeaways from the forum was a call to action for educators to show more appreciation for short-term workforce credentials.

Rosser, who mentioned how he obtained his own Emergency Medical Technician credential about three years ago, said there’s a growing recognition that post-secondary education isn’t just about four-year degrees.

That means Texas is increasingly valuing and supporting various credentials, including certificates, associate degrees and short-term training programs that provide valuable skills for the workforce, Rosser said.

“When your HVAC goes out, you want somebody with the right certification to show up and help,” Rosser said, eliciting laughter from the audience. “And you’ll pay anything it takes.”

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.

Except for two Native American-owned properties in far-flung parts of the state, casinos are banned in Texas. But one of the biggest casino and resort companies in the world wanted to change that.

Las Vegas Sands Corporation made a big lobbying bet this past legislative session to try to convince lawmakers to ask voters to amend the state constitution to allow for gambling.

As Forrest Wilder reports for Texas Monthly, it didn’t work.

“Sands is one of the largest casino gambling and destination resort companies in the world. They got their start in Las Vegas, but all six of their properties are now in Asia,” Wilder said. “The company was started by the late Sheldon Adelson, who is a pretty well-known figure in American politics, and it is now controlled by his widow, Miriam Adelson. She is a billionaire and also is well known for her contributions to President Trump’s presidential campaigns.”

Despite casinos being largely illegal in Texas, Sands recently tried to push through a rezoning proposal in Irving.

“Sands went ahead and Irving tried to push through a rezoning proposal where they would take a property they own near the old Texas Stadium where Dallas Cowboys used to play,” Wilder said. “Under this zoning proposal, they would be able to build a casino, as well as other things for shopping and an arena, perhaps for the Dallas Mavericks. And this ended up producing a pretty huge local backlash that ended up killing the deal.”

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Sands has been open that they think Texas is their ticket to reopen casinos in the U.S, according to Wilder.

“They argue the black market in Texas is already enormous,” Wilder said. “Why not take all of that illegal activity that Texans are doing anyway – for example, by placing bets on their phones, on sports and that sort of thing – and turn into the sort of high-end legal luxury properties that they’ve been developing in the U.S. and elsewhere for decades?”

Sands hired over 100 lobbyists to try and convince lawmakers to open a path toward casinos in Texas.

“They invested tens of millions of dollars in political campaigns,” Wilder said. “They ran an expensive, nonstop TV advertising campaign that probably most of your listeners saw at some point.”

However, Wilder said he talked to experts that felt this level of marketing backfired.

“One person told me just being so aggressive that it kind of came across as bullying,” Wilder said. “[They made] a lot of enemies in the Republican grassroots, which is never a good idea in Texas if you want to get something done at the Legislature.

“Nobody knows the future. They say they’re not going away; they are unintimidated and are going to keep pressing forward. But from what I heard from a wide array of sources on all different sides of this issue is that they took a big step back and that they’re going to have to kind of go back to the drawing board and figure out how they can move forward at this point.”

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COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M athletics plans to trim its department budget by almost $10 million as a result of the recent House v. NCAA settlement, which requires universities to pay their student-athletes.

Trev Alberts, A&M’s athletic director, told reporters Monday about the department’s plan to increase scholarships, reduce spending and staff, and create a new position to deal with the ramifications of the settlement, which calls for student-athletes to be paid by their schools.

Student-athletes were previously able to sign endorsement deals or make salary demands from third parties under loosened name, image and likeness rules. Alberts said he was “really excited about having a hard cap” and excited about work on NIL Go, a clearinghouse that will review NIL deals.

“This (settlement and resulting committee) has to work for the future of college athletics,” Alberts said. “It’s worth saying, you know, an unregulated market that we’ve lived in the last three to four years is not in the best interest of anybody, including the student-athletes.” 

A&M’s plan is not finalized, with some savings and cut estimates still being calculated, according to a fact sheet provided by Alberts. The settlement — a result of a 2020 class-action lawsuit against the NCAA — approved by a federal judge earlier this month says that each university must pay athletes $20.5 million out of their revenue-sharing agreements. The decision took over a year to be finalized after the NCAA agreed last May to settle the suit. Texas A&M trimmed several athletics positions in April 2024, just before the NCAA bowed out of its legal fight against revenue sharing.

“I knew that this (settlement) was coming,” he said, “but, you know, I think any time you have a transition, (staff changes are) kind of normal in a sense.” 

How Texas A&M is finding the money to pay its players

Alberts, 54, said he felt the department was “a little heavy” in its executive staffing. Hecame to A&M in March 2024 after serving two-plus years as the AD at Nebraska, where he was an All-American linebacker in the 1990s. 

The total of the cuts, along with projected revenue increases, will provide an additional $26.5 million in “financial resources,” the fact sheet states. Texas A&M athletics in fiscal year 2024 made $266.4 million in operating revenues and spent a total of $243.7 million, according to public records obtained by kbtx.com in College Station. Most of that $22.7 million in profit was due to football, which raked in more than $118 million compared to $90 million in expenses. That includes over $27 million being paid to former coach Jimbo Fisher, per KBTX.

Football is A&M’s only revenue-creating sport, Alberts said, but revenue-sharing will be spread among six Aggies programs: football, baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, softball and volleyball.

“We’re going to have (a) best-in-class, fair-market value, NIL strategy,” Alberts said. “It’s where I think Texas A&M has a great strategic advantage… bringing all of our combined assets together to create the best fair-market value NIL strategy for all of our student athletes, (that) should be a separator for us.

“How do we leverage the largest living alumni in the SEC?…”

The changes following the settlement are already being felt, said Alberts, who spent over an hour Monday on campus, discussing the future of the school and college athletics as a whole with local media members.