🍀 From Grants to Green Skills: Looking into the Education-Workforce Connection

Hello 👋

There’s growing alignment between postsecondary education and workforce priorities. Michigan’s new Infrastructure Workforce Plan aims to train 5,000 workers by 2030, while Austin’s HICAM center, launched with Tesla, and Pennsylvania’s ALIC campus highlights the role of industry-aligned training hubs. Florida’s IRSC secured $4M to expand workforce programs, and Wisconsin awarded $1.7M in healthcare training grants—highlighting the state-level push to modernize training pathways.

Green skills are also gaining institutional traction: Australia is investing $20M in an energy training center, India launched 100,000 green internships, and New Jersey allocated $4.3M for clean energy job training. SMUD is directing $532K toward green jobs and STEM education, reinforcing regional partnerships between utilities and educators. These initiatives signal a strategic shift: education systems are being prepared to adapt and anticipate labor market demands. Expect institutions, regions, and industries move from pilot programs to more strategic implementations.

Track these and other global developments shaping postsecondary education and workforce training on HolonIQ’s platform. Request a Demo today

🍃 Over 70% of Green-Task Jobs Were Held by Men

In 2021, men held over 70% of green-task jobs, exposing a persistent gender gap. Programs like India’s Green Skill Development Programme and the Indo-German Green Skills initiative (2024–2026) aim to close this gap by offering women targeted training in renewable energy and EV sectors

Register Now for Earlybird Prices. 2025 Back to School Summit — September 10–11 in NYC 🇺🇸

Join 700 CEOs and influential leaders at the 2025 Back to School Summit, September 10–11 in New York City 🇺🇸. Two days of high-impact presentations, private roundtables, fireside chats, and curated networking with top companies, global foundations, and major institutional investors.Register now for Early Bird Tickets. Connect with us to receive the 2025 Sponsorship Brochure.

💪 Power Moves

🤖  ​The Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education have introduced a new classification system recognizing 479 institutions as Opportunity Colleges and Universities.

⛑️ Ghana initiated a free TVET program to train 500K apprentices within five years.

💡 Texas State University partnered with Coursera to launch an upskilling micro-credential initiative with an initial 81 certificate offerings.

💰 Education Funding

HolonIQ actively monitors and tracks capital flow in the education market, spanning across all regions and transaction categories.

🖥️  Pistachio, a Norwegian cybersecurity training solution, has secured $7M to scale its AI-powered cybersecurity training platform globally.

💡 Manabie, a Singaporean end-to-end solution provider for educators, has raised $23M to accelerate development of an AI tutor tool.

🎓 Placeasy, an Indian placement service provider, has raised $12.5M to expand its industry-aligned professional education platform that guarantees job placements for students.

🏫 Pencil Finance, a student loan solution provider, announced it has raised $10M to provide student loan financing.

💬 Poppins, a neurotech startup based in Paris, France, raised $5.7M to expand digital therapy for children with dyslexia.

📢 Avathon Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm, acquired OculusIT, a New Jersey-based IT services provider for U.S. education institutions, from ElevenX Capital.

Thank you for reading. Have a great week ahead!
Have some feedback or want to sponsor this newsletter? Let us know at hello@holoniq.com