MONTGOMERY — Alabama leaders say 45% of the state’s workforce now has an educational certificate or degree beyond high school, representing progress in the goal of adding 500,000 newly credentialed people to the workforce by 2025 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ed Castile, deputy secretary of the Workforce Development Division in the Alabama Department of Commerce, told Alabama Daily News the pandemic has even helped in some respects in reaching the half million goal.

“Oddly enough, it hurt us, but then it helped us,” Castile said. “The sad news is a lot of people lost their jobs, but that helped us a little bit by getting people into programs to give them a credential which added them to our numbers. But it also got them a job that could also not be so affected by something like the pandemic.”

Gov. Kay Ivey in 2018 set the ambitious 500,000 goal as part of her “Success Plus” initiative, which if accomplished would bring the level of work-age Alabamians with post-high school training or degrees from about 43% in 2016 to 60% by April 30, 2025.

“Right now, we’re moving the needle in the right direction,” Castile said. 

Higher education enrollment numbers also reflect an uptick in the number of students entering into degrees higher than a bachelor’s degree during the pandemic.

Alabama’s four-year institutions saw about 675 more students enrolling in the fall of 2020 compared to the fall of 2019.

“We do know that slight increase was basically because a lot of the seniors went on to graduate school since there were no job opportunities at that time,” said Jim Purcell, executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

Alabama’s postsecondary education attainment rate has been steadily increasing since 2008, with the most recent numbers from 2019 showing the state at 45.1%, according to the Lumina Foundation. That tracks with what state education and workforce leaders are seeing. 

Purcell said studies have shown that two-thirds of the workforce needs in Alabama are at the bachelor level or higher, with an emphasis toward the science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Medical degrees are the most sought-after degrees in Alabama, with the most baccalaureate, masters and doctoral degrees obtained in the state all being either nursing or medicine degrees.