How does Shifting Gears define "postsecondary credential?"

The Shifting Gears Initiative supports state policy efforts that are designed to improve pathways for low-skilled adults to progress in the education pipeline from adult education and noncredit short-term training to postsecondary credit-based education. Postsecondary education credentials include noncredit and credit-bearing certificates and degrees offered by accredited higher education institutions. Workers should be supported to pursue credentials that have value in the labor market.

To inform this work, states are encouraged to use data to measure labor market outcomes to assess the economic impacts longitudinally tied to education and credential attainment. In some exceptional cases, Shifting Gears efforts will include pathways that do not lead to a postsecondary educational credential such as pathways within the apprenticeship system; this is acceptable if data exists to demonstrate labor market value from these training pursuits.