Education in a Post-USAID World: Reimagining Workforce Preparedness and Higher Education Systems

• In Event: Virtual Roundtable Session 2
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Higher Education in a Changing World: Civic Engagement, Globalization, and Student Agency Across Societies

Proposal

For more than sixty years, USAID was a cornerstone of international education assistance, policy making, and thought leadership in both the workforce preparedness and higher education sectors. In workforce development, USAID drove global policy pathways to open up a school to work continuum by financing large-scale vocational and secondary programs, applied training and apprenticeships, market matching, and systems strengthening, while also investing in postsecondary initiatives that built research capacity, professional networks, and academic exchanges. The Agency’s sudden elimination in 2025 represents a pause on all progress, leaving a void for donor counterparts across the globe, as well as for partner countries that relied on USAID programming to improve training, employment and higher education outcomes for millions of students around the globe. This roundtable, led former USAID Education Officers with more than 15 years of experience each across USAID Missions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East will explore the implications of this shift.

Central questions include: What does the absence of USAID mean for the global education community? How can countries sustain progress in workforce readiness outcomes while continuing to build pathways through higher education and workforce development? What alternative strategies are emerging to fill the gaps in financing, technical expertise, and convening power once provided by USAID? In the spirit of the CIES 2026 theme, this session will also consider the political and social consequences of USAID’s departure. Education has long been positioned not only as a driver of learning and economic growth but also as a foundation for stability and social cohesion in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. With USAID’s exit, how can partner countries safeguard inclusive education systems that promote peace in increasingly divided societies?

Author

• Siena Fleischer, Association of State Colleges & Universities