Building Workforce Ready Colleges and Students

Employers need skilled workers who have both the technical training and workplace competencies to grow and expand their businesses and their region's economic vitality. Community colleges have great potential for meeting these needs through the training and education they offer millions of Americans each year. They also serve as one of the most important vehicles for supporting individuals' entry into high demand, high quality jobs that offer true economic mobility.

AIR is drawing on our expertise to help community colleges adapt and integrate best-in-class workforce approaches to strengthen community colleges' workforce programming and students' success at work.

Recent Research

However, recent research has shown many colleges' degree programs are not well aligned with their communities' local labor market needs, leading many to graduate with credentials that do not provide direct entry into high-demand, high-wage jobs. At the same time, a handful of independent workforce training programs-such as Per Scholas, Year Up, and Project QUEST -have had a dramatic impact on their participants' employment and earnings over multiple years.

To achieve this success, these programs use their deep relationships with employers to develop short-term, industry-relevant technical and workplace readiness training. They pair this training with a variety of intensive supports and services to ensure that students graduate on time and are equipped with the skills employers need.

These programs' practices are highly effective but reach relatively few students in comparison to the millions of students that community colleges serve. How can their practices further support community colleges' growth? What can be learned from colleges that are already implementing them? What adaptations may be needed in postsecondary environments to see similar success?

AIR's Work

AIR is drawing on our expertise in postsecondary education and workforce training to help community colleges adapt and integrate these best-in-class workforce approaches-and learn from colleges that are already doing this work. Our integrated research and technical assistance strategy is designed to both apply and generate evidence-based approaches that can further strengthen community colleges' workforce programming and students' success at work.