Michelle Van Noy

The Landscape of Noncredit Workforce Education: State Policies and Community College Practices

Postsecondary noncredit education has become increasingly common in recent years, and at many community colleges, noncredit programs enroll more students than do credit programs (Bailey et al., 2003). Courses connected with workforce instruction and contract training account for much of this growth (Dougherty & Bakia, 1999), and such courses are noted for their important role in responding flexibly to shifting workforce demands. Still, the growth in community college noncredit workforce education raises questions about whether the colleges are keeping pace with student and industry needs, using resources efficiently, and providing adequate access to all students. The answers to these questions may challenge current state policies and college practices. The leadership of two major community college organizations — the National Council for Workforce Education (NCWE) and the National Council for Continuing Education and Training (NCCET) — sought to collaborate with the Community College Research Center (CCRC) to conduct a study that would illuminate the implications of recent changes in noncredit workforce education. These councils represent senior community college administrators nationwide who are responsible for workforce development and who have been grappling with their stances on noncredit workforce education when considering which policies to advocate. CCRC’s one-year study, summarized in this Brief, included the examination of state policies in all 50 states and case studies at 20 community colleges. Findings from the study document the empirical landscape of noncredit workforce education and identify issues that warrant attention from state policymakers, community college leaders, and policy advocates.

Integrating Basic Skills and Career-Technical Instruction: Findings From a Field Study of Washington State’s I-BEST Model

The federal government and private foundations for education have established postsecondary credential completion as a national imperative. Washington State’s Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) model was developed to increase the rate at which basic skills students advance to and succeed in college-level occupational programs, and quantitative research on the model provides evidence of its effectiveness. This study shares findings on the implementation of the I-BEST model and provides lessons for practitioners and policy makers in other states.

How I-BEST Works: Findings from a Field Study of Washington State's Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training Program.

Acknowledgments Funding for this research was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The authors wish to thank the administrators, staff, and faculty interviewed at Washingtons community and technical colleges for their time and insights. They also wish to thank the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges for supporting this research and reviewing earlier drafts of the report, Wendy Schwartz for her expert editing and formatting of the manuscript, and Doug Slater for managing the publication process. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors. John Wachen is a senior research assistant at CCRC. He is involved in research on developmental education summer bridge programs, community college performance funding policies, developmental education assessment and placement practices, and the Achieving the Dream initiative. He holds a B.S. from Pennsylvania State University and an M.A. from the University of Maryland. focus of his work is finding ways to strengthen the capacity of community colleges and other public postsecondary institutions to educate economically and educationally disadvantaged individuals for gainful employment in a knowledge economy. He holds a doctorate in public policy analysis from Carnegie Mellon University. Michelle Van Noy is a research associate at CCRC. She conducts research on the workforce development role of community colleges. She holds an M.S. in public policy from Rutgers University. She is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology and education at Columbia University. at MPR. is the leading independent authority on the nations 1,200 two-year colleges. CCRCs mission is to conduct research on the major issues affecting community colleges in the United States and to contribute to the development of practice and policy that expands access to higher education and promotes success for all students. Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) is an innovative program and strategy developed by the Washington (WA) State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) in conjunction with the states 29 community colleges and five technical colleges. Its goal is to increase the rate at which adult basic education and English-as-a-second-language students advance to college-level occupational programs and complete postsecondary credentials in fields offering good wages and career advancement. The promising results from preliminary analyses of I-BEST have generated interest in replication of the I-BEST model. Nationally, over 2.5 million students take adult basic skills courses at community colleges, high schools, and community organizations; only a fraction of these go on to pursue and earn college credentials. …

Employer Perceptions of Associate Degrees in Local Labor Markets: A Case Study of the Employment of Information Technology Technicians in Detroit and Seattle

While promoting postsecondary credential completion is a national priority intended to help graduates secure good jobs, the value of credentials in the labor market from the perspective of employers is not well understood. Specifically, more attention is needed to understand how credentials align with employer needs. Through in-depth interviews with managers responsible for hiring information technology technicians, we examined their perceptions of associate and bachelor’s degree holders in two contrasting labor markets: Detroit and Seattle. The study led to several key findings. First, across the two labor markets, employers expected some common qualities in both associate and bachelor’s degree holders, including technical skills and knowledge, thinking skills, communication skills, and discipline. Second, while they expected some positive qualities in associate degree holders that were distinctive to this credential, many hiring managers also expected negative characteristics, such as a lack of academic ability, initiative, or skill. However, while both associate and bachelor’s degrees provided relevant information about potential workers, employers did not expect the credentials to provide information about certain key qualities they sought in workers, including competency in customer service and teamwork, and personal interest in technology. Some of the qualities that employers expected in associate degree holders were linked to their local labor markets and their perceptions of the local community colleges. This study provides suggestions on how an understanding of the specific qualities employers expect in credential holders and of the role of the local labor market can help colleges better engage with employers and fine-tune their programs to more effectively meet students’ and employer’s needs.

Structure in Community College Career-Technical Programs: A Qualitative Analysis

Using data obtained from interviews and program websites at Washington community and technical colleges, the authors of this study examine the structure of community college career-technical programs in allied health, business and marketing, computer and information studies, and mechanics and repair. A framework for structure with four dimensions—program alignment, program prescription, information quality, and active program advising and support—is used to evaluate the practices of relatively highand low-performing colleges within each field of study. The authors reviewed the websites of all programs at highand low-performing colleges in each of these fields of study and conducted case studies on individual programs from these fields, interviewing faculty, administrators, and counselors to learn more about the dimensions of structure in the programs. The allied health, computer and information science, and mechanics and repair programs were all found to be highly structured; the business and marketing programs were found to have a moderate level of structure. Overall, given that all of the programs were at least moderately structured, there was limited evidence of a connection between program structure and program performance. Table of

The Role of Community College Education in the Employment of Information Technology Workers in Washington State

Understanding the role of subbaccalaureate programs in preparing students for the workforce has become increasingly important, particularly in quickly changing fields that require well-trained technical workers, such as information technology (IT). To better understand the role of community colleges in educating IT workers, we examined two key issues: (1) students’ employment outcomes by the type of community college IT preparation they complete, and (2) the type of employers that tend to hire community college IT students. Specifically, we analyzed data on students who were enrolled in an IT program at any Washington State community and technical college during the 2000-01 academic year and who completed their program or left college by the spring of the 200405 academic year. We examined information on students’ course-taking in college and their employment before, during, and after their college enrollment. Our investigation of employment outcomes by type of community college preparation suggests that employers prefer workers with higher-level credentials. Of the four groups we analyzed, students with both an associate degree and a certificate in IT had the strongest employment outcomes in terms of likelihood of employment, hours worked, and earnings. They were followed by students with an IT associate degree, and then by students with an IT certificate. Students who earned no credential but concentrated their study in IT by completing four or more courses had the weakest employment outcomes, underscoring the importance of completing full programs and earning a credential. Compared with workers overall, IT students were more likely to work for medium sized employers. They were also more likely to be employed in temporary services and educational services industries. Our findings highlight the importance of community college efforts to engage with the full range of local employers as well as the potential need for different engagement strategies, depending on the employer.

Towards a New Understanding of Labor Market Alignment

This chapter offers a new way to look at an issue with deep roots in higher education: the alignment of college education with labor market needs. The authors explore varied aspects of the scholarly literature to shed light on the history of higher education—labor market alignment (LMA) efforts, its driving forces, and the theoretical perspectives surrounding and shaping its understanding today. While policy stakeholders propose one-size-fits-all LMA approaches for higher education that often threaten other college missions, the authors’ perspective is that the process of LMA requires, by its nature, a negotiation among competing stakeholders. Rather than a feat of engineering, LMA is better understood, they propose, as an organizational learning process through which stakeholders (e.g. employers, students, higher education institutions, and others) form unique goals and processes that fit the needs of the group. This chapter stresses the importance of LMA for improving student success measures in a time of increasing income inequality and other economic pressures. It outlines the many options higher education institutions have to pursue LMA in curricular and co-curricular areas, discusses multiple ways to measure LMA, and concludes with recommendations for policy and practice.

Guided Pathways to Careers Four Dimensions of Structure in Community College Career-Technical Programs

Objective: Some have hypothesized that community college programs are not sufficiently structured to support student success and that students would benefit from more highly structured programs. This study examines the specific ways that structure is expressed in policy and practice at representative community colleges. Method: Using data obtained from interviews and program websites at Washington State community and technical colleges, we examine the structure of community college career-technical programs along four dimensions: program prescription, program alignment, access to information, and active advising and support. Results: We find high levels of structure on all dimensions in the allied health, computer and information science, and mechanics and repair programs. There are moderate levels of structure in the business and marketing programs. Contributions: This study documents the specific ways that community college career-technical programs are structured to support student success, and it provides a framework for examining structure to inform practice and guide future research efforts.

A New Work-and-Learn Framework

This chapter summarizes the evolution of the knowledge economy to a new learning economy, driven by new technological forces, digital signals, and the rise of the working learner. The emergence of a new learning ecosystem reflects the integration of working, learning, and living supported by innovative tools and technology to help the learner successfully balance competing demands. This new trend in working and learning presents a shift in how we design and evaluate “work-and-learn” options that incorporate both informal and formal learning approaches, using a mix of structured and unstructured designs, with a new focus on performance-based outcomes. A new framework for work-and-learn options is introduced that evolves from a categorical definition to a continuum approach where work-and-learn activities fall along a trajectory of informal versus formal and high-touch versus low-touch characteristics. A new assessment vision is presented that approaches assessments holistically, putting the learner first and using innovative methodologies. Innovative assessment approaches are summarized for blended learning, personalized learning, and whole person assessment with examples of how these new approaches are being used in practice. New technologies and platforms provide opportunities for experimentation that lead to the development and prototyping of better measures of learning performance that are both diagnostic and valid. The result is a paradigm shift from valuing what one knows versus how an individual leverages technology to apply what is learned. A call to action is presented to change assumptions and processes and to redefine the purpose of learning to achieve career success and life satisfaction.

Employment Outcomes of Community College Information Technology Students

Understanding the role of subbaccalaureate programs in preparing students for the workforce has become increasingly important, particularly in quickly changing fields that require well-trained technical workers, such as information technology (IT). Indeed, initiatives established both in government (such as the Advanced Technological Education [ATE] program of the National Science Foundation) and major foundations are now focused on increasing the number of Americans who earn credentials that are highly valued in the labor market, including two-year degrees and shorter term occupational certificates (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2009; Lumina Foundation, 2009). Knowledge of how particular credentials are understood and rewarded in local labor markets is beneficial for students seeking better employment through subbaccalaureate education and for the institutions committed to serving them. To better understand the role of community colleges in educating IT workers, the Community College Research Center (CCRC) conducted a study in Washington State that addressed two key questions: (1) Which types of community college preparation in IT are associated with better employment outcomes?, and (2) Which kinds of employers in Seattle and in the state at large are more likely to employ students who complete particular types of community college IT preparation? This Brief summarizes the study’s findings.