On the Cusp: A New Horizon for Community Colleges

Pam Sornson, JD on March 9, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

March 15, 2o22

The COVID pandemic appears to be receding as case numbers and hospitalizations drop and mask restrictions are lifted. Many people might pause, however, in the face of those realities, to consider which option will be best for them in their own personal circumstances: to mask or not to mask. The coronavirus has up-ended so many elements of daily life that its impending absence leaves people a bit perplexed about what to expect next and what a ‘new normal’ might entail.

California’s community college sector is experiencing a similar pause. The two years of the pandemic drastically changed traditional ‘college’ processes, and many of those changes appear to be permanent, even when fully open campuses offer a return to ‘business as usual.’ Some experts have assessed not only how colleges pivoted in the past but also how those pivots are informing future decisions. In their opinion, economic and community changes will significantly impact the future of higher education and permanently alter what most people have come to expect.

 

Economy-Driven Changes

COVID-19 ushered in the era of ‘all-digital all the time,’ and it appears that there’s no turning back from that transformation. As the pivot erased thousands of jobs, the demand for newly valued digital services exploded, creating occupations for which there were few well-trained workers available. At the same time, social and environmental realities became substantial enough to command significant resource investments, even though there weren’t enough workers or resources available to meet those emerging needs. The consequence is a gaping vacuum of unfilled job openings in newly needed occupations and a clamoring of both learners and their potential employers for educational pathways into those emerging careers.

These are the conclusions of Burning Glass Technologies (BGT), whose 2021 “After the Storm” report envisions emerging employment opportunities arising from five newly recognized economies (as opposed to old-style industries). These economies span all commercial sectors and demand a different skillset and knowledge base from the traditional occupations that evolved the workforce from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution:

The automated economy, which relies on technology to perform thousands of tasks previously performed by humans. Computing systems programmed with artificial intelligence and machine learning now manage business details in a fraction of the time, with more accuracy and better results than humans can achieve. This trend will continue to grow.

The green economy, which is driven by climate change and its related concerns and promises cleaner, safer methods of generating goods and services that don’t also erode the physical environment.

The logistics economy, which is evolving from the collapse of global supply chains when the virus and its fallout shut down international borders and transportation systems.

The readiness economy, which will evolve to fill in the support gaps and holes revealed when healthcare, security, banking, and other industries were closed by COVID. Then-existing systems weren’t capable of responding to consumer demand when traditional infrastructures failed.

The remote economy, which facilitated an exodus out of the traditional office and workspace to home-based locations and allowed entire organizations to exist entirely in the cyber realm.

According to BGT, companies that don’t invest in the technological and physical infrastructure in which these economies exist will risk losing their market share, if not closure altogether.

 

Community-Driven Changes

Other experts have been eying these and other trends to determine how those will impact the nation’s higher education systems. For example, the experts at Inside Higher Ed (IHE), an industry think-tank, have examined how society has changed in the past two years. They, too, have examined the factors that are influencing how the higher education sector will transform itself in the coming years.

Firstly, a wide variety of new higher ed options have popped up online, offering low-cost degrees or certified diplomas and aimed at populations not typically seen on the traditional college campus. Providers include museums, libraries, and even well-known companies that all bring the credibility of their core competency to their educational courses.

Secondly, new styles of ‘college’ are also emerging, focusing on programs that address the needs of the global, digital, and knowledge economies. These schools are branching off the mainstream college design, just as the teaching universities (John’s Hopkins, as an example) changed their perspective during the Industrial Age.

Thirdly, colleges that are suffering from lost enrollments and course closures are transforming themselves around those programs that still provide value and using the COVID pandemic as an impetus to build back their presence in its new configuration.

 

Further, the IHE surmises how these three phenomena will drive five new realities in the higher ed sector for years to come:

New providers of content and delivery will compete directly with traditional colleges and universities. These providers will offer valuable training options through digital portals as an alternative to ‘time- and place-based education’ delivery systems. Their certifications will provide the credibility employers want to see.

Higher ed consumers will gain more power over their educational options. Rather than have schools determine what and how they’re going to teach, students and the businesses that want to hire them will demand courses that meet their respective needs, and colleges will commit to providing those services.

Higher ed consumers will also demand an ‘unbundling’ of college courses and services to make them more affordable and to better accommodate the learner’s specific opportunities.

The higher ed system will switch from tracking incremental education ‘outputs’ to tracking student ‘outcomes’ in terms of employment and compensation. The newly emerging ‘knowledge’ economy (which transcends each of BGT’s five economies) won’t measure success by the number of graduates but by the number of employed graduates. The eventual employment outcome of each student will become the fundamental indicator of collegiate success.

The system will also stop prioritizing four-year degrees over ‘just-in-time’ certifications as the epitome of educational success, at least in certain subjects. The speed at which systems are changing, coupled with advances in technologies, suggests that, in many cases, four years is simply too long a time to complete an education that remains relevant upon graduation. Further, the educational programs that provide the specific, occupationally focused training needed in so many industries will attain a higher status and more prestige, as their graduates bring cutting-edge solutions to cutting edge problems.

 

The insights gleaned from these evolutions compel all colleges to rethink their approach to and standards of performance if they intend to remain competitive and viable as the new post-COVID era emerges.

Logic Models Measure Educational Success

Pam Sornson, JD on March 9, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

March 15, 2o22

College success doesn’t always equate to career success. However, the drive to improve both college and career success metrics is taking on significantly more meaning as emerging economic realities look to higher education institutions to match evolving workforce talent with growing workforce demand. Understanding how the two connect – college success and career success – requires an understanding of the elements of each and how they interact with each other. Traditional logic models provide a framework to use for that evaluation and process.

 

 

Higher Education Evolves

The evolution of America’s higher education systems began in the late 19th Century, as religious orders developed more organized ‘colleges of higher learning’ that surpassed the efforts of trade-based apprenticeships offering ad hoc job training skills. Middle and lower-class people typically pursued work-related apprenticeships because they couldn’t afford the advanced ‘university’ training costs. That more formal training focused on more theoretical scientific studies and was made available only to those white males who could afford it.

In neither case did employers or educators devise a strategy to measure the ‘success’ of either educational option. Neither system tracked the outcome for the student after the education process was complete. When student statistics were measured at all, they focused on the educational system’s success – the number of apprentices who completed their training or the number of graduates who completed their programs, as examples.

It’s only recently that systemic and social leaders began recognizing the value of measuring how well educational efforts resulted in successful jobs and careers for students and, by extension, economic success for the businesses that hired them. Those ‘education to career success’ metrics are now the focus of companies and industries with a vested interest in the educational processes that develop their current and future workforce. Measuring and sharing those metrics will help all invested participants in the higher education spectrum improve their contribution to it:

Schools will use the data to develop training programs that are relevant to potential employers.

Businesses will use the data to direct training efforts to reflect their particular needs while also building their enterprise with the support of a well-trained labor force.

Governments will use the data to track how their higher education investments contribute to the economic growth of the community.

Taking those measurements, however, raises questions also relevant to all participants:

What should be measured and why?

Who should guide and/or implement the measurement process?

How should the resulting metrics be reported?

How should the resulting metrics be used?

It seems a standardized College/Career success measurement protocol would be helpful, as organizations dedicate more time, attention, and money connecting educational programming to economic success.

 

 

Measuring Quality Using Standardized Logic Models

The COVID pandemic only exacerbated the already existing mismatch between current skills development programming and emerging laborforce demands. As that anomaly recedes, it is becoming more critical to account for and measure the elements that build and determine the success of efforts on both sides of the concern. Standardized ‘logic models’ provide a framework that structures the actions of and connects the two. Using these familiar tools will help all concerned participants better understand how their respective efforts can combine into a successful student/employee/career.

 

Logic Model Components

Many industries use logic models to identify the necessary elements that will make up their successful projects. While each individual element differs based on the organization and anticipated effort, the model itself segregates those efforts into classes that flow from a listing of resources through a record of related activities and to the final result, which, in this case, would be a well-trained, well-compensated worker.

Inputs

Every successful endeavor starts with an accumulation of ‘inputs,’ including the financing, staff, and organizational resources needed to launch and complete the project. To build a successful employee and economic contributor:

Governments will ‘input’ the resources needed to ensure schools have the necessary tools to furnish relevant educational programming.

Schools will ‘input’ the coursework and programming that students need to pursue the career of their choice.

Employers will ‘input’ their occupational requirements to ensure the student’s training is relevant to their needs.

Activities

The inputs provide the structure and support for ‘activities.’ Activities are actions that are relevant to processes and goals that offer the incremental knowledge, practice, and experience that will eventually meld into the fuller expression of the occupation.

Activities at school include coursework, internships, and basic career development skills, among many others.

Activities by businesses include collaborations with faculty to develop appropriate training and classwork materials.

Activities by governments include securing adequate funding, assisting with industry development, and facilitating other economic growth opportunities.

Outputs

Many confuse ‘outputs’ with ‘outcomes.’ The concepts are different, however. ‘Outputs’ relates to the incremental steps forward toward ‘outcomes,’ so there are many outputs throughout the process that contribute to the eventual outcome.

At the school, student ‘outputs’ include completing first and second-year level coursework, completing internships, developing resume’s, etc.

For businesses, outputs include contributions to training materials and participation in job fairs, as examples.

For governments, outputs include funding programming, gathering and sharing relevant industry data, and communicating expectations to constituents based on project metrics.

Outcomes

An ‘outcome’ is the culmination of the combined inputs, activities, and outputs. In this case, ‘outcomes’ will mean different things to the various entities:

For schools, successful outcomes will be graduated students who find well-compensated work in their chosen occupation. Tracking ‘student outcomes’ will no longer simply track the number of graduates or how long it took learners to complete their programs.

For businesses, a successful outcome could mean

ongoing access to a well-developed yet flexible program that trains to their workforce needs,

a steady supply of well-trained workers, and

even an upskilled workforce of existing employees who now have more relevant and valuable skills.

For governments, positive ‘outcomes’ could mean more workers/tax payors, fewer people drawing from social programs, more businesses opening because of the strong labor force focus, and enhanced government revenues flowing from a more robust economy.

 

More organizations are looking for proof that their college-educated potential new hires have the skills and abilities they need to do their work. Every organization involved in the workforce development sector should consider how their enterprise can offer those assurances. Collaborations that intend to improve student career outcomes will be better able to plan, implement, and find success if they streamline the individual efforts of each participant through a logic model framework to collectively pursue the ultimate goal of a well-trained workforce.

 

A New Expression: Non-Credit Programming

Pam Sornson, JD on February 24, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

March 1, 2022

Yet another evolution is emerging as the economy recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Long regarded as the lesser valued educational track, non-credit programs are now taking on more importance as people seek out new skill sets to help them find and hold gainful new employment. Community colleges are responding to this demand by rethinking their current non-credit opportunities and retooling them to accommodate the evolving training options requested by both students and area employers. 

 

Changing by Imperative

Non-credit teaching programs have responded to varying needs over the decades, initially arising as ‘job training’ options and later evolving into ‘life enhancement’ opportunities. In both cases, their structure and presentation differed from that of the more formal four-year universities, so they’ve always drawn from a different population. 

The COVID pandemic, however, revealed the challenges that that particular population faced in its quest to earn a living, as its members typically found work in jobs that offered low wages, no benefits, and almost no employment stability. When the coronavirus eliminated those positions, many workers were left with no employment options at all.

At the same time, employers were desperate to build a well-trained workforce to meet the emerging demands generated by the COVID-afflicted economy. In some cases, their entire enterprise required a rebuild, as technology rendered obsolete what had been their ‘normal course of business.’ In other cases, new occupations and skill sets were needed to keep up with the competition as on-site employees became remote workers and consumers were compelled to change their purchasing habits and choices. In most cases, the pandemic radically changed the ‘nature of work’ from traditional standards to new and continuously evolving practices requiring novel skills and capacities. Accordingly, it’s becoming increasingly clear that ‘traditional’ educational programs aren’t designed to meet the needs of the emerging economy or the industries building it.       

It’s also clear that other societal concerns need attention. Research indicates that shorter-term non-credit courses were attended more frequently by people of color and those of ethnic and other ‘differing’ minorities, often because those populations lacked access to the stringent educational requirements of the four-year university system. The implicit ‘white bias’ in higher education systems has widened economic and social gaps and left millions of people without viable access to programs that lead to higher-earning careers. The lack of further educational progress that is the consequence of a non-credit education perpetuates these gaps.   

 

Furnishing the Future Workforce

Today’s community colleges are taking up these challenges to both drive economic growth and alleviate long-standing racial disparities. In many schools, educational leaders are reconsidering what they need to provide through their non-credit offerings, recognizing that both their students and their future employers need resources and results as quickly as possible.  

What students need 

According to a 2020 study, even before COVID, people were looking for educational opportunities that facilitated well-paid jobs and a better quality of life:

Many survey participants indicated an interest in occupational fields affected by emerging technologies, such as information technology, high finance, and business management. Service careers in these types of occupations provide foundational functions for industry professionals, so training for them isn’t as rigorous even though the work itself is equally critical to industry success. 

Jobs that are common to many industries are also favored for their flexibility, such as human resource management, communications, and business consulting. People are invested in the actual labor they will perform regardless of the nature of the industry in which they work.    

They also indicated different motivations for finding new work. Some were looking to improve their earning capacity or to rise higher on their particular career ladder. Others wanted more balance in their lives, citing a need for more autonomy in their work as well as a better use of their talents or a more meaningful way to spend their time.

Perhaps most significantly, more than half of these respondents said they didn’t have access to the training they needed to attain these goals., and if they did, they would prefer to access that education through a non-degreed, skills training, or online learning program. 

The coronavirus pandemic almost certainly exacerbated these concerns in both this study population and the American population in general. 

What employers need:

Changes in the industrial world are also driving the need for changes in educational programming. While the pandemic closed many businesses for good, others modified their operations to accommodate new demands and quickly found there were slim workforce supplies to help them meet those demands. Colleges can reimagine their non-credit courses to help employers find solutions to their concerns in these new circumstances:

Design courses that focus on existing skills gaps. As an example, the exploding technology sector introduces new and novel software and digital solutions every day, all of which require technicians who understand how to implement, maintain, and secure them. 

Introduce new training programs as quickly as possible. Worker shortages exist across many industries; developing and implementing appropriate training options as soon as possible solves problems for the employer, the new employee, and the school. 

Build industry-recognized credentialing into the program. Sign-posting industry standards of excellence in both training and employment practices emphasizes the connection between the supply and demand for qualified labor.  

Here in early 2022, it appears the COVID-19 pandemic may be receding, leaving in its wake a rearranged and unfamiliar world. Consequently, many people are seeking new ways of earning a living, while many companies are seeking new workforce talents to help them attain new markets. Today’s community colleges can help both populations by providing timely, relevant, and innovative non-credit training opportunities that give the skills both groups need and the enhanced lifestyles both groups want.   

 

Exploring the Options: Non-Credit Community College Courses

Pam Sornson, JD on February 24, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

March 1, 2022

While most people agree that pursuing college credits is a laudable life goal, they may disagree on what actually entails ‘a college education.’ As the economy shifts into its post-COVID ‘normal,’ many are focused on retraining for new opportunities and eying the re-education options available at their local community college. Some will find that the non-credit program opportunities offered there will provide a better education – and future – than they could have imagined in their pre-COVID life.

 

 

The Significance of Non-Credit Courses

America’s current higher education system began as a ‘return to normalcy’ training opportunity for returning soldiers after the wars of the mid-20th Century. Over time, it has evolved into a driver of the four-year university degree ‘ideal,’ and turned its attention and assets to guiding all learners towards that goal. In the process, the schools that didn’t offer those four-year credentials resorted to offering other educational options that didn’t require an end certification, diploma, or degree. Unfortunately, this recalibration of the higher education system also resulted in the discontinuance of the many vocational training programs that had arisen in America beginning in the 19th Century. Left without access to these job-focused training programs, a large percentage of the population no longer had a viable employment preparation process.

The rise of the community college system addressed some of these disparities, as those schools began offering shorter, more distilled courses than were presented at the four-year university. However, many of these courses were offered as ‘non-credit’ courses, meaning that they weren’t tied to attaining credits, diplomas, or certifications. And, because they didn’t lead to those specific educational targets, many people began thinking of both the courses and the ‘community colleges’ that offered them as less valid as educational resources than the offerings provided by four-year universities.

The past decade, however, has revealed a great demand for the ‘middle skills’ taught by those shorter programs and earlier vocational programs. Many companies now recognize that the values offered by these skill sets don’t often accompany a four-year Bachelor’s degree. For many students, attaining an education in half the time can be life-changing. Learners can obtain their chosen occupational training in one- or two-year increments and then launch their career and new life earlier than they thought was possible.

 

 

California Takes the Lead

California’s community colleges (CCC) recognized a decade ago that they could facilitate the demand for middle-skill training by rethinking their non-credit programming. Instead of offering what had become ‘dead end’ courses that did not feed any kind of formal academic award, the CCCs determined that the overarching CCC system (116 schools serving 2.1 million students) should provide occupation-focused training that responded to employer’s needs while accommodating the specific needs of the learner. By reorganizing both the intent and the activities of the non-credit learning system into workforce development programs, schools could use those dedicated funding streams to better respond to the needs of two of their core constituents – their registered students and their local business community. But there are still hurdles to overcome …

Unfortunate Stigma

In too many cases, people continue to overlook the educational options available at community colleges, which they assume are simply stepping stones to a four-year degree or offer no value as the foundation of a meaningful career.

The truth is that today’s community colleges provide two-year, non-credit learning pathways to well-paying jobs that often compare favorably with the values offered by a four-year commitment. The middle-skills they teach – those that provide the essential services that support professionals, industries, and organizations – are becoming more critical as the world transitions into a more digital and connected global economy.

Unnecessary Myths

Dispelling just three myths that shroud the value of a community college program can help learners see what they may have overlooked:

      1. “Community college is too easy.”

Actually, up to 40% of all community college students are fulfilling the prerequisites of the first two years of their intended four-year degree. Academic standards are comparable at both institutions.

      1. “There’s no real ‘college’ experience.”

Also not true. Like a four-year school, community college campuses teem with clubs, groups, events, and other collegiate activities that round out a full college lifestyle.

      1. “They don’t support students as well as four-year colleges.”

Also not true. Community schools offer comparable levels of financial aid and are very flexible in how they work to meet their unique student body needs. In some cases, the community college bests its four-year competitor by providing more fundamental but equally critical ‘soft skills’ for employment attainment, such as interview skills, resume advising, and, depending on the chosen career, even on-the-job training as an element of the program.

 

Enviable Examples

Some examples of diplomas or certifications available through a California community college illuminate the long-range economic value they offer their learners:

Graphics Design:

The COVID pandemic underscored the high value of digital displays, and demand for graphics designers is expected to grow by 3% between now and 2026. These careers span many industries because virtually every enterprise invests in the presentation of its physical and online presence. From sign makers to illustrators to video game designers, the development and deployment of ‘graphics’ is a growing industry. On average, a graphics designer can earn as much as $85,000 per year.

Computer & Business Administration Support:

Workers skilled in both computer systems and administrative functions command high respect in today’s advanced industrial sectors. In many companies, leadership focuses on the organization’s core competencies and relies on its support staff to manage day-to-day office and department functioning. From data entry to records management to basic business math oversight, workers in these occupations can earn up to $28 per hour, and demand for these skills is expected to grow by 6% by 2026.

Medical Office Administration:

Medical offices require a different style of ‘administrative‘ functioning because of their specialized healthcare focus. Medical terminology, in particular, requires specialized knowledge, and workers skilled in medical interpretation and translation perform a critical function within the larger healthcare team. Pay rates for these jobs range from $22,000 to $86,000, although the annual average is about $47,000.

 

As the economy emerges from the pandemic, more of these ‘middle skilled’ jobs are becoming available. California’s community colleges have or are building the training programs needed to provide that middle-skilled workforce, and their non-credit course opportunities offer access to an affordable education and an employment future that many people never believed was achievable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LA County’s Economic & Workforce Agencies

Pam Sornson, JD on February 10, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

February 15, 2022

Many people will measure their life experience from now on by two standards: ‘BC’ (‘before COVID’) and ‘AC’ (‘after COVID’). Emerging in tandem with 2020’s social justice unrest roiling the U.S., the pandemic has irreversibly changed whole swaths of America’s foundational infrastructure. Many occupations simply ceased to exist, being either rendered obsolete by technology or just becoming unnecessary. The demand for highly skilled workers in other occupations skyrocketed as the country pivoted to an online presence in a modified ‘work-from-home’ world. 

Through it all, leaders across the nation struggled to redirect existing resources to accommodate emerging demands. Those who already had a strategy in mind or in place had an advantage over their less prepared colleagues. Fortunately for Los Angeles County (LAC), the long-range economic development strategy was already in place and functioning. Its participants needed some time to regroup due to the coronavirus but are now forging ahead with their modified plans to build a stronger economy and engage a higher percentage of LAC residents. 

 

Pursuing an Economically Sound Future for All     

A 2016 essay by the Brookings Institute summed up the goal of achieving community prosperity through strategic initiatives: build regional economic growth by increasing the productivity of both companies and workers so that all regional residents experience a higher standard of living. The overarching strategy encompasses both markets (industrial clusters) and civics (the work of engaged stakeholders, including business and government leaders). The beneficiaries are the people who live and work within those regions, and their children, and their children. 

The essay also lays out five action principles to ensure any initiative encompasses all the relevant aspects needed for success:

    1. Set appropriate goals that embrace an ‘opportunities for all’ mentality.
    2. Prioritize established companies and emerging industries and include innovations, trade, talent, and governance to enhance competitiveness.
    3. Look to do business with other markets to expand trade opportunities.
    4. Invest in building new skills and the people who teach and learn them.
    5. Connect with all available regional resources so that local communities can participate where they are.   

The overarching strategy lays out a template that any entity can use to build a resilient and successful enterprise, regardless of its location or the nature of its resources. 

 

LAC’s Economic Growth Collective 

Leadership in LAC began its strategic growth trajectory well before that 2016 essay was written. Over the course of many years, regional, state, and local leaders collaborated on how best to manage the region’s resources. Those discussions got deeper and more meaningful as environmental, technological, and social factors evolved.  

LA’s Chamber of Commerce

A key partner in LAC’s growth initiative is its 130-year-old Chamber of Commerce. The organization of business leaders works to advance opportunities to build a thriving, inclusive economy for all LAC residents. Its advocacy efforts reach toward local and regional governments as those agencies develop policies to facilitate and foster economic growth. Its members also collaborate extensively with each other and with colleagues within their individual industries to build longer, stronger sector connections that enhance the efforts of all. Not least significant to the group is the County’s geographical location, sitting as it does at the heart of a globally pivotal economic gateway. The Chamber works with national and international entities to reap the fullest benefit possible from its associations with the global economic community.  

The LAC Economic Development Corporation

In 1980, LAC launched the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) to ” … reinvent [the LA region economy] to collaboratively advance growth and prosperity for all.” A private, not-for-profit organization, members of the LAEDC leverage area public and private intellectual, business, and financial investments to reduce the County’s regional social and economic disparities. These days, the group focuses its effort on incorporating lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and state-wide social unrest to maintain and build LAC’s vast industrial complex. 

The Southern California Leadership Council

Informing each of these organizations is the Southern California Leadership Council (SCLC), a partnership of government and business leaders from seven counties who contribute their insights and opinions on critical regional policies that affect millions of Southern California residents. Launched in 2005 by a conference of former governors and civic leaders, the organization offers its experience-based wisdom as guidance for natural resource management (water, climate concerns, energy development and usage, etc.), business attraction and retention, regional logistics, and international trade opportunities. Its effort adds depth and breadth to LAC’s overall economic and development perspective.      

The Center for a Competitive Workforce

In 2017, in partnership with the LAEDC, the County’s 19 community colleges launched the area’s first Center for a Competitive Workforce (CCW), tasking it with coordinating research and development of the talent and worker supply that the region’s industries demand now an will demand in the future. Its foundational purpose is to be a direct connection between the region’s businesses and the region’s workforce training organizations – its 19 community colleges. 

The Centers of Excellence for Labor Market Research

The Centers of Excellence for Labor Market Research (COEs) are working in conjunction with the CCW, providing critical labor market data to community colleges to inform their program and curricula development strategies. Mount San Antonio College is home to the Los Angeles/Orange County COE, which uses regional data to identify trends in workforce demand and supply for community college decision-making.  

The Los Angeles Regional Consortium

Finally but certainly not least are the 19 community colleges that now make up the Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC). The LARC came into existence on January 1, 2022, specifically to build a collaborative, regionally based workforce training pipeline to feed the County’s vast industrial complex. With the assistance and support of its economic community membership, the schools included in the Consortium will be well able to provide the well-trained workforce that will drive the region’s economy for decades to come. 

Together, the efforts of these and other LAC entities are combining to reduce or eradicate the social injustices of the past while embracing the full measure of value offered by the region’s multiethnic population. And, looking across the LAC landscape at its economic and workforce development assets, it’s clear that the area has fully embraced the strategic action principles suggested by Brookings. 

California’s Community Colleges Lie at the Center of its Economic Future

Pam Sornson, JD on February 10, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

February 15, 2022

While still reeling from the chaos of the past two years, many Los Angeles County (LAC) residents have a growing awareness of the economic opportunities emerging from the fog caused by the pandemic, social unrest, environmental stressors, and other community upheavals. Some may find that their current occupation now offers new avenues for career development; others may be searching for new work after their previous employer closed or downsized. No matter what their precise situation may be, however, their local LAC community college has the resources they need to refresh or upskill their talent or provide whole new opportunities for education and training.      

A newly established regional consortium of LAC’s 19 community colleges – the LARC – is strategizing its collective assets to best serve its core constituents, LAC’s college students, adult learners, and business community. The project flows from the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office (CCCCO), the coordinator of the efforts of all 116 California community colleges. Several statewide initiatives impact the LARC’s work, and all are directed to providing students and their future employers with a well-trained, talented, and thriving workforce.  

 

Many Trajectories = One Strategy

Ultimately, the goal of the CCCCO is to ensure that state and private investments in higher education are appropriately managed and return the desired outcome: a well-trained workforce that meets the needs of the economy’s many businesses and industries. That coordination effort is complicated, however:

There are 1.8 million students enrolled in California’s community colleges (CCC) every year, each of whom is pursuing their individual educational path and career goal. Every student expects to receive the resources and guidance they need to succeed both at school and in their desired career or occupation. 

Together, the schools offer 200+ Career Education programs and 15 Bachelor’s degree programs (in conjunction with the State’s UC and CSU universities). Many students begin their college education at a CCC then finish at or move through a four-year university to their final educational destination. 

Every individual school engages with its local and regional businesses and industries, seeking valuable inputs to partner with its academics. Work-based learning and internship opportunities and on-site learning situations such as field trips and guest lecturers offered by neighboring companies facilitate upskilling educational options for learners. School-based workforce training provides an inexpensive and convenient venue for upskilling already employed staff. The schools also reach out to industry professionals to enhance course curricula and contribute to program decision-making. 

The CCCCO coordinates the efforts of nine administrative divisions to manage the multiple inputs, outputs, resources, and demands generated by the schools and California’s economic, governmental, and industrial complex:

college finance and facilities planning

digital innovation and infrastructure

educational services and supports

government relations

institutional effectiveness

internal operations

marketing and communications

its legal office (general counsel), and

workforce and economic development.           

While all these divisions are critical assets to the running of the CCC system, two divisions are getting enhanced attention in light of the upheavals that have occurred in the past two years; institutional effectiveness and economic and workforce development. 

The Institutional Effectiveness Division

The Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI) performs the work of this division. This collaborative of statewide CCC professionals works to improve the impact of the community college in its local and regional areas. It has two primary functions: 

to ensure that each school fulfills the mandates established by federal and state funding contracts, and

to demonstrably improve student success metrics by

eliminating barriers that prevent learners from enrolling in or completing their courses, and

producing higher numbers of graduates across all fields of study.     

The IEPI oversees the professional development of CCC teaching staff, ensuring that what they teach connects with the jobs their students want and the workforce their community needs.    

The Workforce and Economic Development Division

This division oversees the connection between CCC students and their local and regional employer base. By devising and instituting flexible workforce training and career pathways that respond to both student interest and industry demand, the CCC fulfills its mandate to both: graduates find the future they want (either a job, career, or entry to their next educational level), and businesses find the trained and talented workers they need to maintain and grow their market share.  

 

The Vision for Success

Ultimately, the work of the LARC, each of its individual schools, the CCCCO, and the CCC system itself is to fulfill California’s Vision for Success (V4S) mandate. The V4S envisions a bright economic future for the state, where:

every Californian who wants a job will have the training they need to attain the position they seek,

every business that needs employees will find the well-trained workers it requires,

every industry that seeks to expand through innovation and development will find the highly qualified businesses and employees it needs to pursue those goals, and  

all California residents will benefit from the enhanced state economy that a thriving industrial base engenders. 

As a strategy, the V4S pursues seven core commitments, each of which informs the work of the CCCCO and each of its CCCs:

      1. To focus relentlessly on each student’s individual goals;
      2. To decide on and design programs that serve student’s needs;
      3. Encourage high achievements through the provision of high-level support;
      4. Use data, inquiry, and evidence to drive decisions and strategies;
      5. Own its own goals – ensure that the CCC system builds its success on the success of its students;
      6. Embrace innovation and enable action to pursue it, and 
      7. Lead the partnerships that evolve through these processes.  

For three years, the CCCCO has focused on achieving these goals while also addressing the barriers that impede student progress, such as racial, financial, and social disparities. By keeping these core commitments forefront in its actions, the CCCCO is both fulfilling its mandate to the State of California and also addressing the needs of each individual student that crosses a CCC school threshold.  

California’s community colleges represent the hopes and dreams of the State’s future. Working together with LA County’s industrial network, all its collaborative business agencies, and its local and regional think tanks and governments, the schools play an integral part in the growth of the State’s economy and the well-being of its population. With these teams in place and working together, there’s no reason why California can’t continue to maintain its status as a global health-and-well-being beacon and leader.  

Meet the LARC – LA County’s 19 Community Colleges

Pam Sornson, JD on January 26, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

February 1, 2022

As an individual school, each of Los Angeles County’s (LAC) 19 community colleges offers its local constituents tremendous resources for building both a satisfying career and a fulfilling life. As a collaboration, however, those resources are multiplied when the collective group of schools – the Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC) – combines assets to enhance optimal credentialling streams, develop best occupational practices, and reduce redundancies in courses and programs across the County. As the LARC gets down to business here in 2022, it must clarify its most pressing challenges while building its initial, foundational steps towards regional educational excellence.

 

The LARC Schools

As a collective, the schools are already organized into 11 ‘districts,’ with the Los Angeles Community College District containing nine colleges – East LA Community College, LA Community College, LA Harbor College, LA Mission College, LA Pierce College, LA Southwest College, LA Trade-Tech College, LA Valley College, and West LA College. The other ten schools encompass a single ‘district’ each – Cerritos, Citrus, Compton, El Camino, Glendale, Long Beach, Mt. San Antonio, Pasadena, Rio Hondo, and Santa Monica college districts.

As the LARC came together during Fall 2021, leadership from all schools joined in conversations to develop the regional organization’s structure, governance model, and foundational projects. One of their starting points was found in the data reported by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation in 2019: “LA Community Colleges at a Crossroads – A market assessment and call to action.” That report suggests that the LARC schools pursue a three-part strategy in their effort to enhance the success of California’s Strong Workforce Program (SWP) within county boundaries:

1: Address Existing Threats:

Address a series of significant threats, including:

declining enrollment numbers,

accommodating a growing population of diverse learners,

revising programs to develop a more work-ready stream of graduates,

developing new programs to attract adult learners new to the higher education system, and

expanding the use of technology to prepare students and graduates for the pace of technological changes in the marketplace.

2: Embrace emerging opportunities:

Embrace a series of opportunities, including:

rebuilding the student journey to provide more, and more relevant, supports from before enrollment through to employment,

enhancing the LA community’s perspective about community colleges through strategic marketing,

linking learners to potential employers by partnering with local businesses, and

developing a cross-institutional collaboration among themselves to build strategic partnerships and enable forward progress on a regional basis.

3: Launch by undertaking ‘enabling’ actions:

Use advanced data analytics to clarify barriers found within the student’s journey,

Use those same analytics to discover learner beliefs about higher education and preferences for pursuing it,

develop a regional labor market partnership to inform curricula and program development, especially for fast-growth occupations that aren’t yet fully developed at the community college level, and

establish a regional entity to provide infrastructure and decision-making capacities on a regional basis. The establishment of the LARC is responsive to this ‘enabling activity.’

Keeping an eye on the data that underscores these overarching strategies will help the collaboration remain on track with its SWP mission.

 

Balancing Resources

One of the biggest challenges facing the LARC is the imbalance of resources available to the individual schools within the region. Many of the schools are located in wealthier communities, and students entering those schools typically have more robust support systems to assist them in their educational journeys. Other schools, however, are situated in less wealthy neighborhoods, and many of those students have fewer resources with which to approach their college experience. Finding a balance of regional resources that support each student equally, regardless of their location within the County, will be a challenge to the new organization.

 

Initial Foundational Projects

As the new year opened, the LARC launched a bevy of initiatives designed to bring its members together to address common concerns and develop common, near-term goals. These initial projects may represent ‘low-hanging fruit’ (as they pursue activities that are already common among the schools), but they also offer a substantial likelihood of early, encouraging success. Among them:

The Regional Industry, Engagement and Employment Pipeline Development – Taking advantage of the resources provided by the LAEDC, this project seeks employers willing to provide internships and other hands-on learning experiences. Additionally, LAEDC members will work with college faculty members to connect needed skills and talents with courses and curricula.

Also engaging with partner UNITE-LA, the LARC is using a targeted ‘universalism’ approach to ensure that typically underserved student populations have access to programs that have often utilized inequitable recruiting methods to screen them out. The collaboration directs its efforts in this project to steer low-income learners towards healthcare and technology occupations and careers.

Using the social innovation methodology of Stanford’s ‘Collective Impact‘ strategy, the LARC’s ‘Faculty Innovation Hub‘ will provide leveraged matching investments with stipends to develop regionally relevant curricula alignment and facilitate faculty convenings.

Raising awareness about the high value of LAC schools began with the launch of the ‘CCLA-19‘ marketing project in 2019. It already provides a ready-made foundation for the LARC’s marketing campaigns as it educates the LAC community on the affordability of LACC programs and the job and career opportunities they support. Activities within the project include both growing enrollments for all the LARC schools as well as creating connections between LARC programs and the businesses that need well-trained workers.

The LARC is also looking to attract pre-college students by connecting high school Career Technical Education (CTE) students with community colleges using ProgramFinder.com. The digital tool connects younger learners with college programs they’re already interested in and facilitates better collaboration between high school and college CTE faculty.

 

The outstanding effort of the LARC membership to come together, form their teams, and launch new projects collaboratively as quickly as they have is commendable and bodes well for the region. Their continuing work will be a welcome addition as the sixth pillar of Pasadena City College’s Economic and Workforce Development department.

 

 

The LARC’s Industrial Clusters

Pam Sornson, JD on January 26, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

February 1, 2022

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the State of California is looking ahead to rebuild/recreate its economy to withstand better future catastrophes like those wrought by social justice inequities and climate-induced floods and wildfires. Virus vaccines and treatments are changing the course of the COVID concern. The challenging realities it revealed are informing a new way forward for communities, businesses, and whole industrial sectors.

In Los Angeles County (LAC), a new collaborative is uniting its 19 California community colleges (CCCs) into workforce development engines that serve its ten primary industrial sectors and five emerging ‘economies.’ Shifting the economic development onus from individual schools to a regional collaborative will reduce curricula redundancies while powering best practices to inform the activities of all. Efforts by all 19 schools (now dubbed the Los Angeles Regional Consortium, or LARC) are already underway to identify teams, strategies, and first steps. Pasadena City College’s (PCC) Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) department is the selected coordinator of the project and has embraced the LARC as its sixth pillar.

 

The LARC’s Industrial Complex

As the largest county in the country, LAC is home to thousands of businesses that populate hundreds of industries. To maximize economic growth opportunities, the Los Angeles Regional Plan used labor market information to identify ten major industry clusters as the focus of its workforce development strategy. Additionally, there are also five newly recognized ‘economies’ emerging from the COVID-19 fog, each of which provides critical corporate infrastructure inputs through all industries. The work of the CCCs is to collaborate with the businesses within these industries for training and skill-building guidance to develop and implement educational strategies that produce the highly skilled workers they need.

 

LA’s Industry Clusters

An industry ‘cluster’ represents all the businesses contributing to the overarching industrial production capacity. Parts manufacturers, transportation agencies, and consumer-facing commercial companies, among many, many other contributors, all play a pivotal role in each sector’s success.

 

The Manufacturing Cluster

LAC produces an immense volume of high-value assets through several notable manufacturing industries. These four have been identified as having the capacity for substantial growth opportunities for the region:

Its globally renowned entertainment industry generates over $100 billion annually for the State of California through both its film and television efforts and those related tourism receipts. Thousands of companies contribute resources to the industry, from entities producing visual effects to developers facilitating enhanced distribution capacities. The burgeoning digital gaming industry is a sub-industry of the entertainment sector, which pulls talent from the digital, entertainment, and media arts sectors to create globally popular online games.

Information and communications technology (ICT), including that used in the entertainment industry, is also a growing industrial concern in the LA basin. The Center for a Competitive Workforce estimates that almost 10,000 middle-skilled ICT jobs will be available in the region in the coming years.

Based on its enviable climate and access to vast expanses of agricultural assets, LAC’s food manufacturing industry produces internationally acclaimed foods and services. Not insignificant is the region’s multi-ethnic population, which supports a wide range of food products with origins that span the globe.

The fashion, apparel, and lifestyle industries rank at the top of the nation’s ‘creative design’ sector, producing more high-quality furnishings, cosmetics, and fashions than any other region in the country. Collectively, the sector comprises the region’s fourth-largest business sector and generates over $115 billion annually.

 

The Aerospace and Defense Cluster

The Aerospace and Defense industries also contribute significantly to the regional economy, playing a leadership role in the national defense sector. Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Palmdale’s NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center are global leaders in space exploration technologies. The Space and Missles Systems Center at the Los Angeles Air Force Base generates $9 billion a year designing and developing space and missile systems components and configurations.

 

The Advanced Transportation and Logistics Cluster

Home to the most extensive port system in the western hemisphere, the San Pedro Bay port complex (comprising Los Angeles and Long Beach shipping ports) handled over nine million cargo containers in 2020, valued at more than $259 billion. It accounts for one in twelve jobs in the region and 74% of the West Coast’s market share for the shipping industry. Five airports in the county also contribute to its logistics industries, as do the businesses involved in electric vehicle development, alternative fuels, emerging mobility capacities, and more.

 

The Energy, Construction, and Utilities Cluster

Businesses involved in these industries may be facing the steepest challenges as the world turns more toward digital solutions for emerging concerns and the LA region prepares for the 2028 Olympics. Across the sector, older workers are retiring, taking their years of experience with them. Candidates for these positions will need advanced training and enhanced skills to fill in those gaps. The addition of technological advancements increases the complexity of many middle-skilled jobs, which points to an increase in labor market demand.

 

The Healthcare Cluster

Business services in this cluster are growing at exponential rates across all levels of industry, from entry-level data-processing jobs to advanced healthcare technology and engineering careers. The cluster includes both traditional healthcare industries as well as some of the world’s most acclaimed teaching hospitals, the UCLA Medical Center, the City of Hope, and Cedars-Sinai Hospital, to name just three. The California Institute of Technology – Caltech – has been ranked the world’s premier research hospital for several years running.

 

The Bioscience Cluster

LAC’s bioscience research and production industries lead the world in scientific research, discovering new avenues of inquiry and developing life-saving treatments for myriads of illnesses and diseases. Drawing on the unparalleled resources of the region’s top research universities, medical centers, and teaching hospitals, the sector accounts for more than $44 billion in economic activity.

 

The Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Cluster

World-class shopping venues highlight just one aspect of this economic sector, ranging from the internationally famous Rodeo Drive to the bustle of downtown LA’s Fashion District. The Hollywood Walk of Fame attracts thousands of visitors each year, as do the County’s many theme parks, performing arts venues, sporting events, and other cultural attractions. With more than 50 million visitors a year, this cluster brings in more than $18 billion for the regional economy.

 

The LAC economic community is large, thriving, and in need of well-trained workers to maintain its current upward trajectory. The mission of the LARC and its 19 CCCS is to ensure that those businesses, and the region’s economy overall, have the human resources needed to maximize all that potential.

 

New Horizons for a New LARC

Pam Sornson, JD on January 12, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

January 18, 2022

Despite coming into reality as a single entity in summer 2021, the Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC) has actually been active since 2016. Back then, the California Legislature allocated funding to launch its ‘Strong Workforce Program.’ Its ‘consortium’ strategy collects the State’s 116 community colleges into seven regional groups – seven ‘consortia’ – each of which to design and develop career and technical education (CTE) programs that would meet the needs of regionals and local businesses and industries. A merger of the 28 California Community Colleges (CCCs) located in Los Angeles and Orange counties comprised the Los Angeles/Orange County Regional Consortium (LAOCRC). In summer 2021, the California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) launched its ‘Regional Collaboration and Coordination‘ initiative (RCC) to further strengthen CTE education by streamlining CTE programming at a regional level. It quickly became apparent that the two merged counties could do better pursuing the RCC initiatives if they separated into two separate regions. Thus was born the Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC).

 

LARC – The Basics

The LARC comes into being well aware of the complexity of its agenda:

Los Angeles County is the country’s largest single county, with ~10,000,000 residents, half a million employed workers, and almost a quarter-million companies and businesses.

One in five residents (21%) are under 18 years (future CCC students!). Of those residents over 25 years:

– almost half (40%) have achieved a high school diploma or less;

– one in four (25%) has achieved a CCC-level education;

– less than one-third (30%) have achieved a bachelor’s or master’s degree or higher.

Its 19 CCCs include ten schools organized as independent CC Districts and another nine schools contained within the single Los Angeles Community College District. Together, these schools service ~375,000 students per year.

The work of the LARC is to coordinate CCC efforts across the county to provide CTE training and resources to county residents looking for well-paid, sustainable jobs and careers.

Fortunately, the LARC isn’t starting from scratch but instead has five years of experience behind it, as well as several guiding strategies already in place. As the LAOCRC launched, it devised a 2017-2020 Los Angeles Regional Plan, which incorporated data and factors streaming from the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board, K-12 school districts, adult education providers, industry and business partners, and many others.

The plan established six priority industrial sectors that encompassed industries with strong metrics for growth, a growing demand for workers, and a correlated number of CCC graduates from relevant CTE programs. The six priorities include

Advanced Transportation and Logistics,

Business and Entrepreneurship,

Energy, Construction, and Utilities,

Global Trade,

Information Communication Technology (ICT)/Digital Media, and

Health.

Because of its size and complexity, the region also identified life sciences/biotech and digital media (due to the County’s prominent entertainment industry) as emerging sectors. The strategy is to have the local CCC engage with companies in these sectors to share knowledge, define program needs, and build reliable, sustainable talent pipelines.

 

LARC – The Future

Looking forward, the LARC will be working closely with Los Angeles County as it pursues its 2021-2025 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. It will also continue its pursuit of the strategies contained in its updated 2021-2024 regional plan, which incorporates regionally relevant Strong Workforce Program goals.

Further, and through the auspices of the RCC initiative, the Consortium will be developing CCC programs responsive to the five ’emerging economies,’ as those were identified in 2021’s ‘After the Storm‘ report, produced by Burning Glass Technologies. That industry, employment, and labor data analysis revealed that five ‘economies’ are emerging through the COVID-19 pandemic smoke. The coronavirus crisis exposed the need for expertise in each of these economies, as global systems broke down amid the sickness, and people were forced to recreate their jobs in a remote capacity.

The five economies address the systemic gaps and opportunities revealed by the pandemic and co-occurring environmental catastrophes:

The Automated Economy – Technology infuses every aspect of life these days, and cutting-edge programming is taking over many routine functions through automation. However, even automated services require development and maintenance as well as a well-trained and dedicated workforce.

The Green Economy – While the country was slowly shifting toward using more renewable energy sources, the tragic environmental disasters that coincided with COVID indicated that a more impactful action was needed to move away from fossil fuels. Many businesses and industries are emerging in this sector, all offering exciting new jobs and economic development options.

The Logistics Economy – COVID-caused disruptions in supply chains revealed (painfully) how dependent the world is on its global transportation systems. The work of this emerging economy will focus on examining those failures, repairing broken systems, and devising improvements to existing systems to avoid a repeat of the 2020 toilet paper debacle.

The Readiness Economy – Fundamental social and civic infrastructures were decimated by COVID-19 disruptions, leaving whole communities without healthcare, cybersecurity, social services, insurances, and other critical systems. The situation opens significant opportunities to develop programs responsive to these circumstances, both to build and maintain the infrastructures.

The Remote Economy – While not an option for many employees, working remotely – away from one’s principal place of business – became both mandatory and widespread through the pandemic and continues to be popular as that crisis continues. The process, however, requires enhanced technology and connectivity capacities, and many businesses need well-trained specialists to set up and maintain those assets.

Moving forward, the LARC will be pursuing the implementation of training and deploying CCC graduates into jobs related to these emerging economies, in addition to the efforts being made in the already complex LA County industrial and corporate environment.

 

California’s Strong Workforce Program and the CCCCO’s Regional Collaboration and Coordination initiative combine to provide guidance, structure, and shared goals for each of Los Angeles County’s 19 CCCs. The LARC will be working closely with all participants in those systems to help repair the State’s economy and provide its residents with the training they need to fully participate in the process.

California’s Vision for Workforce Development

Pam Sornson, JD on January 12, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

January 18, 2022

As a single state among America’s 50, California is unique. In addition to being the country’s third-largest state geographically and the one with the biggest population (40,000,000), California also boasts the country’s largest state-based economy, with a ~$3 trillion Gross State Product (GSP) in 2020, making it the fifth-largest economy in the world. With such a richness of resources, it’s not surprising that the State also offers unparalleled opportunities for personal, local, regional, and statewide growth in hundreds of sectors and industries. That reality is the foundation of California’s vision for its Post-COVID economic recovery, and it’s gaining traction in that recovery process because of its extensive network of 116 community colleges. The trick is to tie their efforts to the local, regional, and statewide labor demands of the State’s thousands of industries and businesses. 

 

California’s Constellation of Economic Development Assets

To borrow from the adage: it takes a village to repair an economy. To rebuild the State’s economic, environmental, and social tapestries, California must harness all appropriate resources toward that end. In 2012, the State began its quest to remake its community colleges into workforce development sites that connected well-trained workers to the jobs and businesses that needed them. Through the intervening years, the State has developed a network of governmental and industrial resources to match up its economic development efforts with the educational activities of the community colleges.

Government Resources

Building and maintaining economic resources is the State’s primary function.

The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) provides a range of business-based services designed to build and expand existing economic realities. From attracting new business opportunities to the State to streamlining permitting procedures and developing international trade opportunities, GO-Biz is invested in helping the Californian economy thrive.  

The California Workforce Development Board is the Governor’s agent for managing the State’s workforce investment system. This entity develops the policies that guide the industrial, educational, and social practices that underpin economic activities.            

Locally based workforce development boards coordinate these efforts at and local levels. A total of 45 ‘Local Area’ development boards pursue public and private partnerships between governments and industries to enhance economic opportunities and growth within each region.

California’s Employment Development Department performs a variety of economic services across the State, including dispersing labor market data, providing financial and industrial analyses, and forecasting trends in education, business, and industries.

A variety of adjacent services provide more intense or personal supports for Californians, including the Department of Rehabilitation, CalWORKS, and CalFresh Employment & Training (E&T), among several others.  

 

California Community College (CCC) Resources

Meanwhile, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) has been steadily working toward the State’s economic goals, too. The CCCCO’s primary function is the administration of its 116 community colleges. Together, these schools offer more than 350 distinct fields of study, 4,500+ associate degree programs, and over 8,000 certification programs to more than two million students annually. Of those students, more than 25% (500,000+) engage in CTE programs and coursework. The agency’s Workforce & Economic Development Division (WEDD) oversees the administration of CTE programs and how they respond to laborforce demands. It also manages state, regional, and local activities driven by California’s Strong Workforce Program (SWF), Adult Education Program (AEP), Apprenticeship Initiative, and the Economic Workforce Development programs (EWD) at each school.     

Coordinating the efforts of all these schools to achieve overarching, state-level goals is a challenge, which the CCCCO has addressed by implementing two key strategies: 

It approaches the State not as a monolithic entity but instead as a set of eight regions, each of which encompasses all the CCCs within its borders. A ‘consortia’ of CCC leadership from all those schools coordinates regional Career and Technical Education programming (CTE) to establish strategies that connect their CCC students to the jobs and careers they seek. 

It’s been expanding the State’s CTE programming to fill the labor force demand of those regional businesses and industries.

 

New Initiative Opens New Opportunities …

In response to the economic chaos generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and in conjunction with state and local governments, the CCCCO has launched its most ambitious project yet to pursue statewide economic growth. The 2021 Regional Collaboration and Coordination (RCC) initiative seeks to merge the CTE effort of all the schools in each individual consortia region into a unified workforce development ‘agency’ that is responsive to the needs of both the regional population and the industries within its borders. An added element is an intentional effort to address and repair the damages done by inappropriate but embedded biases and discriminatory activities found in many governmental and industrial systems. The promise of the initiative is to engage all of the State’s resources in its economic recovery so that all of its residents can benefit from those gains. 

The RCC project was compelling changes to the CCC system right from the start. Initially divided into seven consortiums, the RCC grant application process revealed the significant geographical and logistical difficulties posed to the consortium of schools found in the combined Los Angeles and Orange County region (LAOCRC). Together, these two counties are home to 28 CCCs and serve ~700,000 students each year. The size of the combined school districts made a single RCC effort unreasonable, so the collective group of LA and OC college CEOs elected to separate them into two individual regions: the Los Angeles County region and the Orange County region. Even after the split, implementing the RCC initiative will be challenging, especially for the newly named ‘Los Angeles Regional Consortium‘ (LARC) since it is home to 19 CCCs that serve over half a million students each year. 

Pasadena City College (PCC) has been named the RCC LARC coordinator, which launched January 1, 2022. In this role, PCC will work with LA County CTE departments, Economic and Workforce Development departments (EWDs), CCC administrations, and regional businesses and industries to define both the assets and challenges of the regional economy and devise appropriate and successful responses to current and emerging needs. The group will need to access all available governmental and CCC resources to implement the RCC goals.  

California’s CCC-based approach to its Post-COVID-19 economic recovery is yet another element that makes the State truly unique as a leader among America’s states.   

     

 

 

2022 – California’s Recovery with Equity

Pam Sornson, JD on December 23, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

January 4, 2021

Question: how does a state overcome pandemic-generated barriers to achieve a better standard of education for all of its residents? Answer: by changing its perspective. Recasting ‘challenges’ as ‘opportunities’ opens eyes and minds to possibilities that may not have been apparent through the previously clouded lens. By pivoting its attitude toward a post-COVID economy from ‘bleak’ to ‘bright,’ the state of California intends to repair and rebound after COVID by incorporating remedies for social justice inequities into its economic growth plan. The strategy is called ‘Recovery With Equity,’ and it promises equity-based guideposts for schools and students that address evolving concerns arising from both the flattened economy and the demand for a fairer, more just society.

 

Designed By Experts

A collection of higher education experts, educators, think tank denizens, and industry and administrative leaders comprised the ‘California Higher Education Recovery with Equity Taskforce’ that convened in summer 2020. One of their tasks was to examine the state’s challenges as it works toward recovering from COVID-19. The other task was to address the long-hidden practices that perpetuate biases and hamper the educational and career ambitions of too many people.

Taskforce members brought a broad scope of perspectives to the project. The individual experiences and wisdom of non-profit organization leaders, civil servants, and industry builders combined to develop recommendations that will advance the strategy’s four guiding principles:

Foster inclusive institutions – by rethinking educational cultures and practices to support all learners, especially those that face inequitable barriers.

Simplify support strategies to stabilize all students – by reorganizing existing and new support services and options that meet every learner’s basic and educational needs.

Build in student transition processes – by offering technological and academic guidance in college preparation processes.

Streamline pathways to career success – by developing an integrated, state-wide system to facilitate easy entry, access, and completion of programs and degrees.

Each principle encompasses an overarching goal that the strategy intends to achieve. Each goal is designed to both address the inequities of past practices while generating a path into the new economy. And each goal is expected to provide the state’s higher education students with the supports, opportunities, and directions they need to thrive in the emerging, post-COVID economy.

 

Focused on Where the Need is Greatest

And many of those overlooked students will need help. Recent data indicates that California is experiencing significant economic and social distress caused by both the ongoing pandemic and its less than optimal history of discrimination. Decades of intentional and unintentional biases have left whole communities without the resources they need to improve their economic foundations, and those gaps have exacerbated the damages caused by the pandemic:

Right now, California has the fifth-highest level of unemployment in the country.

The San Joaquin and Imperial Valleys are suffering unemployment levels that equal those of the Great Depression, at 29% and 27%, respectively.

Communities of color are most heavily impacted. Unemployment rates in the Black and Latinx populations are higher than before COVID-19, at 8.2% and 7.9%, respectively.

Perhaps most concerning: 99% of the state’s Black community with a high school diploma or less filed for unemployment benefits in 2020.

Without change, those communities will continue to suffer while adding additional burden to the state by requiring additional social support benefits.

 

Embracing ‘New’ Resources

Remarkably, the state is focused on building its emerging economy using untapped resources that have not been developed before. The combined ‘one-two’ punch of COVID and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement shone a bright light on the considerable damages done by inherently unfair systems that neither provided for nor protected the whole of the state’s population. State residents without access to quality, career-based education opportunities are prevented from pursuing their best future and contributing to the economic success of their community. Instead, often, they were compelled to seek social services supports, which added a financial burden to the state. And the pandemic just escalated the magnitude of the situation. Leaving these systems in place would perpetuate those adverse outcomes to the detriment of the individual resident, their social community, and the entire state.

The Taskforce has embraced this unique moment in time to redirect existing processes to reduce these inequities and instead build those untapped resources into the foundation of California’s thriving post-COVID future. The group noted that the existing systems ignore the talents, energy, and creativity of all of California’s residents. The pandemic has widened the gap that separates these populations and reduces their ability to contribute. Further, the Taskforce noted that the skills, talents, and insights of these communities will be critical to the state’s success if it intends to achieve its long-term goal of economic stability. And ultimately, the Taskforce recognized that the varied new and evolving economies emerging as the pandemic rolls on will need more skilled workers and contributors than the state can currently muster – it needs the effort and inputs of all its residents to achieve its economic goals. And it sees the state’s education systems – its universities, community colleges, public and private school systems – as the resource development agents that can implement and ultimately accomplish its vision.

In short: California is betting its economic future on education strategies that will overcome its unsavory biased past and embrace the values offered by all of its residents, not just a limited few. To quote its report: “California will thrive when income inequality and disparities of credential and degree attainment by race and geography are eliminated.”

 

An Open Invitation

To pursue these ambitious goals, the state is inviting every entity with an interest in economic success to participate in the best way they can. Civic leaders, industry leaders and developers, businesses, non-profits, visionaries, etc., are invited to engage with their local and regional education systems so they can play their part in the educational evolution launched by the Recovery with Equity initiative. By doing so, each individual will ensure not only that they will thrive in the post-COVID era but that their community will thrive there, too.

 

COVID Evolution: Revisioning PCC’s EWD

Pam Sornson, JD on December 23, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

January 4, 2022

It’s safe to say that the past 22 months were unique. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted every system at Pasadena City College (PCC), all of which then required significant overhauls of decades-old practices. Social upheaval driven by centuries of entrenched biases revealed the alarming realities faced by many in PCC’s BIPOC communities. And climate-change disasters such as wildfires and floods drove some students, faculty, and staff from their homes and disconnected hundreds more from their electronic resources.

Despite the chaos, PCC and its Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) persevered with their mission to provide optimal educational services to the school’s constituents. Many lessons were learned during the process, providing the team with tools and insights to tackle both the challenges and advantages that lie ahead. Now, the EWD is gearing up for 2022, revisioning PCC’s standard processes to apply that newfound wisdom in its pursuit of community college education excellence.

 

Unexpected Opportunities

Remarkably, despite its devastation, the COVID-19 pandemic also opened opportunities for growth that were previously shrouded by (now obsolete) tradition:

Previous mandates for in-person classes were ditched to prevent accidental transmission of the virus. A quick pivot to ‘remote learning’ required faculty and staff to rapidly upskill their technological know-how while students embraced their studies through the small screen of their devices. The remote learning option has remained popular with many students and teachers – and is sometimes optimal over in-class attendance – even as masks and vaccines reduced the risk of spread, and in-person attendance again became possible.

Skillsets once thought of as ancillary to the job are now considered ‘the job’ in and of themselves, and that recognition opens new employment options across most industry sectors. Identified as the foundational skillsets for ’emerging economies,’ job skills in technology, finance, and human relations, to name just a few, are gaining precedence in job list postings since they are applicable in virtually every business setting. The demand for workers with these digital, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence skills is driving the development of whole new programs to meet those needs and provide these necessary supports for the decidedly revised post-COVID economy.

Not least significant is the impact of recent social justice events. Incidents driven by racism, sexism, classism, and other inappropriate dividers have spotlighted inequities buried deep within social constructs and systems. Across industries and regions, entities are building responses to these concerns to clear away those divisions and provide the support that will truly propel people forward, regardless of their ethnic, racial, or religious background.

Through all these unfolding scenarios, the EWD department pressed on – reaching out digitally to students and business partners, modifying strategies to maximize remote access, and performing other equally out-of-the-box feats to ensure as many learners as possible had the access they needed to continue their education.

 

Remarkable Progress

At the same time, the EWD also maintained its focus on its institutional goals, as those are laid out by state policy. PCC has designed its activities and programs to ultimately achieve the goals of two overarching state mandates.

California’s Vision for Success (V4S) is a long-range strategy for accessing community college resources to build a reliable, relevant, and highly skilled labor force that can meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s industries.

California’s Strong Workforce Program sets out specific recommendations to achieve success in the V4S initiative’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) sector.

The school works toward achieving these ends by aligning coursework and programs with local and regional labor demands. The EWD contributes to the effort by aligning its community outreach efforts so that students can find relevant job-related experience while still in school, and local and regional businesses can find the well-trained workforce they need.

 

 A Well-trained Team

         By Design

PCC’s EWD is built on five pillars (up from four – the PCC “Extension” program was added as an individual and distinct pillar during the 2020-2021 academic year). As a group, the pillars represent PCC’s efforts to engage with its business and industry communities, offer students job and work-related information and guidance to inform their choice of program and career, and provide extended education opportunities to fill the needs of almost all local residents. The five pillars provide services to accomplish these tasks.

    1. The Robert G. Freeman Center for Career and Completion helps students find job opportunities that interest them and then prepares them for job searches and interviews.
    2. Work-based Learning develops hands-on learning opportunities at local businesses for PCC students.
    3. Workforce Training develops and delivers customized training programs to meet the needs of individual businesses and organizations.
    4. The Small Business Development Center offers small business owners guidance, training, insights, and resources to start, build, or scale their enterprise.
    5. The PCC Extension service provides education and training options for anyone seeking to upskill their abilities, learn new skills, or just find new ways to enjoy their lives.

Together, the pillars work to achieve the two primary goals of the department while also fulfilling the state’s primary mandates:

    1. Connect PCC students with the businesses and industries that will provide them with well-paid jobs and careers, and
    2. Provide upskilling and training facilities and resources to improve the regional community workforce for the benefit of our enterprise partners.

The ultimate aim of the combined effort of these pillars is to facilitate the training and placement of a well-trained worker in a job of their choice with an employer who needs and appreciates the values they bring.

 

         And With Intention

Engaged and informed EWD leadership is critical to the department’s success, and Executive Director Salvatrice Cummo is actively involved in the local and regional EWD community. Her work facilitates the regional relationships and agreements with industrial sectors and individual businesses that benefit both them and PCC’s student body.

Cummo sits on several workforce development boards and agencies, including the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership (SGVEP), Innovate Pasadena (IP), the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), UNITE-LA, and the Foothill Workforce Development Board (FWDB).

She also contributes as an advisory committee member to the Center for a Competitive Workforce (CCW) and contributes insights to the development of LA’s regional innovation and marketing strategies.

Through these connections and with these resources, Cummo can gather information about developments within the local and regional industrial sectors, fluctuations in economics and economies, and emerging challenges and advantages. She uses this information to inform the PCC community about economic trends, opportunities for growth, and the need to apply innovation and creativity to the systems geared to achieving the school’s goals. Maximizing these resources using relevant, timely data and streamlining PCC’s ‘best practice’ services to meet the needs of all constituents ensures that the school provides the values they seek through an informed, intelligent, and achievable strategy.

 

The challenges posed by COVID-19’s disruptions are numerous and imposing. Throughout the ongoing pandemic, however, the leadership and staff at PCC’s EWD department demonstrated their capacity to pivot as needed, and the lessons they learned are sure to bring even more excellence in services and support for PCC’s student body as 2022 unfolds.

 

 

 

 

 

Get the PULSE in your inbox!

Name(Required)