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Tags: Organizational CultureMay 2026As community colleges seek to better serve adult learners and align credentials with workforce...
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Tags: Teaching StrategiesMay 2026Writing professors routinely utilize a variety of methods to engage students, facilitate skills...
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Tags: AccessMay 2026Agriculture remains the backbone of California’s economy, contributing over $50 billion...
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Tags: Community RelationsApril 2026Community colleges are central to economic and workforce development, providing direct connection...
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Economic Development
April
2026
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Graduating high school students across the nation are faced with deciding whether to continue their education or enter the workforce. Many seek higher education in order to improve career opportunities and gain economic prosperity and social mobility (Blackwell & Pinder, 2014). The College Board claims that the average annual income for individuals who have a baccalaureate degree is $53,976. The unemployment rate among these graduates is 4.7 percent, which is lower than the U.S. unemployment rate of 6.7 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). While these statistics look promising, the...
May
2026
As community colleges seek to better serve adult learners and align credentials with workforce needs, competency-based education (CBE) has gained increasing attention. While many institutions express philosophical support, far fewer move beyond pilots to sustainable, collegewide implementation. This gap suggests that scaling CBE is less a technical challenge than a structural and organizational one, requiring aligned systems, clear design decisions, and sustained leadership attention over time.
At Jackson College, JetFlex refers to the institution’s CBE model, designed to allow students to...
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Educational institutions feel the imperative to improve retention and graduation rates, and political and corporate interests have amplified the focus on institutional success. The general consensus among policy-makers holds that an indicator of institutional effectiveness is student learning (Erisman, 2009). Fifty-five percent of the nation's 25- to 35-year olds will be degree holders by the year 2025. It is an ambitious challenge and a necessary aspiration to elevate America's status as a world leader in educational attainment among its citizenry. And it is a compelling goal as the global...
September
2016
As higher education evolves to accommodate new forms of learning and new workforce needs, skills are being assessed across an ever-widening range of activities within the learning landscape. Campus-based and online degree programs; professional certificates; competency-based education; open online courses; professional development initiatives; cocurricular and extracurricular activities; and programs in service learning, information literacy, and entrepreneurship are just some of the higher education settings in which competencies worth recognizing are demonstrated or observed. Digital badges...
May
2026
As the manufacturing sector undergoes a rapid digital transformation, the gap between traditional education timelines and immediate industry needs has widened. Sinclair Community College, in partnership with the Employers’ Workforce Coalition and the Dayton Region Manufacturers Association (DRMA), has launched the Manufacturing Skills Sprint. This intensive, employer-connected model utilizes work-based learning and condensed technical training to move jobseekers into high-demand roles within weeks, rather than years. This article explores the program’s design, its reliance on community...
May
2026
Agriculture remains the backbone of California’s economy, contributing over $50 billion annually and employing millions (California Department of Food and Agriculture, 2020). But as the industry evolves through rapid technological change, the need for a highly skilled workforce has never been more urgent.
California’s Central Valley, a global agricultural powerhouse, faces persistent workforce shortages. Many farm laborers and processing plant workers lack formal training, which limits their career advancement opportunities. To address this gap, Merced College launched the Agricultural...
