How can community colleges help prepare the American workforce?
3 votes
I disagreeConnect with employers to help provide additional internships. Look at skills and decide what is necessary in the next “X” years and implement a strategy to place this information within the academic programs. Look at the possibility of job placement opportunities as a step in extended industry partnerships.
6 votes
I disagreeIf a person needs to know an answer to a question, ask a librarian. They will do their very best to find the answer for you that you need. They will find resources, and help you to consider new ways to find resources for yourself. If every politician were to ask a librarian what the current issues were in the community that they serve, they would find out that "Librarians are the heartbeat of every community."
8 votes
I disagreeStudents need to be able to clearly see the direct connection between what they study and the opportunity for a fulfilling career. Skills for America's Future and partnerships like the ones between IBM/NYC DOE/CUNY (http://www.fastcompany.com/1692372/ibm-reveals-details-about-its-nyc-high-school) are innovative ways to motivate young people by providing a pathway to well-paid jobs. But community colleges must provide ...more »
Students need to be able to clearly see the direct connection between what they study and the opportunity for a fulfilling career. Skills for America's Future and partnerships like the ones between IBM/NYC DOE/CUNY (http://www.fastcompany.com/1692372/ibm-reveals-details-about-its-nyc-high-school) are innovative ways to motivate young people by providing a pathway to well-paid jobs.
But community colleges must provide more than just the practical skills needed to fill jobs upon graduation. They must give students skills that will help them succeed and contribute over the long haul -- critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, cross cultural collaboration. These are the skills that are critical to lifelong productivity and success.
« less full details »
5 votes
I disagreeI suggest you... have rural community colleges as a major topic at the summit.
8 votes
I disagreeThis plan for change cannot be executed on the backs of the overworked contingent faculty. We cannot support our students if we are not supported. I have spent the last 12 years as an Adjunct faculty member at CUNY and other schools in the NY metro area. I have worked tirelessly for long hours and low pay. My student loans have barely been paid: though I am serving the underserved, my loans may not be forgiven. I am denied ...more »
This plan for change cannot be executed on the backs of the overworked contingent faculty. We cannot support our students if we are not supported. I have spent the last 12 years as an Adjunct faculty member at CUNY and other schools in the NY metro area. I have worked tirelessly for long hours and low pay. My student loans have barely been paid: though I am serving the underserved, my loans may not be forgiven. I am denied unemployment insurance during the months schools are closed, yet I know a school photgrapher who claims unemployment every summer as a seasonal worker. We deserve professional respect.
« less full details »
1 vote
I disagreeI suggest that you invite both full-time and part-time community college faculty to this summit. This is really good idea
3 votes
I disagreeA basic skills initiative on corporate technology is needed. Just as there are basic skills improvement programs to help disadvantaged, under prepared student succeed in college. A similar program is needed to help students succeed in the technology leaden corporate work place. Office technology skills needed to succceed in businesses greatly exceed basic computer literacy standards. Employers must often prefer candidates ...more »
A basic skills initiative on corporate technology is needed. Just as there are basic skills improvement programs to help disadvantaged, under prepared student succeed in college. A similar program is needed to help students succeed in the technology leaden corporate work place. Office technology skills needed to succceed in businesses greatly exceed basic computer literacy standards. Employers must often prefer candidates that, in addition to their primary skills, have office technology skills.
« less full details »
4 votes
I disagreeproblem In many technical fields, Industry is handicapped by lousy ecomomic times, while facing an aging skilled workforce that needs replacement with a new crop of potential employees from all sources. Educators have classrooms of eager students but tight budgets across the country produce all kinds of not-very-visible obstacles. Some educational funding has helped, but there is a gap between Education Cyles and Industry ...more »
problem
In many technical fields, Industry is handicapped by lousy ecomomic times, while facing an aging skilled workforce that needs replacement with a new crop of potential employees from all sources.
Educators have classrooms of eager students but tight budgets across the country produce all kinds of not-very-visible obstacles. Some educational funding has helped, but there is a gap between Education Cyles and Industry recruitment - we need better coordination of that critical link
Government can play a key role in filling the gap and directing the flow of people to jobs, with targeted grants and focused efforts- without creating unnecessary bureaucracies to oversee things.
The key is thinking of efficiencies - we need efficiencies everywhere and ideas from every quarter. What are your ideas for improving the efficiency of the process?
« less full details »
1 vote
I disagreetoo much unreasonable for the regisration date for the international student,like local people always regisrated earlier than international students
-5 votes
I disagree
-1 votes
I disagreei think gov should support pay the international student because we need to pay a lot of money for universities, at least set the limit of growing rate for tution fee
3 votes
I disagreeFortunately for me I started my post secondary education with a Bachelors Degree went on for my Masters, and now I am enrolled here at Northwestern Connecticut Community College. This is my first semester with this being one of my first classes. If I had to pick one of the six key topic areas of discussion it would be related to Industry Partnerships; Pathway to a Baccalaureate. This out of all the topics is one that ...more »
Fortunately for me I started my post secondary education with a Bachelors Degree went on for my Masters, and now I am enrolled here at Northwestern Connecticut Community College. This is my first semester with this being one of my first classes. If I had to pick one of the six key topic areas of discussion it would be related to Industry Partnerships; Pathway to a Baccalaureate. This out of all the topics is one that is dear to me simply because my mother graduated recently from a Community College and tried to move forward with her education and found it difficult to match her credits to those of a four year college/university. She studied one field at the community college level and of course it is not represented the same at the four year college/university of her choice. Many of her credits didn’t smoothly transfer causing her to have to complete the same type of class twice. My mother who had to leave school due to being pregnant with me has a dream of obtaining her Bachelors however all the hurdles is starting to wear on her.
With that being said I would like to know why more Community Colleges do not offer the same or something similar to the lateral transfer like Northwester Connecticut Community College has with Uconn? Is there anything in the works to offer this option to those who have to start off at the Community College level? If this is an incentive how does one figure out the schools partnerships so that they do not get backed into a corner like my mom? I suggest you all look into direct linkage to 4 year opportunities or offer ensentives to other colleges i.e. reduces rate for transfering.
« less full details »
7 votes
I disagreeIs there any other profession that would tolerate the high percentage of its members who are so underemployed as contingent workers? We need to understand that college teaching, like any other profession, thrives when it can assure its members some degree of security and a decent livelihood. College teaching no longer does that. Most importantly, conditions are such that those teachers dedicated to teaching in the ...more »
Is there any other profession that would tolerate the high percentage of its members who are so underemployed as contingent workers? We need to understand that college teaching, like any other profession, thrives when it can assure its members some degree of security and a decent livelihood. College teaching no longer does that. Most importantly, conditions are such that those teachers dedicated to teaching in the first year or two of college, and who have acquired some good experience, consistently have such experience, and the expertise accompanying it, devalued. For a school to be a school, it needs to create a culture of teaching and learning that is created by staff who are invested, over time, in that school, who understand the specific challenges of its students at a particular location, and who, because they are not contingent workers, continue to be invested,in both their students and the institution they attend. The ongoing work of building such a culture and such a commun ity is insulted and undermined by current hiring practices and working conditions. Again, while we bemoan the low graduation rate, we do nothing to reward and develop those teachers who have dedicated themselves to teaching first-year and other introductory courses so crucial for developing the sort of higher literacy we want students to develop. In short, we talk the talk but don't walk the walk, so until such teachers receive the security and the working conditions needed to shape real communities where students can truly flourish, I believe there's sufficient reason to be cynical about all this hand wringing over the high drop-out rate of so many students. Check out the graduation rates which are most respectable; I suspect they are so because of institutions that have not yielded to the exploiting practices of so much academic labor. (And please, please, don't hand me that old saw about how "valuable" adjuncts are because "they bring real world experience to the classroom." No one disputes that. However, to say that justifies a steady increase in the percentage of part-time teachers, i.e., the adjunctification of the professoriate, is an absurd stretch. So I would implore those who are sympathetic to my position not to get caught in the trap many administrators like to spring when they turn us into unfair critics of those who bring professional experience into the classroom.)
« less full details »
7 votes
I disagreeI suggest you ... fund and promote day care centers at community colleges. A big percentage of students and would-be students are single mothers who cannot attend classes with young children to raise. If you want these women in jobs earning a salary or starting small businesses and off welfare, you need to help them get that education. If corporations can offer day care support for their workers, why can't the community ...more »
I suggest you ... fund and promote day care centers at community colleges. A big percentage of students and would-be students are single mothers who cannot attend classes with young children to raise. If you want these women in jobs earning a salary or starting small businesses and off welfare, you need to help them get that education. If corporations can offer day care support for their workers, why can't the community colleges?
« less full details »
1 vote
I disagreeThere are many organizations, such as the Topeka Youth Project, that already provide basic employment education and training for young people in the community. Why not partner with such nonprofits and other organizations in addition to the community colleges, thus utilizing the full depth of experience in this sort of education?
31 votes
I disagreeThe federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) authorized the creation of workforce investment boards (WIBs), which are responsible for administering a range of federally-funded employment and training programs through a nationwide system of “one-stop career centers.” WIBs and one-stops play a critical role in connecting jobseekers to education and training programs—including degree and non-degree community college programs—that ...more »
The federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) authorized the creation of workforce investment boards (WIBs), which are responsible for administering a range of federally-funded employment and training programs through a nationwide system of “one-stop career centers.” WIBs and one-stops play a critical role in connecting jobseekers to education and training programs—including degree and non-degree community college programs—that allow those individuals to obtain the skills they need to get and keep well-paying jobs, while also working with local employers to identify and address skills shortages. WIBs and community colleges have proven to be effective partners in addressing the current and future skill demands of local labor markets: a 2008 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that forty percent of adults enrolled in training through one-stop centers between July 2006 and June 2007 chose a community college as their provider, and community colleges and WIBs across the nation frequently partner with area employers to develop and deliver customized training for new and incumbent employees. Community college presidents are represented on nearly half of all WIBs nationwide, and more than one third of all one-stop centers have community college staff co-located at one-stop centers to advise participants on services available through community colleges, provide skills assessments, and assist prospective students in applying for financial aid.
Partnerships between local and regional WIBs and community colleges are critically important in addressing the significant retraining and reemployment needs of adult workers impacted by the economic slowdown. Unfortunately, WIA’s current performance reporting and funding requirements often present barriers to full participation of community colleges in the one-stop system, while the steady erosion of federal appropriations for WIA makes it increasingly difficult for one-stops to connect participants with high-quality training and educational opportunities available through these institutions. Congress should act quickly to reauthorize WIA in a manner that facilitates stronger cooperation between WIBs and community colleges, including allowing WIBs to contract for cohort training at community postsecondary institutions, eliminating administrative barriers between Title I (job training) and Title II (adult basic education) programs under WIA to allow WIBs and community colleges to more effectively partner on career pathways models, and significantly increasing funding for all WIA programs to ensure more jobseekers can obtain the basic skills and workforce training necessary to succeed in the labor market. In addition, a reauthorized WIA should include dedicated capacity to support multi-stakeholder sector partnerships—including WIBs and community colleges—in a manner consistent with the “Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act” (HR 1855) as passed by the House of Representatives in July 2010.
For more information, please visit National Skills Coalition’s website at www.nationalskillscoalition.org.
« less full details »
31 votes
I disagreeEmployers in critical industries such as manufacturing, energy, and health care are preparing to add millions of new jobs in the years ahead, but despite continued high unemployment, many cannot find the qualified workers they need to grow and compete. The staffing firm Manpower Inc. recently found that one-in-five employers reported that they have positions for which they can't find qualified candidates, and a 2009 survey ...more »
Employers in critical industries such as manufacturing, energy, and health care are preparing to add millions of new jobs in the years ahead, but despite continued high unemployment, many cannot find the qualified workers they need to grow and compete. The staffing firm Manpower Inc. recently found that one-in-five employers reported that they have positions for which they can't find qualified candidates, and a 2009 survey by the National Association of Manufacturers found that nearly one-third of companies reported moderate to serious skills shortages. Sector partnerships are one of the most effective strategies for addressing these skill shortages. By bringing together employers, community colleges and other stakeholders connected to key local and regional industries to both address immediate skill shortages and also develop skilled workforce pipelines, sector partnerships help ensure that both workers and industry have the skills they need to compete in the global economy.
Federal policy should support the development and implementation of sector partnerships. Congress has already authorized the “Industry or Sector Partnership Grant Program for Communities Impacted by Trade,” established as part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These grants are designed to complement the TAA “Community College and Career Training Grants” (the grants are even cross-referenced in the law), and ensure that capacity and curriculum developed under the community college grants meets the skills needs of local industry and leads to jobs and careers. However, while the community college grants have been funded at $500 million a year, the sector partnership grants have not yet been funded. Policymakers should fully fund this program to better target federal investments in community colleges to the needs of local industries.
For more information, please visit National Skills Coalition’s website at www.nationalskillscoalition.org.
« less full details »
2 votes
I disagreeProvide federal funding to install high speed wireless at all community colleges.
2 votes
I disagreeIncrease the number of campus and community outreach offices and ensure that they are conveniently located for students.
1 vote
I disagreeStudent support and moving to new instructional technologies that engage students is one key to innovation in community colleges. Too many of today's students go to school without a clear plan for the future and in need of more support from both faculty and career advisers. Budgets need to be prepared with additional resources for all forms of student support services - which, unfortunately, are too frequently over-looked. ...more »
Student support and moving to new instructional technologies that engage students is one key to innovation in community colleges. Too many of today's students go to school without a clear plan for the future and in need of more support from both faculty and career advisers. Budgets need to be prepared with additional resources for all forms of student support services - which, unfortunately, are too frequently over-looked.
« less full details »
4 votes
I disagreeI suggest you...continue to support the effort and team work of the Admissions & Records departments. A & R plays a crucial roll in the continuing education of students. We work together as a district to improve our services to students. We are constantlly looking to technology to "work smarter not harder". I applaud our departments for their hard work and the district for their continued support in this area.
1 vote
I disagreeI feel that the government should help to compensate for those how would like to go to college, but dont have the means to attend. I think that if possible students are making the effort to try higher education, they should be held back just becuase of the economies problems. Though, I do think that those how have problems paying for education put them selves in that situation, that if they are willing to makeup or try ...more »
I feel that the government should help to compensate for those how would like to go to college, but dont have the means to attend. I think that if possible students are making the effort to try higher education, they should be held back just becuase of the economies problems. Though, I do think that those how have problems paying for education put them selves in that situation, that if they are willing to makeup or try an fix their mistakes should be helped.
I do not think though that the government should regualte how or what people are taught. I think that is crossing the borderlines of the consitution. I think the government should be there for helpful guildlines for economic help, nothing else.
« less full details »
-1 votes
I disagree
1 vote
I disagreeThere is a Texas law that requires community colleges to pay benefits to adjuncts if they teach more than 2 four hour classes a semester. This law is now being rigidly enforced. However, there are some adjuncts who have retired from industry and have taught several years and completed many courses to improve teaching and some special qualifications such as teaching Distance Education. There is no "opt out" provision in ...more »
There is a Texas law that requires community colleges to pay benefits to adjuncts if they teach more than 2 four hour classes a semester. This law is now being rigidly enforced. However, there are some adjuncts who have retired from industry and have taught several years and completed many courses to improve teaching and some special qualifications such as teaching Distance Education. There is no "opt out" provision in this law so the colleges have chosen to add more adjuncts since they do not want to or can't pay benefits. With the large increase in student enrollment in community colleges, more teaching help is needed. There may be qualified persons with MS or PhD available but teaching at the college level requires experience and training and time.
This situation could be resolved if the legislature would simply insert a provision whereby adjuncts could wave the benefits so they can teach additional classes.
« less full details »
1 vote
I disagreeI agree. I think good education is really important for human's life. Especially in America, because U.S.A is a high technology flourishing country. So everybody need taking good education as possible. I agree that the White House Summit on Community Colleges Event Toolkit. It's relly helped Colleges student to study in U.S.A.
