Building Workforce Ready Colleges and Students

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

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

Recent Research

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

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

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

AIR's Work

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

Our Research Approach: Bridging the Postsecondary-Workforce Divide

AIR is developing a research portfolio aimed at learning from, enhancing, and building evidence around the most promising workforce training and community college strategies for supporting students’ labor market success. Our work focuses on learning from rigorous randomized controlled trial studies to identify effective workforce training practices.

Additionally, we are conducting exploratory research with colleges that are among the top in the nation in graduating students with high-value credentials. We are also seeking to test the effectiveness of innovative sectoral practices in community college settings to build the field’s knowledge about the most promising approaches for increasing students’ educational and labor market success.

Key Strategies

Translating evidence-based workforce practices into community college settings.
- Ready for Work: Adapting High-Impact Workforce Training Models in Community College Settings (rigorous research evidence)
- Identifying the Best Community Colleges for Workforce Training (exploratory research)
Learning from successful employer–college collaborations.
- Industry-led Postsecondary Partnerships (exploratory research)
Integrating student, employer, and college voice.
- Workforce Development in a Large Urban Setting: Student-Informed Lessons for the City Colleges of Chicago (exploratory research)
- Building Strong Partnerships with Employers: 7 Recommendations for Community Colleges (exploratory research)
- Building Strong Partnerships with Community Colleges: 6 Recommendations for Employers (exploratory research)

Our Technical Assistance Approach: Change Management to Strengthen Community College Workforce Training

With decades of experience, AIR’s workforce technical assistance team collaborates with workforce development agencies, employers, industry leaders, and community colleges to create workforce ecosystems that enhance regional economic vitality. Our efforts center on strengthening workforce systems and developing industry-driven sector strategies that align employers, education, training, and support services to meet industry talent needs, promote economic mobility for workers and learners, and create thriving communities. Recently, we have been applying this expertise to support community colleges in strengthening their workforce training approaches and practices.

Through our evidence-based technical assistance methods, we support community colleges’ efforts to establish a strong workforce development approach through four key pillars.

Community College Workforce Development Framework: Key Pillars

Leadership & Vision

AIR supports college leadership in championing sectoral training programs and in identifying and prioritizing the implementation strategies, resources, and messaging needed to support quality sectoral training program delivery to students and industry.

Industry Engagement, & Curriculum Alignment

AIR facilitates college leaders, staff, and faculty in gaining a deeper understanding of the nuances of the regional economy, labor market, and skill needs, particularly in their areas of focus. We support key staff in building strategies to cultivate relationships with employer leaders, industry associations, and workforce partners to leverage their expertise and align programming and curricula to industry needs, ensuring that students gain the knowledge, skills, abilities, and credentials required for in-demand careers.

Equitable Student Access, Recruitment, & Outcomes

AIR assists colleges in identifying, targeting, and recruiting individuals from underserved communities into programs that lead to high-demand, high-wage employment. We support colleges in building and growing more equitable pathways into programs that lead to high-wage careers and providing the services that will support individuals' persistence, completion, and readiness for the workplace.

Measurement, Assessment, & Continuous Improvement

AIR helps empower colleges to establish clear industry-informed goals, accountability measures, and performance indicators to monitor and assess progress in implementing strategies that lead to successful student outcomes. We assist colleges in incorporating diverse voices and feedback in the assessment and accountability process to help measure how effectively programs are meeting the evolving needs of colleges, students, and employers.