As the need for educated workers in the workforce grows at the national and state level, educating low-skilled adults is one way of addressing the skills gap. Adult education programs offer low-skilled adults an opportunity to increase basic academic skills and prepare for college and career. Today, transitioning students from adult education…

The Economic and Workforce Development Program (EWD) aims to support California's economy by aligning community college educational programs with workforce development needs. The program connects employers and community college educators through a network of workforce training resources and partnerships called "Doing What Matters for Jobs and…

California's dynamic economy depends on having a large and skilled workforce; consequently, the state must continually support and refine efforts to provide workers with employer-valued competencies. Given the wide range of regional and state needs across this vast state, ensuring that the workforce has the training to keep up with labor market…

The study introduced a very important issue for the development of labor market in any developing country. The rapid changes in technology and communication imposed challenges on education institutions for the development of labor market to meet local communities. These institutions have more responsibilities to provide professional and skilled…

The traditional role of workforce training by community colleges in support of regional economic development is insufficient to help rural areas survive in a global economy. Rural community colleges are uniquely positioned to provide enhanced economic development support through entrepreneurship and small business development programs. Using…

This Educational Leadership Portfolio (ELP) documents my exploratory study of the feasibility of developing a new associate level (A.A.S) degree program. While this study and plan is designed to serve as a guide for any two-year or community college thinking of developing such a program, many of the artifacts in this study are written specifically…

Aligning vocational curricula with the labor market needs is a common reported challenge in developing countries. Little is known, however, about how vocational community colleges in such contexts regularly review and redesign their curricula to ensure the quality and relevance of their programs. From a curriculum design (CD) perspective, this…

Partnership evaluation typically occurs during the final stages either to assess why a collaborative effort did not work or to identify the indicators of success. Partnerships are rarely evaluated at their incipient stage, which is a critical time to assess their potential for long-term sustainability. In this paper, we present an early-stage…

This article provides a succinct synthesis of research about community college presidents who have experienced a crisis or dilemma as leaders and focuses on issues surrounding a sudden and unplanned departure. In addition to describing themes, the authors present implications for leaders and potential areas for future research.

The characteristics of a leadership development challenge for America's community colleges have been well-documented in the literature. A worldwide population aging trend, college leader retirements, and an ineffective system for new leader development have led to predictions of a shortfall in well-trained leaders at all levels of community…

It is a truism of American social policy that our nation has great success generating innovative programs that improve outcomes for participants--but that we are far less effective at moving from small, "boutique" programs into broadly applied solutions that improve the prospects of large numbers of individuals. This is certainly true in…

Since the 1990s, federal programs for workforce training have aimed to transform the role of community colleges from narrow contract training to a broader role that encompasses strategic instructional program planning and innovation to support lifelong learning for a changing workforce and economic development (Jacobs & Teahen, 1996). Yet, to…

Despite the desire of many older adults to remain in the workforce, those without jobs face unprecedented durations of unemployment. Many of the unemployed lack current skills for jobs in demand and need to either upgrade their skills or be trained for a new occupation to become reemployed. An aging workforce, combined with the negative effects of…

"Nationwide employers invest nearly $30 billion annually in employee training. Community colleges can provide training more cost effectively than many other public and private organizations, because most already have the capacity to provide technical training or can develop it at a lower cost" (Drury, 2001, p. 2). This study investigated…

Employing interviews with individuals from 16 community colleges across the country, as well as an independent consultant engaged in activities of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), this study considers the organizational structures and academic practices associated with community college entrepreneurship…