Beyond Traditional College: The Role of Community Colleges, Career and Technical Postsecondary Education in Preparing a Globally Competitive Work Force

This essay describes the characteristics of community college students and discusses the role of the community college in increasing access to higher education by traditionally underserved students. The author describes the increasingly important contribution that community colleges can make in preparing tomorrow’s workforce and suggests how those functions can be improved, focusing on practices that can improve the colleges’ crucial work with students with weak academic skills and efforts to strengthen the relationship between high schools, community colleges, and universities. The author argues that although many of these reforms will be the responsibility of individual states, the federal government can also play a crucial role.