Noncredit Community College Workforce Education

May 2006–June 2009

This study focused on community college noncredit workforce instruction and contract training. CCRC examined:

1. the extent to which noncredit workforce education and state policies play a role in workforce development, provide disadvantaged groups with access to higher education, and generate revenue for the college;
2. the way that colleges organize their noncredit workforce education programs to balance the tradeoffs between the desired flexibility of noncredit education and the integration of noncredit education with credit programs; and
3. the extent to which noncredit workforce education provides students with recorded outcomes, such as transcripts or industry certifications, and the extent to which data are available on the outcomes of noncredit workforce education.

The project was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and was carried out by CCRC in collaboration with the National Council on Workforce Education and the National Council on Continuing Education and Training.