Fast Facts
Why We Study the Transition From College to Career
Preparing students for the workforce is a central mission of community colleges and an important focus area for CCRC. As regional economies evolve and skill demands shift with new technologies, many community colleges are considering the next frontier of training programs in partnership with local employers. CCRC looks at how community colleges are meeting new technology and skill needs in industry and business, including the role of community colleges in preparing students for the green energy and climate resilience jobs that are integral to combatting climate change.
CCRC also examines community colleges’ role in their regional economies and their effectiveness in preparing students to join the labor force in skilled occupations. CCRC is working with the Virginia Community College System to evaluate a scholarship program to support students pursuing high-demand occupations in healthcare, information technology, skilled trades, and other fields. CCRC is also working with the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program and 10 colleges to ensure that community college programs lead to high-value opportunities in the workforce. The goal of this project, called Unlocking Opportunity, is to have thousands more community college students, including students of color and those from lower income backgrounds, complete programs that lead directly to jobs that pay a living wage or to efficient completion of a bachelor’s degree. CCRC’s policy lab, which operates in collaboration with the City University of New York, is developing more nuanced measures of post-college success and studying factors that predict and promote successful transitions from college to the labor force.
Featured Project
Virginia Workforce Recovery: A Research Partnership to Strengthen G3
CCRC is working with the Virginia Community College System to improve its pandemic workforce recovery initiative, Get A Skill, Get A Job, Get Ahead (G3), which is built around a scholarship targeting low-income students in workforce programs in five high-demand fields. Visit the ARCC Network blog for more.
Community Colleges and the Emerging Green Economy: A Call to Action
CCRC released a Call to Action in July 2024 to support the work at community colleges to prepare workers for the green economy. In this video, Maggie P. Fay summarizes five insights from the project.
“Community and technical colleges are ideally positioned to train students for good jobs in the green economy for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is that it's estimated that over 70% of these new green jobs won't require a bachelors degree.”
Maggie P. Fay
CCRC Senior Research Associate
What We Know About What Today’s Employers Want
CCRC researchers conducted scores of interviews with colleges and employers to learn what skills companies are looking for. Here’s what we learned:
- As computers and new technologies dominate daily work life, employers expect employees without bachelor’s degrees to have higher levels of digital literacy and to be comfortable working with technology and using data.
- Twenty-first century skills such as critical thinking and adaptability are increasingly essential for workers—in part because the jobs that require them are less subject to automation.
- Increased complexity in entry-level jobs contributes to the demand for workers with stronger math, writing, and English language skills.
Data and Tools on Workforce Programs and Post-College Outcomes
How Much Are Community College Graduates Earning Two Years Later?
What programs are community college students completing, what do they lead to, and which groups are underrepresented in programs leading to stronger postgraduation outcomes? Explore your college or state data in this Tableau dashboard.
Classifying Community College Programs by Post-Completion Success in Transfer and Workforce
This program classification guidebook and data analysis and visualization tools are for community colleges seeking to increase the number of students in high-value programs that lead directly to good jobs or to transfer.
What is the Role of Community Colleges in Healthcare Training?
This data tool is designed to help practitioners, policymakers, and health professional organizations gain more detailed information about healthcare training in community colleges, including program access and credentials earned.
Further Reading
Related Blog Posts
Our College to Career Experts
Thomas Brock
Director
Judith Scott-Clayton
Senior Research Scholar
Maria Cormier
Senior Research Associate
Veronica Minaya
Senior Research Associate and Program Lead
Read More
View all of our publications on the transition from college to career.