Given that higher education is all about developing critical thinking skills and challenging assumptions, educators should welcome the increasingly tough questions about the value of college degrees.
And welcome or not, more questions are coming: A Gallup poll shows fewer than four in 10 Americans today have confidence in higher education—a drop of 20 percentage points from just eight years ago.
The good news—and in this, we embrace the best news we can find—is that higher ed is responding, often with the help of local businesses and other partners, to better prepare graduates for good jobs. Increasingly, local communities recognize that career preparation takes collaboration: It’s unrealistic to expect schools, from K-12 through college, to supply talent for the workforce without some kind of participation from the communities and companies that stand to benefit.
We see examples everywhere:
- In North Carolina, 10 community colleges, six workforce development programs, and two state universities have pooled resources to form AdvanceNC, which includes education in building-construction technology, computer-integrated machinery, and other fields.
- Jobs in the semiconductor industry are the focus of a new Texas partnership announced in the spring with the Austin Community College District, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Texas Institute for Electronics. “The joint program will serve as a one-stop shop for an industry in need of skilled labor, creating seamless and coordinated education pathways between UT and ACC to address every skill set on the semiconductor workforce continuum,” the group says.
- Arizona State University and the Helios Education Foundation have formed the Decision Center for Educational Excellence, reflecting the increased focus on data to power these workforce/higher ed partnerships. The center recently unveiled a data-visualization tool that allows partners to closely monitor an array of labor market trends, including job quality, jobs at risk of automation, supply and demand flows in various fields, and educational pathways to good jobs. As the Phoenix Business Journal reported, the data tool “also identifies opportunities for economic mobility that are equitable and accessible to all.”
A report from Harvard University, “Friends in Both Places,” reviewed partnerships between community colleges and employers and found that the best relationships benefit both sides.
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The report said, “The ideal partnership allows colleges to train workers to meet employers’ needs, and employers, in turn, invest in the college students’ futures.”
Employers can offer on-site training, mock interviews, and employment data—and even agree to interview or hire some program graduates. The schools, meanwhile, can tailor programs to meet the needs of companies, help employers diversify their workforces, and offer continued training.
What’s happening in Racine County, Wisconsin, 30 miles south of Milwaukee, is a particularly effective example. The Higher Expectations workforce development strategy is designed to ensure that every student succeeds in school and that every resident succeeds in a career.
Partners include the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, which has helped move its students more quickly toward graduation by reducing traditional, non-credit remedial classes—instead, incorporating the developmental material into regular classes. This effort has helped increase graduation rates at UW-Parkside to 44 percent after averaging 25 percent for decades.
And UW-Parkside isn’t finished. One goal of its 2025 Strategic Framework is to increase the number of graduates by 50 percent. One key component: The Parkside Promise Plus program, designed to cover any tuition not met by federal and state grant aid and scholarships.
Jeff Neubauer, co-director of Higher Expectations for Racine County, points out the stunning gap between the 8 million open jobs in the country and the number of unemployed people: 6.8 million.
“The gap gets wider and wider,” he told us. “We just don’t have enough people in the labor force to meet the talent needs of employers, period. And it’s going to get nothing but worse.”
Increasingly, we’re seeing the benefits of ensuring that everyone benefits from these partnerships. That means bringing Americans off the sidelines who have been left out in the past. The US is on track to become a majority-minority country in the 2040s, so assuring greater equity is not only the right thing to do but also the best way to ensure our national prosperity.
The ACE-UP project is one example: 17 partnerships involving community colleges and businesses determined to pursue equitable education and work results. This important effort was launched by the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce to design strategies that colleges can use to increase enrollment and success for diverse student groups while helping employers improve hiring and retention for workers of color.
Taken together, the work in these communities tells a national story of progress: Colleges, companies, and communities pulling together to find what works—for everyone. These partnerships, once mostly seen as outliers, are now a must-have if we are to build a strong workforce for the future.
It’s a growing story, already with many chapters. And it’s one we must continue to write.
