Book dossier

The 21st-century community college

by Keith MacAllum

Aiming to help all community colleges unleash their potential for workforce and economic development the Office of Vocational and Adult Education of the U.S. Department of Education sought to identify ways college leaders can improve those programs and services that most directly affect the ability of citizens to compete in today’s increasingly demanding skill-based labor market, and the ability of employers to compete in today’s challenging global market. The result is this guidebook, which has three major goals. The first goal is to share up-to-date information on labor market responsiveness. Based on contemporary research, this guide explains what is meant by “labor market responsiveness,” delineates factors associated with becoming more responsive, and clarifies why labor market responsiveness is so important to community colleges in the 21st century. The second goal is to offer practical guidance to college administrators seeking to take actions that will allow them to maximize their labor market responsiveness. We believe college leaders will be especially interested in learning how their colleagues across the nation have endeavored to make their colleges more responsive to labor market conditions. The third goal is to encourage community college administrators to engage in a critical selfassessment process. The guiding questions that appear throughout the guidebook and the selfassessment tools provided suggest a process that will help college leaders and top officials to identify gaps in programs and services as well as opportunities for promoting action on campus. This guidebook is directed to you, the top leadership at community colleges as presidents, boards of trustees, and the senior administrators and deans responsible for the colleges’ missions and programs. In turn, we expect that you will share portions of this guide, or its entirety, with others—faculty, staff, employers, economic development professionals, and public officials. Involving the broader campus and community in self-assessment and strategic planning is an important step toward becoming increasingly anticipatory of and responsive to local and regional workforce development needs.