Innovation Library
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Tags: Organizational CultureMarch 2026Community college employees are all in for students, yet many are stretched thin. They believe in...
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Tags: Continuing EducationMarch 2026Across the United States, employers are seeking workers with skills that align closely with current...
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Tags: Corporate TrainingMarch 2026In response to lower academic credential completion rates among apprentices due to employer-...
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Tags: Corporate TrainingFebruary 2026For 60 years, Dallas College has been committed to preparing learners for workforce success in the...
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Economic Development
February
2026
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Graduating high school students across the nation are faced with deciding whether to continue their education or enter the workforce. Many seek higher education in order to improve career opportunities and gain economic prosperity and social mobility (Blackwell & Pinder, 2014). The College Board claims that the average annual income for individuals who have a baccalaureate degree is $53,976. The unemployment rate among these graduates is 4.7 percent, which is lower than the U.S. unemployment rate of 6.7 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). While these statistics look promising, the...
August
2020
Oakton Community College’s Cannabis Dispensary and Patient Care Specialist certificate program is the direct result of a single interaction between a senior Oakton administrator and an Oakton alumnus. The alumnus worked for a medical cannabis dispensary and expressed the need for educated patient care specialists who were able to interact with chronically ill patients—in other words, those with job skills that go beyond being a “weed enthusiast.”
Students and alumni can positively impact curriculum and academic programming as members of career advisory committees and by playing a role in...
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Students of color, males in particular, face significant challenges in higher education. African American male students, on average, are less successful than other racial/ethnic groups, including African American women. Compared to Asian/Pacific Islander or White/Non-Hispanic students, they are less likely to succeed in both developmental and college-level coursework and are more likely to drop out. Latino students are the least likely of all racial/ethnic groups to transfer. African American students and Latino males have the lowest persistence rates (Elgin Community College, 2010).
Students...
California community colleges face urgent demands: closing persistent equity gaps, adapting to rapid technological changes, meeting workforce needs, and serving increasingly diverse learners. Foothill College is catalyzing personal, economic, and social change in Silicon Valley by creating protected spaces where innovation, reflective practices, and equity-minded reform can flourish. These spaces, known as culture pods, are a permanent institutional strategy for advancing our core values and contributing to Foothill’s Blueprint for Success and California Community Colleges’ Vision 2030 goals...
March
2026
Across the United States, employers are seeking workers with skills that align closely with current workforce needs (Bass & Valdez, 2020; D’Amico et al., 2018). Yet, community colleges often separate career and technical education (CTE) from continuing education (CE), creating parallel systems that serve similar students and industries, but lack intentional alignment. This division limits scalability and leaves untapped opportunities for credentialing and advancement. By building pathways based on labor market intelligence (LMI), colleges can create stackable systems that build upon the...
September
2016
As higher education evolves to accommodate new forms of learning and new workforce needs, skills are being assessed across an ever-widening range of activities within the learning landscape. Campus-based and online degree programs; professional certificates; competency-based education; open online courses; professional development initiatives; cocurricular and extracurricular activities; and programs in service learning, information literacy, and entrepreneurship are just some of the higher education settings in which competencies worth recognizing are demonstrated or observed. Digital badges...
