Community colleges, for many reasons, are moving to the forefront of workforce and economic development due primarily to their location at the grass-roots level in their service regions. Today’s community colleges offer far more than the traditional vocational and general education programs of the recent past, yet many still need to adopt a more market-driven approach to workforce and economic development programming.

 With the rapid changes in technology, many members of the current workforce will have to be re-trained.  This translates into a need for skill development and retraining since job-skill requirements are rapidly changing, presenting a unique opportunity for community colleges. 

Since the beginnings of the community college in the United States, the function of these colleges has incurred little change in focus: degree granting, vocational and technical training, and economic development.  However, content of programs has undergone redirection with a new emphasis on workforce, economic, and community development in addition to traditional degree and certificate offerings. 

Community colleges are bridging the gap between existing workplace skills and employer-required skills. For example, by offering programs on a contractual basis for public and private employers, they are becoming the primary providers of workforce training.

Employers invest nearly $30 billion annually in employee training.  Community colleges can provide training more cost effectively than many other public and private sector organizations because most have the capacity to provide technical training already or can develop it at a lower cost (Hirshberg, 1991).  These colleges offer a great value to businesses since most of their credit and noncredit offerings cost 10 to 20% less than comparable programs offered through the private sector.  According to Cohen (1995), community-college instruction costs about one-half that of four-year colleges.

 Some community colleges provide a “guarantee” that allows graduates of technical programs to continue taking courses free of charge until the employer is satisfied with the employee’s new skill level.  Certainly, this is innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit in action.  Grubb  (1997) argues for the creation of an entrepreneurial college within the traditional community college that would focus on workforce, economic, and community development.  Such an institution would be market-driven and based on the needs of its service region.

 Traditional Community College

 Contrasting the traditional community college with the idea of the entrepreneurial college is quite difficult since there are no clear-cut boundaries between the two.  In the traditional community college, three areas of concentration are normally found.  The first, degree granting and certificate programs, is nearly always at the heart of the traditional community college.  Offering these credentials lends credibility to these institutions of higher education since many of these degree courses are transferable to four-year institutions and are recognized in the job market as evidence of successful completion of formal training and education.

 The second area of education and training found in traditional community college programs is job preparation.  Oriented to a specific group of students, these courses are normally short-term, do not lead to a credential, are usually taken as noncredit, and are often offered at times working adults can attend.  Some of these courses will also be remedial.  Examples of these courses are those funded by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), welfare-to-work programs, and state grants for dislocated workers.  The focus in each is on special needs of specific types of students.

 Third, community colleges offer a wide variety of community enrichment in the form of noncredit programs and courses.  These normally are not occupationally related although real-estate licensure preparation and appraisal-exam prep courses might be found in these programs.  Many courses are oriented to learning crafts, hobbies, language, and other interests found in the local community.  Some courses are targeted at particular student groups (e.g. low-impact exercises for the elderly, infant CPR for expectant parents).

 These programs are not focused on occupational and economic goals of students.  Yet, as with the real-estate prep courses, some overlap does exist with the other two traditional areas of the community college

Entrepreneurial Community College

 In contrast to the traditional community college, the entrepreneurial college (which would be found within the community college) is designed to capture an entrepreneurial spirit of its parent college. The entrepreneurial college would be market- driven and customer-oriented.  It would thrive on innovation, creativity, and calculated risk-taking.  This "college within a college" would be responsive to all constituencies (stakeholders), both external and internal.

By its flexible nature, the entrepreneurial college would not simply respond to needs but would create conditions that demand its services (Grubb, 1997).  It would be nontraditional in its offerings, and for the most part these offerings would be noncredit.  It would rely on community-based programming (C-BP), whereby a coalition of interested stakeholders are formed and a cooperative process, or collaborative process, involving a series of sequential steps to be coordinated by the leader (the community college) in identifying community needs is undertaken.  These steps are as follows (Holub, 1996):

 

·        The college's vision, mission, philosophy, and goals need to be critically examined, or revisited, to assure compatibility with community-based programming;

·        Environmental scanning needs to be undertaken, carefully noting opportunities and threats in the economic, social, political, technological, and ecological environments;

·        Identified opportunities and threats need to be prioritized by all stakeholders involved in the collaboration process;

·        Stakeholders impacted by the results of the scanning process need to be identified (those impacted by the factors and those with a vested interest in the resolution);

·        The community college needs to take the leadership role in being the catalyst for the coalition of stakeholders;

·        Follow-up by coalition members to their respective constituents is necessary to keep communications flowing. 

It is this collaboration of the community citizenry, leaders, community-based organizations, business and industry representatives, and the community college that is the foundation of C-BP.  In short, the entrepreneurial college is a partner in bettering the local community.

There are three nontraditional activities found in the entrepreneurial college: workforce development, economic development and community development.  As with the traditional college, there would be no clear-cut boundaries between the three and overlapping would exist between them, even into the parent college's more traditional college arena.

 Workforce Development

Workforce development requires a variety of educational and training programs.  The first area would consist of training employees at particular organizations or contract services.  The employer is the customer, not the students. It is the employer that designs the general course-content parameters. These courses can be credit or noncredit. With contract training, colleges would provide a critical economic and workforce development tool and gain additional revenue as well (Hirshberg, 1991).

Another type of contract work envisioned is a cooperative education program where classroom learning and practical, paid, on-the-job experience are combined to benefit both the employer and the student.  This approach would be beneficial in retraining and developing new skills.  For example, Hirshberg (1991) notes how Mitre Corporation of McLean, Virginia, has teamed with Northern Virginia Community College in such a cooperative educational program.  This is an excellent model of collaboration between the needs of the business community and a community college satisfying those needs.  

Economic Development

 Economic development benefits the greater local community.  Courses offered would be nontraditional, noncredit, and beneficial to the community as a whole.  Normally, industries are identified and clustered in terms of similar training needs.   Technology transfer becomes a major part of economic development, whereby new technology is introduced to industry in the local community, which enhances the development of the local economy.

 In economic development, it is imperative that community college leaders adopt environmental scanning to determine the education and training needs of the community.  This translates into assessing trends, demographic shifts, events, and emerging issues in the economic, political, social, technological, and ecological environments.

 Economic development requires the collaboration of all major stakeholders in the local community to include the leadership in the community college service area.  Community-college presidents and workforce/economic development directors and other leaders would also be involved in attracting new businesses to the local area. 

Community Development

 Community development (sometimes referred to as community enrichment or excellence), the third component of the entrepreneurial college, is distinguished from workforce and economic development in that it has a broader focus and its primary emphasis is neither economic nor occupational.  The goal of community development is to promote the well-being of the local community in political, social, and cultural areas.

 Enrichment activities are offered that are mostly noncredit:  exhibitions, concerts, lectures, field trips, and the like. Other community-development programs include dual-enrollment tracks.  Here high school students earn community college credit during their high school enrollment by taking credit courses at the local college while enrolled as high school students. 

North Carolina Community College System

 An aggressive model of the entrepreneurial college is found in North Carolina.  The North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) supports the economic growth and prosperity of the state through several initiatives.

 There are several workforce and economic development programs within the NCCCS.  Occupational Continuing Education focuses on providing new and expanding businesses across the state with free training programs.  Over 25,000 North Carolinians who have assumed new jobs with these types of companies have been trained through this program.

 The Customized Training for Focused Manufacturing program provides special training to similar manufacturing organizations.  In 1997, this program provided training to 711 companies and almost 9,000 employees, mostly in the area of upgrading skills and retraining. 

Small Business Center Network is similar to the Small Business Development

Center (SBDC) concept, which is a federally funded program designed to provide free consultative services to small businesses.  At each of North Carolina’s 58 community colleges, free counseling and business-related seminars are offered.

 One of the primary missions of the NCCCS is to provide educational opportunities for adults 16 years of age and older who are out of school.  Nearly 15,000 classes located at work sites, churches, community centers, schools and libraries, prisons, and community-college campuses are offered each year. 

There are other initiatives working within NCCCS.  Examples include Worker Training Tax Credit program, Pathways to Employment (working with welfare reform initiatives), and JobLink (a one-stop career center at locations across the state).  Such programs show additional efforts by NCCCS in its economic and workforce development programs. 

Virginia Community College System 

The mission of the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) is to provide all individuals in the Commonwealth a continuing opportunity for the development and extension of their skills and knowledge.  This working mission provides the direction for the VCCS in providing top-quality education and training programs geared towards associate's degrees, certificate programs, occupational-training, specialized training for business and industry, and continuing and developmental education. 

Virginia Works, a VCCS program implemented in 1994, is designed to facilitate workforce and economic development in Virginia.  Goals and objectives of Virginia Works include: 

·        To improve the quality of life for citizens of Virginia by increasing the availability of high-skill, high-wage jobs;

·        To attract business and industry with high-skill, high-wage jobs;

·        To improve productivity, competitiveness, and profitability of existing business and industry;

·        To strengthen the quality and availability of workforce services;

·        To form alliances between VCCS and business, industry, government, education, and communities.

 

 Virginia Works has established several strategies to accomplish these goals.  First, it maintains and provides a comprehensive, up-to-date curriculum in occupational/technical programs.  Secondly, Virginia Works will deliver a quality set of workforce services needed by business and industry across Virginia. 

Another educational initiative in Virginia is the development of local community alliances, established to provide a full array of education, employment, and training services.  These partnerships consist of every stakeholder involved with workforce and economic development.  Virginia Works is the coordinator of these alliances.  An example of this partnering is the Southwest Virginia Manufacturing Technology Center, an alliance established by Mountain Empire, New River, Southwest Virginia, Virginia Highlands, and Wytheville community colleges.  Here participants receive customized training and retraining oriented to the specific employment skills of Southwest Virginia.  Eastern Shore Community College is planning to build a multi-use structure for workforce development training through its partnering activities with business, industry, and government.

Virginia Works has established selected, specialized services to business and industry through its “Institutes of Workforce Excellence.”  Unique training needs of each community college region are identified and satisfied by the local community college.  For example, Lord Fairfax Community College targets training programs to the plastics, printing and publishing, food service, and machine trades.   The Prince William Business Academy focuses on first-line supervisory, managerial, and work-related skills for hourly wage employees in retail, wholesale, and service sectors.

Noncredit education for workforce training in Virginia received a boost from the Joint Subcommittee studying workforce and economic development (House Document No. 85).  The subcommittee’s report was the basis for its 1998 legislation.  The Virginia General Assembly adopted legislation that charges the Virginia community colleges as the central coordinator of statewide workforce development:  “The Virginia Community College System shall be the state agency with primary responsibility for coordinating workforce training at the postsecondary to the associate degree level" (House Document No. 85).

A second piece of legislation created the Statewide Workforce Training Council (SWTC).  Representatives from business and industry, government, and key state education officials comprise the membership.  This 23-member body is charged with serving business and industry throughout the Commonwealth by identifying and meeting workforce-training needs.  The VCCS will provide administrative and staff support for the SWTC. 

Senator Charles Hawkins remarked “this legislation will probably have as much impact on the average Virginian as the concept of the community college when it was put into place.”  The legislation provides funding for specific initiatives including funding for noncredit courses.

Funding was also generated for the Regional Competitiveness Program (RCP), an on-going local initiative designed to promote local economic development.  The RCP is intended to encourage regional efforts in identifying key issues affecting economic competitiveness and to support regional, cooperative initiatives designed to address those issues. 

One very active RCP is the Northern Virginia Regional Partnership. This RCP recently introduced six new initiatives to offer short-term training at local colleges and universities in technology fields, providing people with skills needed to fill some of the area's thousands of vacant high-technology jobs.  The Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College is the site for one of these initiatives, called the Technology Retraining Internship Program (TRIP). The program, which began in January 1998, recruited nearly 25 students with non-technical, four-year college degrees, and worked with them for six months retraining them to fill computer technology positions.  TRIP retrained 100 students through 1999.  Funding for these courses came from the Regional Partnership.

Collaboration, Funding, Evaluation 

The community college must continue a collaborative approach between the traditional college and the entrepreneurial college.  This can be accomplished through sharing of faculty, eliminating the differential funding between credit and noncredit courses, establishing joint advisory committees, and integrating physical facilities (Grubb, 1997).  Both colleges must share the same vision and mission for the college.

Secondly, creative and innovative funding schemes need to be developed to support these mostly noncredit programs of the entrepreneurial college.  Arbitrary percentage splits are not feasible and funding from the state level needs to be based on the full-time-equivalent (FTE) formula.  Entrepreneurial college programs need to be self-sustaining yet also need state-funding support in order to better serve each region's noncredit educational and training needs.

Lastly, evaluation of entrepreneurial college noncredit activities needs to be addressed.  Output measurement based on enrollment is simply not enough.  Again, creativity needs to be introduced into the evaluation model to properly assess outcomes from these programs.  It is argued that results of an effective entrepreneurial college are measured by output: new jobs created, retraining accomplishments, and economic growth in the community.

The community college efforts and initiatives in workforce, economic, and community development need to adopt the market-driven approach of the entrepreneurial college.  Additionally, leaders within community colleges should adopt the entrepreneurial mindset, which includes being innovative, creative, taking calculated risks, and providing visionary guidance.  Future successes of community colleges in workforce and economic development will depend on the extent to which these institutions adopt the entrepreneurial approach in order to compete with other private and public institutions of higher education. 

References 

Cohen, A.  1995.  “Projecting the Future of Community Colleges.”  ERIC Digest. Los Angeles:  ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges (ED 388351). 

An excellent source on projecting enrollments, demographics, economics, and public attitudes in forecasting the status of American community colleges. 

Grubb, W., Badway, N., Bell, D. Bragg, D., Russman, M.  1997.  “Workforce, Economic and Community Development: The Changing Landscape of the Entrepreneurial Community College.”  A Joint Publication of the League for Innovation in the Community College, National Center for Research in Vocational education, National Council on Occupational Education (ED 413033). 

Focusing on nontraditional workforce, economic, and community development programs, this paper delves into the characteristics of the “entrepreneurial college.”  Contrasts are made between the traditional community college and the entrepreneurial college.  The paper concludes with recommendations on integrating the two colleges into one effort, funding areas, and the need for collaboration in development programs. 

Hirshberg, D. 1991.  “The Role Of The Community College in Economic and Workforce Development.”  ERIC Digest.  Los Angeles:  ERIC Clearing House for Community Colleges (ED 339443). 

Hirshberg offers a detailed look at community colleges and their efforts in economic and workforce development.  She analyzes the changing nature of the workforce, state and regional programs, contract job training, business development practices, and other contemporary topics.  All community college activities start with developing a needs assessment. 

Holub, J.  1996.  “The Role of the Rural Community College in Rural Community Development.”  ERIC Digest.  Los Angeles:  ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges (ED391558). 

This digest focuses on the ways in which rural community colleges are serving their surrounding communities and how community colleges need to address changes in technology, the economy, social considerations and politics. 

Jackson, J.  1996.  Workforce Training and Service Needs of  Virginia Businesses:  A Survey for the Commonwealth Of Virginia.  Unpublished doctoral thesis at George Mason University.

A survey was undertaken to determine workforce needs in Virginia.  Businesses with 25 or more employees were the subjects for the survey.  Jackson also wanted to know the quality of the workforce, availability, organizations providing training, barriers to getting assistance, and requirements for special technical training. 

Lankard, B.  1995.  “Business/Education Partnerships.”  ERIC Digest No. 156.  Los Angeles:  ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges (ED 383856). 

Between 1983 to 1988, business/education partnerships grew from 42,200 to 141,000.  This digest brings a new perspective of the benefits to education and how these partnerships can benefit businesses. 

“Noncredit Education for Workforce Training in Virginia.” 1998  House Document No. 85.  Report of the Joint Subcommittee to the Governor and General Assembly of Virginia.  Richmond:  Commonwealth of Virginia. 

An outstanding public document detailing the workforce needs of Virginia.  This report became the basis for legislation passed in 1998 for workforce development programs coordinated by the Virginia Community College System. 

Prager, C. 1994.  “Tech Prep/Associate Degree (TPAD) Academic Outcomes.”  ERIC Digest.  Los Angeles:  ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges (ED 367415). 

This digest provides a brief description and history of the Tech Prep program.  It calls for a revisit of the program in terms of its academic merits. 

Virginia Community College System. 1996.  Training & Business Assistance Services (1995-1996) - Report Highlights.  www.so.cc.va.us.