Improving Community College and Workforce Board Partnerships
This article was produced as part of New America’s Future of Work and the Innovation Economy Initiative. Subscribe to our Future of Work Bulletin newsletter to stay current on our latest research and projects, events, and storytelling.
Every year, billions of dollars and countless hours of workforce training are poured into separate silos — public community colleges and the federal workforce system administered through the $2.9 billion Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) through the U.S. Department of Labor. Both aim to prepare Americans for jobs.
Despite similar missions and “customers” — students, employers, and job seekers — these two public systems are not as integrated or synergistic as they could be. In lieu of this coordination, students, employers, and taxpayers lose out.
We have the right ingredients to support a high-functioning public community college and workforce ecosystem, but we need a forcing function to serve as a “recipe” to pull them all together. Federal investments have been proven to serve as that recipe — creating, deepening, and expanding partnerships between local workforce boards and community colleges.
