The Untapped Potential of Noncredit Education: Restructuring Pathways for Texas’ Postsecondary and Workforce Goals

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Place Based Innovations: A Regional Rocus on Education and Economic Devleopment

Abstract

Noncredit education programs offer individuals immediate and affordable pathways to job training in fields like healthcare, technology, and construction. These programs are designed to meet the specific needs of students, communities, and local labor market served by community colleges. Additionally, enrollment in noncredit programs has increased nationally and is expected to grow. Our longitudinal, mixed-methods project uses data from one of the nation’s largest urban community college systems to explore noncredit programs, and how incentives from Texas’ performance-based funding (PBF) model for community colleges shape the development of noncredit programs. Implications from our findings can provide insights on ways to enhance workforce training for an evolving Texas workforce while creating an important entry point into higher education for working adults.

Authors

• Susana H. Hernandez, Northern Arizona University

• Christopher Burnett, Houston Community College

• Andrea Backscheider Burridge, Houston Community College

• Lyle McKinney, University of North Florida