Community Colleges in Changing Labor Markets: Enrollment Trends and Workforce Alignment

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Community colleges are open access institutions that serve a significant portion of historically underrepresented and low-income students and are typically an entry point to higher education. These institutions are uniquely positioned to respond quickly and efficiently to changing labor market demands due to their short-term programming, close connections to their local economies, and missions to provide workforce-relevant education. As a result, community colleges are often theorized to be more flexible and responsive to economic and policy shocks to align with labor market needs. However, relatively little is known about the effectiveness of this alignment in practice or the overall sensitivity to demand-side changes. This underscores the need for closer empirical examination of trends during periods of disruption in a time of rapidly changing demands for labor and higher education across new and changing fields.

Each paper in this panel investigates how higher education— particularly two-year community colleges— responds to changes in policy, economic conditions, and external shocks that influence how institutions serve students. This panel seeks to understand how these changes impact student enrollment patterns,credential completion, and labor market influence. One paper covers the effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic on national undergraduate trends as institutions were forced to redevelop how they serve students. Other papers observe the effects of workforce training demand shocks following the implementations of state policy, state programs, and state industry investments. This includes the enrollment and labor market effects of a workforce-aligned community college incentivization policy in the state of Virginia; the workforce credential and credential-stacking effects of a program for collaboration between local employers and technical college programs in Tennessee; and the manufacturing credential attainment effects following new levels of local manufacturing investment in the state of Kentucky. Overall, this panel disseminates topical quantitative policy findings on how state initiatives can influence higher education behavior by identifying state education priorities, which can influence student enrollment patterns and incentivize institutions to align educational offerings to workforce demand. 

Utilizing a diverse set of large state- and national-level data, this panel provides insights into how external conditions and changes in labor markets influence institution behavior, enrollment trends, and student workforce training. Each study provides unique contributions to our understanding of labor market alignment in community colleges across three different states as well as with a broader national context. Understanding how community colleges respond to periods of change is particularly important given the student populations these institutions serve and the changing demands affecting higher education and skilled labor. Research in this panel provides valuable policy findings as states and institutions continue to consider new initiatives to address demand and labor market needs in their own contexts.

Policy Area

• Education

Chair

• Steven W. Hemelt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Discussants

• Sade Bonilla, University of Pennsylvania

• Jessa Lewis Valentine, Ascendium Education Group

Organizer

• Emily Wilcox Walls, University of Kentucky

Individual Presentations

• Trends in Undergraduate Postsecondary Program Enrollment through the COVID-19 Pandemic - Presenting Author: Michel Grosz, Federal Trade Commission; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Rajeev Darolia, University of Kentucky; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Jordan D Matsudaira, American University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Kevin Stange, University of Michigan

• The Effect of State Investments in CTE on Credential Stacking - Presenting Author: Adela Ruth Soliz, Vanderbilt University

• Performance-Based Funding Policy to Expand Skilled Labor Supply: Evidence from Noncredit Workforce Training in Virginia - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Sabrina M. Mahendra Solanki, University of Michigan; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Di Xu, University of California Irvine; Presenting Author: Michael Span, University of California Irvine; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Michael Alexander Cooper, University of California Irvine

• Supporting Advanced Manufacturing Growth – How do Community Colleges Respond to Local Economic Development Investments? - Presenting Author: Emily Wilcox Walls, University of Kentucky