Speech

Recognizing the Impact of Community Colleges

Abstract: Even as overall labor market conditions have loosened over the past year, employers in the skilled trades continue to report a lack of available workers. Community colleges seem to be the utility player of workforce development, able to fill a role at every stage of the talent pipeline. However, they face considerable skepticism around their effectiveness. Community colleges have historically been evaluated with the same metric as four-year institutions. In 2022, we launched a pilot of our Survey of Community College Outcomes to produce a more comprehensive metric of community college success that accounts for a broader number of students and outcomes. A community college succeeds when it provides its local area with what it needs. Our success rate allows for that.

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Speech

Publication Date: 2024-10-23