A new dischotomy: can institutional change improve a community college's workforce responsiveness?

When the operators of Baltimore's growing airport and seaport gazed into the future last year, they didn't like what they saw.

Baby-boomers were beginning to retire in droves. New technologies were creating demand for new skills. Post-Sept. 11 security rules were placing a premium for better-trained cargo handlers, supply chain specialists and logisticians.

A new pipeline of workers was needed, and quickly.

The Maryland Department of Transportation turned to Anne Arundel Community College and its Center for Workforce Solutions, a five-year-old effort aimed at designing curriculum to meet the needs of the local business community--and, in the process, purposely blurring the lines between traditional academia and workforce training.

What emerged from that initial outreach is a fledgling training program under which 248 new workers will be trained and the skills of another 300 incumbent employees will be burnished.

After securing a $2 million Community-Based Job Training Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, the college is developing a certificate program to train workers for the transportation, logistics and cargo industries. It will strive to upgrade the skills of current employees with both online and face-to-face non-credit courses and build the capacity of other community colleges to devise similar programs.

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To be in a position to do so, Anne Arundel had previously melded its workforce development programs with traditional academic offerings, breaking down the walls which have traditionally separated the two.

"We have a very comprehensive philosophy," says Andrew L. Meyer, the college's vice-president for learning. "What we are trying to do is break down the silos."

Even Meyer's job title reflects that philosophy. In 2001, Anne Arundel abandoned the traditional model found at community colleges--that of having one vice-president in charge of for-credit academics and another heading workforce development. Instead, the two jobs have been combined into one position heading up all credit, certificate and non-credit programs.

"What we believe is that learning is learning," Meyer says. "I think we have done a good job at blurring the lines between credit and non-credit, between full-and part-time students."

Such an approach is imperative if community colleges are to succeed in meeting the needs of constituencies ranging from fresh-faced high school graduates to middle-aged adult learners, says Julian L. Alssid, director of the Workforce Strategy Center, a think tank based in Brooklyn, N.Y..

"Traditional academics and workforce development must learn to co-exist," he says. "With the rapidly changing demand for workers, people need both sides."

A Difficult Marriage

But for hidebound colleges, combining the two sides can make for a difficult marriage. According to the 21st Century Workforce Commission, a group created by Congress to identify future workforce needs and how to meet them, "existing resources of community colleges are geared toward a traditional postsecondary experience and are not particularly relevant to short-term skills training required for continuous learning."

That can make change tough for tradition-bound and cautious institutions.

"Most community colleges were set up to help students transfer to four-year colleges," Alssid says. "You really need better integration between the two, but you also need better integration with the business community."

Alssid is a vocal proponent of career pathways, the notion of aligning high schools, the business community and higher education to chart paths students can follow to specific professions. But creating those pathways can meet resistance, according to a 2005 paper prepared for Alssid's Workforce Center.

"Career pathways require substantial changes in the way every partner operates," says the paper, written by Davis Jenkins, a senior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. "Changing organizational practice is rarely easy to do, especially when each partner is responding to a different set of funding requirements and incentives that may not be aligned with the overriding goal of career pathways."

In addition, "it is often very difficult for community colleges to engage their academic program faculties in career pathways efforts. Involving faculty which teaches college remedial or 'developmental' courses as well as general education programs is essential if colleges hope to increase opportunities as well as build skills. Therefore, career pathways incentives need to consider what sorts of incentives might persuade faculty to take part."

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Meyer contends that community colleges have no choice but to abandon the distinctions that create barriers between traditional academics and workforce development. One of the steps Anne Arundel has taken to tear down the barriers is to encourage and embrace and the input of local businesses, sometimes derided as self-absorbed outsiders by higher education.

At Anne Arundel, businesses helped design the workforce solutions center and assisted in the development of its curriculum. Business leaders sometimes supply their own employees to teach courses. The college has also established a series of advisory boards in various disciplines to provide real-world perspective.

Faculty members generally welcome the expanded role of business at the college, says Daryl W. Gonder, a professor of visual arts and English and the former president of the faculty senate.

"I have not heard any grumbling about it, because ultimately if it's going to help our students get jobs, then we're in favor of it," he says. "In addition, I think it would be the height of hubris to believe that the academy knows better about the needs of a business than the business itself.

"If the students we are turning out are more attuned to the job market, then that's a good thing."

Creating a Revenue Source

Anne Arundel also has created a campus-wide Learning Response Team, a group of upper-level college officials that meets every two weeks to ensure the college is responding to the needs of its student and its surrounding community.

One of the payoffs of this business outreach is that Anne Arundel's workforce center has become an important source of revenue for the college. For example, a partnership with Northrup Grumman, under which the college provides on-site training to the company's workforce, means about $1 million each year for the college, Meyer says.

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"We need to be more entrepreneurial," Meyer says. "Our traditional funding sources are stretched to the limit, and we just can't rely on them like we have in the past. What we can do is create additional revenue streams by being creative and innovative."

The workforce solutions center bills itself as a one-stop shop for employment training. It offers businesses a full array of customized training programs. They can be conducted on-line, at one the college's three campuses or at the business itself.

"I really think that contract training is a missed opportunity for a lot of colleges," Meyer says.

But the Anne Arundel model works especially well for a college that is located in a region with many workforce-training opportunities. Situated between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, the Anne Arundel region has a healthy economy, a wealth of government workers and a strong military presence.

"The whole notion that colleges can be more entrepreneurial makes sense, but its form depends on the local economy," he says.

Filling Many Needs

Among the enterprises which have taken advantage of the training offered at Anne Arundel is the U.S. Army. Bob Haagenson, a human resources specialist at Fort George G. Meade, said about a dozen civilian are currently taking courses at the college through a recent partnership.

Haagenson says the venture serves two purposes. For Fort Meade, it upgrades the skills of its workforce. For those taking courses at the college, it's an opportunity for professional development or the path toward a degree.

"The post commander wanted to give our civilian employees a chance to start or continue a degree, while at the same time addressing the skills we need," he says. "We're restricted on post, mostly due to budget considerations."

The program that will train seaport and airport workers is being developed as a model for other regions, says project director Gloria Sandstrom.

"What we want to do is create a pool of workers that these employers can turn to," she says. "There are new requirements which must be met by everyone. We want to share this with other colleges."