As interest in short-term workforce training continues to grow, a new national research effort aims to better understand the students enrolling in noncredit programs and how colleges can better support them.
The project, led by the Education & Employment Research Center (EERC) at Rutgers University in partnership with the National Council for Workforce Education (NCWE), will build on recent Lumina-supported research involving 83 students at LaGuardia Community College in New York, Northern Virginia Community College and Mt. San Antonio College in California.
Researchers found that many students enrolled in noncredit workforce programs were returning to higher education after previous unsuccessful attempts in credit-bearing programs. Many had attended four-year colleges directly after high school but left without completing a degree, often because of financial challenges or difficulty connecting with traditional academic coursework, said Katherine Hughes, a senior research consultant with EECC, who led the earlier study. Years, and sometimes decades, later, they found that short-term workforce programs offered a more attainable path back to education.
The research revealed that noncredit programs frequently serve working-age adults seeking better-paying, more stable employment after years in low-wage jobs, Hughes said. Students cited the affordability and relatively short duration of the programs as major factors in their decisions to enroll.
“They weren’t really in a position in their lives to take on something longer, and this gave them an opportunity that they felt they could access and that was important and meaningful,” she said.
Researchers said one of the most striking findings was the sense of hope many students associated with the programs.
“They gave the students the hope that they could finish something that was very attainable,” said Michelle Van Noy, director of EERC, which has focused much of its research on non-credit programs at community colleges.
The findings from the earlier project also resonated with what college workforce officials saw on their campuses, and they appreciated the emphasis on these student experiences, said NCWE Executive Director Kate Kinder.
“So often, non-credit students are not part of research initiatives or their experience is not called out very much in higher education policy, practice and storytelling,” she said.
Expanding the project
Building on the earlier findings, EERC and NCWE have launched a national initiative involving 15 community colleges from across the country with the support of Lumina and ECMC Foundations. The colleges represent a range of institutions, including urban and rural campuses and colleges of varying sizes, all interested in understanding the experiences of noncredit workforce students, Van Noy said.
The initiative combines research with a community of practice, in which participating colleges share information about their programs, policies and student populations, Van Noy said. Researchers are gathering information on the colleges’ noncredit offerings, administrative structures and data-collection practices. A large student survey is scheduled to launch soon, followed by in-depth interviews with selected participants.
The student survey will explore a variety of topics, including students’ educational and career goals, employment status, sources of financial support, use of college services and connections to community-based organizations, Van Noy said.
Students’ POV
NCWE’s Kinder said the effort is designed not only to generate data but also to elevate student voices in conversations about workforce education.
“Sometimes, especially in workforce education, we don’t start with the student’s perspective,” she said.
The research seeks to better understand what success looks like from the student’s point of view and how colleges can design programs and pathways that align with students’ goals.
The project also comes amid growing discussions about connecting noncredit training to credit-bearing programs and degrees. Researchers said the study may help colleges better understand whether students want those pathways and what barriers exist to accessing them.
Many students appear to move through a more complex mix of educational and career experiences, Kinder said. Understanding those patterns could help institutions build pathways that are responsive to both student needs and labor market demands.
“I think in the field for many years it was more ladder-like and stacked,” Kinder said. “The reality of our economy and people’s lives is it’s more a latticed kind of pathway. I’ve heard people describe it as a Lego pathway.”
Moving the needle
The research has already had an impact beyond data collection. Kinder noted that one college involved in the project has used information from the initiative to support conversations with policymakers about funding noncredit programs. Colleges also have begun sharing ideas about how to better track and support noncredit students, including integrating noncredit student data into student records systems.
And although the project does not directly focus on Workforce Pell, researchers said it could help lay the groundwork for the successful implementation of the new federal aid program by providing insights into student needs, institutional practices and the infrastructure needed to support short-term workforce training programs.
