New certificate offering in advanced web & mobile development
In a time of sky-rocketing tuition, community colleges may very well be the new grad school for career changers who already have a bachelor’s degree. At least they have the potential to be, here in the Seattle-Tacoma region. Take my institution, Green River College, as an example.
A community college offering transfer, career, and technical degrees, Green River recently expanded into the four-degree space with the launch of Bachelor’s degree programs in Software Development and Network Administration & Security.
Our Bachelor’s degree offerings — wonderful examples, in and of themselves, of how community colleges are evolving to meet industry demand for highly-qualified workers with serious tech cred — offer small class sizes, an attractive cost of attendance, and relevant curriculum designed with employer input. As Green River sits squarely within one of the nation’s top 3 IT hubs, our pipeline of students is only growing.
When advising applicants, it isn’t uncommon to meet prospective students who already hold a bachelor’s, and in some cases a master’s degree, but who nevertheless need additional short-term training to make a career change or increase their earning potential.
In response to what we perceived was a palpable need in our community, Green River recently unveiled post-baccalaureate certificates in Web / Mobile Development and Advanced Networking that can be completed day or evening on a part-time basis, in as little as 4 quarters, or 1 year — at a cost that won’t drown participants in debt.
Our post-baccalaureate certificate in Web and Mobile Development, for example, contains 40 credits of upper-division coursework emphasizing agile web and mobile development with open source stacks, Android, and iOS / Swift, minus the general education and elective requirements students normally have to complete en route to a full-fledged bachelor’s degree.
Layer a robust 40 credit certificate like this on top of an existing BA or BS degree, and you have the skills in place to compete for jobs in a field that may have otherwise been totally inaccessible. New life breathed into a wilting career.
Associate’s degrees, applied bachelor’s degrees, and now post-baccalaureate certificates. It all hangs neatly together, a suite of offerings that enhance the mission of a community college in a new and exciting way.
As Matt Reed recently remarked on Inside Higher Ed, short-term college programs like these for people who already have a bachelor’s degree could be the new hot ticket for community colleges.
In fact, for those of us working in the community college world, we could be looking at the next great enrollment opportunity.
