Are Broad Access Institutions Preparing Students for California’s Labor Market?
When people think about college, images of young students studying and living on campus, playing frisbee on green lawns, and successfully graduating in four years usually come to mind. In fact, when you search for college student in Google images, these are the kinds of stock photos that come up. But through my participation in college and career readiness research at Stanford University’s John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, I know that only a minority of today’s college-goers fit this stereotype. Today’s students are older, come from economically-disadvantaged backgrounds, live off-campus, and work part-time while going to school. Moreover, most are pursuing their education at regional broad-access institutions that accept a majority of students who apply, including two-year community colleges, less-selective four-year public colleges, and for-profit schools.
Understanding the role these broad-access institutions play in preparing students for California’s labor market is critical. California’s public higher education system is struggling to recover from years of financial strains. Budget shortfalls have resulted in aging infrastructure, reductions in core classes, tuition and fee increases, and staff furloughs, among other constraints. Population and education trends suggest that by 2025, 41% of jobs will require at least an undergraduate education, but only about 35% of working-age adults will have earned a bachelor’s degree. Without significant reform to California’s higher education system, the state will continue experiencing a shortage of educated workers to fill jobs in an increasingly knowledge-based economy. Since the bulk of California’s college students are enrolled in broad-access colleges, deeper knowledge about these specific colleges may help inform research and policy efforts that help improve prosperity for the majority of Californians.
Broad-access institutions face an array of difficult and interrelated challenges at the system, setting, and individual levels. For example, the state’s community college system has been criticized for being slow to respond to the rapid demands of the technology labor market, which constantly requires new skills. Inflexibility in modifying or approving new courses of study (e.g., professional-technical programs), rigid accreditation requirements, and few systemic incentives for regional collaborations with businesses, among other practices have hindered its ability to be market responsive.
Setting-level issues at the colleges themselves including over-subscribed or “impacted” credit-bearing courses (usually in sciences, engineering, and math), diminishing support structures for first-time students (e.g., career/placement centers), and a dearth of internship opportunities and local industry partnerships have also constrained the colleges’ ability to adequately train their students for the job market.
In addition, at the individual level, students attending broad-access institutions frequently arrive under-prepared for the rigors of college-level work. Many lack the understanding of the complexities and demands of college, as well as the academic skills, tenacity, and habits of mind necessary to successfully persist to graduation.
With the average earnings of college graduates almost twice as high as those with a high school diploma, many see higher education as their ticket to upward economic and social mobility. As the baby boomers retire in the state, California will need significantly more well-trained and college-educated workers. A sparsely educated public cannot sustain true economic, social, or cultural prosperity. If the state’s economy is to thrive, comprehensive, research-driven reforms at the system, setting, and individual levels to the state’s public higher education system — particularly to its broad-access institutions — are warranted to address the skills gap that looms over California.
