Search Results
Journal Article
At the Richmond Fed: Telling the Story of Community Colleges
Community colleges are an important part of the higher education landscape, offering unique educational and training opportunities to workers at all stages of their careers. Nearly half of American workers between the ages of 24 and 64 have attended a community college at some point in their lives.
Journal Article
District Digest: Community Colleges as Anchor Institutions in Rural Areas
The Fifth Federal Reserve District — comprising Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, most of West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. — is home to 122 public two-year institutions that have a wide range of both traditional academic and technical programs. More than half of these community colleges are located in rural counties. The 66 rural community colleges, like the private and public four-year institutions of higher education in rural areas, play an anchor institution role in their communities. But this role is not always accounted for in the formulas that federal, state, ...
Discussion Paper
Student Parents: The Power of Wraparound Supports
Many community college students juggle work and family responsibilities alongside their academic pursuits. Wraparound services — such as transportation assistance, child care, mental health counseling and housing — help students meet their non-academic needs, which improves colleges' retention and completion rates. These services also attract adult learners, a key population of community college students.As we have written about previously, funding wraparound services is complicated. Community colleges rely heavily on local, state, and federal funding for their academic programs, but this ...
Discussion Paper
A New Endeavor: Introducing the Fifth District Survey of Community College Outcomes
Community colleges play a major role in workforce and economic development in communities across the Fifth District. Their responsibility for educating and connecting individuals to jobs means that understanding their outcomes is important to how we think about our best path to maximum employment and sustainable economic growth.
Monograph
All Eyes on Texas: Community colleges focus on preparing the workforce of tomorrow
This report examines how Texas community colleges can fulfill their unique mission through measures including additional funding, greater outreach with business and recognition that many students seek specific skills training.
Journal Article
Upfront: New from the Richmond Fed’s Regional Matters blog
Multiple blog posts.
Journal Article
Upfront: New
Discussion Paper
Partnerships between Community Development Financial Institutions and Workforce Development Organizations
Inability to secure capital to improve worker skills or expand training programs can prevent growth in a local economy. This paper presents the role CDFIs can play to fill a need for financing in the workforce development sector. While the transactions presented in this paper are unique, they highlight the importance of partnerships between the two industries. Shared missions and an overlapping client base between CDFIs and workforce development practitioners creates a natural pairing for collaboration. In addition, CDFIs are uniquely able to serve as test beds for innovation because of their ...
Speech
Moving the Needle in Rural Communities
Demographic and geographic differences contribute to different labor market outcomes for urban areas and smaller towns. Across the United States, the employment/population ratio for people between 16 and 64 is about 10 percentage points higher in urban areas than in smaller towns. In the Fifth District, the gap is almost 11 percentage points.Although the solutions will vary from place to place, research suggests four core themes if policymakers want to move the needle in these communities:Education: Providing students with the information and preparation they need to choose, and succeed ...
Speech
Building the Post-COVID Pipeline: Invigorating Community Colleges
In February, more than 61 percent of the U.S. population was working—the largest share since the Great Recession. In April, the share dropped almost 10 percentage points, to 51.3 percent, with even larger declines for younger workers, women, minorities, and people with less education. While there has been steady recovery, in October the employment-to-population ratio was still 3.7 percentage points lower than before the pandemic. There are 9 million fewer people employed today than in February.With so many people looking for work, how is it possible that so many employers tell us they are ...