Community colleges mean business...but what does business mean?

New England Journal of Higher Education, The, Winter 2003 by Addy, Cathryn L, Ritchie, William F

New England faces a complicated set of problems. Over the next decade, the region will see: shrinking tax revenues to support state and local governments because of an unfavorable business climate; increasing disparity between the skills of workers entering the labor market and those possessed by an experienced yet aging workforce; an influx of younger immigrant workers, many with language barriers, who are not ready for even entry-level jobs; and a relatively high cost of living that will make it difficult to attract and retain the educated workforce needed to replace workers who retire.

It is imperative for businesses to find a reliable and prepared labor force. This was easier when all a worker needed most was a strong back or basic skills that could be learned on the job. But those qualities no longer cut it in New England or anywhere else in the United States. As a result, businesses are spending as much as $23 billion a year to train their employees, according to IDS, the Framingham, Mass-based consulting firm.

Community colleges have believed from their inception that, given the opportunity, they could offer the solution to business's labor-supply problems. In some states, including Connecticut, in fact, it is the statutory mission of community colleges to provide career and job preparation. Yet while community colleges have been the educators and trainers of choice in some fields-for example, preparing two-thirds of all allied health workers-they have not always been able to deliver what business needs.

One reason is that our expectations and those of business may be as far apart as planets in the solar system. While successful businesses must be cuttingedge and instantly responsive to market shifts and consumer demands, traditional educational institutions move at the pace of bureaucracy, slowed by layers of approval and oversight imposed upon curricular decisions. While businesses want to spend the least possible on indirect costs, community colleges depend, in part, upon the financial support of the businesses to which they provide education and training. While businesses want personnel to be instantly productive, the processes of education and training require time for students to acquire experiences that directly relate to classroom theory.

The business community has many options for training and educating workers. Large companies such as Motorola and McDonald's have created their own corporate universities. Proprietary schools such as DeVry, Argosy and the Education Management Corp. have carved a national niche in employment training. The University of Phoenix enrolls almost 50,000 online students. Other colleges and universities also run networks of training programs specifically designed to meet the needs of businesses and provide continuing education for workers. So despite their public mandate, lower costs and ubiquitous availability, community colleges face a lot of competition.

If New England community and technical colleges are going to be of greater service to business and industry, then we want a few things from the business community. First, we want employers to invest in all their employees. At the most basic level, employers should commit to the idea that every one of their employees must be literate not only in the traditional sense, but also computer-literate and familiar with the role of technology in the workplace. Recent literacy studies show that nearly one quarter of U.S. adults are functionally illiterate. Businesses have a responsibility to make sure that their employees do not fall into this category. Workers with marginal literacy levels and no technical skills are disproportionately disadvantaged if they become unemployed in an economic recession. Indeed, virtually every time a manufacturing company moves out of New England, community colleges are called upon to retrain the company's former employees to make them employable. Too often, we have to start with reading and writing.

Moreover, community college enrollment goes up when the economy is weak, which places demands on us when we are least able to meet them. We need to get over the idea that education and training are needed only in times of upheaval or economic crisis. Businesses will prosper more if they view employee education and training as a long-term priority rather than a stopgap measure to ward off financial ruin.

We also want businesses to see community colleges as partners. Internship and practicum experiences benefit both students and the businesses that employ them. Tuition reimbursement and loan-forgiveness programs encourage long-term commitments to education on the part of employers, while supporting community college students, who are often economically disadvantaged.

Finally, if businesses will work with community colleges and articulate what they are looking for in future employees, then we will be better able to produce graduates who meet those requirements, perhaps ultimately saving businesses the money they now spend on retraining, which is a significant part of the $23 billion figure.