Getting Non-Degree Community College Programs Right: Centering Quality in Workforce Education

There is a growing interest in non-degree workforce programs at community colleges, but despite the hype, outcomes for these programs have been mixed.

At their best, non-degree programs serve as faster, more affordable pathways to quality jobs, but at their worst non-degree programs can lead to unemployment, underemployment, or employment in jobs that don’t offer financial stability.

To address how to design high-quality non-degree programs, the Center on Education and Labor at New America (CELNA), with support from Lumina Foundation, launched a research and storytelling project called New Models for Career Preparation. We conducted research to understand how these programs at community colleges could be designed in a high-quality manner and to unpack how community colleges themselves can transform to excel at non-degree workforce education.

After three years of investigation with hundreds of college, workforce, and employer leaders, CELNA is proud to produce three practical briefs from New Models to help community college leaders elevate quality at the heart of their non-degree programs and a policy brief to help federal and state policymakers maximize the impact of non-degree education at community colleges.


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