Post-secondary Higher Education Pathways to Workforce Credential Attainment in the United States of America

Abstract

Post-secondary higher education in the United States continues to be the key to opening doors to credential and degree attainment, and meaningful employment. Community colleges, in particular, have served as open-door institutions, as the Ellis Islands of America’s higher education system for decades providing access for all to a better quality of life. The evolution of the post-secondary higher education landscape is fuelled by workforce and career and technical education—the lynchpin to filling middle-wage and high skill, high-wage jobs. As the United States post-secondary higher education works to fill a nationally identified skills gap, technical colleges, community and state colleges, private colleges and public universities consistently evaluate their roles in meeting the country’s workforce needs and effectively building a twenty-first-century workforce.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s national emphasis on building America’s workforce is founded on how each state’s post-secondary higher education system trains and equips students for success. In order to meet the nation’s workforce demands, 65 per cent of jobs will require a credential or degree beyond high school next year, 2020. Short-term training programs that prepare students for a nationally industry recognized credential are fundamental to filling the skills gap. The manufacturing profession alone has yielded over one million new jobs in the past several years with approximately 390,000 yet to be filled.This chapter will provide a framework that underscores the criticality of workforce and career and technical education across the US post-secondary higher education spectrum. The terms vocational, workforce, and career and technical education will be defined to shed light on the inconsistency of terminology and the variety of programs. The role of all sectors of US post-secondary higher education in advancing workforce and career and technical education will be detailed with special emphasis on the community college sector. Examples of successful programs will be interspersed throughout this chapter. The need for additional federal, state, and public-private partnership funding will be underscored.This chapter will conclude with a call to action for post-secondary higher education policy makers and practitioners to more effectively align workforce and career and technical development programs. The elimination of duplication will set clearer workforce pathways, and more effectively generate additional external funding and resources. Also encouraged will be enhanced innovation in coloration with business and industry and K-12 systems to continue meeting employment needs. The time is now for America’s higher education system to level the international and national economic competitiveness playing field. The future is in our hands.