The Uneven Distribution of Employee Training by Community Colleges: Description and Explanation

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Community colleges have recently attracted great attention because of their important role in supplying employee training to many business establishments. But despite this major role, there is surprising variability in community colleges’ supply of, and employers’ demand for, employee training. While a few community colleges supply a lot of employee training, many provide little. Moreover, although large employers and ones in industries such as manufacturing tend to utilize the community college heavily, smaller employers and ones in industries such as retail trade use it much less. This article analyzes the causes of this variability in the demand for and supply of employee training and suggests policy responses. Public policy, while encouraging broader community college and industry partnership in employee training, must also move to counteract the harmful impacts of extensive employee training on other missions of the community college such as transfer preparation, remedial education, and general education.