2024-2025 Regional Strong Workforce Projects

LA Regional Job Placement and Employment Success – Regional College lead is East Los Angeles College – (70694)- $200,000

project coordinator: Nelly Alvarado

Over the past decade, the role of the community college has evolved. Traditionally, community colleges have been the training ground for those seeking to enter the workforce, upskill and/or pursue transfer opportunities. With the new emphasis on employment, more specifically connecting students to jobs related to their field of study, the community college must embrace their new role of not only preparing local talent to be competitive in the global economy through industry responsive curriculum, but also embrace and capitalize on the strengths of its internal and external partners to effectively place our students, in employment that pays living wage or higher. Many of the LA region’s colleges, lack the infrastructure to implement job placement effectively and efficiently. This project seeks to capitalize on and build upon the existing strengths of the colleges and the region and to provide opportunities for professional development and a platform for sharing and replication of best practices, strategies and systems from LA Colleges and others. The project will actively coordinate its efforts with those of the related SW Regional projects, Cornerstone project while also leveraging the support and assistance of the Director of Business Engagement and the various Program Mangers and support staff. This project is directly related to improving the quality of CTE outcomes through increasing employment.

Noncredit Career Pathways – Regional College lead is Mt. San Antonio – (70693)- $100,000

project coordinator: Graciela Vasquez

Lifting low-wage workers into living-wage jobs: Noncredit career pathways provide adult learners with immediate employment to entry level jobs that add income for their families. These students often begin progression through a career ladder and then eventually seeking intermediate to higher level skills, thus advancing to living wages. This occurs due to the flexible nature of noncredit, counseling, and other advising strategies. Increasing the number of students enrolled in programs that lead to high-demand, high-wage jobs: The noncredit CTE programs that are existing and in development will attract additional students not previously served and individuals needing immediate short-term training in order to gain, regain, or improve employment. The increased enrollment will benefit colleges as noncredit short-term vocational courses generate fully funded enhanced CDCP FTES. Noncredit students receive significant wrap-around services, including support to transition to credit CTE programs aimed at producing middle-skilled labor that lead to high-demand, high-wage jobs. Improving the quality, as evidenced by more students completing or transferring program, and/or getting employed or improving their earnings: Through ongoing noncredit CTE program development focused on short-term training and competency-based curriculum, noncredit programs can provide a point-of-entry into a career ladder that transforms a family’s economic future and also leads to living wages.

Baccalaureate Degree Support – Regional College lead is Pasadena City College – (70698)- $15,000

project coordinator: Graciela Vasquez

The purpose of the California Community College Baccalaureate program is to address workforce needs where employers now require or prefer a bachelor’s degree for eligibility for employment, rendering some existing associate degree programs obsolete. In October 2021, Governor Newsom signed AB 927 allowing community colleges to develop and offer bachelor’s degrees in workforce fields. California now joins the other twenty-four states that allow community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees. This regional project will focus on establishing a Community of Practice to develop a Baccalaureate Degree support framework to assist with the advancement of new, in progress, and existing baccalaureate degree programs within the LA Region. Bachelor’s Degree Programs close equity gaps, address workforce demands and lead to better wages and social mobility for Los Angelenos. There are currently eight, CCCCO-approved baccalaureate degree programs which include: Cerritos College (Dental Hygiene), El Camino (Respiratory Care), LA Mission (Biomanufacturing), LA Valley (Respiratory Therapy), Mt. SAC (Histotechnology), Rio Hondo (Automotive Tech.), Santa Monica (Interaction Design), West LA (Dental Hygiene and Avionics). In addition, Vision 2030 sets forth to achieve the three goals of equity in success, equity in access, and equity in support, through the 12 actions described in three strategic directions. Equitable baccalaureate attainment for every Californian requires meeting the unique needs of current and prospective learners regardless of age, race, socioeconomic status and previous educational attainment. Supporting the state’s credential attainment requires that we deepen our work to dismantle the “traditional” architecture of institutions and adapt to today’s students--all an important focus of the work of this project.

College Marketing – Regional College lead is Pasadena City College – (70697)- $40,000

project coordinator: Nick Real

The 2021-24 Los Angeles Regional Plan added two priority sectors (Advanced Manufacturing and Life Sciences / Biotech) and one emerging sector (Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism) to the existing 6 regional priority sectors. Altogether, Los Angeles regional priority sectors for 2021-24 are as follows. Priority Sectors: Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Transportation and Logistics, Business and Entrepreneurship, Energy, Construction, and Utilities, Global Trade, Health, ICT/Digital Media, & Life Sciences/Biotech Emerging Sector: Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism.

Allied Health – Regional College lead is West LA College – (70691)- $50,000

project coordinator: Elizabeth Riley

As previously mentioned, according to the Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC) regional plan, with reference to a variety of credible sources such as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), “the fastest job growth is projected for the Health Sector, with a projected growth of 13%”. (Page 6 of the LARC regional plan). The report goes on to state that “When jobs that span all skill levels are considered across sectors, the Health sector has the highest concentration of middle-skill jobs with 82% of 782,978 jobs”. According to the CTE launch board, as reported by Cal Pass Plus, in the 2020/2021 academic year, there were 33,433 health SWP students, yet according to data verified by the Los Angeles Regional Consortium, on page 8 of LARC Regional Plan 2023 update, there are 87,714 middle skills job opportunities in health. This project is needed to help to help meet the demand for allied health workers. In round 6 2023 SWP regional allied health summit, 13 colleges and a variety of allied health employers (including but not limited to Cedars Sinai, Prime Healthcare, UCLA Health, Beverly Hospital, Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles, and more!) came together to discuss local problems and converse with their local data and projections. Overwhelmingly, the employers stated a need for increased talent pipelines in a variety of health occupations, however, the colleges stated their programs cannot grow or expand without the establishment of additional clinical sites. For this reason, this project has a particular focus on increasing the number of clinical sites for community college allied health programs, as well as developing the needed infrastructure to grow enrollment and increase completions of degrees and industry licenses, ultimately enabling more students to be qualified to enter jobs in health. This project is in alignment with statewide goals, as Assembly Member Evan Low recently introduced AB1577, a bill that passed with majority votes and is now scheduled to be heard in Senate, addressing the clinical placement shortages by asking acute care hospitals to prioritize CA community colleges.

Career Pathways Partnership – Regional College lead is Rio Hondo College – (70692)- $191,493

project coordinator: Colleen McKinley

This project will continue to strive to outreach to the K12 LEAs to inform and develop K14 Career Pathways. They will work with their individual college Career Education Dean to ensure that Career Technical Education courses offered at either the high school or Noncredit/Adult Education providers align with the college Programs of Study. They will continue to utilize Articulation Agreements and Dual Enrollment to recruit targeted students and therefore increase the number of students who enroll and complete high-demand, high-wage job programs. CTE Courses offered at the high school often fail to be aligned with high-wage, high-demand jobs. Based on a recent study conducted by WestEd, there is a disconnect between the number of students being prepared in a specific sector and the job demands. This information was shared at the December Quarterly Meeting for the Career Pathways Partnership. As a result of this data, there needs to be a mapping conducted identifying the multiple pathways that many of these courses could lead to. For example, a class in Computer Information Systems could lead to a career in Electronic Medical Records or Health Information Systems, and even Automotive Technology. The Career Pathways Specialists will continue to focus on facilitating this alignment with their K12 Pathway Coordinators and the K12 LEAs. High school students are often placed into a "college-going" path or "not college-going path". This project will intentionally reach out to those students who are underperforming in their high school course of study. A pilot Dual Enrollment project housed at Rio Hondo College in 2000-2005, found that when the D and F students were engaged in a career pathway of interest, they not only completed the Career Education Course, but graduated from high school, and completed the college career pathway. They then either went to work or transferred to a four-year post-secondary institution. This year's focus on underperforming students will increase the college-going rate of high school graduates by creating a "Can Do" environment for Los Angeles CO underserved students. At the same time, it will increase enrollment at community colleges in programs that lead to high-demand, high-wage jobs. 

Faculty Innovation Hub – Regional College lead is Pasadena City College – (70695)- $15,000

project coordinator: Nick Real

Increasing the number of students enrolled in programs that lead to high-demand, high-wage jobs -- Innovation Hub Projects in General: we are particularly interested in middle-skill occupations with the highest growth. Innovation Hub projects will align with these industries to ensure students are getting employment in them. The Innovation Hub will directly impact enrollment by creating programs that offer more flexibility. For example, offering online courses, flexible start dates, and evening and weekend courses could serve as key motivating factors for potential students because school fits in their lives. The fact that students can learn material around their busy schedules should be particularly appealing. The Innovation Hub will also directly impact wage gains. The Hub will support programs that offer students the opportunity to up-skill and/or re-skill. Major shifts in the market are demanding workers with new skills that are currently not being taught in many schools. Up-skilling and re-skilling, particularly with new tools and technology, will allow students to have job mobility and higher-paying jobs in a quickly changing labor market.  Lifting low-wage workers into living-wage jobs that will seamlessly lead industry- and faculty-created stackable credentials into other adjacent occupational areas based in competency mastery. Improving the quality, as evidenced by more students completing or transferring program, and/or getting employed or improving their earnings -- The Innovation Hub will directly impact job placement in a job related to the student’s field of study. The Hub will facilitate partnerships with regional industry leaders. Such partnerships will aid in constructing updated curriculum best aligned with industry needs. Students will learn relevant knowledge and skills needed for employment and for specific roles that the labor market requires. This will provide students with access to current and future employment opportunities. Industry partnerships will also enable students to have hands-on learning experiences via internships. This experience would provide a clear path to career placement even before graduation. The Hub will work on providing solutions to solving the “last-mile” for prospects into new jobs. This partnership will also benefit employers as they would be able to track clusters of skills to identify new talent.

Credit for Prior Learning – Regional College lead is Pasadena City College – (70699)- $25,000

project coordinator: Colleen McKinley

As the Los Angeles Region commits to advancing academic credentialing in support of economic mobility, faculty play a key role in sharing, learning, and advancing practices to achieve these goals through activities and efforts such as the granting of credit for prior learning (CPL). A regional Credit for Prior Learning framework is essential to optimizing its advantages. CPL is defined by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (2020) as “college credit awarded for validated college-level skills and knowledge gained outside of a college classroom.” Skills and knowledge can be obtained through means both formal—such as testing, workplace training, or military training—and informal—such as volunteer work or independent study. The formation of a Community of Practice strategy to develop a CPL framework is critical to supporting the Vision for Success goals, especially to increase completion and close equity gaps. Research confirms that students who earn CPL are more likely to complete, saving time and money to degree, with findings true across ethnicity, gender, age, and socioeconomic status. This not only benefits students but also colleges that are rewarded for completions through the Student-Centered Funding Formula. CPL can also be a tool for LA colleges to boost enrollment and attract some of the Los Angelenos ages 25-54 who have a high school diploma but not a college degree. Most importantly, more than half of these individuals are people of color, making CPL a valuable lever to increase equity. Data illustrates that achieving degrees significantly influences economic mobility, underscoring the importance of Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) as a crucial strategy for enhancing Los Angeles's competitive workforce. These factors collectively serve as robust indicators of the advantages to be gained from establishing a CPL Community of Practice and a comprehensive regional framework.