Community College Journal - December 2010/January 2011

JOURNAL: Tell me a little bit about what the Department of Labor hopes to accomplish with this grant program. How can this $2 billion really help community colleges in the job-training arena?

JANE OATES: This program is about capacity building. At a time when all community colleges are resource-strapped and literally bursting at the seams, the last thing these colleges are able to do is to think about programs that they should expand, programs they need to restructure, or programs they need to create. This money will allow them to do all of that based on strong evidence about what works on their campuses.

JOURNAL: President Obama has
stressed the importance of commu-
nity colleges to the nation’s economic
recovery. At the White House Summit
on Community Colleges in October, he
reiterated his challenge, asking commu-
nity colleges to produce an additional
5 million degree and certificate holders
by 2020. How will this grant program
help colleges meet that goal?

OATES: There is no way to get to the president’s number simply by building on 18-year-olds. This grant represents a way to get a population that might have defined itself as not going to college, going back to college. We think that by adding the relevance of job training and credentialing and degrees associated with getting a good job that we are going to lure a lot of folks back to college to get that degree or industry-recognized certification who never would have come back before.

We’re doing everything with this grant in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Because we really believe that, had AGI gone forward, ED would have worked in partnership with us. This is a real joint effort to make sure that we’re not only adhering to the president’s goal

... Q&A

of more college graduates and at least one year of postsecondary education for all Americans, but that we are really spotlighting community colleges as a guiding light to get us permanently out of this recession and back onto strong economic footing in every community.

JOURNAL: When we initially reviewed the grant, the language seemed very targeted—focused on workers eligible for TAA. Does this focus limit the reach of the program, or can these job-training programs reach a wider range of people?

OATES: Clearly, because of its placement in the Trade Adjustment Act, any programs that are created must be created with the hurdles that trade-impacted workers face in getting reemployment and coming back to school. Now, once the program is created, anybody can participate in it. But there would be some populations who very clearly wouldn’t be in the design of this

Call for Presentations We invite you to submit presentation proposals for the 2011 NISOD International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence. This conference has been the largest conference to focus on community colleges for the past four years. Don’t miss out! Submit your presentation proposal today!

Deadline for submission of presentation proposals and Excellence Awards is December 1, 2010!www.nisod.org

Sponsored by the National Institute for Staff & Organizational Development (NISOD) • Community College Leadership Program (CCLP) • College of Education • The University of Texas at Austin

NISOD-member colleges are invited to submit the names of individuals to receive the NISOD Excellence Awards. Selection criteria are left to the discretion of each institution. Only faculty, staff, and administrators at NISOD-member institutions are eligible.

This year’s presentation strands include:
Teaching and Learning •
Student Success •
Diversity •
Culture of Evidence •
Developing Faculty •
Educational Technology •
Economic and Workforce Development •
Leadership and Organizational Development •