A Unified Plan For Community Colleges
We have 240,000 people looking for work and nearly 120,000 open jobs today in Massachusetts. How can we have so much opportunity available and so many people still looking for a chance?
Business leaders keep telling me that it’s because the job seekers don’t have the required skills. Many of these openings are for “middle skills” jobs that require more than a high school diploma but not necessarily a four-year degree; for example, jobs in medical device manufacturing or solar installation. And a lot of those forced by the economic downturn to make career changes, people in their 30s, 40s or 50s, don’t have the proper training for those jobs.
We can do something about that. And our community colleges should be at the center of it. Community colleges rarely receive proper recognition for the work they do, let alone adequate funding. I have visited many of them and seen their good work. They’re an important resource. At Quinsigamond Community College, a student has an opportunity to earn a degree as a licensed practical nurse through a partnership with 10 extended care facilities in Central Massachusetts. This is good, but we need more of it, and we need it everywhere so that community colleges become a fully integrated part of the state’s workforce development plan. They must be aligned with employers, vocational-technical schools and the workforce investment boards in the regions where they operate. They must also be aligned with each other in core course offerings, and with the commonwealth’s job growth strategy. We can’t do that if 15 different campuses have 15 different strategies. We need to do this together, through a unified community college system. Our competitors – states like Virginia and North Carolina – have unified systems and are using them to their competitive advantage.
I have proposed a $10 million increase in funding for community colleges to help them meet this mission and I have challenged the business community to come up with a match to help make this a reality. It’s not unreasonable for the colleges to ask for more resources. In exchange, it’s not unreasonable to ask for them to be more accountable to our workforce development strategy.
Given how important community colleges are to their local cities and towns, some are concerned this proposal would mean Beacon Hill is telling their campuses what to do. I don’t want that any more than they do.
The goal is to ensure that community colleges have the tools they need to be as responsive as possible to job openings in their regions. Creating a more unified system is not about losing local control; it’s about connecting every city and town to the full range of economic possibilities in the commonwealth. It’s about making sure a large employer in Boston knows that there’s a skilled workforce in Worcester and a reason to expand there. It’s about making sure a small business in Auburn has a convenient, locally focused, fully supported resource to help its workers build careers in Worcester County and grow its economy.
The challenge facing job seekers, people in doubt about the future of their American Dream and their place in the workforce belongs to all of us. We can meet that challenge if we work together.
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