Purpose: American Community colleges are vital to the country's economic mobility and are leaders in developing and facilitating career, technical, and workforce education. This study explored employer perspectives on employees' common and specialized skills across industries in the United States. Design/methodology/approach: Employers were…

In recent years, there has been a large increase in college programs for crime scene investigations. In order for college graduates to be competitive when applying for these highly sought-after jobs, graduates must be able to demonstrate the skills and knowledge they have acquired during their college coursework in lieu of on-the-job experience.…

Community colleges are the leader in facilitating career and technical education (CTE) and workforce development (WD) programs. However, employers who hire recent graduates of these programs question the quality of the education provided. This qualitative study used a focus group comprised of manufacturing and engineering professionals in Florida…

A three-year study that JFF conducted for the National Science Foundation shows that community college technology internships can be effective bridges to employment for postsecondary students. The research showed that when internships were required for graduation students were much more likely to participate. But for internships to be effective,…

Of the studies of internships at two-year colleges, few have focused specifically on IT and engineering technology (ET) programs and the structures that are essential to building effective technology internships. Case studies at two Florida community colleges enabled the exploration of internship structure, student participation by demographics,…

This research explores how COVID has impacted technology internships, including student and employer participation, satisfaction, and challenges; changes in the structure of internships; and impact on student employment outcomes. The roots of this study emerged in summer of 2021, as the authors were completing a three-year study funded by the…

This research is about how one community college preserved and strengthened their technology internships during COVID with commitment and creativity. Although the college, employers, and students faced technical, logistical, and supervisory challenges in maintaining technology internships through the pandemic, the college was committed to ensuring…

This summary is the first in a series of research briefs on student skills for the future. It provides highlights from the full research report, "Initial Findings Report: Student Skills for the Future, Spring 2022. A Landscape Analysis from the Jacksonville Public Education Fund" (ED620417). Given the rate of technological advancement,…

The Jacksonville Public Education Fund drew on previous research from various organizations including UNF and STEM2Hub in order to identify community stakeholders who could help us answer the question: What skills do students need to succeed in the 21st century workforce? JPEF conducted interviews and focus groups with educators and a variety of…

Background: Smoking prevalence among Hispanic/Latino construction workers in the United States is very high (31%). Aims: To investigate tobacco use profiles in these minority workers and explore their management's views about implementing sustainable worksite smoking cessation services. Methods: Analysis of baseline data from a smoking cessation…

Despite an emphasis in the field on triadic approaches to the delivery of early intervention (EI), remarkably little is known about the shared experiences of caregivers (CGs) and providers during home visits. Within the context of developing, refining, and evaluating the "Embedded Practices and Intervention With Caregivers" (EPIC)…

This study analyses the perspectives of four stakeholder groups towards Applied Baccalaureate (AB) degrees in the United States. Perspectives towards AB degrees that are held by community college personnel, university personnel, employers and student participants are analysed using the Policy Narrative Framework. Findings show the stakeholder…

Despite an emphasis in the field on triadic approaches to the delivery of early intervention (EI), remarkably little is known about the shared experiences of caregivers (CGs) and providers during home visits. Within the context of developing, refining, and evaluating the "Embedded Practices and Intervention With Caregivers" (EPIC)…

Purpose: In response to recent calls for research relating to employers' perceptions of the workplace readiness of new graduates in a variety of fields, the purpose of this paper is to report North Florida employers' perceptions of information technology (IT) program graduates' workplace readiness. These findings are relevant to stakeholders in…

In this National Science Foundation Advanced Technician Education program (NSF ATE) project, we aimed to explore factors that would strengthen the rural IT employee workforce and improve educational support related to broadband, telecommunications, and networks in rural settings. Using multiple methods to triangulate rural IT program curricula…