The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify the critical factors of professional instruction that positively influence employee engagement. The setting for this study was a 7,500-student, two-year college and career training institutional district that is located in the midwestern region of the United States. The research sample for…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore, understand, and document former students' perceptions of the vocationally focused theater training they received at a 2-year community college and to discover how that training helped them meet their goals and expectations for careers in the theater. Listening to individual stories of theater…

About 60 percent of polled U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 plan to attend a four-year college, with another 12 percent indicating they plan to attend a two-year college, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. Others plan to work full time, join the military or attend a technical/vocational school, but 13 percent said they weren't sure what…

The announcement that Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn will bring 13,000 jobs to Wisconsin and partner with Gateway Technical College is great news for the state's community and technical colleges and their students, but it's not particularly surprising. The state's two-year colleges have been notching all sorts of workforce development…

Culinary Arts training at the associates level presents a set of challenges to the instructor. It has been my experience that as the work environment is changing, students face new challenges in the kitchen, including a new mix of skills, both technical and social in nature. In this piece, I reflect on a promising learning community model at our…

Objective: Some have hypothesized that community college programs are not sufficiently structured to support student success and that students would benefit from more highly structured programs. This study examines the specific ways that structure is expressed in policy and practice at representative community colleges. Method: Using data obtained…

In this study, the authors focus on the initiation and development of the Alamo Academies, aiming to illustrate an exemplary industry-driven model that addresses workforce development in local community. After a brief introduction of the context, the authors summarized major factors that contribute to the success of the collaboration model,…

Many things have not changed since Esther Hugo's 2006 article on community colleges. For the most part, "open-door" means just that: "apply and you're in." The lenses community colleges use to see students are still complex; the purposes of community colleges are still many. Students of all ages come for transfer, career and vocational training,…

The experience of technology change pervades people's lives. Sometimes it comes in the guise of a new smart phone, e-reader, or patch for a leaky artery. Other times, it appears as a new way to track packages, connect with others through social networks, or find one's way around an unfamiliar place. Or it reveals itself as a new surgical…

As lifelong learning and workforce education grow increasingly more important in American life, the mission of community colleges is shifting more and more toward continuing education, certificate training, and workforce training. The lack of a standard set of indicators has led to a variety of approaches to the assessment of noncredit workforce…

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) collects information on seniors' academic and career plans after graduation in the form of a postsecondary plan. The information collected consists of several categories, including attending a four-year college/university, attending a two-year/ community college, attending a vocational/technical…

Michael Fields is a recent graduate of Buckeye Union High School in Buckeye, Arizona. Fields is enrolled in the Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC) Get Into Energy program, which means he is well on his way to a promising career. Specializing in power plant technology, in two years he will earn a certificate that will all but guarantee a…

This study explored whether community college websites are a useful medium for providing knowledge relevant to degree completion. Ten community students used one of three community college websites to answer 10 questions about occupational degree programs. A facilitator asked participants to think aloud while using the website to answer these…

Because of its diversity, the BC post-secondary system offers many routes to credential completion. However, to capture the dynamics of institutional attendance requires a long view of individuals' journeys through the various post-secondary institutions over time. In this report, the authors employ data from the "Paths on Life's Way"…

This document is one of two appendices to the 2012 National Student Satisfaction and Priorities Report. These appendices focus on the Student Satisfaction Inventory Form A and Institutional Priorities Survey results for: (1) Community, junior, and technical colleges; and (2) Career and private schools. The data for four-year private and four-year…