New Report Offers Guidance for New York’s Community Colleges Navigating Post-Pandemic Labor Market

To train tomorrow’s workforce and support economic recovery, New York’s community colleges must offer programs aligned with the changing labor market

NEW YORK, NY – With some workers losing jobs and others seeking better opportunities that require new skills, New York City’s been particularly affected by the distorted post-pandemic labor market, especially as automation and business restructuring continue to transform the city's economy; today, though the city is rebounding at about the same pace as the rest of the U.S., its unemployment rate of 8.8 percent is still more than twice as high as the national average. But America’s 1,100 community and technical colleges are uniquely positioned to meet the growing need for human capital development—and in New York, the state’s two-year public colleges could be of particular advantage as the Empire State looks to bounce back.

A new Manhattan Institute report from Tamar Jacoby, president of Opportunity America, marshals a body of evidence from two of her organization's recent studies—a national survey of community colleges and an in-depth exploration of workforce education at the City University of New York (CUNY)— to assess New York colleges. Based on her findings, Jacoby charts a path forward to provide the job training the state is likely to need in years ahead. 

Jacoby finds that institutions and outcomes vary widely across the state. Schools fall into three broad categories, each governed and funded separately: 10 associate-degree-granting CUNY colleges, 30 two-year schools overseen by the State University of New York (SUNY), and some two dozen postsecondary vocational education programs—mostly diploma nursing schools—offered by Boards of Cooperative Educational Service (BOCES) districts. Her Opportunity America community college survey allows for many different kinds of comparisons of these schools, among New York schools and between New York and other states. Among the most revealing: the types of programs offered, student demographics, engagement with employers, the integration of credit and noncredit learning, and findings on funding. 

Jacoby recommends a few critical areas where innovation—in Albany, at City Hall, or at the campus level—could pay off for job-focused learners and, ultimately, New York’s economy: 

·        Leadership: Jacoby suggests local college boards seek out leaders committed to job-focused instruction, credit and noncredit learning, midcareer adult students, and expanding the mission of higher education to put more of a premium for all learners on employment outcomes and career success;

·        Industry certifications: Jacoby offers a roadmap for advancing broader uptake of industry certifications, in order to ensure that job training is aligned with labor-market demand;

·        Blurring the line between credit and noncredit: in replication of an approach pioneered in Rochester, Jacoby recommends campuses bring credit and noncredit workforce education under one roof; and

·        Funding: Even as hope for federal and state-level funding languishes, Jacoby suggests New York City should create a fund to cover stipends for noncredit learners enrolled in programs leading to high-paying jobs in high-growth New York industries. 

Click here to read the full report.