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The community college-employer connection

Elizabeth Mann, a fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy in Governance Studies, discusses her work on the relationship between community colleges and employers and outlines how cooperation between the two can counter the skills gap in the American workforce.

Also in this episode: Scott W. Allard, a nonresident senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program, chronicles poverty in the suburbs in our regular ‘Metro Lens’ segment.

Show notes:

A toolkit for building successful community college-employer relationships

3 observations on Trump’s education budget

Preparing America’s labor force: Workforce development programs in public community colleges

National Center for Education and Statistics’ report: “Enrollment and Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2015; and Financial Statistics and Academic Libraries, Fiscal Year 2015” (NCES 2017)

Community College Research Center report: “Tracking Transfer: New Measures of Institutional and State Effectiveness in Helping Community College Students Attain Bachelor’s Degrees,” by Davis Jenkins & John Fink (2016)

American Association for Community Colleges’ Fast Facts 2017 Sheet

Community College Research Center at Teacher College Columbia, Frequently Asked Questions

Ways to listen to this episode:

Thanks to audio producer Gaston Reboredo with assistance from Mark Hoelscher, and to producer Vanessa Sauter.  Additional support comes from Jessica Pavone, Eric Abalahin, Rebecca Viser, and David Nassar.

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The Brookings Cafeteria is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

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