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MONTANA COMMUNITY COLLEGE WORKFORCE EDUCATION STUDY In late 2020, Montana two-year campuses participated in a national study of community college workforce education. Montana was one of 14 states where education authorities volunteered to encourage colleges to respond early enough in 2020 to receive preliminary statewide results in January 2021. This brief compares Montana to the 14 states in this early-responder group. The goal of the study: to explore the innovation under way at community colleges across the US and highlight what these institutions are doing to put Americans to work as the nation recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. Early responders Credit and noncredit enrollment Percentage of students in credit & noncredit programs Community colleges report abundant information Montana two-year 63% 37% about students enrolled in credit-eligible programs. campuses Much less is known about learners enrolled in Credit Noncredit institutions’ noncredit divisions. This study begins to All early-responder 72% 28% address that gap, with a special focus on two-year states colleges’ noncredit workforce education programs Credit Noncredit and relationships with employers. In 2019, 63 percent of Montana students on two-year campuses were enrolled in credit-eligible programs; 37 percent were enrolled in noncredit programs. This is a somewhat larger share than the average across all early-responder states, where 28 percent of students were enrolled in noncredit programs. Noncredit programs Noncredit programs may include customized contract training provided for specific employers, occupational education programs open to all qualified students, remedial education, English as a second language and personal interest courses, among other types of instruction. In 2019, 20 percent of Montana noncredit students on two-year campuses were enrolled in occupational programs open to all qualified students – a significantly smaller share than the average in all early- responder states. Montana two-year campuses All early-responder states Occupational programs open to all qualified students 10% 20% Customized contract training 17% 5% ABE/ESL/remedial education 42% 1% 74% Recreational or personal interest 16% courses 16% Other Noncredit workforce education Credentials earned in noncredit occupational education programs Students who complete noncredit workforce programs generally earn a credential of some kind, sometimes several credentials. In Montana, 49 percent of students who completed noncredit workforce programs earned industry certifications – a larger share than the average in all early-responder states. Percentage of program completers who earned credentials The round dots in this figure show the average percentage. The lines show the minimum and maximum percentages across participating colleges. Montana two-yearcampuses All early-responder states 1% 63% 100% Noncreditcertificate 0% 55% 100% 0% 49% 100% Industrycertification 0% 36% 100% 0% 7% 26% Other third-partycertificationsuch as governmentcertification orlicensure 0% 23% 100% 2 Embedding industry certifications Unlike traditional academic credentials, which signal that students have attended and completed a course of study, industry certifications signal what learners know and what job-related tasks they can perform – occupation-specific knowledge and skills measured by tests developed by industry groups. Percentage of Montana two-year campuses that embed certifications in credit & noncredit programs Credit programs Noncredit programs Program prepares learners for the assessment but 17% 67% 17% 20% 80% does not require it 33% 50% 17% Require an assessment to complete the 20% 80% program None Half of programs or less More th a n half of programs Funding Montana two-year campuses look to a variety of sources to provide funding for noncredit occupational education, with 56 percent coming from students paying for tuition out of pocket. Funding sources The round dots in this figure show the average percentage. The lines show the minimum and maximum percentages across participating colleges. Montana two-yearcampuses All early-responder states Formula-basedstate funding 0%0% 2% andstate grants 0% 16% 73% 0% 5% 25% WorkforceInnovation andOpportunity Act (WIOA) funding 0% 8% 50% 0% 9% 40% Employer-paid 0% 18% 100% 0% 56% 100% Self-pay 0% 42% 100% 0% 29% 100% Other 0% 16% 100% 3 Quality assurance Montana two-year campuses use a variety of strategies to ensure the quality of noncredit occupational programs. Some 80 percent of two-year institutions in the state said they use local employer input or regional labor market information to design or revise programs, and 100 percent report that students earn industry certifications or licensure. How community colleges ensure the quality of noncredit programs 100% 96% 91% 80% 64% 60% 25% 20% Programs are designed or revised Students earn industry Programs meet WIOA or Perkins Institution tracks post-completion regularly based on labor market certifications or licensure standards or are approved by the employment outcomes information or input from employers state workforce board Percentage of Montana two-year campuses Percentage of community colleges from all early-responder states Leveraging noncredit learning for college credit One-fifth of Montana two-year campuses report that noncredit students who later enroll in credit- eligible programs can leverage most or all of what they learned in a noncredit program for college credit ‘most of the time’ – comparable to the share at community colleges across all early-responder states. Colleges where noncredit occupational students who later enroll in credit-eligible programs can leverage what they learned for college credit 45% 40% 20% 20% 21% 20% 20% 12% 0% 2% Never Rarely Sometimes Most of the time Always Percentage of Montana two-year campuses Percentage of community colleges from all early-responder states Demographics Many community colleges do not track demographic data for noncredit workforce students. In Montana, there are no data available on noncredit workforce students’ race and ethnicity. Across all 14 early- responder states, information of this kind is available for 68 percent of noncredit workforce students. 4 Employer engagement Employers collaborate with community colleges in a wide variety of ways, from offering occasional labor market advice to partnering actively to design and provide instruction. Employers offering customized contract Employers offering work-based learning, including training internships, apprenticeships and co-ops 2% Percentage of employer partners at Montana 44% two-year campuses More about this study Ten Montana two-year campuses were invited to participate in this study in October 2020, and seven responded by December 10, 2020, for a 70 percent response rate. This brief reflects the responses provided by participating colleges only and may not be representative of all two-year campuses in the state. Montana data were compared with data from 127 community colleges in 14 early responder states. All questions in the study asked about fiscal year 2019. Participating colleges could pass over questions they were unable to answer; missing responses were excluded from calculated percentages. As postsecondary workforce education evolves, so does the language used to describe it, and different educators in different states often use different terminology. The language used in this study represents an effort to find common ground but may not conform exactly with the terminology used in every state. The survey is still being administered in some parts of the country and is still open to Montana two-year institutions that have not yet responded. For more information about this report, please contact Nicole MartinRogers at Wilder Research, 651-280-2682 or [email protected]. Authors: Nicole MartinRogers, Edith Gozali-Lee and Julia Miller JANUARY 2021