The 21st Century Community College

Aiming to help all community colleges unleash their
potential for workforce and economic development the
Office of Vocational and Adult Education of the U.S.
Department of Education sought to identify ways college
leaders can improve those programs and services that
most directly affect the ability of citizens to compete in
today’s increasingly demanding skill-based labor market,
and the ability of employers to compete in today’s
challenging global market. The result is this guidebook,
which has three major goals.

The first goal is to share up-to-date information on labor market
responsiveness. Based on contemporary research,
this guide explains what is meant by “labor market
responsiveness,” delineates factors associated with
becoming more responsive, and clarifies why labor
market responsiveness is so important to community
colleges in the 21st century.

The second goal is to offer practical guidance to
college administrators seeking to take actions
that will allow them to maximize their labor
market responsiveness. We believe college
leaders will be especially interested in learning how
their colleagues across the nation have endeavored
to make their colleges more responsive to labor
market conditions.

The third goal is to encourage community college
administrators to engage in a critical selfassessment
process. The guiding questions that
appear throughout the guidebook and the selfassessment
tools provided suggest a process that
will help college leaders and top officials to identify
gaps in programs and services as well as
opportunities for promoting action on campus.

This guidebook is directed to you, the top leadership
at community colleges as presidents, boards of
trustees, and the senior administrators and deans
responsible for the colleges’ missions and programs.
In turn, we expect that you will share portions of this
guide, or its entirety, with others—faculty, staff,
employers, economic development professionals,
and public officials. Involving the broader campus
and community in self-assessment and strategic
planning is an important step toward becoming
increasingly anticipatory of and responsive to local
and regional workforce development needs.