As interest in recruiting adult learners grows, community colleges face stiff competition from for-profit and four-year institutions. Despite this increased competition, community colleges offer career-relevant education that should appeal to students seeking to start, advance, or change careers.
This toolkit—a supplement to our related study—will help you recruit adult learners by removing enrollment barriers and aligning program offerings with students’ career goals.
The toolkit contains tips, guides, templates, and more. Each tool falls into one of four distinct categories:
- Promoting use of tuition reimbursement
- Facilitating prior learning assessment
- Identifying career paths for prospective students
- Matching job seekers to employers
Click on each category to learn more about the specific tools. You can either download the full toolkit or each tool individually.
Promoting use of tuition reimbursement
Tool 1: Tuition Deferral Promissory Note Template
Many students choose not to take advantage of their employer’s tuition reimbursement policy because they cannot afford to pay for courses before their employer reimburses them. Colleges can remove this financial barrier by allowing students to defer payment for courses until after the term ends. This tool provides sample language for students who intend to defer payment on courses.
Tool 2: Employer-Based Advisor Site Selection Scorecard
Select colleges have placed on-site advisors with key employer partners to help their workers enroll in college. Not all employers are equally attractive candidates to host on-site advisors. The following scorecard allows community colleges to compare the revenue potential and feasibility of placing an advisor with various potential employers.
Facilitating prior learning assessment
Tool 3: Prior Learning Assessment Taxonomy
Prior learning assessment (PLA) awards credit to individuals who demonstrate mastery of college-level content. This tool outlines the key characteristics of various forms of PLA. With modifications to reflect institution-specific policies, college administrators can adapt this chart into a resource that allows incoming students to self-select the form of PLA that best aligns with their experience and goals.
Tool 4: Credit Crosswalk Suitability Diagnostic
To streamline prior learning assessment for incoming students, colleges can create crosswalks that map an employer’s in-house training curriculum to college credits. This diagnostic assesses the viability of mapping a given employer’s in-house training curriculum to college credits.
Identifying career paths for prospective students
Tool 5: Sample Career Boot Camp Agenda A career boot camp allows college administrators to demonstrate the value of retraining to unemployed and underemployed workers. Boot camp participants should leave with the knowledge to explore, evaluate, and pursue their career goals. This tool describes the essential components of the career boot camp; college administrators may adapt the scale and duration of each session as necessary.
Tool 6: Career Boot Camp Teaching Guide Colleges host career boot camps to help unemployed and underemployed adults select a career path and identify relevant retraining opportunities. This teaching guide proposes activities and assignments to help unemployed workers explore careers that match their personality traits and values.
Tool 7: Career Assessment Vendor Comparison During boot camps, participants often complete a career assessment to better understand how their strengths and interests align with potential occupations. This tool introduces four career assessment vendors and presents criteria to evaluate vendors for alignment with college priorities.
Matching job seekers to employers
Tool 8: Speed Interviewing Event Launch Worksheet A speed interviewing event allows each student graduating from a given program to have first-round interviews with multiple employers. This checklist outlines key tasks and discussion items to prepare employers and students for on-campus interviewing events.
Tool 9: Speed Interviewing Outreach Template Despite the benefits to employers, human resources managers may demonstrate initial skepticism when asked to participate in a speed interviewing event because of the unfamiliar format. This worksheet helps college administrators increase employers’ willingness to participate by strengthening the initial outreach email.
Tool 10: Professional Skills Evaluation Rubric Many short-term training programs seek to prepare students with the professional skills required for employment (e.g., dependability, accountability). This rubric organizes these skills into a concrete format that all stakeholders can comprehend. Not only does a standardized rubric help students understand class expectations, but it also helps instructors evaluate students’ skills according to pre-established criteria.
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