Get a good education without massive debt, and enter a fieldthat's actually hiring In coming years, millions of great jobs will be opening up ingrowth areas like advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, healthcare, information technology, and sustainable energy. These jobscan pay as well as, or much better than, the average income forfour-year college graduates. They generally offer high levels ofday-to-day satisfaction. And the path to all of them begins in thecommunity colleges. In The Community College Career Track,Tom Snyder gives young people and their parents, as well asmid-life career changers, a practical, inspiring guide to takingthat path and completing it successfully. The old model of a bachelor's degree leading to a good job andcareer has broken down for large numbers of young people, many ofwhom graduate college only to work in a career that doesn't requirea degree. Meanwhile, millions of productive American white collarand blue-collar workers have been laid off and need retraining forsecond careers. This book helps you find a new way forward. Offers insights on how to save money over a lifetime through anaffordable college education that provides high-paying jobs Author Tom Snyder is the president of Ivy Tech CommunityCollege, Indiana's statewide community college system and thelargest singly accredited community college system in thecountry Author Tom Snyder has confronted the education-jobs mismatchfrom both sides, first as a highly successful business executiveand now as an award-winning educator. Follow his efficient,affordable, and rewarding path to a great career and a satisfyinglife.

If you're a stay-at-home mom considering going back to work, these are some of the questions that have likely come to mind. Returning to the workforce can be a daunting prospect. It requires reigniting old contacts (including those with coworkers once your junior), marketing yourself strategically, and building confidence-whether you've been out of the workforce for two, six, or fifteen years. Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin understand, because they've been there. As Harvard MBAs who successfully relaunched their own careers after staying home full-time with their children, they know it can be done-with careful planning, strategizing, and creativity. Now, in BACK ON THE CAREER TRACK, they offer a prescriptive, seven-step program that includes: · Assessing career options and updating job skills · Networking and preparing for interviews · Getting the family on board. Packed with expert advice from career counselors and recruiters, and insightful stories from others who have been through the process, this book also offers an inside look at what employers and universities are doing to help relaunchers today-including how many businesses are recognizing them as valuable assets. As frequent speakers to women's groups, professional schools, and corporations, Cohen and Rabin provide a thorough, unique program from two experts on the topic of career reentry. BACK ON THE CAREER TRACK is sure to become the classic guide in the field.

"Collection of essays reprinted from The Chronicle of Higher Education's "Two-Year Track column." Presents sound, insider advice on building a career as a community college instructor or administrator"--Provided by publisher.

Today, community college students are tasked with making high-stakes decisions about their major and career paths in a very complex and confusing decision-making environment, often without adequate labor market knowledge and career guidance which can have a direct impact on their future earnings, employment, and mental health (Baker, Bettinger, & Marinescu, 2018; Scott-Clayton, 2015; Rosenbaum, Deil-Amen & Person, 2006; Wolniak et al, 2008). This study utilized a mediated-action approach (Penuel & Wertsch, 1995) to examine the career development and decision-making processes of community college students. Researching the action of choosing a major and career path, rather than the individual making the decision, enabled the researcher to foreground structural and contextual affordances and barriers and provided a window into how students construct coherence (Erickson, 1968) in a complex decision-making environment (Baker et al., 2018). For the participants in this study, making a decision about their major and career path required navigating a dynamic and shifting labor market (Fouad & Bynner, 2009), a complex ecosystem of postsecondary credentials (Carnevale, Garcia, & Gulish, 2017), and various contextual and structural affordances, barriers, and constraints (Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016). For many participants, this complexity was confounded by a lack of labor market knowledge and knowhow (Baker et al., 2018); sociopolitical barriers and previous schooling experiences (Diemer, 2009; Duffy et al., 2016); efforts to balance peers, family obligations, and work (Saenz et al., 2018); and experiences in classes, especially math and science, that impacted their self-efficacy and outcome expectations (Baker et al., 2018; Lent & Brown, 2013; Lent, Hackett, & Brown, 2000). The findings of this study suggest that community college students need: (a) access to labor market knowledge and knowhow; (b) differentiated career guidance and career exploration opportunities; (c) career guidance that extends into the classroom and is contextualized in disciplinary learning; (d) opportunities to explore and cultivate their sociopolitical development across career fields; (e) career guidance focused on developing their career adaptability; and (f) emotional and psychological support to navigate the stress, anxiety, and uncertainty they report feeling throughout their career development and decision-making processes.

In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year—nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This fact has put pressure on community colleges to improve academic outcomes for their students. Redesigning America’s Community Colleges is a concise, evidence-based guide for educational leaders whose institutions typically receive short shrift in academic and policy discussions. It makes a compelling case that two-year colleges can substantially increase their rates of student success, if they are willing to rethink the ways in which they organize programs of study, support services, and instruction. Community colleges were originally designed to expand college enrollments at low cost, not to maximize completion of high-quality programs of study. The result was a cafeteria-style model in which students pick courses from a bewildering array of choices, with little guidance. The authors urge administrators and faculty to reject this traditional model in favor of “guided pathways”—clearer, more educationally coherent programs of study that simplify students’ choices without limiting their options and that enable them to complete credentials and advance to further education and the labor market more quickly and at less cost. Distilling a wealth of data amassed from the Community College Research Center (Teachers College, Columbia University), Redesigning America’s Community Colleges offers a fundamental redesign of the way two-year colleges operate, stressing the integration of services and instruction into more clearly structured programs of study that support every student’s goals.

With about four-fifths of incumbent community college presidents planning to retire within 10 years (Weisman and Vaughan 2002), leadership development is now an essential focus for community colleges. Successful colleges of the future will be the ones that today are cultivating new generations of leaders at all administrative levels. Community colleges must consider not only the presidency but the range of career positions including administrators, faculty, and staff. This research brief presents the results of a 2000 survey of community college senior administrators; the study examined career paths and backgrounds as well as the mechanisms administrators used to upgrade their skills and acquire additional knowledge and training. (Contains 14 figures.).

The only overview of research on the uniquely American community college system, which is increasingly becoming the site of entry for students seeking a higher education. This new volume shows why America's community colleges increasingly find themselves at the epicenter of social conflict, surrounded by unresolved questions such as: In a country based on the notion of equal opportunity, shouldn't all high school graduates have access to higher education? Are access and excellence really compatible? What is the real work of community colleges? Is it to provide transfer programs for students going on to baccalaureate colleges or training workers for careers in business and industry? In this comprehensive guide, readers will find not only a solid grounding in the latest research on these difficult questions but also a thoughtful analysis of the social forces that gave rise to American community colleges and still shape them today.