Careers: Six-figure Jobs

College students learn plenty in the years they spend on campus. But do the lessons learned at school prepare them for professional life after their studies? Maybe not, according to at least one community college, which has plans to give their students a healthy dose of work readiness skills at the same time they are earning their degree.

Workplace Readiness Certificates

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College has provided students with many of the skills necessary to land jobs in the local workforce. Next year, the school will offer a new type of certification – a workplace readiness certificate. Students will earn this certificate by demonstrating “soft skills” that employers tend to look for as well, such as punctuality, teamwork, and time management. According to Inside Higher Ed, those skills will also begin to play a role in the grades students earn in some of their classes at the college.

The North Carolina school is leaving nothing to chance as it prepares faculty to evaluate students for the skills employers are looking for. The school has designed a template to assist professors in assessing primary workplace skills, including:

• Communication – use of oral and written skills to clearly communicate thoughts and ideas
• Effort – demonstration of strong work ethic and preparedness for assignments
• Quality of Work – applicable to classroom work and academic performance
• Attendance – ability to manage oneself
• Time Management – punctuality, preparedness, handing in assignments on time
• Professionalism – image put forth by students in terms of actions,

The pandemic and post-pandemic era is the time for mid-life career changers making their career moves. Whether due to outsourcing, layoffs or dissatisfaction with their current positions and compensation, people are quitting their old careers. With many more adults deciding to venture into the hallowed halls of higher education today, those who do may find programs geared specifically to their needs. This is particularly true in community colleges, where more than half of the student body may be adults over the age of 22. However, before you launch a career change at your local community college, there are a few tips to keep in mind.

Define Your Goals

Carefully plotting your path is the first step to a successful community college experience, according to Career Search. When embarking on this process, it is important to consider your educational goals, as well as your professional ones. What classes do you need to take, and what degree do you need to earn to make your professional dreams a reality? This information is essential when you choose a school and register for classes, so have the goals in mind before you begin the process.

Jay Shetty suggests that you ask yourself three questions to help set goals.

Weigh Your Options

Community colleges offer a wealth of degree options today, allowing students to hone their career path to a very precise track that brings

Getting kids to college is only a part of the equation regarding higher education. Whether a student enrolls in a community college or a four-year school, the goal is to get that student to leave the institution with a degree firmly in hand. Unfortunately, that event does not occur nearly as often as educators would like. As the quest to improve college completion rates kicks into high gear, a task force in Ohio has some recommendations for schools looking to get more of their students on the path to graduation.

About the Complete College Ohio Task Force

College completion rates in the state of Ohio are some of the lowest in the country, with Ohio ranking 38^th on the spectrum of graduating college students, according to the Ohio Higher Ed website. To determine why completion rates are so low – and what can be done to improve them – the Ohio Board of Regents partnered with the university system in the state, which includes community colleges, adult education centers, and four-year institutions.

The newly formed Complete College Ohio Task Force was responsible for studying the reasons behind the dismal graduation rates. The committee then put forth a list of recommendations to improve those rates. While the recommendations were specifically for Ohio colleges, the recommendations are equally relevant for other colleges nationwide.

When the task force began their work, the Ohio Higher Ed website reports that the group was divided into three subsets: Ready for College,

The community college has traditionally been seen as a second-rate postsecondary education – the 13^th grade, according to some high school seniors. However, numerous changes to the system and the economy have dramatically altered the ways these institutions are viewed today. Students are now using community colleges as viable stepping stones for four-year degrees or rewarding careers. Even students that have earned their baccalaureate are returning to community college to pursue practical career training. Statistics appear to be supporting the idea that community college has become an accepted mode of higher education used to help students reach their goals.

This video offers transfer advice for community college students.

Studies Support Community College Start

The Cavalier Daily reports on recent findings from the National Student Clearinghouse involving four-year completion rates for community college students. The results showed the majority of students who transferred from a community college to a four-year school finished their baccalaureate degree. This negates previous concerns that community college students were less apt to succeed in their pursuit of four-year degrees.

According to Inside Higher Ed, the National Student Clearinghouse found that 60 percent of community college students who transferred to four-year schools earned a bachelor's degree within those four years. Students that earned their associate degree prior to transfer performed even better, with 71 percent earning a four-year degree during that same time frame. Additional community