Episode 40: Transforming Workforce Development through Community Colleges, feat. Julian L. Alssid, Chief Marketplace Engagement Officer, Unmudl

The pandemic transformed educational experiences for everyone. School-age children had to learn online, while their parents tried to balance new homeschooling responsibilities along with work. Higher education institutions tried, some with more success than others, to recreate campus connections virtually.

While it did accelerate the trend toward online education, the pandemic also revealed many of the glaring inadequacies of our current educational system. Socioeconomic disparities, inequitable access to technology, and external job and family pressures can all have a negative impact on the higher education experience. However, the pandemic also revealed how important community colleges are for providing affordable, flexible access to education for fresh high school graduates and working adults.

Julian L. Alssid, Chief Marketplace Engagement Officer at Unmudl, joins podcast host Kiran Kodithala on this episode of the Illuminate Higher Education podcast to discuss how community colleges are evolving to meet students’ changing needs.

For the past thirty years, Julian has been at the forefront of education and workforce development innovation. He focuses on advancing education and careers for low-wage workers while growing the economy. For example, he helped Southern New Hampshire University to design and establish College for America (CfA), a groundbreaking model which partners with employers to offer project-centered, competency-based education to working learners. In just three years, CfA went from the drawing board to serving over 7,000 students through its affordable certificate and degree programs.

Julian has led transformations like this in several community colleges, as well as serving as a consultant and speaking and writing regularly on the topic of workforce development.

For a brief overview of their conversation, read the Q&A below. Then listen to the full podcast episode for all the details.

Q: What is Unmudl? How does it work?

We already know that the high cost, rigidity, and uncertain ROI of traditional higher education models no longer meet the needs of a vast majority of students. Our work is helping drive a more economical, transparent, and flexible learning experience that aligns students’ educational outcomes with employers’ needs.

We focus on what we call working learners, individuals who need to develop skills or earn new certifications to advance their careers but are already balancing work and family obligations. These students cannot attend full-time, and the traditional on-campus experience does not align with their day-to-day lives.

Supporting these students is more critical than ever as the pandemic drags on. This sudden disruption took its toll on higher education. Consider a few data points from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC)*:

• After remaining stable for the past four years, the overall persistence rate dropped two percentage points to 73.9% percent for fall 2019 beginning college students, its lowest level since 2012.

• Community colleges showed the steepest persistence rate decline over last year of all institution sectors (down 3.5 percentage points to 58.5%).

• Retention rates declined the most in the community college sector (down 2.1 percentage points to 51.6%) whereas the rates went up in the public four-year college sector (+0.7 percentage points to 76.3%).

• The overall first-year persistence rate fell the most among Latinx students (-3.2 percentage points to 68.6%).

We need to make it easier for learners to move forward. That’s where Unmudl comes in. Students need multiple pathways for learning and employment. They need to know that their new credentials will land them a job. Unmudl helps them do that by evaluating course offerings from several institutions and making enrollment available through an online marketplace. We handle the back end, from streamlining the registration process to handling tuition payments.

Perhaps most importantly, we are 100% transparent about which employers have hired students from each course. Students know from the beginning that they will have options.

Q: What is the biggest challenge facing community colleges today?

Community colleges are facing a crisis in identity. Depending on the college, some have been treated as transfer institutions. For lower-income and lower-performing students, they serve as gateways to bigger four-year colleges. Other community colleges are considered strictly vocational schools, designed for students to earn certifications in a variety of trades and move immediately into the workforce.

However, there is a growing recognition that community colleges are a critical component of higher education. The economy is transforming, and employers require an entirely new kind of workforce. About a third of the jobs projected by 2010 will not require a bachelor’s degree. Many tech jobs already don’t. 85% of the jobs projected to be created by Biden’s infrastructure program will require training credentials delivered by community colleges. The simple fact is that the economy needs community colleges to develop a more diverse, skilled talent pool that companies need to stay viable during and beyond the pandemic.

Q: What are some of your predictions for the future of higher education? What trends do you think we will see?

I recognize and believe strongly that workforce development is a multidisciplinary undertaking. We need to find effective ways to connect education to workforce and economic development policies and practices. In recent years, I have been frustrated by the boutique nature of these outcomes. Many are grant-funded and they come and go as funding runs out.

Many institutions are already prioritizing workforce development, but the level of collaboration between education institutions and employers will continue to become more robust. We know that a degree does not necessarily translate to applicable skills in the workplace, so we are changing our mindset around learning outcomes. We are moving beyond “How can I get a degree?” to “What does this degree offer me that employers need so that I know I can get a job?” In many ways, our online marketplace is not where students choose classes. It is where they choose which skills they need to build the career they want.

Listen to the full podcast episode for all the details.

After you listen, connect with Julian L. Alssid on LinkedIn or Twitter @JAlssid. Learn more about Unmudl by visiting Unmudl.com and following on LinkedIn or Twitter @Unmudl.

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This episode is brought to you by N2N’s Illuminate App, the iPaaS for Higher Education.

About N2N Services

Founded in 2010, N2N is committed to serving educational institutions and helping them figure out how to serve their students, faculty, and staff using the most innovative technologies and solutions available in the marketplace. Over the last decade, N2N has served over 300 academic institutions and enabled their student success journeys.

N2N Services Inc. is a leader in enterprise application integration and strategic advisory services for higher education, At N2N, we are committed to providing the highest quality solutions and collaboratively building student-centric solutions.

Learn more at https://illuminateapp.com/web/higher-education/.

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