As the economy’s prolonged slump continues, it’s become all the more important for educational institutions to demonstrate their worth to their communities. Community colleges play an especially vital role in the economic development of their service regions. This has been shown time and again, but two recent articles serve as a healthy reminder:

South Plains College [...]

If you follow media reports these days, chances are you’re going to hear or read about companies that are downsizing. But there is actual hiring going on. Here’s a list compiled by CNNMoney.com, which details the openings at corporations such as Cisco Systems and T-Mobile.
All the companies in the breakdown are included under the “100 [...]

The bleak start to 2009 for the labor market continued today with several major companies — from a wide range of industries — announcing big cutbacks to their workforce. Among U.S. corporations, the layoffs amounted to 45,000.
The most significant reduction came from heavy-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc., which says it will trim 20,000 jobs worldwide. Sprint [...]

With the souring of the national economy, community colleges are seeing booming enrollment levels across the board. At the same time, however, states are putting higher education budgets on the chopping block.
For a detailed look at the dilemma many CC’s are facing, here’s a report from The Chronicle for Higher Education.
The downturn in the economy [...]

With an estimated $141 billion of the Obama administration’s proposed economic stimulus package targeted for education, a U.S. News & World Report blog has compiled a detailed listing of where the money might be directed.
Federal legislators call this part of the stimulus “Education for the 21st Century.” Here are excerpts from their breakdown:
School Construction: $20 [...]

Hilda Solis, a Democratic representative from California and the Obama administration’s choice to be the new head of the Department of Labor, has a background as a community college trustee and a backer of investment into green collar jobs.
Solis entered public life in 1985 when she was elected to the board of trustees of Rio [...]

With more details coming out almost daily on the Obama administration’s proposed economic stimulus plan, the creation of green jobs has become a hot-button issue. But even before the need arose to jolt the economy out a major downturn, Tennessee was positioning itself to become a big-time player in the alternative energy industry. The state [...]

For all those communities struggling to cope in this tough economic landscape, here’s a model of how to reshape your future. This New York Times profile of Pittsburgh, which is thriving in comparison to many industrial centers, shows the value of taking a proactive approach to economic and workforce development. Stakeholders in the Pittsburgh area [...]

Aimee Cook
Director, Institutional Research
Illinois Central College
East Peoria, Illinois
With help from EMSI’s labor market analysis, Illinois Central College has been successful in developing programs to train for emergency management specialists and electrical power line installers and repairers. Aimee Cook, the director of institutional research at ICC, used EMSI’s Strategic Advantage web-based suite of tools to show [...]