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Leaving No Worker Behind: Community Colleges Retrain the Michigan Workforce—and Themselves

In 2007, Michigan undertook a bold mission: to retrain tens of thousands of dislocated workers and other low-skilled adults so they can qualify for jobs in emerging and expanding sectors of the economy. Community colleges would train these workers while the state would cover up to $5,000 of their college and related expenses each year. By 2011, more than 150,000 adults had enrolled in NWLB-financed training, and 59 percent of participants eligible for federal workforce programs found a new job after completing their training.

Leaving No Worker Behind examines what five community colleges learned about catering to the needs of dislocated, jobless, and otherwise low-skilled adults. These lessons can help institutions and states nationwide as they too strive to serve this rapidly growing college population.