Moving From Insights to Action

As community colleges begin playing an increasingly important role in advancing economic mobility, it’s essential that they engage in ongoing efforts to improve the programs and services they offer. Using LMI to align programs of study with local labor market trends and the needs of employers and workers is one step community colleges can take to improve learners’ opportunities to access and succeed in high-wage, high-growth jobs.

Community college leaders can incorporate the use of LMI into their ongoing strategic planning processes and use the insights they glean from the data to guide their efforts to forge strategic partnerships with employers and other workforce development leaders. And faculty members can use LMI to inform their instruction; they could update their course content and lesson plans annually to reflect the latest workforce trends and ensure that learners gain the knowledge, skills, and hands-on experience they need to succeed in well-paid jobs in growing fields.

In addition to using LMI to guide strategic planning, it’s equally important for community college leaders to holistically support learners throughout their journeys of learning and work—from their transitions from high school into postsecondary education and during their entry into the labor market—to ensure that they’re in a position to achieve economic mobility. We will share effective approaches to providing that support in a forthcoming blog and playbook for postsecondary leaders.