By Dr. Sunita “Sunny” Cooke
Superintendent/President
MiraCosta College

Some people come to MiraCosta College to earn a degree. Others come here because of our success in sending students to top four-year colleges and universities throughout the nation. And today, more and more people are enrolling at MiraCosta College for yet another reason: state-of-the-art career and technical courses that can help them embark into a new profession or build the skills needed to stay current on advances at their current jobs.

In fact, a new state study shows that students who take career technical education courses at a community college to add to their job skills will see a median gain of 13.6 percent in their pay – or $4,300 annually.

Yet, for too long, students who attend community colleges for classes to improve their professional skills have not been counted as successes in state and federal accountability systems because they did not earn a certificate or transfer to a four-year university. Thanks in large part to the California Community College’s Strong Workforce Task Force, which I was honored to chair, that outdated view is changing.

A new category to define these students, who are dubbed ‘skills builders’, is being added to the California Community Colleges’ Student Success Scorecard, an online tool allowing anyone to track the effectiveness of all 113 community colleges in the state. Skills builders include students who tend to be older and take just one or two career technical education courses. Many of these students have already earned degrees or certificates. And in 2012-13, some 86,000 students falling into the skills builders cohort saw a median wage gain of nearly 14 percent, of $4,300, from the period one year prior to taking a career educational course and one year after finishing the course.

At MiraCosta College, those taking skills building courses in child development administration and management realized a median gain of 32.6 percent in pay. Those taking skills building courses in hospitality saw a median gain of 18.2 percent in pay. And those taking skills building courses in medical office technology saw a median gain of 12.5 percent in pay.

Altogether, skills builders realized a $500 million boost in wages statewide.

“These students come to us seeking to keep their skills current or move ahead in their careers and after finishing a few courses reap significant rewards,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice Harris. “We finally have a way to measure these successes and demonstrate the tremendous return on investment that these courses provide.”

California Community Colleges lead the nation in providing postsecondary career technical education and training. And at MiraCosta College, where we celebrated the opening last spring of a new Technology Career Institute in a city-owned building in Carlsbad, we are helping growing numbers of displaced workers to get training in areas ranging from high-tech manufacturing to maritime technology.

For too long, career and technical education has not been viewed as a priority of the California Community Colleges system and has not commanded the attention or resources to meet the needs of students and regional labor markets. That is now changing, as today’s students and incumbent workers rely on a community college education to obtain the skills needed to be competitive and keep pace with a rapidly changing workplace.