Aligning Community Colleges to Their Local Labor Markets: The Emerging Role of Online Job Ads...

"For students earning a credential, getting a job in their community is the ultimate goal. Long-time Joyce Employment Program grantee Jobs for the Future is helping community colleges understand area demands for credentials through the Joyce-supported Credentials that Work program. Community colleges participating in the program collect real-time labor market information, helping to ensure that students who complete training programs will be in demand from local employers. By analyzing data about current and projected job openings and using software to aggregate job openings, real-time labor market data assists community colleges in adapting programs to meet an area company’s current and near future skills needs. Real-time labor market data is a recent development and its use in postsecondary curriculum development is promising, so Credentials that Work is reviewing the different technologies available to determine what tools provide the most accurate picture of a region’s job openings. The initiative is also evaluating how these new tools can supplement traditional sources of labor market data and how states can encourage their schools to use real-time data" (Abstract). (Abstractor: Author)

Full publication title: Aligning Community Colleges to Their Local Labor Markets: The Emerging Role of Online Job Ads for Providing Real-Time Intelligence About Occupations and Skills in Demand

• Community colleges can use emerging technologies to collect and analyze online job posting information to retrieve real-time intelligence about the occupational and skills demands in their local labor markets. • Approaches that combine both real-time and traditional labor market information can develop new analytical methods that reveal workforce shortages or surpluses for high demand jobs and occupations. • Data that is collected from online job postings are “best used to complement—not replace—other ways that community colleges can identify labor market needs" (p.21). • Community colleges should take a comprehensive approach in analyzing their local markets to “tailor programs and course content to their markets and ensure that students are prepared to build marketable skills for growing careers” (p.21). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Altstadt, David
• Organizational Author(s): Jobs for the Future; Credentials That Work
• Funding Source: Joyce Foundation, Lumina Foundation
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies