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The Agile Community College: Dynamic Labor Market Alignment in an AI-driven Economy

  • Writer: Project on Workforce Team
    Project on Workforce Team
  • Mar 4, 2024
  • 2 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Read our Playbook: The Agile Community College: Dynamic Labor Market Alignment in an AI-driven Economy 













On Thursday, August 27th from 1-2pm ET, the Harvard Project on Workforce and Education Design Lab will host a discussion on how community colleges can position their workforce programs to meet employer and learner needs and shape inclusive regional economies in the genAI era. The webinar will feature members of the research and design team, along with leaders from participating community colleges who will share lessons learned from the project and examples from their own institution. 






Project Overview


The Project on Workforce collaborated with Education Design Lab’s (EDL) Community College Growth Engine on a two+ year research and design project focused on understanding and improving the use of data and technology to support program development and student workforce outcomes.


The first phase of the project produced case studies of four community colleges that are leveraging real-time labor market data and new technologies in innovative ways: Community College of Aurora (CCA) in Colorado, Riverland College in Minnesota, Hudson County Community College in New Jersey, and South Texas College. 


The second phase of the project consisted of “design sprints,” during which EDL supported CCA, Riverland, Hudson, and Victoria College in Texas in leveraging insights and recommendations from the case studies to build microcredential pathways that lead to high-paying, high-demand jobs in their regions. 


In this third and final phase, our playbook translates those case and design sprint learnings, in addition to insights from convenings of more than 100 community college leaders (read the event recap for 2024 and 2025) and additional interviews and literature reviews, into lessons for community colleges across the country. 


The Project on Workforce Team:

Joe Fuller

Kerry McKittrick

Amanda Holloway

Nathania Silalahi


The Education Design Lab Team:

Lisa Larson 

Rachel Khan 

Joe Davis

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