--- title: Community Colleges Help Students Get Jobs After Graduation description: Employers and community colleges must work together to provide the talent needed to expand opportunity and expand our economy canonical: https://time.com/4773148/community-college-jobs-graduation/ author: Mitch Daniels article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-22T18:42:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:44:45.764Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What Community Colleges Do That Universities Don’t og:description: They partner with businesses to ensure what students learn has value on the job og:url: https://time.com/4773148/community-college-jobs-graduation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc77d3f658155985/6988cde88fd2eecf8f3571e5/community-college-success.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: community-college-success og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Community Colleges Do That Universities Don’t twitter:description: They partner with businesses to ensure what students learn has value on the job twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc77d3f658155985/6988cde88fd2eecf8f3571e5/community-college-success.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Community Colleges Do That Universities Don’t > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=135b5b26-ac05-4596-aaae-322174cb75a5&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Job Prospects: Community College vs. a Bachelor's Degree [Watch (HLS stream): Job Prospects: Community College vs. a Bachelor's Degree](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EnfhXuiF.m3u8) (1:37)  _Published 2015-12-01. Jamie Merisotis of the Lumina Foundation talks about employment growth for students with 2-year and 4-year degrees._ by [Mitch Daniels](https://time.com/author/mitchell-e-daniels-jr/) and [Rep. George Miller](https://time.com/author/rep-george-miller/) May 22, 2017 6:42 PM UTC  Graduates, faculty and guest in the audience listen to President Barack Obama deliver the commencement address at Lake Area Technical Institute, Friday, May 8, 2015 in Watertown, SD. Graduates, faculty and guest in the audience listen to President Barack Obama deliver the commencement address at Lake Area Technical Institute, Friday, May 8, 2015 in Watertown, SD. Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP by [Mitch Daniels](https://time.com/author/mitchell-e-daniels-jr/) and [Rep. George Miller](https://time.com/author/rep-george-miller/) May 22, 2017 6:42 PM UTC In tiny Watertown, South Dakota — in the middle of America — one [community college](http://time.com/4078143/community-college-history/) is doing the unthinkable. Six months after graduation, [99% of students](http://highered.aspeninstitute.org/aspen-prize-program/lake-area-technical-institute/) from Lake Area Technical Institute (LATI) are employed or continuing their education. After five years, graduates earn wages [higher than average](http://highered.aspeninstitute.org/aspen-prize-program/lake-area-technical-institute/) for all other workers in the region. Seventy-four percent of students at Lake Area graduate or transfer to a four-year college within three years — compared to fewer than 40% for [community college](http://time.com/3661629/obama-community-college-free/) students nationally. This small [community college](http://time.com/3660891/obama-proposes-free-community-college/)’s success should capture our attention. It should become a model for what higher education at its best can be all across America, where, since the end of the recession, 95% of jobs have gone to workers with at least some college education. Those with a high-school diploma or less are increasingly left behind. Beyond creating clear academic pathways for students, setting learning goals and measuring progress, increasing access and support for minority and low-income students, and building a culture where student success is everyone’s business, there’s another crucial thing that defines the best community colleges: They partner with businesses to make sure that what students learn has value on the job. One of the main reasons LATI does so well in preparing students for careers is that regional employers know they can rely on LATI for talent, so employers themselves put skin in the game. These businesses provide internships and expensive equipment: airplanes for aviation students, robots for manufacturing students, a cadaver lab for nursing students and a remote weather station for agricultural students. At times, they subsidize faculty salaries to get the best people in front of the classroom. They stay in touch with professors monthly or even weekly to make sure students learn the most up-to-date skills. LATI and other colleges are excelling not just because of what happens inside their doors. They’re excelling because business partners have invested heavily in their success. At Florida’s Indian River State College, employers have helped the college build innovative and up-to-the-minute workforce programs. Nursing and EMT students practice real-world scenarios in a simulated hospital ward on campus, and dental hygiene students work with dentists to treat patients in an on-site dental clinic. College leaders and public officials developed a sophisticated public safety complex, where students practice testimony in a mock courtroom, incarceration procedures in jail cells and emergency response techniques in outdoor buildings destroyed by simulated disasters. Industry partners have also helped the college build employability training into its curriculum so that students graduate not just with technical knowledge but also the soft skills required to excel. What do employers get in return for these deep investments? A steady stream of great hires — which is no small thing at a time when U.S. companies in many sectors express difficulty finding skilled workers. Colleges must also do their part to ensure that industry partnerships make sense. Given the rapid changes in the labor market, leaders at excellent colleges regularly review workforce projections to ensure they are offering the right number of seats in the right programs and courses. They aren’t afraid to get rid of programs that don’t lead to family-sustaining wages, even if employers want them. And they work with high schools and four-year colleges to build career pathways that make sense. With 1,100 [community colleges](http://www.aacc.nche.edu/AboutCC/Pages/fastfactsfactsheet.aspx) across America, it’s safe to say that every U.S. employer has one nearby. For our nation’s six million [community college students](http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Community-College-FAQs.html) — as well as our national economy — to reach their full potential, employers and community colleges must work together to provide the talent needed to expand opportunity and expand our economy. ## Transcript For a lot of American's the idea of community college not being college is rooted in this idea that the four year experience is the ultimate experience. That the bachelor's degree is the ultimate thing that we should be preparing people for and in fact bachelor's degrees are very important In our economy. Interestingly what we've learned since the end of the recession is that the vast majority of the good jobs that have been created are jobs that require a four year degree. So since the end of the recession five and a half million jobs have been created in the U. S. economy. Of that five and a half million jobs roughly 2. 9 million are what economists would call a good job which is they pay above the median wage which is roughly $ 50, 000 a year and they have generally healthcare retirement benefits. Of those 2. 9 million good jobs in the economy that we created since the end of recession 2. 8 million require a bachelor's degree. At the same time, there are a growing number of jobs that do require less than a bachelor's degree, jobs that are in manufacturing, in the service sector, in other industries, healthcare, for which there is growth in those industries, but we don't have the talent to match that growth. And community colleges Are a great place to get that talent. So thinking about the community colleges play a very important role in preparing people for that future that we collectively need in society. 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