Kentucky Community & Technical College System Closing the Gap Between Education and Work

The Kentucky Community & Technical College System (KCTCS) has launched a year-long effort to revamp its educational model and better provide students with the skills and knowledge they need for the workforce. The project, dubbed "ALIGN," will reexamine the system's general education, technical and workforce solutions programs, with input from faculty and staff from all 16 KCTCS institutions, the KCTCS system office, students, employer and industry partners, government agencies and other constituents. Its goal: "to create a community that provides support and services for each student to help them succeed while also providing them the flexibility to ensure they can pursue education and complete a program."

"Our approach to delivering postsecondary education must keep up with the demands of employers and learners. This is about taking bold steps to help learners translate educational experiences into economic opportunity," said KCTCS interim President Paul Czarapata, in a statement. "This must become the norm if we are to make good on our promise of delivering truly career-focused programs that help all Kentuckians build the knowledge and skills they need in a timeframe and at a cost they can afford."

Planning and design support for the project will come from the Competency-Based Education Network, a membership organization of colleges and universities devoted to developing and scaling competency-based education programs. The competency-based model allows students to earn credit for the knowledge and skills they have and move through their learning at their own pace.

When the planning process is complete, KCTCS will share its experiences in a field guide on creating an education model that is better aligned with business needs.

Funding for ALIGN comes from Ascendium Education Group, a nonprofit focused on post-secondary education and workforce training opportunities for low-income learners. "The pandemic is exposing and widening the gaps learners face as they seek to transition between education and work," commented Amy Kerwin, Ascendium's vice president of education philanthropy. "An education model that focuses on knowledge, rather than time, as a measurement could play a critical role in closing those gaps."

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • laptop on a clean desk with colorful image icons dynamically emanating from the screen

    Stability AI Releases Stable Diffusion 3.5 Text-to-Image Generation Model

    Stability AI, developer of open source models focused on text-to-image generation, has released Stable Diffusion 3.5, the latest version of its deep learning, text-to-image model.

  • happy woman sitting in front of computer

    Delightful Progress: Kuali's Legacy of Community and Leadership

    CEO Joel Dehlin updates us on Kuali today, and how it has thrived as a software company that succeeds in the tech marketplace while maintaining the community values envisioned in higher education years ago.

  • An abstract depiction of a virtual reality science class featuring two silhouetted figures wearing VR headsets

    University of Nevada Las Vegas to Build VR Learning Hub for STEM Courses

    A new immersive learning center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is tapping into the power of virtual reality to support STEM engagement and student success. The institution has partnered with Dreamscape Learn on the initiative, which will incorporate the company's interactive VR platform into introductory STEM courses.

  • landscape photo with an AI rubber stamp on top

    California AI Watermarking Bill Garners OpenAI Support

    ChatGPT creator OpenAI is backing a California bill that would require tech companies to label AI-generated content in the form of a digital "watermark." The proposed legislation, known as the "California Digital Content Provenance Standards" (AB 3211), aims to ensure transparency in digital media by identifying content created through artificial intelligence. This requirement would apply to a broad range of AI-generated material, from harmless memes to deepfakes that could be used to spread misinformation about political candidates.