Workforce Town Hall in Sacramento in March. (Photo Credit: John Guenther)
The California Community Colleges Board of Governors Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation and a Strong Economy will hold its next meeting on Thursday April 2, in Sacramento.
The Task Force is comprised of knowledgeable leaders from across the community college system, the business community, labor, public agencies involved in workforce training, community based organizations, K-12 policy, and other groups and is addressing how California regions can address the skills gap that exists in California’s economy today.
Since it last met, five regional town hall meetings across California were held—in Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and the Silicon Valley. Business leaders, community college leaders and others involved in the regional economies gathered in each of these town halls to express ideas about how to strengthen California’s workforce.
Ed Coghlan reports:
The Task Force, which will report its recommendations to the Board of Governors this fall, has four objectives:
- Prepare students for high-value jobs that currently exist in the State
- Position California’s regions to attract high-value jobs in key industry sectors from other states and around the globe
- Create more jobs through workforce training that enables small business development
- Finance these initiatives by braiding existing state and federal resources.
The California Community Colleges play an important role in boosting our state’s economy by serving more than 2.6 million students a year. In fact, one out of four community college students in the U.S. is enrolled in a California community college, making it the nation’s largest system of higher education.
