Preparing 10 million students for professional success has long been the goal of community colleges in the U.S. In recent years these institutions have made great progress in communicating with industries about the skills most needed in the workforce. As our nation builds a more robust talent pipeline, another valuable opportunity arises: Ask students about their experiences.
While many community colleges offer career counseling and job placement, data show that students do not take full advantage of them. Sixty-three percent indicated they had never used career counseling services, and 88 percent reported never accessing job placement assistance, according to data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE). Many students also reported limited engagement in career-related conversations: more than two in ten said they had never discussed their career plans with an instructor or advisor. As one student reported, “We don’t get anyone to come and talk to us about career choices.”
Other data from CCSSE illustrate that colleges are not achieving the goals for experiential learning that research shows are critical bridges to skilled employment; eighty percent of students responding to CCSSE reported that they had never participated in an internship, field experience, co-op, or clinical assignment.
Community colleges are positioned to play a critical role in meeting the demands of emerging labor markets, accelerated as they are by technological developments. The U.S. Departments of Labor, Commerce, and Education’s America’s Talent Strategy: Equipping America’s Workers for the Golden Age (August, 2025) made it clear that the nation’s workforce needs have grown beyond the structures traditionally supported by four-year institutions alone. New strategies that better align education and training with hiring demands will more successfully connect young people, as well as disengaged workers, with high-wage jobs and sustainable career paths. This will require community colleges’ leadership as well as heightened attention to the student experience. Data sets such as CCSSE’s, which aggregate responses from more than 190,000 students (2023–2025) are invaluable.
Two brief snapshots from CCSSE student focus groups are illustrative: One respondent lamented that he was in a program that did not offer career guidance:
“Hearing other classes like the nursing programs and all that they have basically on a weekly basis, I envy that. I wish we had that.”
Another student, on the other hand, expressed the value of career guidance:
“I love the fact that this school is very career oriented …. You don't have the anxiety and the worry of am I spending all this time, all this money doing all these classes, and then get out and go, ‘How am I going to take care of myself?’”
As community colleges lean into new opportunities for impact, probing the voices of students is essential to fine tuning the supports that they need. The recent AACC report Resilience by Design echoed the themes of the national America’s Talent Survey: Community colleges have an expanded role in our current chapter of workforce development. It includes connecting students with the stepping-stool that is experiential learning and career planning.
The demands are high: Institutions must be both student-centered and business-connected. In other words, we need stories that are qualitative and quantitative. As Resilience by Design conveys, the future of our skilled workforce depends upon this successful merger. We are hopeful that collaborations that include more student data and deeper student stories will be models of progress and prosperity.
DeRionne Pollard, Ph.D. is the president/CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges
