Virginia Community College System Archives

Making do

Todd Estes, vice president of workforce development and innovation at Virginia Peninsula Community College, says the college’s new Toano trades facility is more accessible for students. Photo by Mark Rhodes

A flat tire can mean different things to different people. Maybe it’s a postponed appointment and a call to AAA. Or maybe you have to get a ride to work from your spouse.

But for some folks, a flat tire can start a snowball effect.

“For so many, that flat tire, that’s the end, right? It means they’re missing a shift at work. If they miss a shift at work, and they’re an hourly employee, they’ve lost a day’s pay, and they still have to repair that tire. And, ‘Oh, am I going to school now, too?’ That’s how quickly it can unravel for far too many people,” says Paula Pando, president of Reynolds Community College, based in metro Richmond. “I’m going to say in our region — but I would say across the country — that they’re one life emergency from being completely derailed from fulfilling their potential.”

Meeting students where they are and helping them succeed is part of the mission behind the Virginia Community College System, which has 23 state-funded colleges with 40 campuses serving more than 200,000 students across the commonwealth.

People attend community college for many reasons, but getting certifications and training for desirable careers is a major motivation for many, especially students who are older than average college age and often juggle family and work responsibilities with their educations. Pando says the state’s community college students often are the ones who view a flat tire as a major obstacle, not just an inconvenience.

Similarly, community colleges are working with shoestring budgets, with relatively tight state funding.

Do community college students need English as a Second Language classes? Of course. Do they need remote learning classes? Sure thing. Scholarship money? Yep.

And at many of the state’s community colleges, leaders are figuring out other ways to bring learning directly to students, or at least within a bus or shuttle ride. Virginia Highlands Community College offers free bus trips to the Abingdon college from the city of Bristol and Washington and Smyth counties, while Eastern Shore Community College reimburses toll payments to students who commute via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Most other schools have agreements with local public transportation systems that allow students to ride for free or at reduced fares.

For Pando, accessibility also means offering more classes at Reynolds’ downtown Richmond campus, which is convenient to the regional bus line, and offering free shuttle service to its Parham Road campus in Henrico County.

For Virginia Peninsula Community College, which covers the region of James City County, Williamsburg, Hampton and Newport News, it means building new satellite classrooms.

“If I want to get to a program that’s only offered on one campus, or I don’t have the classes I need at my Williamsburg campus — if you had to rely on public transportation, you now have to figure out two different bus companies and what their schedules are,” says VPCC President Towuanna Porter Brannon. “If you’re traveling what for me is a 25-minute ride in my car from Newport News to Williamsburg, it could possibly [take] two hours for a student who is relying on public transportation.”

Answering student needs

To respond to these challenges, VPCC opened a trades center in Toano in 2023, offering welding and commercial driver’s license classes, which previously were only offered in Hampton, about 37 miles away.

But building new classrooms and hiring faculty, especially for specialty workforce programs, is not cheap — and community colleges can’t rely on tuition to pay for them.

At $163 per credit hour, Virginia’s community colleges offer the lowest-cost postsecondary education in the state. For most of VPCC’s students, tuition is affordable, Brannon notes, but transportation has been a big roadblock for some students when classes are offered in only one location, especially for hands-on skills training classes.

“The individuals in [the Toano] part of our service region, it’s just probably impossible for them to train at our Hampton campus,” explains Todd Estes, VPCC’s vice president of workforce development and innovation. “We were able to open that facility and offer four different trades training courses in 2023 with the help of a U.S. [Department of Labor] grant, and we also are in the process of opening another facility in southeast Newport News, which is the other end of our service area, and a historically underserved community.”

Elsewhere in the state, colleges have purchased or leased older buildings to convert them into classrooms. Wytheville Community College opened WCC WEST (standing for workforce, education and skills training) in Marion, in a former auto dealership purchased by the Smyth County Economic Development Authority. And next year, Paul D. Camp Community College is set to open a new nursing and allied health facility in the former Tidewater News building in Franklin, a project funded in part by the Sentara Foundation.

In October, Danville, Southside Virginia and Patrick & Henry community colleges signed an agreement to expand building trades programs in Southern Virginia, collaborating with K-12 schools and regional business partners.

Tidewater Community College, VPCC’s neighbor to the southeast, partners with the Virginia Ship Repair Association on its maritime trades program, says Laura Hanson, associate vice president of corporate solutions at TCC. Students complete training in welding, pipefitting, marine painting and other trades in two or three weeks.

“One of our motivators at TCC … is accessibility for our students, and our current skilled trades academy is in Portsmouth,” Hanson says. “So, when you factor in tunnels, [students] have a hard time with that, especially if you’re unemployed. So, our next goal is to acquire a location in Norfolk. And then the next step, we are renovating a building on our Virginia Beach campus,” which will also host skilled training courses for maritime trades, including offshore wind.

Set to open in June 2025, VPCC’s Newport News satellite center is a response to achieve “geographic accessibility” in a community that “historically has had transportation issues,” Estes says. “That community is not as far as, say, Toano, but if you’re talking about public transportation, it’s still an hour and a half or two hours to get to our Hampton campus, which is just prohibitive for anybody in that area.”

The Newport News facility will offer training for three maritime trades and four construction trades, and its proximity to major employer Newport News Shipbuilding will be a big benefit to students, Estes says. “So, that community will have that direct connection of training within their community, and then employment less than a mile away.”

Newport News Shipbuilding is one of multiple large employers with big expansion plans in Virginia, hoping to hire 19,000 people over the next decade for its nuclear shipbuilding workforce. And that’s just one work sector. Across the state, businesses and other institutions need to fill vacancies in health care, vehicle repair, teaching and child care, as well as in the growing industries of renewable energy, cybersecurity and manufacturing, among other fields. Many employers and state officials are looking to community colleges to train the next generation of these employees.

A heavy responsibility

The community college system is tasked with a large segment of the state’s workforce development strategy. The Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a collaboration between VCCS and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, trains workers for specific job duties at no cost to businesses relocating or expanding in Virginia.

Additionally, the community colleges’ FastForward and G3 programs, created in the past decade, are specifically geared toward people training for in-demand careers, and some courses take less than a month to complete. According to the college system, more than 53,000 students have completed FastForward programs, seeing average wage increases of more than $11,000 within 12 months of receiving their new credentials.

Total enrollment in Virginia’s community colleges has grown for six consecutive semesters, after about 10 years of declining enrollment. Approximately 230,000 students enrolled in 2024.

The state has nearly 250,000 unfilled jobs, according to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration, and a big reason is a dearth of relevant job skills among Virginians. In a February op-ed published by Cardinal News, VCCS Chancellor David Doré and Virginia Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Barry DuVal noted that 3.2 million Virginians lack postsecondary credentials that would qualify some of them for open jobs.

Community college students, many of whom stay in their communities after completion, are often a good fit for these jobs, but Doré and DuVal note that for every dollar spent on students at four-year public universities in Virginia, the state invests only 57 cents per community college student, which impacts how many classes community colleges can offer and leaves institutions pursuing outside funding.

The community college system, Doré says, plans to ask for $90 million in one-time funding from the state for the 2025 fiscal year, going toward facility improvements, equipment and program startup costs. VCCS also expects to request an additional $46.2 million in recurring state funding, which would go toward hiring additional faculty and support staff, as well as other costs associated with expanding educational programs.

Additionally, VCCS is asking the state to increase its investment in nondegree program FastForward by $32.5 million, Doré says. He also hopes legislators will change the funding mechanism in Virginia so that the state automatically allocates more money for higher-cost workforce programs that train in-demand professionals such as nurses, dental hygienists, welders and mechanics.

In the meantime, private and public sector partners are a crucial funding source for new projects and expansions.

“I would love to get more funding, but I can just say that I’m really very impressed by how entrepreneurial our presidents are,” Doré says. “Our presidents are really looking for every opportunity to get investment to build these workforce centers, but … it’s my hope that we’re going to make our case to the General Assembly to get funding for these programs.”

Reynolds Community College now offers HVAC and other skilled trades classes at its downtown Richmond campus, which is on the city’s bus line. Photo courtesy Reynolds Community College

‘Rob Peter to pay Paul’

As Pando and Brannon note, to fill the state’s open jobs, community college students need training courses available and accessible to them, and that’s not always easy, especially when its costs a lot more to build a welding training workshop than a traditional classroom.

“When we start talking about needing to triple the number of welders, OK, that welding job — that’s a million-dollar lab,” Pando explains. “Finding a welding instructor who is going to take a pay cut to come teach welding is another challenge, and that story is replicated in virtually all of our programs — HVAC instruction, health care programs, our automotive program.”

Asked how her college affords new high-tech facilities, Brannon replies with a laugh, “Begging,” as well as applying for “tons of grants.”

In Virginia, “there’s not a lot of infusion of state funds that help us buy new equipment … to stay competitive with what someone may be experiencing in the workplace,” Brannon adds. “And so, a lot of the ways that we have been getting funding is to ask [for donations] from our local businesses — people who are actually interested in hiring, who have a high demand for those positions.”

Ultimately, Pando says, “the way we do it is through aggressive fundraising. I mean, we’re constantly hat in hand. I had to raise money and do a song and dance and rob Peter to pay Paul to build our automotive tech building, which is modest but beautiful.”

Reynolds has partnered with Richmond city government, Loyalty Toyota and VCU Health, among other institutions, to staff and fund workforce training programs to produce auto mechanics, nurses and truck drivers. The community college’s automotive program includes a specialty master technician course for Toyotas and Lexuses, and students work at Loyalty Toyota service centers around the Richmond area, earning wages while learning on the job.

“Then the other three days are in lab with us,” Pando says, “and those students are pretty much guaranteed a job interview because they’ve been [essentially] interviewing for a few years. It’s an excellent example of an earn-and-learn program that keeps students from having to work a job at McDonald’s.”

Similarly, VPCC has received funding from Newport News Shipbuilding and other partners to help them hire and retain more faculty members, as well as advising the college on what skills employers need.

“I don’t believe we’ve gotten a generous donation from a donor in a while. We’ve been really lucky to have a community of business partners to support us, but we’re all dealing with a very similar, small profit margin,” Brannon says. “So, a lot of what we’ve been doing is trying to advocate at the state level for some sort of parity and funding when it comes to these high-cost programs.”

Freelance writer Courtney Mabeus-Brown contributed to this article.

At A Glance: Virginia Community College System

Founded

The Virginia Technical College System started in 1964 with two schools: Roanoke Technical College and Northern Virginia Technical College. In 1966, it was renamed the Virginia Community College System, and by 1972, it had expanded to all 23 community colleges in existence today. In 1987, the system began offering dual enrollment courses, allowing high school students to earn college credits at community colleges, and in 1996, the system launched online classes. In 2016, the General Assembly created the nation’s first short-term, pay-for-performance workforce training program, now known as FastForward. Today, VCCS has 40 campuses across the state, with approximately 230,000 students enrolled in 2024.

Enrollment^*

Total enrollment: 207,108
Full-time students: 89,338

Student profile^**

Male: 42%
Female: 56%
Unknown: 2%
Students of color: 47%

Academic programs

VCCS offers hundreds of programs of study at its 23 colleges statewide. They include two-year associate degrees, one-year certificates and career studies certificates. Some programs offer college credits that are transferrable to four-year colleges and universities, and others offer noncredit programs geared toward training for specific careers, including welding, auto mechanics and HVAC technology.

Teaching Faculty^*

Full-time: 2,052
Part-time: 4,168

Tuition^**

$163 per credit hour

*2023-24 academic year
**Spring 2024

Brightpoint promotes Fiege to president

William “Bill” Fiege will be the eighth president of Brightpoint Community College, the Virginia Community College System announced Monday.

Fiege will begin his new role on Jan. 2, 2024. Van Wilson has led Brightpoint as interim president since February 2023, after former President Ted Raspiller stepped down from the role to take a job with Virginia529.

Fiege is currently Brightpoint’s vice president of learning and student success at Brightpoint, the college’s chief academic officer, a position he has held since 2012. Before that, he was at Germanna Community College, where he was dean of professional and technical studies. He has also worked for Longwood University, his alma mater, from which he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. Fiege also has a master’s in speech communication from Bloomsburg University and a doctorate in community college leadership from Old Dominion University.

“I’m excited about Bill’s appointment,” David Doré, chancellor of VCCS, said in a statement. “I am confident he will build on the college’s outstanding history of serving its communities and its diverse student populations and will lead Brightpoint into a new era as Virginia’s Community Colleges embark on a systemwide transformation to serve more learners in new ways. Our monthslong search yielded exceptional candidates and we are grateful to all of the talented educators who expressed interest in the Brightpoint presidency.”

Brightpoint attracted 74 candidates in its national search for a new president.

“The Brightpoint Community College Board is elated with the selection of Bill Fiege as the institution’s eighth president,” Kenneth Pritchett, chair of Brightpoint Community College’s Local Advisory Board, said in a statement. “I would like to thank our college board members for their time and energy throughout the rigorous selection process. We truly believe that Dr. Fiege will move our college forward. Under his leadership, Brightpoint will continue to be a place that changes lives, focuses on student success and supports the needs of its communities.”

Brightpoint serves Amelia, Charles City, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Prince George, Surry and Sussex counties as well as Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg. It has campuses in Chester and Midlothian.

“After serving Brightpoint as the chief academic officer for the last 11 ½ years, I am honored and humbled to have been selected from an outstanding pool of candidates to lead the college as its next president,” Fiege said in a statement. “Already embedded in the community, I fully comprehend the positive impact of Brightpoint and our workforce arm, the Community College Workforce Alliance, within our region. I appreciate the confidence bestowed upon me by Chancellor Doré and look forward to working with him and Brightpoint’s boards, faculty, staff, students and partners to continue the college’s positive momentum. We are and will continue to be trailblazers for the great communities we serve.”

VCCS senior vice chancellor to retire

Sharon Morrissey, Virginia Community College System’s senior vice chancellor for academic and workforce programs, will retire at the end of 2023, VCCS announced Monday.

Morrissey joined VCCS in 2014. She held leadership roles for multiple initiatives, including eliminating placement testing, providing expanded credit for prior learning for military veterans and creating the system’s Opportunity 2027 strategic plan.

“It’s an understatement to say that Dr. Morrissey has provided crucial and valuable guidance for our colleges over the years, including leading our institutions statewide as interim chancellor from last summer through March of this year,” Virginia Community College System Chancellor David Doré said in a statement.

Before joining VCCS, Morrissey worked in higher education in North Carolina for 28 years. She served as a faculty member, college vice president, college president and then executive vice president for programs and student services of the system within that state’s community college system

“I’m so grateful to have worked with the wonderful faculty and staff at Virginia’s community colleges,” Morrissey said in a statement. “Even in the most challenging times as we worked to manage the impact of COVID-19, I appreciated collaborating with dedicated and talented colleagues to ensure that students had access to the courses and services they needed. The pandemic even yielded some positive improvements in our enrollment policies, online student support services and expansion of distance learning opportunities.”

Education 2023: DAVID DORÉ

A newcomer to Virginia, Doré arrived in April as the Virginia Community College System’s new chancellor. It was quite the jump in scale from Doré’s previous role as president of campuses and executive vice chancellor for student experience and workforce development at Tucson, Arizona-based Pima Community College, which serves about 30,000 students. At VCCS, he oversees 23 colleges with 40 campuses and more than 200,000 students.

Doré, who calls community colleges “the most transformative organizations in this country,” has worked in higher education for over 30 years. As a former high school teacher, he once took his students on a field trip to meet PBS icon Mister Rogers.

A first-generation college graduate from Pennsylvania, Doré has a doctorate from Pepperdine University in California, an MBA from Georgetown University, and master’s degrees from Boston College and Santa Clara University. In 2017-18, he was a Rising Presidents Fellow in the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program. Doré serves on the American Technical Education Association’s board.

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Top of the class

In April, David Doré started his new job as Virginia Community College System chancellor, stepping into the shoes of the retired Glenn DuBois, who held the position for 21 years.

A Pennsylvania native who once considered becoming a Jesuit priest, Doré is a former high school teacher who once took his students to meet PBS icon Mister Rogers on a field trip. He joins the college system at a time when it’s under a bright spotlight.

The search for DuBois’ replacement took on a political tenor after Gov. Glenn Youngkin objected to being left out of the hiring process last year, when the state community college board announced it had hired a Michigan college president as VCCS chancellor. However, Russell Kavalhuna backed out last June, leaving a vacancy.

Doré, who most recently was president of campuses and executive vice chancellor for student experience and workforce development at Tucson, Arizona-based Pima Community College, was hired in January with the vocal support of Youngkin, who has promoted workforce education programs run through the state’s community colleges as a solution to skilled labor shortages.

With 23 colleges and nearly 150,000 students under his purview, Doré quickly got started visiting each college in his first weeks on the job. In June, having finished his tour, Doré sat down for an interview with Virginia Business at VCCS’ headquarters in Chesterfield County.

In August, Doré plans to roll out VCCS’ legislative agenda during his chancellor’s retreat to an audience that will likely include Youngkin and other state officials.

Doré says that he believes in the system’s role in creating more opportunities, especially for people in economically disadvantaged areas of the state. One of his chief goals, too, is to see that all Virginia high school students graduate with a community college credential under their belts, whether it’s a marketable job certification or a credit that transfers toward their bachelor’s degree.

Doré and his husband, Chauncey Roach, a Veterans Affairs nurse who served in the Air Force, live in Richmond with their dog, Riley, and enjoy running in the city’s parks.

Virginia Business: How does VCCS compare with other community college systems?

David Doré: I was somewhat familiar with this system, and there were a couple of items that really stood out for me.

One is that the Virginia Community College System had initiated … FastForward, which is a short-term, noncredit credential program that was very well-known throughout the country. I think that was one of the first impressions that I had, that this was a forward-thinking system.

I’ve served 27 years in the community college sector. I spent the majority of that time in the California community college system, where the community college districts are independent. Even though there is a chancellor, the presidents don’t report to the chancellor.

Then I spent about 10 years in Arizona, and those are independent districts. What really attracted me about this position was that the 23 colleges are one system. I think it provides an opportunity for alignment across the entire commonwealth of Virginia, particularly with the needs of business and industry.

VB: As far as which programs are being offered at the colleges, is there a real difference depending on where you are geographically?

Doré: In some instances, yes. For example, Northern Virginia is home to data centers, and so a lot of the focus is going to be focused on regional needs in terms of business and industry. Certain sectors and regions of the commonwealth are in need of certain kinds of workers. If you go into the Hampton Roads area, one of the largest employers there, of course, is the Newport News Shipyard.

With that said, I think that we can do an even better job of aligning more from a regional perspective.

Now, in certain aspects for transfer education, which is a really important part of what we do, many programs [are] similar from college to college because, again, we want to have a real seamless alignment for our students who are transferring to the four-year schools. If you’re taking an English class at [Northern Virginia Community College] or you’re taking an English class at [Southwest Virginia Community College], that class needs to transfer to all of the same transfer institutions.

Around health care, pretty much every region of the commonwealth has health care [labor] needs. In some instances, I think we’re going to see some scaling [up] of certain programs in certain parts of the commonwealth and will actually need to do some realigning, from my perspective.

VB: Was there anything that surprised you during your tour?

Doré: We are doing incredibly innovative things at the colleges. I think that was really powerful for me to see firsthand some of the innovations.

I was really, really impressed with how our faculty and staff have embraced emerging technologies. One example is in the health care space. Right now, there’s a challenge in health care around clinical placements [for students], but educational institutions are permitted to have about 25% of the [in-class] simulations count for clinical placements.

For example, when I was doing the tour [at Virginia Peninsula Community College], I delivered a baby. I literally delivered a baby. It was all simulated. [Laughter]

Doré wants all Virginia students to graduate high school with a community college credit of some kind. Photos by Caroline Martin

VB: Whoa — how did that work?

Doré: Again, this is all [a] simulation, [in which] there was a woman in the middle of childbirth. I accompanied the EMT students who took her in the ambulance, and then we went to the hospital. This mannequin [is] so high-tech now that you actually deliver a baby in a hospital bed. We’re talking about placenta and the whole nine yards!

Then, similarly, in a lot of our heavy machine operation programs, [there’s] a lot of simulation there and in our truck-driving programs. It actually is a more efficient model for learners.

We’re using virtual reality at our colleges, artificial intelligence. We can’t run from these emerging technologies. We’ve got to embrace them, and we’ve got to incorporate them not just into how we teach and how our students learn, but then what kinds of skills we’re giving our learners. Students today need to have not just digital literacy, they need to be digitally fluent in these technologies in their respective fields.

VB: Do you think that people in general are more aware of what is offered at community colleges?

Doré: I think that is going to be one of my primary goals, is to market our Virginia community colleges much better than we have. I think that we have a lot of work to do in terms of not only promoting our colleges, but really promoting all of these different fields that are high-demand and high-wage fields that you do not necessarily need a four-year degree to compete and to be successful in many, many of these career fields.

I think it’s important for us to really work very closely with our K-12 partners and with high school counselors, so that we really can ensure that students get on a pathway much earlier into some of these high-demand areas.

VB: Can you elaborate on that?

Doré: When I came to Virginia back in January, I was able to meet with Gov. Youngkin and with [state] Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera. One of the things that we discussed was this goal of having every high school student graduate from high school with a postsecondary credential.

I am very aligned with Gov. Youngkin, Secretary Guidera and Secretary of Labor [Bryan] Slater around these issues. I think that this is an achievable goal. We will need to deepen our partnerships with K-12 institutions across the commonwealth, but our colleges are ready and able to scale what we are doing to get students into a pipeline, to be career-ready when they graduate from high school.

Now, that is not to say that these students will not continue to pursue postsecondary [education], but … I think people are looking for the skills that can be applied in their lives sooner. When I went to college, I had a job that was really not related to my major to earn my way. Then I looked for a job when I got my degree.

More and more of our learners are actually employed full time, and they’re trying to get to a next level, and so they want to be able to use those skills right away. I think what we’re really doing much more is this notion of stackability — what we’re doing is really stacking credentials. They can be used earlier in their career, but then those credentials can be stacked to [become] an associate degree and ultimately … a bachelor’s degree.

VB: There are many sectors that need trained workers, from health care to education to wind energy. What can be achieved on this front in the next five or 10 years?

Doré: There are a number of sectors that we will be focusing on in the community college system. I’ll just give you some examples: IT and cyber. Obviously, we have an incredible skills gap in the health care sector.

Then we have a whole host of what we call the skilled trades: welding and machines, advanced manufacturing, mechatronics, public safety.

We really need to educate this new pipeline of talent. We’re going to have to scale certain programs at a much faster pace than we have over the last several years.

We are working collaboratively from a regional perspective to look at the pipeline that is needed for our various industry sectors — not just next year, but over the next five and 10 years. Then we need to, if you will, realign our entire system to make sure that we are really educating the pipeline to fill those necessary positions.

VB: Do you have enough educators?

Doré: No. We particularly do not have enough faculty in the high-demand sectors. If there’s a nursing shortage, then there’s obviously a nursing instructor shortage.

Attracting talent to our institutions is going to be another significant issue that I will need to address as the leader of this system. One of the things is that we have to be competitive to be able to attract the talent that we need to our system. That has to do with compensation. It is quite frankly challenging for us to attract faculty in these high-demand areas because industry has a shortage, and many of our faculty could make a lot more money working in industry.

We need to work very closely with business and industry to solve that problem. I see pockets of innovation in which our industry partners are in fact helping provide those faculty to our system.

VB: How do you appeal to prospective students who could choose a for-profit college over a community college?

Doré: Traditionally, if you look at the model for many for-profit institutions, they allocate a much higher percentage of their operating budget for marketing. They’re very, very well-invested in terms of marketing, and that’s something that, historically, public community colleges have not done. That is one area that I think it’s really important for us to look at is, how do we market the value proposition of our public community colleges?

VB: Youngkin signed a bill in May to create the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, which consolidates a lot of different state workforce initiatives under one roof. How will that impact VCCS?

Doré: Some folks that are now here in this system office will be moving to this new agency, so yes, it does affect us somewhat. Now, with that said, I believe that we are going to be able to partner much more closely with the Commonwealth of Virginia to really streamline workforce programs. The Virginia community colleges are designated as the coordinator of postsecondary workforce education in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Ultimately, we will play a crucial role in helping to shape what that new agency looks like and ensuring that we’ve got greater efficiency across the commonwealth.

VB: What about military veterans and their family members? There’s a big effort to keep them here in Virginia so they can take some of these in-demand skilled jobs. How big a priority is that?

Doré: I want to make it very clear that all of our colleges are veteran- and military- friendly, and that we have veteran centers.

Now, what’s really important for veteran students is that we have a robust program called Credit for Prior Learning. This is really for those who are transitioning out of the military. They’ve spent a whole lot of time perfecting a field, and in many instances they may or may not then have the necessary industry credentials to be hired in various sectors.

In many instances, they may only need another semester to complete even a degree. That’s really important for me — that we honor the skills that these veterans are already bringing to our colleges, and [that we’re] giving them credit for those skills. It’s [also] important for our veterans to get their benefits for the G.I. Bill and all of those programs.

VB: What did your own educational path look like?

Doré: I come from the working class, and neither my mom nor my dad went to college. I’m a first-generation college student. I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania. I’m one of five children.

To be honest with you, I did not want to go to college. I graduated from high school, and I really didn’t want to go to college. My parents were like, “No. You’re going to college.” I had an opportunity, the summer that I graduated from high school, [to spend] the summer in Mexico working at a hospice. It was run by Catholic nuns in Mérida, which is in Yucatán. I was 17 years old.

I’ll never forget the first day in there, the nun, she tells me to go in and give this guy a bath. I walk in to give this guy a bath who’s in the shower, no arms or legs. Well, fast-forward to the end of the summer, I grew up really fast. There was a young man there who had fallen off of a hut, broke his back, was paralyzed from the neck down. I was taking care of these people.

One of the things that hit me that summer was my parents wanted me to go to college. I didn’t really want to go to college. I just wanted to get a job, but I was like, “I have the opportunity to go to college, and these people that I had been serving in this hospice, they didn’t have any opportunity.”

It was a wake-up call for me. I got home and I went down to my local college, and I enrolled right away. College transformed my life. I did become a teacher out of college. I taught in Catholic high school
for two years.

VB: And you met Fred Rogers, late host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” during a class field trip to his TV studio in Pittsburgh?

Doré: At the lunch break, Fred Rogers spent an entire hour with me and my class. It was awesome! All my students were asking him all kinds of questions — everything. I remember I got to ask him the last question, and I said, “I’m a young new teacher. What advice do you have for me?”

I’ll never forget what he said. “David,” he said, “Remember that love is at the heart of all learning.” That has been my North Star throughout my entire career.

Money machine

In 2009, Donald Hart found himself in an enviable position.

Leading up to his graduation from Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, Hart had been accepted to a slew of the state’s public, four-year universities: Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University, George Mason University and James Madison University.

Attracted by the convenience of studying close to home, as well as the opportunity to play trumpet in the university’s new marching band, he wound up choosing ODU. But there was another reason ODU stood out from the competition: sticker price.

For the 2009-2010 academic year, ODU’s annual tuition and fees came to $7,318, a price tag that would increase to $8,450 by the time Hart graduated in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and about $15,000 in school debt. ODU charged less than most other Virginia public universities Hart considered, and the tuition and fees didn’t even factor in room and board, or the cost of moving to a different city. He wanted to get the best value for his money.

A decade after graduation, Old Dominion University alumni Donald Hart trains financial advisers in Virginia Beach for New York Life Insurance Co., a job that pays him $140,000 to $160,000 per year. Photo by Mark Rhodes

“That was a little bit of a factor, too,” Hart recalls. “I’m like, ‘Well, do I want to have extra debt, or do I just want to get a degree and [start a career]?”

After graduation, Hart landed a job with New York Life Insurance Co., which provided matching contributions that helped him pay off his student loan debt about two years ago. After a stint working in New York City, he’s back in Virginia Beach, training financial advisers for the insurance company, earning about $140,000 to $160,000 annually, including bonuses.

“If I look back, finishing college, I would never have guessed I [would be] where I am today at all,” Hart says. “The critical thinking skills and the building relationships and doing different things while in college, I think that all … [helped] mold me to be successful in really any business I would have chosen.”

Since Hart graduated a decade ago, the cost of going to college in Virginia has continued to escalate, now averaging $14,538 per year across the state’s 15 public four-year colleges and universities, according to data from the State Council on Higher Education for Virginia. That’s up from $10,387 in the 2013-2014 academic year — a nearly 40% increase over the past decade.

With the cost of earning a degree soaring to new heights — the national average to attend a four-year public university in 2022-2023 was $10,950 annually for tuition and fees, according to the College Board — fewer people are heading off to college, and debate has ensued over the value of postsecondary education. (Enrollment numbers could be further chilled, academics say, by the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling overturning a Biden administration plan to wipe out more than $400 billion
in student debt.)

Furthermore, amid a tight labor market, policymakers and employers are placing less emphasis on four-year degrees and more on certificate programs and other nondegree career pathways.

Perhaps the most prominent example can be found in a new state government hiring policy. Effective July 1, in an effort to attract more state workers, Gov. Glenn Youngkin eliminated degree requirements and/or preferences for about 90% of state job listings. (Maryland implemented a similar change in 2022.)

Nevertheless, even amid record tuition rates, a college or university degree remains the likely best avenue for increasing one’s lifetime earning power, experts say, providing a return on investment unrivaled by stocks or bonds.

“Investing in a college education for many people will be the second biggest investment they ever make, probably after buying a house,” says Martin Van Der Werf, director of editorial and education policy at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). “It’s more expensive than buying a car, which is probably the other major purchase many people face in their lives. So, to actually understand what you’re going to get from that investment … is a pretty important piece of data.”

What it’s worth

Graduating from a public four-year university can add from $765,000 to more than $1 million to an individual’s lifetime earnings in the U.S., according to a 2021 report prepared for SCHEV by Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs focusing on postcollege outcomes among public college and university graduates from 2007 to 2018.

Not surprisingly, a 2022 report on return on investment from bachelor’s degrees, Georgetown’s CEW came to a similar conclusion — adding that public colleges, with lower tuitions and lesser student debt, provide better returns on average than private colleges.

Forty years after enrolling — or about the length of a career — average graduates of four-year public colleges can expect a net economic gain of $1.03 million in adjusted earnings, compared with $984,000 for the average private nonprofit college graduate, according to the Georgetown report, which ranked 4,500 U.S. colleges, including community colleges, public two- and four-year institutions, private nonprofit colleges and for-profit colleges, by their return on investment.

Ten years after enrollment, though, the story is a bit different. Community colleges and institutions that offer associate degrees and certificate programs provide better short-term returns because graduates can get to work quickly, often with less debt and fewer years of study than their four-year counterparts, CEW found. Over the decades, however, four-year graduates have much greater earnings power. (A 2019 CEW study found that associate degree and certificate holders brought in a median $141,000 in 10-year adjusted net earnings, compared with $107,000 for all college graduates.)

“College typically pays off, but the return on investment varies by credential, program of study and institution,” CEW Director Anthony P. Carnevale says in a statement. “It’s important to inform people about the risk of taking out loans but not graduating, which could leave them without the increased earnings that would help them repay those loans.”

Here in Virginia, it may come as no surprise that some of the state’s most prestigious public and private universities rank higher than their in-state peers when it comes to return on investment. Examining how much money a degree could bring a graduate over a 40-year career, private liberal arts school Washington and Lee University leads the way at $1.82 million, followed by U.Va. with $1.64 million and Virginia Tech at $1.55 million, according to Georgetown’s 2022 report.

After just 10 years, however, Newport News-based Riverside College of Health Careers, a private, not-for-profit school offering associate degrees and certificates in health care, ranks No. 1 for return on investment, bringing $263,000 in adjusted net earnings, followed by Northern Virginia Community College at $225,000, according to CEW’s data. Washington and Lee ranks No. 3 for 10-year net earnings, at $216,000.

It takes less time and less money to earn an associate degree or certificate, Van Der Werf, one of the study’s authors, says. While some students enroll in community college with plans to transfer to a four-year institution, others are seeking a quick career boost, such as a promotion or other job opportunities, after earning an associate degree or credential.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median weekly earnings of bachelor’s degree graduates in 2022 was $1,432, compared with $1,005 for associate degree holders and $853 for workers with just a high school diploma.

“Basically … having a college degree leads to greater earnings,” Van Der Werf says.

A college education provides graduates a vehicle for social mobility, says David Burge, George Mason University’s vice president for enrollment management. Photo by Will Schermerhorn

‘Shopper’s mentality’

Earnings are only one data point that experts consider when examining a college degree’s potential ROI; the broader picture can be much more nuanced, based on a variety of factors. For instance, pay may vary depending on where someone lives. And universities with higher graduation rates generally produce graduates with higher earnings. Majors matter, too — a professional with a bachelor’s degree in engineering may make a higher salary than a worker with an arts and humanities degree.

According to the VCU report, 56.3% of 15,348 survey respondents who earned a certificate, associate or bachelor’s degree from a Virginia higher education institution said their education was worth the cost. That’s a satisfaction rate that varies when broken down by degree type, race, gender, discipline, geography and graduation year; for example, 64% of those who majored in STEM disciplines agreed their education was worth the cost, compared with 47.6% of liberal arts graduates.

During the past five years at Virginia Tech, parents and prospective students have been asking more and more frequently about return on investment — including more affluent families, says Juan Espinoza, director of admissions and associate vice president for enrollment and degree management. “If you’re looking at affordability,” he says, “you’re also looking at ROI. You can’t disconnect the two.”

Families have more of a “shoppers’ mentality” these days, given the national conversation about whether college is worth it, says Espinoza, a 2004 Tech graduate who was a first-generation college student. In particular, parents want to know about student success, including graduation rates, which were 85% at Virginia Tech last year, according to SCHEV. “I think it’s a legitimate question,” he says, “and one that colleges need to be able to explain to students and their families.”

University officials frequently point to student success when talking about ROI, and that’s a value that may transcend a padded bank account. A college education, they contend, can lead to healthier life outcomes, greater civic participation and upward social mobility.

Getting ahead

At George Mason University, many students “are starting behind the start line,” says Saskia Campbell, GMU’s executive director of university career services, citing the university’s history of educating a diverse student body, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Forty years after enrollment, a GMU bachelor’s degree recipient is likely to see a net economic gain of $1.4 million, ranking GMU No. 6 among Virginia’s public and private nonprofit colleges and universities for that data point, according to Georgetown’s study. And while GMU had a 91.4% admittance rate for the 2021-2022 school year, it also had a 70% graduation rate.

Virginia Commonwealth University focuses on providing students with real-world skills-building and networking opportunities in addition to academics, says Maggie Tolan, senior assistance vice president for student services. Photo by Caroline Martin

“To me, that is the very definition of social mobility,” says David Burge, vice president for enrollment management. “You give people a chance to be successful, you support them while they’re on their journey and as they exit and are always there for them as they come back, and you will build that reputation by delivering something of value.”

Among the signs of a GMU degree’s value, Campbell points out, is that 89% of GMU graduates are working in a role related to their career goals within six months. GMU’s location in Fairfax County and proximity to major companies is another example. More than 600 employers, including Fortune 500 companies like Reston-based General Dynamics Corp. and McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp., recruit on campus, and there’s a waitlist of others wanting to participate in career fairs. “And that’s just my office,” she says.

Maggie Tolan, VCU’s senior assistant vice president for student services, wrapped up new student orientation in June. Her presentation to incoming freshmen — a third of whom are first-generation college students — included a diagram of a bobsled.

“If I just give you the textbook on how to bobsled, you’re not going to be a good Olympic bobsledder, right?” Tolan asks. “You’re going to need to practice. A lot of what we talk about at VCU is there’s your degree, but it’s really what you’re doing in the four years to build the résumé, to build the network.”

VCU’s tools for student success include “major maps,” year-by-year charts that help students set goals in categories ranging from degree planning to developing career skills and preparing for life after college. VCU also requires students to participate in real-world experiences like internships.

It has a high acceptance rate (92% for the 2021-2022 academic year), but a lower graduation rate (67%) than some of its similarly sized peers. However, bachelor’s degree holders from VCU — where the colleges of Art and Humanities and Sciences are the largest — can expect their degrees to net them $1.03 million in earnings power over a 40-year career, according to Georgetown’s study.

“For our [graduates] … we are earning … 77% more than a high school graduate that never went to college,” says Tolan. “I think that’s a pretty good darn investment.”

Buyer beware

Those who tout higher education’s return on investment also acknowledge that student loan debt remains a huge concern.

About 1 million Virginians owed $41 billion in federal student loan debt in 2020, according to the VCU Wilder report. While a college degree holder may make more money over the course of a career than people who didn’t earn a degree, Tod Massa, SCHEV’s director of policy analytics and data warehousing, offers a “buyer beware” caveat.

“College is not for everyone. And, unless you can afford it, I don’t think you should see the college experience as an experience to purchase,” Massa says. While college is a “high value opportunity,” it’s not a guarantee a student will land a particular job, he says. Prospective students and families should also consider what they value about education.

Nationally, undergraduate enrollment remains about 6% to 7% below pre-pandemic levels. About 1.16 million fewer undergrad students were enrolled in spring 2023 than in spring 2020, according to a May report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Undergraduate admissions at Virginia’s 15 four-year public universities performed better, declining just 2% between fall 2020 and fall 2022, according to an analysis of SCHEV data.

Enrollment in the state’s 23 public community colleges has also declined, from a 2011 peak of 197,226 to 146,553 in fall 2022 (up slightly from 144,215 in fall 2021). There tends to be a direct relationship between low unemployment and community college enrollment dips, Massa explains.

Virginia Community College System Chancellor David Doré, (see related Q&A) calls student debt one of the “most significant problems in the country right now,” adding that the system needs to do a better job of marketing itself to become more nimble, faster and better designed around students’ needs.

With more than 51,000 full- and part-time students, Northern Virginia Community College, is by far the state’s largest two-year public college. NOVA has a labor market team that studies regional job posting data as well as long-term government forecasts to keep up with the region’s needs, says Steve Partridge, NOVA’s vice president of strategy, research and workforce innovation. The team frequently consults area employers about their needs in order to better structure learning and programs. Still, Partridge says, the school can’t keep up with the regional demand for IT workers.

Many of NOVA’s students work while attending school — 38,595 are part-time students, according to 2021-2022 SCHEV data. Students who are already in the working world are likely to be more focused on the income they’d like to make, adding to their determination to reach their goals.

“I think the working adult has a much better view of that ROI, because they’re often self-funding,” Partridge says. “When they borrow, they know what they’re borrowing, because they’re probably also paying the rent. … They’re very, very interested in what the job market is going to look like when they graduate and where the opportunities will be when they graduate.”

Lynchburg transformer manufacturer to add 149 jobs

Industrial power equipment manufacturer Delta Star Inc. will invest $30.2 million to expand its manufacturing operation and headquarters in Lynchburg, creating an estimated 149 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday.

The company will add 80,000 square feet of mobile power transformer manufacturing space to its 300,000-square-foot facility located at 3550 Mayflower Drive and will consolidate its headquarters and office functions in an adjacent 14,000-square-foot corporate building.

“Delta Star has been a valuable and reliable employer in the City of Lynchburg for more than 60 years,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Manufacturing is a major economic driver across the commonwealth, and we are proud that this industry leader’s products are not only ‘Made in America’, they are also ‘Made in Virginia.’”

Founded in 1908, Delta Star established its Lynchburg facility in 1962 and later moved its corporate headquarters to the plant. The manufacturer has more than 915 employees, of whom approximately 460 work in the Lynchburg facility. Virginia competed with California and Pennsylvania for the project.

“The Commonwealth of Virginia offers a unique set of advantages such as transportation access, business-friendly attitude at both state and local levels, [and] exceptionally well-executed and supported workforce development and recruitment programs,” Delta Star CEO Jason Greene said in a statement. “Lastly, the significant economic development and growth of the Lynchburg region through numerous programs, projects and investments have made a lasting impact.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Lynchburg and the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance to secure the project. Youngkin approved an $850,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Lynchburg with the project. Delta Star is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Delta Star will also use the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a discretionary incentive program offered by VEDP and the Virginia Community College System that provides free customizable workforce recruiting and training services for eligible businesses locating or expanding in Virginia.

Civilian life

Paul Valentine is on a winding career path. After leaving the Army more than a decade ago, he got his commercial driver’s license at Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave.

He was taking classes to try to get an engineering degree as well but quit to take full-time work at trucking companies after his wife became pregnant. In 2021, Valentine started school again at Blue Ridge; he tried calculus but switched to business management.

Valentine hopes to earn an associate degree and eventually transfer to a four-year college to get his bachelor’s degree in business administration. He doesn’t know what sector he wants to dive into, but that’s OK with him.

“The community college system here in Virginia is so flexible,” says Valentine. “If you’re struggling in one department, they encourage you to … find something that will fit better for you as an individual.”

In September 2022, the state reached a milestone in its decade-old Virginia Values Veterans (V3) program, when the 100,000th veteran landed a job through the program’s efforts. A free training and certification program for employers, V3 teaches companies best practices for recruiting, hiring and retaining veterans and their family members, who are considered excellent prospects for certain skilled jobs.

Virginia has 700,000 veterans, a higher concentration than most states, and nationwide about 200,000 people leave military service each year. That leaves a readymade workforce — and not just in Hampton Roads, home of the world’s largest naval base. Community colleges across the state have programs to train former military members for civilian jobs, about 300,000 of which are currently unfilled in Virginia. State workforce officials and agencies have been particularly focused on how to encourage these service members to stay and work in Virginia.

“We want these highly trained, skilled and disciplined men and women to find suitable employment here,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a September 2022 statement.

Community building

Shawn Avery, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, says the key to keeping vets in Virginia is connecting them with education, and community colleges play a major role in that effort.

According to Virginia Community College System (VCCS) data, 26,000 students in the state’s 23 community colleges last year had some military status — including veterans, active-duty and dependents.
That’s about 13% of all community college enrollees. Tidewater Community College and Northern Virginia Community College each had about a quarter of these students, and Germanna and Virginia Peninsula community colleges each had more than 2,000.

Veterans and administrators say community colleges provide a variety of programs to help vets navigate post-military work. The colleges train vets for their first jobs after the service but also assist them in building a long-term career that might look very different from what they did before.

The Hampton Roads Workforce Council has weekly meetings to match vets with V3-certified employers so people leaving the military can find exactly what training they need to land a job right away. Local community colleges provide that training.

“So now you have a live feedback loop directly from the folks who are hiring whether that certification brings value or not,” says Sultan Camp, director of veteran employment centers at HRWC.

The Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program also helps service members link up with apprenticeships or internships during the last few weeks of their time in the military.

Steven Borden, TCC’s Center for Military and Veterans Education director, notes that the SkillBridge program helps vets get jobs such as machinists, digital court reporters or solar power industry workers. Tidewater also has a program aimed at speeding the hiring of former service members as shipyard welders, by helping them obtain certifications while the shipyard background check process takes place. And the college offers eight-week and 16-week truck driving programs that set up graduates to earn about $50,000 annually to start.

Tidewater Community College’s educational offerings for veterans include a fast-track welding program, says Steven Borden, director of TCC’s Center for Military and Veterans Education. Photo by Mark Rhodes

Bob Dixon, military liaison and enrollment adviser at Germanna, which has campuses in Culpeper, Orange and Stafford counties and Fredericksburg, helps vets identify and achieve short-term and long-term goals at community colleges.

An Army vet who served for more than 20 years, Dixon explains that “in the military, we talk about campaigns and battles. When someone leaves the service … we kind of help them focus not only on the 10-meter target but the long-term strategy to use training and education, opportunities and resources for the rest of their career or life.”

Something new

Takesha McMiller, director of military and veterans services at NOVA, says that college advisers spend a lot of time asking students whether they want to jump into a civilian job that’s like what they did in the military, or if they want to find a new path. “And to be honest,” she says, “you get a little bit of both.”

For instance, Mitch Benefield, a 20-year Air Force veteran, earned an associate degree in business administration from Rappahannock Community College, but now he’s lining up another degree in general engineering while working at Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. as a civilian contractor for Langley Air Force Base’s communications directorate.

VCCS’ Credits2Careers online portal makes career strategizing easier for vets, allowing them to load their military occupations and other data into the system to figure out what degrees they’re closest to achieving. “It’s a great tool where they can actually use the information and see what’s going to be the best fit for them academically,” says Emily Jones-Green, the system’s coordinator of credit for prior learning.

Helping veterans shorten their time in college helps reduce costs. Like World War II vets and many others, current veterans receive educational benefits after their service. The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill provides education funding to anyone who was on active duty for 90 days or more after Sept. 10, 2001, with those who serve longer earning more funding. The money can be used to cover tuition, fees and up to $1,000 for books and supplies, and vets can transfer their G.I. Bill benefits to family members.

“It’s a fantastic program,” says Brandie Weaver, assistant director of military and veteran services at Virginia Peninsula Community College in Hampton and James City County. Many vets and their dependents rely on the program for tuition, housing and books, she notes.

Marine Corps veteran Wes Smith says the program covers most of his expenses as a student at Danville Community College, where he trained in the graphic imaging technology program and landed a job at a printing company. Now he’s studying business at the college, with plans to launch his own personal training company.

In addition to V3, the state has the G3 program (formerly promoted as “Get Skilled, Get a Job, Get Ahead”), which provides tuition assistance for any Virginia resident whose family income falls below a certain threshold. They must also enroll in programs for certain industries where workers are in demand, such as early childhood education, health care, information technology, public safety and skilled trades.

Even though the state’s G3 program isn’t just for veterans, it has unique advantages for them, according to Michele Hilts, assistant director of financial aid and veterans affairs at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke.

“If you’re eligible, [G3] pays 100% of your tuition,” Hilts says, so vets can save their federal benefits for future studies. “Let’s say they want to do welding for a couple of years … and get their certificate. That can be paid for by G3. They won’t touch their [G.I. Bill] benefits. If they decide to come back later [and study something else], then they can use it. That’s probably the biggest advantage to veterans specifically.”

Germanna’s Dixon advises his students to save part of their G.I. Bill funding too, “because I would say to them perhaps 10, 15 years from now, your boss is gonna say, ‘You know, I’d really like to make you a manager if you had a bachelor’s degree.’”

Community colleges are ideal for this kind of experimentation, says Don Stowers, New River Community College’s veterans officer. Vets can earn several degrees and certificates affordably and without investing too much time, which encourages them to stay and work in Virginia. “The beauty of a community college,” he says, “is that there’s something for everyone.”

Work it out

The Virginia Community College System is experiencing what one top official describes as a “tectonic shift.”

Although transfer programs to four-year colleges still account for the largest enrollment demand in community colleges, fewer students are interested in academic programs that can provide transfer credits to a four-year institution, a traditional mission of community colleges. Instead, an increasing number of students are opting for popular short-term workforce certification courses in skilled trades such as welding, truck driving or phlebotomy that can lead to being qualified for a career job in weeks or months, not years.

“The labor market is telling us — job seekers and career switchers are telling [us] — [that] this is what we need to have more of; this is where we need to make stronger investments,” says Randall Stamper, VCCS vice chancellor for workforce programs.

“We’re going through a significant tectonic shift among worker expectation and student expectation in respect to business demands,” Stamper adds. “There will still be folks who want an associate degree, but I think we’re going through a shift in education and it’s not unique to Virginia.”

Of the increasing interest in workforce training and certifications, Stamper says, “It’s not a crisis; it’s a natural change to a different model.”

Since 2011, when Virginia community college enrollment peaked at 197,226, enrollment has dropped by nearly 27%, to 144,215 in 2021.

Nationally, college enrollment has been falling in recent years and community colleges have been the hardest hit, shedding more than 827,000 students since the start of the pandemic, according to a May report by the National Student Clearing House Research Center.

Community colleges argue that there is no one factor that has spurred enrollment declines, and no one solution to stanching the losses.

The Virginia Community College System’s FastForward program offers 6- to 12-week workforce training classes in high-demand trades like pipefitting, seen here at Brightpoint Community College. Photo courtesy Virginia Community College System

“It’s a mix of multiple factors,” Stamper says. “It’s declining birth rates … It’s higher education in general. The return-on-investment consideration by the public has shifted.”

It’s a common public complaint that college educations, which are more expensive than ever, don’t carry the same ROI and cachet they once had. Students aren’t flocking to colleges and universities in the numbers they once did, some observers say, wary of taking on crushing debt and earning degrees that may not pay off. Six in 10 college seniors in 2019 held student loan debt, owing an average of $28,950, according to a study by the Institute for College Access & Success.

“We’re seeing increases [in enrollment], but we’re seeing increases in different places,” Stamper adds, stressing that workforce training enrollment is rising while enrollment in some other areas, such as transfer programs, has fallen.

Sharon Morrissey, VCCS vice chancellor for academic and workforce programs, was appointed interim chancellor of the community college system in June, while a search for a permanent chancellor is underway.

Plainly put, Morrissey says, the community college system’s workforce training role is critical because Virginia needs more workers, a point Gov. Glenn Youngkin has expressed while insisting that his administration have a seat at the hiring panel’s table for the next VCCS chancellor. The previous hire for chancellor withdrew amid controversy, leading to Morrissey’s appointment.

“We’ve got 300,000 jobs that are unfilled because there are not enough workers,” Morrissey says. “We know that a lot of people are not out there looking for jobs, because wages have increased.”

Hitting FastForward

The heavy lifter among the state community college system’s workforce efforts is FastForward, an initiative offering short-term workforce training programs for high-demand employment sectors.

Started in 2016, FastForward came out of a statewide tour during which community college officials asked business and industrial leaders across the state what they needed most.

The resounding answer: “Qualified workers.”

In 2015, the General Assembly inserted language in the state budget that directed the VCCS chancellor to develop a plan to address a gap in middle-skills work — jobs that require some postsecondary education, but not necessarily a degree.

Community college workforce training programs usually last six to 12 weeks and offer a flexible learning schedule so that working students can earn industry credentials and certifications, choosing among dozens of career paths.

On average, students who earn credentials through a FastForward training program can go on to earn a median annual wage of $36,928, a 36% increase over their previous wages, according to VCCS data.

In certain high-demand jobs, the median wage increases over students’ former wages can be even more significant: construction, 70% gain; manufacturing, 61%; health care, 61%; transportation, 53%.

Since 2016, FastForward has seen 50% growth in enrollment, with FastForward students earning about one-fifth of the 32,000-plus degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded by the community college system in the last academic year. About 96% of FastForward students complete their courses and about 72% of those students pass the tests needed to earn credentials that qualify them for jobs.

“The average FastForward student is
34 years old. Two out of three of them have dependents, and 20% of them had been on public benefits in the year before they enrolled. So, it’s a different kind of student,” Stamper says.

The state underwrites the cost of workforce training programs, which are noncredit programs that lead to an industry credential or a third-party credential. It could be anything from a state license issued by the Board of Nursing to a certification from the American Welding Society.

“We’ve got 300,000 jobs that are unfilled because there are not enough workers,” says Sharon Morrissey, interim chancellor of the community college system. Photo by Caroline Martin

FastForward also has a unique twist.

“Everybody has skin in the game, and it pays for performance,” Stamper says. “To our knowledge, it’s the only pay-for-performance … college-based [program] in the country.”

Here’s how it works: The student pays the first third of the cost of tuition. If the student completes the training course successfully, the state pays for the second third of the cost. When the student earns an industry credential, usually by sitting for an examination or demonstrating an acquired skill, the state will pay the final third. If the student doesn’t successfully complete the training, the student is responsible for the second third, and the college is not paid for the final third.

Another new state workforce initiative is G3 (Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead), which provides tuition assistance for students pursuing degrees or certification in high-demand fields, including health care, information technology and manufacturing.

“G3 is for people who have a family income of less than 400% of the federal poverty level. The 400% federal poverty level for a family of four is $100,000. Below $100,000 in a family of four, you qualify for G3,” Morrissey says.

G3 is “a last dollar program,” meaning it makes up the difference not covered by federal financial aid.

“It’s a brilliant program,” Morrissey says. “We just got through our first year. … We saw enrollment increase in these G3-eligible programs, while overall our enrollment continued in a decline mode last year, which tells us, just like the FastForward programs, there is a demand for funding to help students pay for the cost of college.”

High demand, fast hires

Even community college veterans are astonished by the rapid shift in the demand for workforce credentials. Amid ongoing labor shortages, industries turn to the community colleges to produce workers — preferably as fast as possible.

“I’ve been in workforce development for 22 years and I’ve never seen anything like this labor market. Employers are working very closely with us to have first access to the students who are completing these [high-demand] programs,” says Elizabeth Creamer, vice president of workforce development and credential attainment for the Community College Workforce Alliance.

A joint workforce training division of Brightpoint and Reynolds community colleges in the Richmond region, CCWA helps create skilled talent pipelines for businesses, as well as providing training credentials to connect job seekers with living-wage jobs that don’t require a college degree.

CCWA offers training for 33 FastForward programs focusing on areas such as health care, information technology, transportation and logistics, and manufacturing. It’s had a good track record so far, with companies such as Philip Morris USA, DuPont, Gerdau and Standard Motor Products Inc. hiring workers out of CCWA programs. Philip Morris, DuPont and other companies have also partnered with CCWA on apprenticeship programs.

Employers ranging from local governments to Fortune 500 companies are clamoring for workers in a variety of trades that don’t require four-year degrees, says Elizabeth Creamer with the Community College Workforce Alliance. Photo by Caroline Martin

Just since January, VCU Health has hired 29 clinical medical assistants from CCWA training programs, and Henrico County hired three graduates of a new training program for 911 emergency dispatchers.

During the pandemic, Creamer says, workforce programs saw a dramatic increase in enrollment.

Overall CCWA enrollment dropped from 7,449 to 5,737 between 2019 and 2021, largely due to a lack of enrollment for in-person professional development classes during the pandemic. During the same time period, however, enrollment in short-term certification programs skyrocketed at CCWA, which saw its FastForward program enrollment grow by 49% to 2,300 students. And some programs, like health care, saw 80% growth over pre-pandemic enrollment levels.

In 2020, Glenn and Suzanne Youngkin started the Virginia Ready Initiative, which collaborates with the FastForward program to help people laid off during the pandemic get skilled for in-demand jobs in health care, IT, cybersecurity and manufacturing. Those who complete FastForward credentials get $1,000 in cash on top of state funding.

During the pandemic, Creamer says, “there were major shifts in the employment market: Restaurant workers were out of work, [as were] food service and hospitality workers. A lot of them came to us for training.”

And the demand in many fields is so great, Creamer says, that skilled workers such as electricians, HVAC technicians and health care and technology workers can find jobs almost as soon as they qualify. Some employers even show up on the last day of classes to get the first opportunity to recruit new graduates with in-demand skills.

“These are working adults who are making sacrifices to be here … and they’re coming because they’re trying to get ahead,” Creamer says of students entering FastForward programs.

Life-changing opportunities

In fact, one of her favorite workforce training success stories comes from her own family.

“My son-in-law started with workforce training programs. He became a pipe fitter,” Creamer says. “And then he got an apprenticeship in his company, and the apprenticeship also afforded him a community college degree in mechanical engineering technology. Then he used his company’s tuition benefits to earn a mechanical engineering degree from Old Dominion University.”

Not yet 30, Creamer’s son-in-law now “has about 10 years’ experience in the trades,” she says proudly. “He has an [associate] degree in a technology field and he has an engineering degree — and all of that without any student debt and marrying my daughter and having two children.”

Workforce training programs also offer a chance for redemption for some students.

Consider Keon Melton, who was released from prison in January after serving a 10-year sentence for robbery. At 36, Melton, who lives in Portsmouth, says he’s trying to restart his life, establish a relationship with his two sons, 19 and 10, and become a productive member of society.

Melton read a lot in prison and became a tutor for other prisoners seeking their GEDs, he says. After prison, he felt lost, he says, until he entered a welding training program at Tidewater Community College. “Opportunities are opening up,” he says. “Once I came across the welding, it set me up for a career.”

With a recommendation from his welding instructor, an area employer hired Melton before he’d even finished the class. In his new Portsmouth-area job, Melton has welded doors at an Amazon warehouse and helped on a ship repair, among other projects.

Tamara Williams, vice president for workforce solutions at TCC, says welders are in such high demand, especially in the region’s maritime industry, that the college established a mobile welding lab as part of a partnership between TCC, the city of Norfolk and Lyon Shipyard.

Statewide effort

In Southwest Virginia, Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap created a workforce training pipeline for medical records professionals that led Rochester, New York-based eHealth Technologies to create 160 new jobs in Scott County.

“We were building a pipeline before the opportunity for employees was there,” says Vickie Ratliff, retired vice president of academic services at Mountain Empire.

Ratliff credits Will Payne, who leads regional economic development organizations InvestSWVA and Coalfield Strategies LLC, with connecting eHealth with Mountain Empire.

Payne is also working with four community colleges in Southwest Virginia to explore how manufacturing companies in the region could become part of the supply chain for the offshore wind energy industry being created in Hampton Roads.

Adam Hutchison, president of Virginia Highlands Community College, lived and worked in Texas, the biggest wind energy-producing state, and he believes that making parts for wind turbines could be a good fit for the manufacturing heritage and skill sets of Southwest Virginia, where coal production once flourished.

“We have companies that know how to build and make stuff … and people who know how to build and make stuff,” he says.

Community college workforce training programs are also crucial to advanced manufacturing industries coming into Southern Virginia, where textile and furniture manufacturing once dominated.

Workforce programs in community colleges often work in tandem with the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program. A workforce training program created in 2019 by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership in partnership with VCCS, VTAP provides free custom workforce training and recruitment solutions for companies locating or expanding within Virginia.

A good example of VTAP’s collaborative impact can be seen in Tyson Foods’
$350 million manufacturing plant in Danville, says Mike Grundmann, VEDP’s senior vice president of talent solutions. VTAP created a website to recruit workers, and Danville Community College offered training for the mechatronic technicians Tyson needed to repair and maintain equipment at the facility.

Morrissey, the interim chancellor, says that transfer programs to four-year colleges still account for the largest enrollment demand in community colleges, and she doesn’t see that changing.

The community college system, Morrissey explains, still plays a valuable role in saving students and their families money by allowing them to study for two years at a less expensive community college before going on to a university.

“The governor and the secretary of education have both acknowledged the value of bachelor’s degrees,” she says. “That’s workforce preparation, too.”

VCU, VCCS to receive $3.5M for transfer student program

The Mellon Foundation will award a combined $3.5 million to Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Community College System, VCU announced Tuesday.

“We are excited to continue our partnership on the Mellon Pathways Program and build upon the strong history of collaboration between VCU and the Virginia Community College System,” Deborah Noble-Triplett, senior vice provost for academic affairs at VCU and co-principal investigator of the grant, said in a statement. “This award will ensure the program remains strong and provides important continuity for our Mellon Pathways Program students as we welcome our first cohort to VCU.”

The grants will extend the Mellon Pathways to the Arts and Humanities Program until May 2025. VCCS will receive $1.98 million, and VCU almost $1.52 million. The program provides resources to arts and humanities students at Reynolds and John Tyler (becoming Brightpoint) community colleges who are transferring to VCU.

The Mellon Pathways program began in March 2018 with an initial $2.3 million from the Mellon Foundation. The first cohort entered community colleges in August 2019.

The program provides:

Advising on course selection, transfer logistics and financial aid
The ability for college students to take VCU coursework in their majors and participate in VCU events before they transfer
Career development panels and workshops, and creation of a professional ePortfolio
Funding and scholarships reserved for students in the program, like a stipend for Mellon Research Fellows

The new grants will allow the program to serve more students and provide Relevant, Experiential, Applied Learning (REAL) opportunities to transferred students through internships, mentorship and undergraduate research, with a focus on career planning and readiness.

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Tag: Virginia Community College System