Not long ago, Spartanburg Community College in South Carolina developed a program alignment report comparing the current labor market with the college’s academic offerings. The goal was to determine whether the college is producing enough graduates in fields that are in demand in the region, or whether it may be overproducing graduates in areas where workforce demand is lower. Spartanburg’s EPIIC partner, Northeast State Community College in Tennessee, took inspiration from that idea and developed a dynamic dashboard that shows in real time where Northeast State’s academic programs stand in relation to its labor market, identifying areas of success and growth. The two colleges then swapped notes and shared their ideas at a recent EPIIC project meeting.
Like many EPIIC projects, EPIIC’s BOOST project—comprised of Spartanburg, Northeast State, and Tidewater Community College in Virginia—thrives on partnership and collaboration. “We all joke about this, but I swear we all believe that it was like a match made in heaven between our three community colleges,” says Dawn Bridwell, Northeast State Technology Division Project Director and PI on the BOOST project.
Shared Goals
Part of the reason this collaboration clicked is that all three institutions are community colleges. “We all have the same broad perspective on things in our target population and who we’re trying to serve and what our goals are,” says Nikki Morrison, Director of Sponsored Programs and Strategic Initiatives at Northeast State Community College. They also share a common focus: moving beyond one-off employer relationships and building lasting systems for workforce partnership.