The Community College Pipeline To Small Businesses
Summary
Government Publishing Office print of a hearing, The Community College Pipeline To Small Businesses, on November 4, 2021 before the Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development of the House Committee on Small Business, with Hon. Jason Crow presiding. The witnesses are Dr. Anne M. Kress of Northern Virginia Community College, Dr. Rebecca A. Corbin of NACCE, Joe Garcia of the Colorado Community College System and Frank Boecker of Sunwest Electric Inc. In his opening remarks Crow calls community colleges an underappreciated strength of the education system and notes that Americans started 4.3 million businesses in 2020. The subcommittee was adjourned at 11:24 a.m.; the middle was not read.
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“The Community College Pipeline To Small Businesses.”
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[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PIPELINE TO SMALL
BUSINESSES
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INNOVATION,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
NOVEMBER 4, 2021
__________
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT
Small Business Committee Document Number 117-040
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
45-997 WASHINGTON : 2022
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
MARIE NEWMAN, Illinois
CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, Georgia
TROY CARTER, Louisiana
JUDY CHU, California
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri, Ranking Member
ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
CLAUDIA TENNEY, New York
ANDREW GARBARINO, New York
YOUNG KIM, California
BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
BYRON DONALDS, Florida
MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin
Melissa Jung, Majority Staff Director
Ellen Harrington, Majority Deputy Staff Director
David Planning, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Jason Crow.................................................. 1
Hon. Young Kim................................................... 2
WITNESSES
Dr. Anne M. Kress, PhD, President, Northern Virginia Community
College, Annandale, VA......................................... 5
Dr. Rebecca A. Corbin, Ed.D., President and Chief Executive
Officer, The National Association for Community College
Entrepreneurship (NACCE), Cary, NC............................. 7
Mr. Joe Garcia, Chancellor, Colorado Community College System,
Denver, CO..................................................... 9
Mr. Frank Boecker, Manager of Human Resources, Sunwest Electric
Inc., Anaheim, CA, testifying on behalf of Associated Builders
and Contractors................................................ 10
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Dr. Anne M. Kress, PhD, President, Northern Virginia
Community College, Annandale, VA........................... 27
Dr. Rebecca A. Corbin, Ed.D., President and Chief Executive
Officer, The National Association for Community College
Entrepreneurship (NACCE), Cary, NC......................... 32
Mr. Joe Garcia, Chancellor, Colorado Community College
System, Denver, CO......................................... 38
Mr. Frank Boecker, Manager of Human Resources, Sunwest
Electric Inc., Anaheim, CA, testifying on behalf of
Associated Builders and Contractors........................ 42
Questions for the Record:
None.
Answers for the Record:
None.
Additional Material for the Record:
None.
THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PIPELINE TO SMALL BUSINESSES
----------
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2021
House of Representatives,
Committee on Small Business,
Subcommittee on Innovation,
Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:01 a.m., in
Room 2360, Rayburn House Office Building and via Zoom, Hon.
Jason Crow [chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Crow, Davids, Bourdeaux, Young
Kim, Williams, Tenney, and Garbarino.
Chairman CROW. Good morning. I call this hearing to order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
recess at any time.
I would like to begin by noting some important
requirements. Let me begin by saying that standing House and
Committee rules and practice will continue to apply during
hybrid proceedings. All Members are reminded that they are
expected to adhere to these standing rules including decorum.
House regulations require Members to be visible through a
video connection throughout the proceeding, so please keep your
cameras on. Also, please remember to remain muted until you are
recognized to minimize background noise. If you have to
participate in another proceeding, please exit this one and log
back in later.
In the event a Member encounters technical issues that
prevent them from being recognized for their questioning, I
will move to the next available Member of the same party and I
will recognize that Member at the next appropriate time slot
provided they have returned to the proceeding.
For those Members physically present in the Committee room,
in accordance with the attending physician's most recent
guidance, Members and staff who attend this hybrid hearing in
person will be required to wear masks in the hearing. With that
said, Members are allowed to briefly remove their masks if they
are being recognized to speak.
Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today. It
is great to be joined by representatives from community
colleges across the country. I believe that America's community
college system is one of the underappreciated strengths of our
great education system.
Our university system is widely regarded as the best
globally, but a 4-year degree is not for everyone. At the same
time, Americans must obtain the education they need to embark
on good-paying careers that can support a family.
So that is where community colleges come in. These
institutions are pillars of their communities, helping to
provide affordable and practical education that equip students
with the skills needed to contribute to the modern economy. As
the U.S. recovers from COVID, the role of community colleges
has never been more critical. COVID has radically changed the
nature of work in our country and the preferences and desires
of the labor force.
Nearly a third of U.S. workers under 40 years old have
thought about changing their occupation or field since the
start of COVID. We are seeing that right now as there is a
massive realignment of the labor force and preferences as
people go back to work but in different fields. This has led to
high resignation rates and workers hungry for new skills to
find different work. For many of those switching careers,
community college might be the best place to obtain the skills
needed to make that transition effectively.
Community colleges offer many ``noncredit courses,''
focused solely on building skills applicable directly in the
workplace. These efficient, affordable courses are often
designed in consultation with local businesses and workforce
boards. As a result, the curriculum is hyper-focused on
training workers specifically for certain businesses or
industries.
In 2020, Americans started 4.3 million businesses, by far
the highest in over 15 years. Community colleges can also help
these entrepreneurs. Many have created entrepreneurship centers
that offer a wide-range of training and technical assistance
initiatives.
From developing a business plan to conducting market
analysis, these centers can guide students through all the
different facets of launching an enterprise. These are just
some of the significant benefits that community colleges
provide.
I hope that today's hearing allows us to explore how these
institutions can help as we rebuild the American economy and
retool the workforce.
So I would now like to yield to the Ranking Member, Ms.
Young Kim, for her opening statement.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Chairman Crow, for holding this
very important hearing. And I would like to thank our witnesses
for testifying today. At the same time, I would also like to
thank my colleagues and Members who are joining us in person,
as well as virtually.
Our country's greatest asset is our workforce. The economy
cannot survive or thrive without the skills, the knowledge, and
innovation that the American worker contributes to their local
communities.
Unfortunately, our economy is facing a labor crisis that is
impacting every small business owner and employee, while also
threatening the nation's long-term economic prosperity.
Employers across all industries are struggling to fill more
than 10.4 million job openings to meet the current demand.
And NFIB reports that 51 percent of small business owners
have unfilled job openings. And this is the 48-year record high
that contributes to be problematic for our nation's job
creators and the history average is only 22.
The pandemic has not only created a labor crisis but it has
also accelerated the growing skills gap. The skills gap is the
delta between the skills an employee has and the skills they
actually need to perform a job.
In September 2021, 67 percent of small businesses reported
hiring or trying to hire employees and a staggering 92 percent
of those employers reported few or no qualified applicants for
the positions they were trying to fill.
While the majority of employers are facing a talent
shortage, training programs can address this crisis by
preparing a pipeline of workers that have the academic, the
technical, and the employability skills necessary to succeed in
the workplace.
Community colleges play a vital role in supporting their
local workforce and regional economy by facilitating workforce
development activities, such as the classroom segments of the
apprenticeships, as well as general hands-on technical
training. Not only are community colleges aware of the needs of
the local firms but they can also train and educate students at
a relatively low cost compared to that of a 4-year university.
Additionally, career and technical education (CTE) and trade
schools provide the technical skills, knowledge, and training
necessary to succeed in the workforce. CTE prepares students
for the world of work by introducing them to the workforce
competences and making academic content accessible in a hands-
on context.
The high school graduation rate for students who are
enrolled in a CT program is approximately 90 percent. As a
comparison, this is 15 percentage points higher than the
national average.
I have personally had the privilege of working with a
career training program serving constituents in my district, in
the 39th Congressional District in Southern California. The
ReIGNITE Hope trains students for a career in welding and gets
them certified in a system with job placement. They have
trained over 700 students for a career in welding and have 100
percent certification pass rate. The ReIGNITE Hope does a
tremendous job in giving people a second chance and assisting
them with job placement.
As communities continue to recover from the COVID-19
pandemic, small businesses can play an important role in
providing viable pathways into the workforce and they are
uniquely suited to help those, you know, and close the skills
gap through the apprenticeships, CTE, and public-private
educational partnerships. However, we need to allow our small
businesses to prosper instead of hamstringing them with the
threat of higher taxes and more regulations.
As we hold this hearing today, small businesses across the
country are facing labor shortages, inflation, and major supply
chain disruptions. I look forward to hearing all of your
testimonies today and I hope to work with my colleagues to find
real solutions to support our small businesses and close that
ever-growing workforce skills gap.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Ms. Young Kim. The gentlelady
yields back.
I would like to take a moment to explain how this hearing
will proceed. Each witness will have 5 minutes to provide a
statement and each Committee Member will have 5 minutes for
questions. Please ensure that your microphone is on when you
begin speaking and that you return to mute when finished.
With that, I would like to introduce our first witness.
Our first witness is Dr. Anne Kress.
Dr. Kress, am I pronouncing that correctly?
Dr. Kress is the president of Northern Virginia Community
College where she has served since January 2020. She has more
than 25 years of experience in higher education having served
as a tenured English professor, department chair, associate
vice president, provost, and president of community colleges in
Florida, New York, and now Virginia. She serves on the Board of
the American Association of Community Colleges, the Executive
Committee of the Task Force on Higher Education and
Opportunity, Jobs of the Futures Policy Trust and Community
College Workforce Consortium, alongside many more.
Welcome, Dr. Kress. I look forward to your testimony.
Our next witness is Dr. Rebeca Corbin, the president and
CEO of the National Association of Community College
Entrepreneurship (NACCE). By her leadership, NACCE has grown by
leaps and bounds, serving a vibrant community of more than 300
community colleges and historically Black colleges and
universities alongside individual member faculty and
administrators driving to ignite entrepreneurship in their
colleges and communities. Prior to NACCE, she served as vice
president of Institutional Advancement and as executive
director of the BCC Foundation at Burlington Community College
where she successfully launched a new workforce development
initiative. She is also the co-author of the recently published
Impact ED: How Community College Entrepreneurship Creates
Equity and Prosperity.
Thank you, Dr. Corbin, for being here today.
Our next witness is Mr. Joe Garcia. Mr. Garcia is
chancellor of the Colorado Community College System, the
largest system of higher education in Colorado which serves
over 125,000 students annually at 13 colleges and 35-plus
locations across the state. He currently serves on the boards
for the National Student Clearinghouse, the Mexican-American
Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Colorado Opportunity
Scholarship Initiative. He is also the Chair of education and
training for the Colorado Workforce Development Counsel. From
2011 to 2016, Mr. Garcia served as the lieutenant governor of
Colorado and as the executive director of the Colorado
Department of Higher Education where he focused on increasing
equity and educational outcomes for all students, particularly
those from low-income backgrounds and communities of color.
Thank you, Mr. Garcia. And, also, a close, personal friend
of mine and somebody who I rely on to inform me on those
issues. So I am really pleased you were able to join us today,
Mr. Garcia.
I will now yield to the Ranking Member, Ms. Young Kim, to
introduce our final witness.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Our fourth witness is Frank Boecker, the human resources
manager for Sunwest Electric, who is testifying today on behalf
of the Associated Builders and Contractors.
Since 1985, Sunwest Electric has grown into one of the most
respected merit shop electrical contractors in California with
240 employees working on projects throughout Southern
California. Mr. Boecker has worked in the electrical industry
for over 40 years and he started as an electrical apprentice on
commercial and industrial projects and later enlisted in the
United States Coast Guard to finish his formal electrician
training. And after serving 6 years as an electrician, Mr.
Boecker left the military and continued working in the field as
a journeyman electrician and foreman. Mr. Boecker has served in
the role of human resources manager for over 20 years,
recruiting all levels and trades in the construction industry.
Mr. Boecker believes that providing a great craft and
apprenticeship education impowers people to find careers in the
construction industry. He has received many accolades for his
efforts in helping veterans and employing local Native
Americans, economically challenged people, and those deserving
of a second chance. He served as the 2020 Chair of the
Associated Builders and Contractors Southern California Chapter
and has partnered with local universities to help them develop
curriculum in construction management and provide career
counseling for graduates. Mr. Boecker is an advocate for his
local community and his real-world experience will be extremely
beneficial to our hearing today.
Thank you, Mr. Boecker, for your service and taking the
time to testify before us today.
And Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you very much.
Dr. Kress, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF ANNE M. KRESS, PHD, PRESIDENT, NORTHERN VIRGINIA
COMMUNITY COLLEGE; REBECCA A. CORBIN, ED.D., PRESIDENT AND
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR COMMUNITY
COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP; JOE GARCIA, CHANCELLOR, COLORADO
COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM; FRANK BOECKER, MANAGER OF HUMAN
RESOURCES, SUNWEST ELECTRIC, INC.
STATEMENT OF ANNE M. KRESS
Ms. KRESS. Good morning. I am Anne Kress. I am the
president of Northern Virginia Community College and I
sincerely want to thank you, Chairman Crow, and Ranking Member
Young Kim, and all Members of this Committee for really turning
attention to America's community colleges.
As you noted, we are probably one of the most unsung
secrets in higher education and our connection with small
businesses has never been more important. Community colleges
across the country skill, reskill, and upskill America's
workforce on an ongoing basis and our relationships with the
local businesses in our community help our regional economies
thrive and individuals prosper.
Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) serves more than
80,000 in credit and non-credit programs. We are the largest
public higher education institution in the Commonwealth of
Virginia and our impact across the state is unequaled. One out
of every three individuals in a community college in Virginia
attends NOVA.
Ninety-one percent of our students come from our region and
60 percent of our students are students of color reflecting the
diversity that you will see in Northern Virginia. These are
students who go to college locally, who want to stay locally,
who want to work locally. This is the message I want to share
with you today. This partnership between community colleges and
small businesses, medium businesses, large businesses has never
been more important than it is during what we refer to as the
Great Resignation.
NOVA strengthens the Northern Virginia talent pool every
single year with thousands of career path graduates in
associate and certificate programs. These range from automotive
tech to accounting, cybersecurity to contract management, HVAC
to horticulture. Such programs reflect the diversity of the
businesses in our community and the close partnership that we
have with local employees. Fifty percent of the individuals
serving on our program advisory councils at NOVA come from
small businesses.
And the results of that partnership are striking. In just
the past 12 months, NOVA has connected almost 600 small
businesses to our graduates and current students.
On the noncredit side, Virginia funds the Fast Forward
Program. It is an initiative focused on accelerating programs
that lead to in-demand industry certifications. Fast Forward
students pay only a third of the cost of their programs with
the remaining 2/3 picked up by the state in a performance-based
model. Because these credentials are tied to real workforce
demands in the localities that the colleges reside, they are
tied to real wage gains and real jobs that folks can walk into
today. On average, Fast Forward programs produce a 24 percent
gain in income and an even greater return, 28 percent for those
in low-income zip codes.
One of our recent Fast Forward graduates at NOVA was a 35-
year-old woman, Arona. Arona came to the U.S. just before the
pandemic and the only job she could find was as a nanny. But
folks in her church told her that she should try NOVA. They
told her that the training at NOVA would be very job specific,
it would be fast, and it would connect her to a brand new
career. So she gave it a try. She saved up her money and she
began the Fast Forward program. She took courses online. She
did her labs on the weekends. And 4 months later, Arona earned
her medical assistant credential and is working in a
pediatrician's office. This is the story about connecting
individuals who have hopes and dreams and aspirations to
training that connects them to real employment that helps grow
our small businesses.
As we come out of the pandemic, this combination of short-
term timelines, real wage returns, and jobs in our local
communities have made Fast Forward programs more impactful and
popular than ever. In just the past year, Fast Forward
enrollment at NOVA has grown by over 55 percent, with
enrollment by Hispanic students increasing by 80 percent and by
Black students growing by a remarkable 233 percent. These are
individuals who can see the connection between Fast Forward
training, the certificates and credentials they earn, and the
jobs they can find within a very short period of time because
students enroll in workforce programs for a very simple
reason--they are looking for jobs and they want jobs that lead
to sustaining careers.
And we can do more to connect learning and earning.
Apprenticeships are one way to do that. Students are employees
from day one and it is a unique model that we will hear about
clearly more later. But NOVA launched our first apprenticeships
in the tech sector with Amazon web services. We have now
expanded those and have served more than 400 different
apprentices.
Earlier this year, NOVA joined the Greater Washington
Apprentice Network, recognizing that small businesses often
lack the capacity to add these apprentice programs and this
will leverage that skillset.
One thing I will just end with is what has already been
mentioned. Our recent survey with the Workforce Index with
Northern Virginia Chamber has found that a third of all
employers have having difficulty finding employees who meet the
education and experience. When we see that, we also know that
2/3 of them are looking to expand hiring. NOVA and community
colleges across the country offer that opportunity to build
that short-term training pathway, those apprentices, and to
leverage what we know to help small businesses grow.
I look forward to answering your questions.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Kress.
Dr. Corbin, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF REBECCA A. CORBIN
Ms. CORBIN. Good morning. Thank you for inviting me. It is
a pleasure to be here, Chairman Crow and Ranking Member Young
Kim. I am pleased to offer a national perspective on
entrepreneurship in community colleges.
Community colleges, as you know and as you stated, are a
lifeline for small business. And what we know from looking at
the data is that out of the approximately 1,200 community
colleges, approximately 75 percent have an entrepreneurship
training or support program of some kind. Twenty percent have a
small business development center on their campus. And in the
State of North Carolina where NACCE is located, every one of
the 58 community colleges has a small business center called an
SBDTC on the community college campus which offers somewhat of
a national model for other states to take a look at.
One of the things that NACCE prides itself in is really
leveraging the talent and the leadership and the enthusiasm of
community colleges which puts us in a unique perspective. This
year there has been since June, 440,000 new businesses started
in this country. While they are suffering from the pandemic and
much loss, that is a tremendous opportunity.
One of the things that we do know though from the data from
the Kauffman Foundation and Department of Labor is that within
the first year, 20 percent of those businesses will fail. By
year 5, almost half of them will fail. But it does not have to
be that way. We can expand the level of support, the resources,
and these new businesses themselves will serve existing larger
businesses and help both rural, suburban, and urban
communities.
I want to speak briefly about how community colleges
support business creation and also startups, things that people
may not be readily aware of.
One way are venture labs. Venture labs introduce, inspire,
and encourage technical and creative entrepreneurship.
Sometimes they are called feasibility labs. What we have seen
through the NACCE network in the last couple of years is the
introduction of the Everyday Entrepreneur Venture Fund which is
a seed fund started by a husband and wife philanthropists,
provides seed grants of $5,000 to $6,000 where everyday
entrepreneurs, women, immigrants, people of color, people
without access to capital can get training and support through
the community college and just a little bit of funding to buy
tools, to buy something to really realize that American dream.
Hillsborough Community College in Florida through the InLab
is an exceptional example. We write about this in the book that
you mentioned, Mr. Crow, in your introduction, Impact Ed: How
Community Colleges can promote prosperity and equity for all.
Further, incubators, which have been around for a while,
also provide a coworking space, dedicated space. Maricopa
Community College District in Arizona has an excellent example
that we write about in one of our other books that really shows
how a Discovery Triangle, a simple business Lean Canvas can
really open up the door for opportunity for people.
Likewise, makerspaces where people can create, these are
often diverse communities where they have 3D printers and laser
cutters, can really experience the abilities and skills of
everyone, those who are gifted and those who struggle to create
new things, new opportunities, new inventions, and hope for our
communities.
And finally, as Dr. Kress so well stated, entrepreneurship
exists in academic and noncredit programs in excellent
institutions like hers and many others around the country.
I want to spend the last minute though talking about a
couple of case examples in our home state of North Carolina.
First was opened up to us by North Carolina State
Representative James Roberson through our connection at Wake
Tech. He introduced us to a man by the name of Darrell Tennie,
who prides himself in hiring Wake Tech students right out of
the gate and he specifically looks for students of color,
immigrants, people who do not have traditional opportunities,
and he invests in them. He gives them titles. He mentors them.
His career is flourishing. He is getting ready to open up an
office in Las Vegas to expand his accounting practice. This
could be scaled widely throughout the United States.
A second case example is another small business in North
Carolina called Chapel Hill Tire. NACCE had an opportunity with
some community college support to conduct a design thinking
session for Chapel Hill Tire. They wanted to transition to a
paperless system and they could not figure out how to do it. So
they came to the community college and to NACCE and said, would
you facilitate this? Help our employees learn how they can use
everyday tools to become more efficient. It was so successful
that Chapel Hill Tire made a donation which allowed NACCE to
bring on two historically Black colleges and universities on to
our membership.
I would just like to close with thanking you all for having
this hearing. Everyone who is tuning in around the country. I
believe and my colleagues believe that entrepreneurship and
community colleges are really the gateway. And thank you for
allowing us to have a seat at the table. We stand ready to
support you in your work. Thank you very much.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Corbin.
Mr. Garcia, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Garcia, I think you are muted.
STATEMENT OF JOE GARCIA
Mr. GARCIA. Thank you, Representative Crow. Mr. Chair, I
appreciate the opportunity to be here. And sorry for that
temporary glitch. I really appreciate the opportunity to be
with all of you and to talk about the work of our community
colleges.
As you noted earlier, our 13 community colleges are the
state's largest provider of higher education and career
training in the state and we serve about 125,000 students
annually at over 35 locations around the state. And our mission
is to provide accessible, affordable, supportive and
transformative post-secondary education and workforce training
to help our students build better lives and stronger
communities.
Post-secondary educational institutions, I think we all
know, will be key to our recovery from the pandemic by helping
us develop a competitive workforce, and it is community
colleges in particular that are most accessible to workers and
responsive to business and industry needs.
Now, this past year we targeted, enrolled, trained, and
supported displaced workers and nontraditional adult students,
helping them to reskill or upskill and obtain industry
recognized credentials that align with in-demand high wage
occupations and in the end lead to meaningful employment. And
our colleges have committed to reimagining how best to serve
today's adult learner, redefining what success means for this
particular group of students and putting less emphasis on
traditional degree completion and more emphasis on the
development of entrepreneurial skills tied to career-aligned
programs that provide family sustaining wages.
And we have deliberately redesigned the time, place, and
manner in which we offer our programs to meet the needs of
adult learners--increasing the number of courses we offer in
the evenings, on weekends, and to online and hybrid delivery.
We have even added mobile learning labs that feature portable
classrooms with professional grade trainers and instruction
stations and customized training tools in areas like welding,
machining, and materials testing. And these are labs that can
be driven to a worksite so that instruction can be delivered
anywhere in the state.
Now, as industries automate and evolve, we know individuals
will pursue opportunities in new sectors so our colleges work
in partnership with industry to develop curriculum in short-
term programs that allow individuals with varying levels of
academic readiness an opportunity to quickly shift into new
roles based on their actual skills and experiences.
Now, we also deploy customized corporate training in
noncredit offerings that allow for lower cost, shorter programs
that are aligned with industry standards. For example, we know
apprenticeships have proven successful for decades in the
skilled trade sector and we now support opportunities in
nontraditional sectors like information technology, financial
services, and even healthcare. And that helps students further
reduce the cost of their education and decrease time to
credential attainment, we have been at the forefront of
providing opportunities to earn post-secondary credit from past
work experience, from time in the military, demonstrated
knowledge, skills, and abilities through what we call prior
learning assessment.
Now, these are just a few examples of the ways our colleges
provide relevant, cost-effective workforce education and
training. And employers know the value of a well-educated
employee and they know our programs produce more productive and
valuable employees in part because those employees help us
design and offer the training.
Now, while our colleges continue to stand at the ready to
support the workforce of the future, it is critical that we
ensure equitable access for all students, and noncredit and
short-term programs are often not financial aid eligible, which
results in a debt load to the student and sometimes limits
enrollment to those who can afford to pay. Financially,
adaptations like short-term Pell could dramatically increase
enrollment specifically for low-income, marginalized adult
students who are most in need of training.
Additionally, our workforce programs, while innovative and
responsive, are frankly, expensive to develop and require more
costly equipment and instructors than traditional academic
programs. So, for example, programs in information technology,
healthcare, in advanced manufacturing are in great demand but
are also among the most expensive programs to offer. And in
order to maintain our roles as leading providers of workforce
training and to maintain affordability for students, it is
critical that we make meaningful investments in career and
technical education infrastructure at our colleges.
So in conclusion, community colleges--we all recognize--are
the key to our nation's economic future and its civic and
cultural vitality. We serve the fastest growing student
populations, those with limited economic resources, those who
are ethnic and racial minorities, those who are refugees,
veterans, working parents, and many others who are not well-
served in more traditional and more expensive 4-year
institutions. So, as our economy relies more and more on those
with higher education and skills training, we are the colleges
that will equip students for success in the future.
I look forward to answering any questions you have. Thank
you very much.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Garcia.
Mr. Boecker, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF FRANK BOECKER
Mr. BOECKER. Chairman Crow, Ranking Member Young Kim and
Members of the U.S. House Committee on Small Business, thank
you for the invitation to discuss the indispensable role that
community colleges, trade schools and career and technical
education programs play in the construction industry, which
currently employs 7.4 million craftworkers throughout our
country.
My name is Frank Boecker, and I am the human resources
manager for Sunwest Electric, a business established in
Southern California in 1984 with the goal of providing our
customers with a competitive, high-quality, turnkey product.
Since founding, Sunwest has grown to be one of the most
respected merit shop electrical contractors in California, with
240 field electricians currently working on projects throughout
Southern California. I am testifying today on behalf of
Associated Builders and Contractors, a national construction
industry trade association established in 1950 that represents
more than 21,000 Member companies across our country.
Sunwest is a Member of the ABC Southern California chapter
founded in 1993. ABC SoCal has become one of the first nonunion
apprenticeship programs to be certified in California.
The subject of this hearing is very important to me as I
believe a path to a successful career begins in the classroom.
Sunwest Electric is proud to offer every employee the
opportunity to participate in the many educational
opportunities at ABC SoCal or our own programs at Sunwest
Electric. As part of our Sunwest in-house educational programs,
we offer hands-on experience, computer education, safety
courses and construction management classes to help our
employees to continue to progress quickly in their careers as
electricians. Our company currently has more than 100 employees
attending a 4-year workforce development program, with Sunwest
paying 100 percent of the cost. These dedicated employees will
spend at least 120 hours each year in a classroom and more than
8,000 hours on the job throughout their 4-1/2 year program,
gaining the experience needed to succeed in the industry.
It is important to note that most of these individuals will
start at about $19 per hour, and it will grow throughout their
time in the program. Once they have completed the free 4-1/2
year education and successfully passed the state's
certification program, they are nearly guaranteed to double
their salary.
What I have found throughout my time as an apprentice, a
journey-level worker and in human resources is that the
opportunities available in the construction industry cannot be
met through just one talent pipeline. To fill the approximately
430,000 construction craft professionals needed in 2021 alone,
the federal government should promote all effective programs
and pathways that lead to fulfilling jobs in the construction
industry.
The workforce shortage facing construction and many other
industries across the country is one that we must continue to
address head on. I appreciate the Committee drawing attention
to these critical opportunities available to America's workers.
For too long, the definition of success messaged to young
Americans was that a college degree was a necessary requirement
for a good career, ignoring the value and benefits of community
college programs, apprenticeship programs and trade schools. We
must continue to spotlight the opportunities for young people
and individuals looking for a career through more affordable
options, and in our case, a free, earn-while-you-learn 4-year
education that provide the skills needed for financial
independence and a rewarding career.
With more than 40 years in the electrical industry, I have
been able to help others gain the necessary trade knowledge and
experience to be successful electricians. For 15 of those 40
years, I have taught apprenticeship classes at night while
working on projects during the day with some of these students
and provide them with the hands-on experience in the field.
Part of my promise to my employees, I will dedicate my time
after work to help them prepare for the journey-level
electrical certification test.
Of particular relevance to this hearing, I have also
partnered with local universities to help develop curriculum in
construction management and provide career counseling to their
graduates.
In 2020, I served as the Chair of the ABC Southern
California Chapter Board of Directors and I continue to serve
on the Board of Directors today. Throughout my service on the
ABC Board of Directors and in many years in construction, I am
proud to be a part of the solution to the workforce shortage
issue throughout the industry. Perhaps my proudest moments,
however, comes from the individual success stories that can be
found in each Sunwest employee or the ABC SoCal apprenticeship
program graduates. It is with their testimonies in mind that I
address you. I have included some success stories with my full
written testimony, which should inform the committee of the
impact of the construction industry's educational capacity.
In conclusion, a career in construction has limitless
possibilities and now is an ideal time to get into the
industry. Congress must continue promoting the benefits of
alternate education pathways for successful careers and
encourage more of the great partnerships among companies like
Sunwest and the organizations and community colleges that help
bridge the gaps for seeking employment. I thank you for the
opportunity to serve as a witness for this important hearing
and look forward to your questions.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Boecker.
So I will begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes.
Right now the House is negotiating and taking up a bill
under President Biden's Build Back Better agenda and an
essential element of that bill is universal Pre-K and
childcare. And what I hear from my constituents back home and
back in my district is how challenging it is to go back to
work, to change jobs, to reeducate as I think one of you
mentioned, to skill, reskill, or upskill--and I love that
phrase--if you do not have good childcare. Because so many of
the students that the community college system serves as these
nontraditional students. They have families. They have young
children.
So I would like to start with you, Mr. Garcia. What would
be the impact on your system in your schools if we had a
better, more affordable, more universal childcare precare--Pre-
K rather, for the students that you serve?
Mr. GARCIA. Chairman Crow, Members of the Committee. Thank
you. It would be dramatic, frankly. We know that so many of our
students are adults. They have caretaking responsibilities.
Those caretaking responsibilities have been dramatically
impacted by the pandemic as their children are home during the
day and they do not have anyone to help them. They cannot go to
work. So not only can they not pursue work. They cannot pursue
an education. Making childcare more affordable, more
accessible, more universal would allow more of our student to
come to our campuses, take the classes, even online classes.
They still need time to study. They need a quiet place. They
cannot always do that if they have got young children at home.
We know that that is a very common complaint that we hear from
our students. They want to pursue an education. They just
cannot do it without affordable childcare.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Garcia.
Dr. Kress?
Ms. KRESS. It would be transformational to have childcare
for our students. Nationally the data suggests that one in five
college students is a working parent. So if you think about
that in the context of NOVA, we have 80,000 credit and
noncredit students. That is 16,000 students.
We are privileged to have a CCAMPIS grant through the U.S.
Department of Education. Childcare access means parents in
schools. The name is right there. And when you look at the
success of those students across the board, one of the reasons
why a program like that is so impactful is because it allows
student-parents to focus on being students, not to worry about
where their children are for short-term and longer-term
education.
Another datapoint I will put out there is that fewer than 3
percent of student-parents who are mothers achieve a bachelor's
degree. Think about the loss in workforce that you are looking
at there simply because we cannot meet a need that they have to
help them advance themselves and their families. We also know
that poverty is intergenerational. So if we are able to get
these student-parents into these short-term programs that
yield, again, real wage gains, 24 percent, 28 percent, you are
changing not just the life of that individual. You are changing
the trajectory of a family simply by supporting childcare.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Kress.
One follow up question there. Would it be accurate to say
that available childcare, universal Pre-K, would dramatically
expedite the resolution of some of our workforce labor issues
by speeding up that pipeline within the community college
system?
Ms. KRESS. Absolutely. When we look at students at NOVA,
and this would be the same for Colorado, any community college,
what you are seeing is that when students do stop out and drop
out, it has nothing to do with their academic abilities. It has
everything to do with their unability, inability to manage all
of what life throws at them as college students. Community
college students on average have an age of about 27. So these
are folks who have full lives, who have families that they are
trying to juggle. Providing universal Pre-K, providing
childcare would enable them to move forward.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
And Dr. Corbin, one remaining question for you on a
different issue. Advanced manufacturing is a key issue to re-
onshoring vital industries. We have a supply chain issue that
has become very acute under COVID. Obviously, our economic
competition with China has underscored the need to bring back
key advanced manufacturing. Community colleges are going to be
an essential element to that. But we need capital investments
in the equipment and the trainers to actually conduct that
training for those jobs. Can you touch on how you think those
investments should be made and how we address that to ramp up
that training pipeline for those industries?
Ms. CORBIN. Thank you. That is an excellent question.
I think that there are a number of different ways that
community colleges can do that, as has been discussed. They are
very nimble. They can adjust to that but there are equipment
needs. And I think really partnerships between government,
philanthropy and industry can really drive that. I spoke a
moment ago about design thinking. I think that there are
solutions that can be created by bringing diverse stakeholders
to the table. As we have seen with some of the supply chain
challenges, changing scheduling time, sometimes there are small
changes that yield great results. I see that as a great
opportunity and I feel very optimistic that there is the talent
to solve that. And the solutions may not be as complicated as
we think but investment is needed and I think a diverse number
of players investing in it is probably the best approach.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Corbin.
I am out of time so I will now yield to the Ranking Member,
Ms. Young Kim, for 5 minutes.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Chairman.
I would like to engage with Mr. Boecker who is joining us
virtually. In your testimony, Mr. Boecker, you mentioned the
challenges the construction industry is facing in finding
skilled labor. This is an issue that many small businesses
across America also face. So can you tell us more about the 4-
year workforce development program that Sunwest is funding for
over 100 of your employees?
Mr. BOECKER. Thank you, Ranking Member Young Kim.
The apprentice programs that are throughout our country
which as I stated are free, they provide not only the classroom
but the hands-on, and they also provide jobs for these
individuals. So they are able to work full time, get their
education, and be able to provide for their families. And the
skills that they gain inside these programs are providing them
the skills that are needed to do their day-to-day job and
progress further in their careers.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Would you say that this program has helped
meet your demands, your labor demands, and bring new employees
to your company? And are they only employed by your company or
are you able to help them gain employment elsewhere?
Mr. BOECKER. Well, the 100 employees that we have, the 100-
plus employees that we have that go to the Associated Builders
Programs, the local program here, they are Sunwest employees
and they are paid and employed by us during the day and they go
to school at night. The pipeline to find skilled, trained
workers out there is tough, you know, especially when you look
at the population aging out in the construction industry. So
associations and programs like ABC, they provide our employees
the skills and we provide them with the students.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. You know, as I mentioned in my opening
statement, the ReIGNITE Hope provides skills to change their
lives and help in the joblessness and sometimes the homeless
issues, too. And your company offers similar training. So how
can we do better in highlighting and raising awareness of
programs like these?
Mr. BOECKER. Well, you know, especially in your district
there is a lot of great organizations that help, you know,
especially veterans. There is a program in your district called
Hope Builders, which I am partnered with that provides
opportunities for individuals who are economically challenged
or second chancers. And there are programs like that. There are
programs in LA, Homeboys Industry, that also helps second
chancers and gang members. There are a lot of organizations and
associations out there that they have the people. They just
need the partnerships with employers and with educational
institutions to help get them on the right path and move them
forward.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Mr. Boecker.
I would like to engage our witnesses in the room today.
Some of these programs that we are talking about which are
successful, I would like to see how we can replicate these
programs across our nation. So can you talk about your
partnership with local small businesses? And how do you ensure
that you are providing the curricula that will fill those gaps
in the local workforce?
Either one of you can go.
Ms. CORBIN. Do you want me to start? Okay. Thank you for
that question, Ranking Member Young Kim.
I think I could speak to it from a scaling perspective, and
some of the ways that we can take best practices around the
country, things that work and expand them and scale them.
One successful way that we have seen that our community
colleges themselves engaging in competitions, for example,
looking at how can you take skilled trades and other programs
and infuse that into the curriculum? So we have done that the
last couple of years with the support of the Radcliffe
Foundation. So we challenge faculty to say if it is a
construction business that is assisting women who are returning
back into the community building tiny houses, how can you
accelerate and scale that? So I think part of the question that
came up previously tied to your question is how do you scale up
and how do you get the stories out? And I think it is really
through networks of sharing. I think opportunities like today
where we can talk about these things deeply in terms of what is
being done on specific community colleges but how can we take
best practices that are happening at NOVA and infuse them
quickly throughout the country and it definitely can be done.
Thank you.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Quickly. We ran out of time but I would like
to ask Dr. Kress the same.
Chairman CROW. Go ahead, Dr. Kress. You may answer the
question.
Ms. KRESS. So I will just give the example really quickly
of the Fast Forward program. So this is a program again that is
focused on short-term credentials that have local market
relevance. So what you are going to see in Northern Virginia is
not what you are going to see in Southwest Virginia or in
Hampton Roads region. And these programs then are scaled across
the state. So they are serving a system that has close to
300,000 students in it. If you look at a program like that that
helps support those noncredit students financially and
incentivizes completion by telling them you are going to pay
one-third but if you do not finish the program we are going to
ask you for the second-third as well, you are really looking at
a program that meets local needs because they are locally
informed by the workforce investment boards and others. It
graduates folks right into that regional marketplace. They find
jobs right away. And the word of mouth around that program is
incredibly powerful because of the success stories that it
generates.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
I would now like to recognize Ms. Bourdeaux, the gentlelady
from Georgia for 5 minutes.
Ms. BOURDEAUX. Thank you so much. This is a hearing that is
really near and dear to my heart as a college professor and
also someone who spends a lot of time talking to small
businesses in my community about how we can bring those two
sides together.
Georgia is really nationally known for its technical
college system and they do a lot of great work partnering with
the business community to make sure they are really building
that pipeline between businesses and the skills, building those
skills that they need. I am actually going to be visiting a
local battery manufacturing plant near my district with
Gwinnett Technical College in the coming week to talk about how
they can partner to expand opportunities.
The challenge though is, and I think many of you are
touching on this even in that last question, is it is small
businesses. It is often the big guys that are able to come in.
They have the equipment. They have, you know, the ability to
really create a program at scale. But my small businesses, I
have got lots and lots of small manufacturing all across my
district and they have huge workforce needs and they just do
not have the time or ability to build those kinds of
connections with their community colleges. Or in my case, the
technical colleges.
So I just thought I would see if you have some ideas or
models that we might be able to draw on. And I guess I would
start with Dr. Kress. You know, what are things that we can do
to bring those partnerships together more firmly? What are
things that you all have worked on that have been very
successful and really, you know, getting the needs of the small
businesses and then creating that pipeline into jobs?
Ms. KRESS. Thank you. It is an excellent question.
One of the challenges that I think many small employers do
have is the challenge of scale. And so I will just speak with a
couple of specific examples. For example, in a previous role
when I was in New York as the president of a community college
there, we saw a huge need in heating ventilation and air
conditioning but these were folks who really need what we would
call ones and twos. Right? They need one employee, they need
two employees. So we actually convened them together and we did
a visual experiment. We had ping pong balls and we had each one
of them pick up the number of ping pong balls that they
actually needed for employees. We had a gigantic bowl in the
middle and it overflowed. And what the message was was if we
could convene you together and develop a set of skills that
would benefit all of you, we could build a program that could
serve all of you and help you build your capacity. Because what
they were doing, and we all have seen this, is that they were
hiring each other's workforce over and over again rather than
expanding it. So I would say that the convening power of
community colleges to bring businesses around the table, have
them set their competition to the side, think about the
skillsets that they need, the community colleges stand ready to
provide that. We can be the convener. We can be the aggregator.
And we can grow that workforce by directly responding to these
individual needs as a much larger need across multiple small
businesses.
Ms. BOURDEAUX. Thank you. That is a great story.
Dr. Garcia, do you have any insight from your perspective?
Mr. GARCIA. Yes. Thank you for the question.
It is true that small businesses face the greatest
challenges because they do not frankly have the resources or
the time to train their own employees, but those ones and twos,
the issue that Dr. Kress just spoke to, is a challenge for all
of us. These programs, frankly, are the most expensive programs
for us to offer. Of course, you know, community colleges offer
a wide range of academic programs. It is a lot cheaper and a
lot easier to offer a class in English composition or English
literature than in HVAC. HVAC requires specialized equipment
and instructors. The SBDCs can help us by talking to the
employers about helping to provide instructors. Often for us we
find it very difficult to find instructors who we can pay
enough to come in and teach our students even if we have enough
students. But teaching very small groups of students, using
expensive equipment is a net loss for us in all cases. So we do
need more support from the State and federal government to help
equip our classrooms and our labs to offer the kind of
expensive training that so many employers demand.
And again, the small business development centers can help
us by getting the employers together, just as Dr. Kress
described, recognizing the collective need and perhaps getting
them to agree to help provide instructors, equipment, lab
space, even onsite training so that we can deliver in a way
that is affordable to us. We still are relying on revenues from
tuition and from state funds. Often those revenues are not
sufficient to cover the costs of offering these kinds of much-
needed programs.
Ms. BOURDEAUX. Okay. Thank you so much. I see I am out of
time. I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
And Dr. Kress, I think I am going to go buy a bunch of ping
pong balls because the United States Congress could benefit
from that exercise here. I love that.
Now, the gentleman, the Vice Ranking Member of the
Committee, Mr. Williams from Texas, is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to thank
the witnesses for being here today.
This whole thing is very close to my heart. I am an auto
dealer in Texas. I employ several hundred people and I have
used community colleges for body welding and mechanics for 51
years. It is really important. And when I was secretary of the
State of Texas, we lost a billion dollars' worth of
improvements to Michigan, if you can believe that, because we
did not have enough welders. So that has always set home to me.
So thanks for what you are doing.
You know, when I talk to small businesses back in Texas, I
constantly hear concerns surrounding the skills gap. And
recently, I spoke with a landscaping company in my district who
told me they turn down jobs every day because they do not have
the manpower, skilled workers needed to complete more complex
jobs, even though they offer to pay for their employees'
technical trainings or certifications and offer competitive
salaries.
The growing skills gap is something we all need to be
concerned about and it is hitting the vocational job industry
extremely hard because the younger generations are not
necessarily joining at a high rate and that could be because we
are making them think that unemployment compensation is a
career. And of course now today we have got the vaccine
mandates which are not going to help at all.
So Mr. Boecker, my question to you is can you speak more on
how the skills gap is affecting small businesses?
Mr. BOECKER. Great question. Thank you, sir.
I think that, you know, the skills--I guess the better way
to put the answer to that question is, you know, there is a lot
of projects, you know, with the infrastructure and many other
large and small projects throughout, you know, the United
States that are out to bid, ready to be awarded but contractors
throughout the country, they just, like I stated in the
beginning, the workforce is aging out and the younger
generation is just not energized enough or know about the
availability of training programs and that kind of stuff. So, I
mean, there is a huge gap and it does prevent, you know,
contractors like ourselves from doing a lot of these projects
or being able to do these projects quickly because of that
shortage. But there are avenues out there to help, you know,
the industry grow and that is one of the main things that I,
you know, as I brought up is ready to work. We just have to
continue partnering them with industry and government and make
sure that they are able to get on these projects and hep
contractors, especially these small businesses everybody is
talking about. Get out there and help them.
Mr. WILLIAMS. We have to excite these young men and women
that a paycheck is one of the greatest things you can have in
this country.
One way that we can work to address the skills gap is by
informing and encouraging individuals to join career and
technical education, better known as CTE programs. Earlier this
year I introduced the Student Debt Alternative and CTE
Awareness Act which informs high school students about CTE
opportunities before they commit to a traditional 4-year
university and take out student loans and that is important. I
wrote this bill in response to many of my young constituents
saying they did not know what they wanted to do in life but
felt compelled to get a college degree. Could not afford it.
Instead of forcing our students into years of debt, we should
encourage CTE that provides students with a viable, good paying
career.
So again, Mr. Boecker, do you think encouraging more
students to pursue CTE would have a positive impact on
business' experienced, skilled worker shortages? And also, what
resources would be helpful to you to assist in recruiting more
skilled workers? And I have got a question after that, too, so
if you could be brief.
Mr. BOECKER. Great. Great question.
You know, the programs that we are associated with, they
are free to young men and women who want to join these programs
but I definitely think that there is a lot of opportunities for
continuing, you know, showing these young men and women the
opportunities are out there and provide them with paths to
these CTEs to get them to jump in and become successful.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you.
Mr. Garcia, as students complete their vocational training,
what additional resources do you think would be helpful to
these graduates looking to find full-time employment or trying
to start their own businesses? And I think if they are trying
to start their own business they need to get a hold of their
elected official and tell them not to raise taxes. That might
be a good start.
So what do you think, quickly?
Mr. GARCIA. Mr. Williams, our students need a number of
things once they graduate. One, Chairman Crow already mentioned
which is childcare. Individuals still have a hard time,
especially at entry-level jobs of affording childcare.
But the second thing they need is career counseling. They
need help from us to connect them with employers so that they
can put those skills to use. A lot of employers want people
with skills but they want them with experience as well so they
often want them to get a job with somebody else and then they
will hire them away from that person once they have a little
bit more experience. So we have got to get employers to be a
little bit more willing to do some on-the-job training to
supplement the educational experiences they have received
through the community colleges.
Mr. WILLIAMS. My time is up. I yield back and thank all of
you for being here.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
I will now recognize the Chairwoman on the Subcommittee of
Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access, Ms. Davids form
Kansas for 5 minutes.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you, Chairman Crow. I appreciate you
holding this hearing on what is a really, really important
topic. And as a community college graduate myself, and I earned
my associate's degree at Johnson County Community College in
Overland Park, Kansas, which is the district I get to represent
now. I know how important it is for strong community colleges,
you know, to be in communities. They provide affordable and
really highly-accessible pathways to all sorts of careers and
industries. So I am really glad we are getting to focus on how
these institutions are helping prepare folks to be part of the
small business workforce. And really to be entrepreneurs
themselves.
So my first question, Dr. Corbin, you know, yesterday, we
held a full Small Business Committee Hearing on the surprising
increase in entrepreneurship that we saw in 2020. And I know
that was mentioned earlier. I am curious if that is
corresponded with increased interest in entrepreneurship or
business counseling at your partner schools
Ms. CORBIN. Thank you for that question, and thank you for
your interest. We have seen that. There was a survey that was
done earlier in the summer by a Woodrow Wilson scholar that is
included in my written testimony that really speaks to that
entrepreneurship interest and programming, both on the
noncredit side and on the credit side has increased. We have
seen that and we expect that to increase. The opportunity is
really to thread in mentorship. It was mentioned career
counseling and support. If you have wraparound services to
those and enhance those you can be even more successful. So
thank you for that question.
Ms. DAVIDS. Yeah. I know you mentioned the Small Business
Development Centers. Johnson County Community College also has
a small business development center and has been an incredible
resource for students and entrepreneurs. We have a really
strong entrepreneurial ecosystem in our region.
I am curious if, you know, do you think with the small
business development centers, do you think there are things
that we could be doing to help make sure that these areas are
getting better connected, partnering with federal resources
through our community Colleges.
Ms. CORBIN. Absolutely. I think one of the things that we
have had the privilege to have are conversations with
Administrator Guzman about really infusing entrepreneurship
through the SBA. I know there is a lot of good programming that
is going on there. I think where you are right now in Johnson
County is a leader for that. You have the Kauffman Foundation
out there. You have a lot of resources. But really, there are
resources everywhere. Some of what we could do is really lean
into more ecosystem mapping. Helping people identify assets.
Sometimes there are resources and partnerships that are
literally right in front of you but you do not see them. And I
think the SBA is doing just a fantastic job of doing that but I
think we could do more, especially with connecting with, you
know, the programs that we are highlighting day.
Ms. DAVIDS. Yeah. That is a great point. I often see folks
kind of later in the game saying, oh, I wish I had known about
that resource much earlier. And so I know I am always trying to
figure out ways that from the Small Business Committee
perspective we can be helpful there.
And then, you know, I think the next question, Dr. Kress, I
would love to hear from you about how community colleges are
staying in tune with local communities in terms of the skills
needed. I know we have been hearing a bit about that gap and I
am curious what you are seeing with local workforce boards and
businesses trying to determine what skills should be taught.
Kind of what does that look like in practice?
Ms. KRESS. So thank you. Excellent question.
At NOVA and at most community colleges, every single
program needs to have an advisory council. And so that advisory
council is typically made up, if it is a transfer pathway it is
university partners. Our career pathway programs, those are
employers. They are individuals who employ our students on a
regular basis. And for our advisory councils, 50 percent of
those seats are filled by small business owners or their
representatives. So they are directly informing the curriculum
of our programs. They are giving us feedback on the performance
of our graduates. So that is one way.
And then with noncredit programming, we work directly with
the workforce investment boards to identify which programs are
necessary in our community, where those skills gaps are, and
how NOVA can fill that role in helping graduate a prepared
workforce. And that is true across the Commonwealth of
Virginia.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you. And thank you to all our witnesses
for taking the time to share your experiences and expertise
with us today.
Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
I will now recognize the gentlelady from New York, Ms.
Tenney from New York for 5 minutes.
Ms. TENNEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member
Young Kim. This is a really important meeting and I am really
proud of the community colleges that are in my region. And they
do offer a great opportunity for so many students.
Recent data shows that according to March 2021, the Federal
Reserve, over 40 percent of recent 4-year college graduates are
employed in jobs that do not typically require such a college
degree. It is critical that we support alternatives like
community colleges which offer vocational training,
apprenticeships, and other forms of job-created learning. And
this has been a huge factor in my district. I am not even a
mile away from Mohawk Valley Community College which was a
shining example of innovation, of learning, of adapting to
providing needs for our industries locally and giving students
an opportunity to do hands-on learning, empowering students.
Even our company has used some of our community college-based
students for this. But the current labor shortage shows that
there are necessary, well-paying jobs in our economy and that
the expensive 4-year degrees are not necessarily the solution.
So looking, I mean, I know that we have looked to the community
colleges for our industry as well and I know that Mr. Boecker,
you answered some of these questions. But in sharing your
experiences with workers, and I agree with your testimony,
there is sometimes an overemphasis on having a 4-year degree. I
am a recipient of a 4-year degree. It has been valuable. But in
facing our worker shortage across the country, what would you
identify as the core reason for this shortage? And what can
Congress do to help bring our workers back using our community
college networks, particularly in Upstate New York where we
have a fantastic SUNY system?
Mr. BOECKER. Great question. You know, I think that, again,
I think when we talk about the shortages and getting people
partnered with community colleges and apprenticeship programs,
I think it is more of we have heard it time after time that a
lot of people are unaware of what is out there for them. I
think it is important that we go into high schools. We go into
some of these either junior colleges and stuff and talk about
some of the vocational training that is available.
Ms. TENNEY. How would you do that? Can I just ask, what
recommendation would you have to us as Members of Congress? How
can we get the word out in our communities that there are these
great opportunities with our community colleges?
Mr. BOECKER. That is a tricky question because, I mean, you
know, again, even as parents we look, you know, we encourage
our kids to get a higher education. You know, even as parents
we do not even progress our kids into those type environments.
I think that as far as, you know, as far as, you know,
everybody in the government, as far as, I think that we need to
encourage some of these high schools to actually have programs
like pre-apprenticeship programs and that kind of stuff to
allow these young men and women to actually touch a
screwdriver, touch a hammer, touch these tools and see if this
is something that would excite them and allow them to, you
know, start up, you know, an apprenticeship or a second type of
vocational education.
Ms. TENNEY. Yeah. I think that is something we do with our
BOCES system in New York State which has been tremendous.
But I want to now just ask Dr. Corbin, you were talking
about the surge of new business startups during the pandemic
totaling 440,000 as of June 2021. The next challenge is always,
all entrepreneurs struggle with surviving and keeping their
idea going. And obviously, it has been a huge issue in my
community as well. We have a lot of entrepreneurs who have
stepped up to try to encourage these programs to match them
either with employers or other 4-year colleges.
And so my question is to Dr. Corbin. What can be done from
the SBA or the community college side to help facilitate this
more so that our entrepreneurs can continue to empower and stay
involved in helping these entrepreneurs who own their
businesses, to keep them alive. It is a huge challenge in
today's post-COVID economy.
Ms. CORBIN. Thank you for that question. I think that is
excellent.
We mentioned a little bit earlier about mentoring. Dr.
Kress had mentioned about advisory councils. What I saw in my
experience as the vice president of a community college is a
lot of times college foundation boards are populated with
entrepreneurs. Many of them do not have degrees but they are
very successful. It is tapping into what is right in front of
you and having very simple programs where people can plug in
and support one another.
The other opportunity, there are a lot of open-source
online tools that are provided by companies. For example, like
Intuit. They have a suite of tools that are available to
community colleges for free and there is training around it. So
I think it is really, like we said, getting the word out,
meeting people where they are, speaking sometimes in their
language, going into their communities. Who is it that they
trust? Do they get their information from churches? Many times
communities of color, they have that. So thank you for that
question. I think there is so much that we can do.
I would just quickly add as well, in some of the
conversations we have been having with the SBA and the Equity
Roundtable, they are really leaning into that. They are
bringing together association executives and saying, how do we
get to the people? As a person on those calls, there is a lot
of low-hanging fruit, some simple things that we can do that we
can expand and scale.
Ms. TENNEY. Yeah, thank you. I served actually on our
Community College Board a number of years ago and it was a
great experience. And it is amazing what they do for adult
learners and how quickly our community college actually reacts
to entrepreneurs and people that need resources, including our
company and providing a skillset. And it is really incredible
but I think the more that we look at this and facilitating
these private relationships also and working with our local
community--we have a community of entrepreneurs and small
businesses which is unique because it is a small rural sort of
suburban setting. So I really appreciate that and just love our
community colleges.
I want to say congratulations to my home community college,
which is Mohawk Valley Community College, where they are
celebrating 75 years this year. Just like our family business
was founded 75 years ago, our partners with the 11 colleges in
my district, a number of community colleges as well, have
really enriched our communities and made us able to thrive and
find great qualified workers. And particularly, a lot of
people, a lot of women and others who have left one business
and gone to another and have been able to see the resources of
a community college. So I think that is a real key place for a
small business, you know, business development. I really
appreciate all that you have done.
And thank you to our witnesses, also. I really appreciate
this. And to the Chairman and Ranking Member, great meeting. I
look forward to meetings like this in the future where we can
actually help our small business community and help them grow.
I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
I will now yield to the gentleman from New York, Mr.
Garbarino, for 5 minutes.
Mr. GARBARINO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to
the Ranking Member for having this very important hearing. I
have to echo the words of my colleague from New York. We have
some of the best community colleges. Very proud of my two,
Suffolk Community and Nassau Community, because they seem to
adapt much quicker through the needs of what the community
needs. And specifically, you know, right now we are seeing
huge, huge problems with cybersecurity. I am the Ranking Member
of the Subcommittee for Homeland and my two community colleges
have started a cybersecurity program. A 2-year program to get a
degree because people need cybersecurity experts so the
community colleges saw the need there and they produced a
curriculum so people can come out with a degree and get jobs
right away.
I do have a question because Mr. Boecker representing AGC,
I had meetings the other day or last week with equipment
manufacturers and dealers. They were telling me how they are
offering about $48-50 an hour now for certain equipment jobs
and they cannot fill them. And right now one of them said the
supply chain issue is actually helping them because if there
was no supply chain issues they would not be able to keep up
with demand. Granted, they would love to be able to keep up
with demand.
Can you go in a little further? I know you touched a little
bit on it in your testimony and some other questions. What can
we do more? Because I think, you know, with these community
colleges we need to get people back into trades. We need to get
people back into, like you said, swinging a hammer, doing
electrical work, doing plumbing work. Not going and doing these
4-year degrees that at the end people might come out of college
with more debt. Well, they are. People are coming out of
college making less money than they have in debt.
So what can we do with the community colleges? What can
Congress do to help businesses, like yours, like the AGC, like
these equipment manufacturers? I know you touched on it
briefly, but can you go into it a little more?
Mr. BOECKER. Yes. Great question.
The association I am with is Associated Builders and
Contractors (ABC). ABC is another great organization that I
have spent a lot of time with.
You know, probably the one thing that I think that
everybody on the Committee and in government, I would encourage
you to go to your local apprenticeship programs and tour the
facilities. Talk to these students. See and meet these young
men and women who are in these classes. I mean, ABC has 69
chapters across the country. They have thousands of students
attending these classes every day. I think it is important for
community colleges and government to meet these young men and
women and see what brings them to the industry. I think that
would help you encourage other young men and women to do that
because I think if you see these young men and women as we
said, swinging a hammer, I think you would be very impressed
and I think it would open more doors and avenues to help
community colleges form these partnerships with these
apprenticeship programs. Who know? Many people have talked
about the financial cost of our apprenticeship programs or
hands-on skilled training. They are out there. I mean, from A
to Z, if you want to learn how to operate heavy equipment,
there are amazing programs through the Associated Buildings and
Contractors that will teach you how to operate a big bulldozer
if you want. Or if you want to be a plumber there are programs
to teach you how to be a plumber. They are all there. It is
just people are not, you know, I guess again it is not one of
those things that is broadcasted out there. I mean, you do
not----
Mr. GARBARINO. People do not know about it. They are not
being told about them?
Mr. BOECKER. Yeah, they are not. It is one of those secrets
that nobody wants to share which is sad.
Mr. GARBARINO. Well, and actually, so I have a follow-up
question actually for Mr. Garcia.
So I have heard similar from what Mr. Boecker just said
from other groups saying the high school guidance counselors,
they are not offering this. They are not offering community
college programs like the trade programs. They are not offering
these as something that these kids can do. What kind of
relationship does your organization have or your community
college have with guidance counselors? Do they know about these
programs? I mean, are they sharing them with their students in
the high schools? Because, I mean, that is how the high school
students are going to find out about them.
Mr. GARCIA. Mr. Chair, Representative Garbarino. That is
exactly right. High school counselors generally attended 4-year
institutions themselves. They know 4-year institutions. They do
not know us. We need to help them understand the success rates
of our students and the earnings and job placement numbers for
our students. There is still a stigma attached to attending
community colleges. We all speak about how much we love
community colleges but how many of our colleagues, how many of
us want our kids to go? We need to understand that a lot of our
students are very successful and we need to identify those
people in the community, in our communities who are seen as
leaders but who attended community college and got their start
there and we need to ask them to talk about their experience.
But we do need to work with our counselors. Let's say our
largest community college, Front Range, invites all the
counselors here 4-times a year, buys them lunch, and tells them
about the programs that we offer, and importantly, the earnings
and job placement rates for those graduates. That helps and yet
I think guidance counselors, just like school principals, often
are measured in terms of their success by how many students
they send to selective 4-year institutions, not by how many
students they send to a community college, even if those
students are ultimately very successful.
Mr. GARBARINO. I appreciate that answer so much, and I know
I am over time so, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. And thank you
again for having this great hearing.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
So today this was a remarkable hearing. I always love these
hearings. I love this Committee so much because honestly, you
cannot tell someone's political affiliation during these
hearings because we are just asking questions and talking about
policy and talking about really important issues which,
frankly, is just incredibly refreshing. I appreciate my
continued collaboration and work with the Ranking Member, Ms.
Young Kim, as well. Because obviously, we make that possible
through our hard work.
So what we know, what we have realized is COVID has
resulted in a massive shift in our labor market and changed how
Americans work potentially forever. Research shows that as much
as 25 percent more workers than previously estimated are going
to potentially need to switch occupations in the wake of COVID.
But switching, obviously, is not easy. It takes work,
specialized skills to gain a foothold in new industries. It
takes that skilling, reskilling, upskilling. I am going to
steal that from you, Dr. Kress.
So that is why we have to do everything we can to support
these workers and make that transition. And what has become so
obvious over time and again in this hearing is that the
community college system is going to be fundamental to actually
accomplishing that.
In Colorado, we have a great system. The Colorado Community
College system. I am going to thank Joe Garcia again. In my
district, we have Arapahoe Community College and Community
College of Aurora, which really is life-changing to so many
students. And they do incredible work and I am proud to support
them.
So I am going to continue to work on Members of this
Committee to pursue the avenues and the ideas we heard about
today because our economy will demand it, our families will
demand it, our constituents will demand it, and they all
deserve it.
And with that I am going to part from normal protocol here
and give the Ranking Member some time for a short closing
statement as well.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Chairman. It is really an honor
and privilege to work with you in a very bipartisan way,
especially through our work on the Subcommittee that we both
Chair and Co-Chair.
So I want to thank all the witnesses that have provided
wonderful testimony and also through some of your examples, I
think it was very apparent that the partnership we have with
the local community colleges, it is really important to help
build that workers' training that we need to fill those
unfilled job openings that we have.
I also would like to give a big shoutout to the community
colleges in my California 39th Congressional District. In my
district we have Fullerton College, Mount Sac Community
Colleges, but also nearby we have Cypress and Pomona Colleges.
And I know the great work that they do. And I am very proud to
also represent Cal State Fullerton in the district. They have a
wonderful partnership and provide all of these job skills
training programs that are needed. And on their campuses, they
also host SBDC offices and work directly with our small
businesses in the area to provide them with the advice,
counseling, training, and all that that is needed.
So I would like to offer my personal service as well as my
offices' resources to work with all of the community colleges
and really work together in a bipartisan way to move these
programs that we talked about and also do more so we can talk
about the programs that work and allow the businesses to take
advantage of these resources are out there.
So with that, thank you so much, Chairman, for this
wonderful hearing that we have had. I hope we all walk away
with some more information than we came with. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
And with that, I would ask unanimous consent that Members
have 5 legislative days to submit statements and supporting
materials for the record.
Without objection, so ordered.
And if there is no further business to come before the
Committee, we are adjourned. Thank you all.
[Whereupon, at 11:24 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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