Surveys of educators and employers reveal the disconnect behind this partnership’s underperformance and underscore the need for businesses to take the lead in making it more relevant and effective in three areas: training and education aligned with industry needs, commitments to hire community college students, and sharing of data on the supply and demand for talent.

To assess the state of collaboration between America’s community colleges and employers, Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work partnered with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). The membership of the AACC represents nearly 1,200 two-year, associate degree-granting institutions and more than 12 million students. The community college survey was administered to 347 community college leaders between November 2020 and April 2021. Overall, educators expressed disappointment with the workforce partnership, rating employer engagement less than stellar and expecting relatively little improvement. The survey questionnaire can be viewed below.

Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work surveyed 800 business leaders between November 2020 and December 2020 on the state of their collaboration with local community colleges. Responses revealed a split between employers’ sense of their own engagement with community colleges and their assessment of community colleges’ ability to produce work-ready middle-skills talent. U.S. employers showed little commitment to invest in collaborating with educators. The survey questionnaire can be viewed below.