Workforce Development & Career Education: Servingness is a Call to Action

The California Community College (CCC) system is positioned at the nexus of higher education, servingness, and workforce development. The CCC system is not only the largest higher education system in the U.S., serving over 2 million students, it is also one of the most diverse. With 92% of CCCs eligible for the federal Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) designation, 40% eligible for Asian American, Native American, Pacific-Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) designation, and 21% eligible for California’s Black Serving Institution (BSI) it is a system that plays a critical role in enacting servingness to uplift students and families and advance regional economic development that meets community needs. While the federal administration recently eliminated $350 million in Minority Serving Institution (MSI) funding, with an estimated $20 million reduction to the CCC system this fiscal year alone, our commitment to serving students remains. California is the wealthiest state in the nation and the fifth largest economy in the world — and yet a third of its residents live below or near the poverty line. The federal attack on MSI funding is a call to action to deepen our commitment to serving students and their families. The CCC system is an MSI system that represents a powerful lever for educational and economic justice, supporting students to achieve meaningful and family sustaining careers, develop worker agency, and build collective power for their communities. 

Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels.

Rather than retreat from our work to enact servingness (Multidimensional Conceptual Framework of Servingness in HSIs) now is the time to deepen and broaden our vision of what is possible. Moreover, intersectional servingness is necessary, an idea advanced by Dr. Gina Ann García and Dr. Marcela Cuéllar (2023) that requires HSIs to simultaneously address race, class, gender, immigration status, and other intersecting identities in the way institutions serve students. Despite the critical role that CCCs play in workforce development, little has been written in the HSI scholarship regarding servingness in this sector. Within the realm of Career Education and workforce development, intersectional servingness requires acknowledging the systemic inequities that shape Latiné students’ experiences: disproportionate placement in low-wage career tracks, limited access to industry networks, and persistent barriers tied to immigration and language. Enacting intersectional servingness requires culturally relevant pedagogy in technical fields, career advising that affirms bilingual and bicultural assets, and work-based learning models that disrupt rather than replicate labor stratification. It  means equipping students not only with technical skills but also with civic knowledge: understanding worker rights, collective bargaining, and people power. For many students this knowledge is transformative—shaping not only their careers but also their capacity and confidence to participate in civic life and shape the future. 

A liberatory vision of Career Education challenges the false dichotomy between “academic” education and “career” (or occupational) education. All CCC students, whether in welding, political science, or engineering programs do not come as blank slates; they bring deep knowledge forged through their experiences of systemic inequities, strength, resilience, and culture. For many students— including adult learners, veterans, English language learners, and those impacted by the justice system— the key question is not only What degree will I earn? but What will be the return on investment for my time, my family, and my labor? As García and Cuéllar (2023) argue, intersectional servingness requires institutions to respond to students’ complex realities in transformative ways. Given that nearly all CCCs meet the HSI designation (and sometimes multiple MSI designations), this means CCC workforce development programs must be understood as a core component of servingness, specifically:

• Designing scalable and stackable academic and career pathways that propel Latiné and first-generation students to careers with mobility and security, not just entry-level access.

• Embedding culturally sustaining practices into industry-aligned curricula so students see their identities as assets in STEM labs, nursing programs, and apprenticeships.

• Honoring students’ experiences as valuable knowledge in academic spaces and awarding Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) for relevant work and lived experiences. 

• Increasing English Language support in college programs that honors the diverse population of California and recognizes multilingualism as an asset.

• Forging partnerships with employers that go beyond job placement to address hiring biases, promote inclusive workplaces, and recognize bilingualism as professional capital.

• Engaging with community partners in ways that build trust and collaboration to develop regional strategies to community issues.

Early college credit pathways, specifically dual enrollment, can also be an impactful avenue for demonstrating servingness. Career-connected academic pathways that intentionally embed dual enrollment opportunities have been incentivized in California through the Golden State Pathways Program (GSPP) and high quality dual enrollment programs necessitate collaboration amongst the education and industry partners in the community. Enabling students to explore careers, identify their interests, and develop their skills all while earning credit towards certificates and degrees that can lead to careers with family sustaining wages in the very communities they grew up in can be transformative. This is why we see the CCC system, the California Department of Education (CDE), and the California Governor’s Office synchronously encouraging more Californian’s graduating high school with college credit in a career connected pathway. By leveraging the demand for more dual enrollment, coupled with the resources allocated via grants, now more than ever is the time to align our pathways, aggregate our resources, and actualize servingness.

Actualizing servingness is a step toward economic justice. CCCs serve best when they are present not only on campus but also at the tables where workforce and community decisions are made. Too often, higher education is absent from community planning around housing, immigration policy, or local economic development. By engaging with local workforce development boards, housing commissions, and community based organizations, CCCs can serve as anchor institutions committed to the economic and social health of their regions. Regardless of federal funding or designations, our call to serve is clear.

Authors

Ann Endris

Annabelle Rodriguez

Laurencia Walker

Ann Endris | ann.endris@baccc.net

Ann Endris is the Dean and Co-Chair of the Bay Area Community College Consortium (BACCC), which supports regional collaboration to advance workforce development, career education, and equitable student pathways across 28 Bay Area community colleges. She previously served as the Title V HSI Director at Cabrillo College, where she led large-scale grants, institutional reform efforts, and cross-institutional partnerships centered on servingness. She co-authored Transforming HSIs for Equity and Justice: A Practitioner's Workbook with Dr. Gina Ann Garcia and continues to support colleges to enact transformative practices and systems level change.

Annabelle Rodriguez | abrodrig@cabrillo.edu

Annabelle is the Dean of Career Education & Workforce Development at Cabrillo College.  She oversees a portfolio of cross-agency initiatives focused on developing innovative strategies utilizing an equity and social justice lens and bringing effective approaches to scale, using technology and data to enhance the delivery of community based services.

Laurencia Walker | lwalker@careerladdersproject.org

Laurencia is a director with the Career Ladders Project, an organization that works with colleges and their school and community partners to design and implement a variety of access and completion initiatives, including dual enrollment. Prior to CLP, Laurencia served as the director of college readiness at Hartnell College, an office fully funded with HSI dollars and charged with developing early college credit opportunities.