Perspective: Community College

certification. All together, over 5,000 courses and 100 certification programs have been made available to New Jersey residents. With subjects ranging from project management to information technology, business analysis to Mandarin, these classes are sure to increase the effectiveness of New Jersey’s workforce.

There are other examples of companies engaging prospective employees in South Jersey. In April 2021, South Jersey Gas, working in partnership with the Atlantic County Institute of Technology, announced a new program in which the chance to gain real-world experience in the field of utilities would be offered to local high-school students. In this case the students worked with the Geographic Information System and Records departments to learn AutoCAD and GIS Recording. Such proactive educational measures on the part of South Jersey Gas are considered essential to ensuring that the region has a quality workforce moving forward. Tech and innovation Besides the pandemic, 2020 will be remembered as the year of digital transformation. Across industries and sectors, 10 years’ worth of digital evolution was compressed into two months as lockdowns forced all but essential workers to work from home. Meetings were held over Zoom, people discovered that traditional brick-and-mortar industries like banking could more easily be done online, and e-commerce spiked dramatically.

In education, the story was similar. Campuses were shut down with classes going online and students attending school remotely. While there were many students who bemoaned the lack of in-person pedagogy, and a suitable on-campus college experience, for many people, remote education was a boon. Not having to commute to campus allowed them more flexibility in their already busy lives. Educators and administrators expect that a hybrid approach that combines elements of in-person learning and remote learning will be the future of the sector.

Rowan University has a new program, organized in tandem with local community colleges, which illustrates the potential held for the hybrid approach. Faced with declining enrollments and prohibitive costs, Rowan saw the need and the opportunity to merge with community colleges in the area, allowing these colleges to use Rowan’s name while giving more students the chance to receive a quality education at a reasonable cost. A doctoral thesis in education, offered

Michael Gorman

President – Salem Community College We are a small county with about 800 to 900 highschool graduates annually but 50% of high-school students do not have a life plan after graduation and will work jobs that will not necessarily move toward a career. These are often students of color and we’re looking to apply a blue ocean strategy because that is a group that needs the service we can provide under what is known as the Community College Opportunity Grant (CCOG). Our goal is to help them to build the confidence to believe that they can handle what we have to offer. Our biggest issue in terms of equity is trying to get to those students who are not equipped with a life plan the day after graduation. We have a responsibility to them to do something, even if they don’t attend here.