2 min read March 2022 — Despite the impact the pandemic has had on enrollment, the Community College of Philadelphia is embracing innovative programs and deep community engagement to provide peerless education opportunities for students. Invest: spoke with Donald Guy Generals, president of the Community College of Philadelphia, about their recruitment strategies.
What differentiates the Community College of Philadelphia from other higher education institutions in the market?
It is our ability to meet students where they are, notwithstanding their prior academic experiences. This can range from transfers into four year institutions to career and technical certification programs to get them jobs right out of school. We work closely with businesses and industries to design our programs and that gives us a real edge. We are also in the community more than any other college. Our work in the school district has established a very robust dual enrollment program where high school students can start taking college credits as a freshman and graduate with a diploma and an associate’s degree. Our first cohort graduated this past May and all of them went on to four year colleges, bringing in over $10 million in scholarships along the way.
We continue to find new ways to teach and be innovative in terms of what we are doing. We have a great partnership with Toyota, and will be a regional training provider for them, including their Lexus line of vehicles. Students will come from as far away as New York to get that training.
Our strength is in our capacity to build bridges and to establish alignments, whether it is with schools, private companies, or public organizations. This centers us right in the middle of the educational ecosystem in Philadelphia. That is what gives us that unique character.
How does enrollment today compare to pre-pandemic levels?
Our enrollment has been down double digits two years now, but that is true with all of higher education across the country, and specifically for community colleges. Many students come here as non-matriculated and uncertain about what they want to do and it has added to the downward trend. But we are starting to see an uptick for the current 15-week semester that restarted this week and hope we can make up some ground with late enrollments. Being forced to do everything online has given us the chance to look at what we are capable of. We can now provide services around the clock beyond instruction, with support services, advising and tutoring. That is a new advantage of the virtual platforms we have implemented. Students need to be engaged with faculty and mentors, and we are improving our methods to augment that experience for them.
Our health science and business programs are doing well. We are excited about the 70,000 square foot career and technical center that is opening in West Philadelphia in September. We see quite a bit of support from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan and the two stimulus packages before that which helped us recover some revenue loss we experienced through declining enrollment.
What does the job market look like right now for CCP graduates?
Although Philadelphia is a little behind the national unemployment average of 3.6% or 3.7%, people who are looking for work are able to find it. It is a different landscape because companies are struggling to find employees and people are now better positioned to negotiate on their terms because there are so many openings. Based on our last graduating class, we had close to 60% of our students find new jobs or were promoted within their current jobs within six months. Flagship programs like health science and auto technicians find jobs right out the door. Seventy percent of our students transfer and most have no trouble doing so. Flexibility and the ability to work remotely will be key factors in how students choose their careers.
As students had to transition into these remote learning environments, was there a significant impact on their performance?
We know from research that if students don’t have the capacity to study and learn as a self-starter, online learning is not the right choice. This exacerbates the challenges already facing economically disadvantaged students, and has impacted our black and brown students the most. Even though CCP gave out thousands of laptops to students over the pandemic, WiFi access was still an issue for many students. There is also the family dynamic to consider, where finding quiet space to study and work can be hard to come by. The technical aspects of going online and being virtual hurt those who had less means to deal with it than those who did.
This is supported by research from McKinsey Global Institute, which found across the board there are five to six months lost in education and that average gets exponentially worse for minority students who have less means. We may not see this impact for a couple of years because a lot of them are coming out of high schools. Juniors during the pandemic are now in their first year of college. Hybrid learning can be a great tool if students have the capacity to incorporate, but we need to support those who are less academically or financially prepared as well, or they will suffer.
What is your outlook for higher education in Philadelphia over the next three to five years?
I am optimistic. The job market is competitive so we can help them leverage their skills through an excellent secondary education. There will be challenges, though. There are far fewer high school students in our systems right now and the job market is so robust, people are choosing jobs rather than going back to school. There is a lot of leadership change in the city right now. The president of the University of Pennsylvania has stepped down, and there is a new president at Temple University. Despite the so-called tale of two cities, students from disadvantaged backgrounds want to go to college. They have realized the importance of an education, whether it is at a four year school or certificate training, and are seeking it out.
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