3 min read January 2023 — Minneapolis College is a public two-year college, enrolling nearly 10,000 for-credit students annually and offering affordable pathways to high-quality degrees, diplomas and certificates. Invest: spoke with President Sharon Pierce about the college’s recent focus, shifts in demand and its role in workforce development.
What has been a key focus for Minneapolis College over the last 12 months?
The biggest factor that everyone is focused on right now is the set of changes that the college had to implement and undergo post-COVID to return our workforce and our students to in-person learning and building the campus community again. Recognizing that the way that we work and the way that people access learning and services have changed, we can’t just go back to what we were doing before. We must incorporate the new into where we want to go in the future.
How has the demand for programs shifted over the last couple of years?
We need both online and HyFlex classes. There’s an audience of students who want in-person learning. There’s an audience for purely online, asynchronous coursework. Some want a combination that includes synchronous online as well as HyFlex, where they can choose how they access the learning, whether it’s online synchronous, asynchronous, or in person. It goes beyond learning, however; it’s also how they access services and support. Students want what they want when they want it. They are expecting us to be able to offer that level of flexibility and quality that make it easy for them to choose, access, engage and experience.
What is the college’s role in workforce development?
If you’re a college in workforce development, regardless of whether you’re a two-year or four-year institution, you’re preparing people for careers, whether they go directly into the workforce or transfer to a four-year institution and then enter the workforce. We are always looking to prepare our students for the next thing, in addition to expanding and deepening our understanding and use of credit for prior learning.
Minnesota’s unemployment rate is unbelievably low. It’s almost non-existent. However, there’s a huge need for employees. The unemployment rate only reflects the number of people who are actively seeking employment. We still have large numbers of people who are unemployed because they’re not seeking employment. They’ve been disassociated due to a lack of skills, a feeling of hopelessness, childcare needs, or other issues. They need an entry ramp into the economic community. Part of our job is to build that. We need to be out communicating what we have to offer and how people can access it. We were in an open forum recently, and a student shared that her current budget is $350 a month to pay rent and eat. If tuition goes up even 1%, there’s no way she can stay in school. What does that mean for us as a college? We need to look at what we are doing to not just get people in but to support them throughout their journey.
What are the most in-demand skills that your students need to have to succeed in the current and future work environment?
The most demanded skills that we hear from employers are soft skills. They’re actually not soft, in that they can be hard to learn. Things like problem-solving, designing and the ability to collaborate, these are the skills that employers are seeking. My background is in nursing and I know that you can have the technical skills and still not understand human beings. People are looking at skills like collaboration, communication, critical thinking, designing, time management and being able to work both on a team and independently.
What partnerships are you looking to leverage?
Our partnerships are key to being successful in our mission. These include nonprofits and community partnerships. Our corporate partners also make a difference for our students and to the types of programs and the quality of programs that we can offer. For example, our partnership with Delta Airlines allows us to have a high-level program with Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport in a hangar that Delta makes available to us. Another partnership is with the Department of Corrections. The students we have in our Transformation and Re-entry through Education and Community (TREC) program are wildly successful. Over the past year, we’ve developed two additional sites in their facilities where our faculty teach college courses. They’re interested in trades and liberal arts. That’s a new level of leveraging relationships, partnerships and conversations to expand student success. There’s a level of addiction that exists in our local population and the Collegiate Recovery Program is successful in supporting recovering students throughout their time on our campus. We also have a veterans’ support program.
What is your outlook for the Minneapolis community and the region’s higher education sector for the next couple of years?
We are a critical part of the larger community. We have a role to play in the health and economic well-being of the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota. I have a positive outlook on the work that we have in front of us. There’s a lot of work to be done and we are committed to doing it. We will grow in response to the needs around us. The main thing is to make sure that we are responding with quality education and in partnership with our community.
I’m proud of the work that our faculty and staff do. They’re the ones who bring these things to life. My job is to make sure that I create an environment where people can do that and find the resources. Sometimes they challenge me and my thinking and that’s worth coming to work for every day.
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