Scaling Community College Workforce Excellence with State‑Based Support

Community colleges are on the frontline of workforce development. They provide credit and non-credit opportunities to help people change jobs and excel in their careers. Yet the staff charged with creating and managing these programs rarely get any ongoing professional development to innovate and improve. It doesn’t have to be that way. Delivering sustainable, state-based professional development to community college workforce staff is possible. Iowa has already shown us how.

Over the past five years, New America has studied what makes a high-quality, non-degree program and how to create the ideal environment within a college to scale that quality. We worked with 15 community colleges nationwide to implement these enabling conditions through stronger connections to economic development, data collection and use, and effective finance models. The staff we worked with at these colleges were terrific, and they had a lot on their plates. Typically, they were spending so much time doing day-to-day tasks that focusing on long-term improvement was nearly impossible. And, even if they wanted to make systemic improvements, there was little support for them to do so.

We connected these staff with resources, each other, and a place to discuss options for institutional improvement. It became clear that community college workforce staff need opportunities for ongoing professional development to help them improve their work, colleges, and programs. One promising model is the Community College Leadership Development Consortium in Iowa.

Iowa’s Community College Leadership Development Consortium

The Consortium, founded in 2022, formalized a 30-plus-year partnership between Iowa State University’s School of Education, the Iowa Association of Community College Presidents, Community Colleges for Iowa, and the Iowa Department of Education. It provides two year-long, non-credit programs: the Iowa Community College Leadership Institute (ICCLI) for experienced mid- and senior‑level managers and the Leadership Institute for a New Century (LINC) for new and early‑career professionals and faculty. Each of these serves 25 to 30 staff members a year. It also provides three-day academies during the summer months for specific community college staff subgroups like new department chairs and new deans.

ICCLI equips community college executives with the skills needed for executive roles. Aligned with AACC’s Competencies for Community College Leaders, the program covers governance, policy, student success, institutional culture, analytics, advocacy, fundraising, and leadership development. Participants build the expertise to advance into senior leadership through interactive workshops and expert-led sessions.

LINC empowers staff to “lead from where you are.” The program provides foundational community college knowledge, covering mission, governance, student success, and culture, alongside core leadership skills like communication, collaboration, and change management.

Why This Model Works

1. Sustainable and Affordable: Iowa State University contributes faculty time to lead The Consortium’s programs as part of their role in the university’s doctoral program in Community College Leadership, keeping costs under $2,000 per participant per year.
2. Talent Development and Retention: By pooling staff from all 15 community colleges, Iowa fosters peer learning and builds a pipeline of home‑grown leaders.
3. Collaborative Curriculum Design: Partnership between the Iowa Association of Community College Presidents, Community Colleges for Iowa, the state’s Department of Education, and Iowa State University ensures that community colleges shape the curriculum and that the program endures.

Although today’s offerings focus on general leadership, the same infrastructure can support workforce‑specific professional development, equipping program directors, deans, and frontline staff with the skills to link training to regional economic needs.

Scaling the Model

Almost every state has a community college association and universities with leadership development programs. Departments or centers at research universities that focus on community colleges, like the one at Iowa State University, could partner to deliver similar non-credit programming. Their faculty’s research, teaching expertise, and deep knowledge of community colleges positions them well to contribute to the professional development of their state’s community college leaders. By combining association networks, university expertise, and affordable pricing, states can follow Iowa’s lead and build resilient, state‑based professional development pipelines for their community college workforce staff.

With the right institutional infrastructure, those on the frontline of workforce development can be empowered to innovate, improve, and lead, strengthening both colleges and the communities they serve.