Supporting Community College Student Success through Paid Work Experience

Over the course of the pandemic, community colleges have seen the greatest enrollment declines in higher education, dropping by almost 10 percent to date. And those students have yet to start heading back to college. Black, Latinx, low-income, and first generation students are overrepresented among those choosing to forgo college, a trend that could easily exacerbate long-standing racial disparities in degree attainment and wealth accumulation. Adults without a college degree earn less over their lifetimes and are more likely to experience periods of joblessness than their counterparts who complete college.

For many students, the need to make money for their families is preventing a return to college. Providing vulnerable students with subsidized work study jobs, in conjunction with their studies, could bring thousands of students back. Thanks to a new grant from the Annie E. Casey foundation, our team at the Center on Education & Labor will study how to build the capacity of community colleges to create subsidized student jobs that facilitate re-enrollment, persistence, and graduation.

A recent New America survey of prospective and current community college students, for example, found that 41 percent of respondents said they needed to work to support themselves or their families, and 31 percent said they could no longer afford college. The survey also revealed that many community college students either lost their jobs over this last year, were forced to move into full-time jobs to make up for lost income from other family members, and/or had to take irregular jobs (gig work) to make ends meet.

Particularly at community colleges, paid work study opportunities could go a long way toward easing students back into college and keeping them there through graduation. The tension between the need to work and the need to study is not new for community college students. Over the last decade, the large majority - more than 80 percent - have been working learners, and just under 40 percent work full time. While evidence suggests that students who work are less likely to graduate than students who do not, students employed through work-study programs or participating in paid internships are actually more likely to graduate than similar students who do not participate.

But as it stands, community college students have significantly less access to work study and paid internships than students in traditional four-year schools, due in part to the fact that two-year institutions are largely left out of the Federal Work Study (FWS) program: only 11 percent of FWS funding goes to community colleges, despite enrolling nearly 40 percent of undergraduates. Indeed, only two percent of community college students are able to access federal work study opportunities. In response, some community colleges, like Bunker Hill in Boston, have developed home-grown work experience programs for their students. These programs can serve as models for others to launch programs like it in their own communities.

Subsidized student jobs can both help students support themselves in school, particularly in times like a pandemic, and better their career prospects by adding to their resume and connecting them to a local employer. It’s important that such jobs are paid enough--and flexible enough--to be a viable form of financial support for a student, helping rather than hurting their chances of graduation. The right work experience can make all the difference for students who need to combine learning and earning to make it to graduation.

It’s time to consider subsidized, career-relevant work experience as a recruitment, re-engagement, and equity strategy at community colleges. We need to rethink college-connected work experiences not as a perk for a few students, but as a widely accessible way of promoting student success. Stay tuned over the next year for new insights on increasing community college capacity to keep students enrolled and progressing through paid, relevant work experiences.

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