Community Colleges Play Key Role in NJ's Workforce Development

Steve Adubato talks with Donald Borden, President of Camden County College, to talk about the role community colleges play in workforce development.

11/2/16 #1916

Excerpt:

"I'm Steve Adubato, this is One on One. We're pleased to welcome, for the first time, it will not be the last time, to our studio, Donald A. Borden, president, Camden County College. Good to see you Don. Good to be here. Thanks for having me. Describe your college. We are three campuses in Camden County. Our main campus is on the Blackwood campus, which I think reflects just the kind of investment that community has made in our college. We have a campus in Camden City, and we have a satellite in Cherry Hills. So you know, pretty much every aspect of our county from rural, as rural as we get in Camden County, to very urban in Camden City, represented by those campuses, and a cross section of our students too. You know, we've talked to many of your colleagues who run community colleges across the state, how do you see the role, the expanding role, of county slash community colleges? I think we are poised at a very critical time to provide the best option for so many students in our state, in the sense that with the debt crisis of college costs, we're affordable, we're accessible, I think another issue is the support that we provide for our students, gives them the best option to be successful, if they haven't had the kind of background that you would hope to see a student transition with into college. Describe that support. I mean, you're talking about readiness, are you not? We're talking about readiness. Getting ready for college? And... When does that start? Well, the college readiness support everything we walk about, we're pushing deeper into high school, we would like it to start sooner rather than later. I come from a public ed background, and elementary school teachers talk to middle school teachers and transition those students, and the same thing happens for middle school to high school. In our mind that conversation has to be between high school and colleges, we need to provide programming students that are not ready to come to college, need to be given remediation in high school so that they're not spending money at the college level adding, again, to that cost issue, those students that are college ready should be earning credits in their junior and senior years in high school. What are they actually doing for 'em? Make it clear to folks Don, what is actually going on to get young people more prepared to succeed in college? If a student can't pass the Accuplacer or meet standard on an exam that determines college readiness, there are courses being provided at the high school level that remediate those students primarily in the issue, in the areas of math and language arts so that they can then be determined college ready..."