Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke apparently thinks that community colleges are very important. They might even fix the economy. According to an article in Community College Times:
Innovative workforce development programs at community colleges can play an important role in meeting employers’ demands as the labor market recovers, according to… Bernanke.
“Community colleges have the flexibility to provide their students a range of non-degree training opportunities—including counseling, certificate programs and refresher courses—as well as more formal degree programs,” Bernanke said last week at a forum on workforce development in Richmond, Va.
Bernanke indicated that he believed one of the greatest benefits of community colleges was that they were flexible and could tailor their programs to meet the needs of the workforce quickly. Non-academic degree programs could be very beneficial to meeting workforce needs.
This is a good point, though community colleges mostly operate as workforce training centers in a merely theoretical way. Currently community colleges tend not to do a very good job actually training people for work. [Image via]
