Strategies to Increase Awareness, Recruitment, and Success in Community College Advanced Technical Education

Community College Advanced Technological Education programs are prime sources for educating students for employment into the Skilled Technical Workforce, such as micro nanotechnology, biotechnology, and autonomous technologies. However, community college technical education programs struggle to make students aware of program availability, recruitment, and graduate students into the workforce. Recruitment and retention are fundamental to any workforce pipeline. Therefore, programs in biotechnology, nanotechnology, advanced manufacturing, autonomous technologies, and other Skilled Technical Workforce certificate and associate degree programs must increase awareness and recruitment strategies or continue with low enrollment and eventual discontinuation of programs. Strategies used to increase awareness of technical education programs to the public, community college students, administrators, and industry partners will be described in this manuscript.