Dive Brief:

• Big Sandy Community and Technical College is putting to use data from online job listings to develop methods that can bet prepare students for the workforce. 

• Burning Glass Technologies, a job-market analytics company, gathers the real-time data that more accurately gauges the demand for over 40,000 job-listing websites. Says Alicia Crouch, Vice Chancellor for research and analysis, "the real-time data are more current and detailed than data offered by the federal government." 

• The value says Rhonda Tracy, the system's chancellor, is that it allows them to consider real-time data and that provides "a more accurate picture of what the economy looks like, and therefore the college can plan training initiatives for the future." 

Dive Insight:

To meet the needs of overwhelming skill gaps and above-average unemployment rate in the nation, a Kentucky community college has partnered with a workforce data analytics firm for five years to design associate degrees and learning programs based on real jobs and real skills needed.

In addition to developing learning programs at the college level, the state educational system has very smartly connected the cycle with Kentucky’s Education and Workforce Development Cabinet to share data and information with employment offices for job seekers, according to Alicia Crouch of Burning GlassTechnologies.                                                                                                                                      

Other states and community colleges are following suit. David Baime, Senior VP for government relations and policy analysis at the American Association of Community Colleges, says, "That in addition to looking at job-market data, community colleges across the country are increasingly considering data on the wages of their programs' graduates."