Career and Technical Education (CTE) Transfer Research Project: Improving Transfer Pathways for California Community College Students in CTE Programs

• Published in: Journal of applied research in the community college Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 39 - 48
• Main Authors: Karandjeff, Kelley, Schiorring, Eva
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Montezuma Publishing 01.04.2011
• ISSN: 1068-610X

Despite the current economic downturn, workforce projections indicate that California will experience shortages in its supply of baccalaureate-trained workers in the decades to come, particularly engineers, accountants, nurses, teachers and law enforcement professionals. Students often start their journey toward these occupations in community college career and technical education (CTE) programs. This paper presents findings from Phase I of a multi-year study conducted by the Research & Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) to investigate how California can begin to build these pathways. The report of Phase I findings presented here includes: (1) a description of the infrastructure of CTE courses and programs currently available to facilitate transfer from California's community colleges, (2) an analysis of student engagement with that infrastructure, and (3) preliminary findings on student and educator perspectives regarding factors that support and compromise transfer in career-oriented disciplines. The article concludes with a preview of Phase II research currently underway.