Professional Development

Community of Practice

The Noncredit Career Pathways project has created a community of practice among faculty who are developing noncredit courses and programs in the Los Angeles region. The regional faculty have worked together to develop regional noncredit career technical education (CTE) curriculum and noncredit contextualized curriculum that has been made available and shared with all partner colleges as a deliverable of this project. All 19 colleges now have access to the curriculum that has been developed. Representatives from the colleges have met to review the curriculum to ensure it is faculty driven and appropriate for each district. The project leads also engage faculty partners by giving presentations about the project during department meetings at the partner colleges, curriculum committee meetings, and professional development workshops. Through these presentations, the project leads connect with interested credit and noncredit CTE faculty who have now become part of the noncredit CTE community of practice in the region.   Through professional development workshops organized by this project and focused on noncredit CTE, the project has been able to engage faculty from across the region. Details of these professional development events are provided below.

 

Archived Presentations

Behavioral Design for Student Outreach (with ideas42)

Two workshops related to Behavioral Design for Student Outreach were offered to both noncredit and credit partners in the region.  The workshops were facilitated by the behavioral science firm, ideas42, and introduced participants to some of the most common behavioral barriers students face, and strategies that colleges can apply to improve their marketing, outreach, and enrollment efforts.

View the slide decks

 

Mirrored Courses and Articulations Workshop

Out of a high demand from partners across the region, this 90-minute workshop was offered to provide an overview of noncredit mirrored courses, their benefits, curriculum, implementation, scheduling, requirements, and challenges.  Articulation agreements for credit was also explained, including the processes and forms required.  This engaging workshop was presented by L.E. Foisia, Professor of Basic Skills at Mt. San Antonio College, and Marie Tyra, Articulation Specialist at Mt. SAC.

View the video of the workshop

View the slide deck

 

Competency Based Education

The Noncredit Career Pathways project partnered with C-BEN to host a series of Competency-Based Education (CBE) workshops for regional college partners. The series focused on CBE overview and frameworks as well as CBE workforce development offerings.

View the videos and slide decks

View the slide deck

 

Creating Dynamic Lectures

The project also hosted a two-part workshop on Creating Dynamic Lectures for regional college partners. The workshops focused on equity-centered teaching online for distance education.

 

A Framework for Embedding Noncredit in Pathways

Institutions of higher learning experienced the impact of the same global pandemic, but each will need to create a unique recovery path within which resides an opportunity to equitably transform systems to sustain a culture of responsive inclusivity. While the road to recovery will inherently be fraught with complex financial decisions, leadership teams can maintain equity goals through effective resource and investment choices that strategically interconnect and leverage statewide initiatives. The workshop facilitators will presented the case that embedding the noncredit discipline in pathway development can serve as one key strategy that bridges equity gaps, fosters inclusivity, and builds the resiliency of grant funded initiatives for long-term sustainability.

View the Framework for Embedding Noncredit in Pathways Presentation

View the Presentation Slides

 

Articulation Workshop Series: Building Bridges from Noncredit/Adult Education to Credit Courses

This important workshop series discussed the importance and process of creating articulation agreements between noncredit and credit career technical education courses. Across three Mondays in November 2020, more than 80 attendees from regional partner colleges and adult schools attended virtual workshops hosted by the Mt. San Antonio College Noncredit Strong Workforce Program Project and led by Marie Tyra, articulation specialist at the college. Topics included creating articulation agreement documents; articulation agreement examples; mirrored articulation agreements; articulation exams, processes, and methodologies; credit by exam; demonstration exams and industry validation; required paperwork; and articulation data and reporting.

Watch workshop #1: Creating Articulation Agreement Documents

Watch workshop #2: Understanding Exam Requirements and Processes

Watch workshop #3: Required Paperwork and Reporting

 

New World of Work Training

The Mt. San Antonio College Noncredit Strong Workforce Program Project partnered with the New World of Work team from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to host a two-day in-person training at Mt. SAC in October 2019. The trainings provided the opportunity to review curriculum, practice teach-backs, receive tips on facilitation strategies, review data collection templates, and provide access to digital badge assessments through the CareerXP/LaunchPath and Badgr platforms. More than 40 regional college faculty/instructors, adult school faculty/instructors, and CTE deans and administrators attended the training. Participants were awarded certificates of completion for instruction in 21st-century skills and were given curriculum and materials to use in their classrooms.

Learn more about New World of Work.

 

Allied Health Convening

Eighty-two individuals attended the first Allied Health Convening, hosted by the Mt. SAC Noncredit Strong Workforce Program Project on June 7, 2019. The event focused on strategies for increasing access and providing healthcare training for non-traditional, underrepresented, and re-entry students from a variety of different communities within the Los Angeles County region. Topics included current trends in allied health credit and noncredit education, teaching diverse student populations, and noncredit to credit pathways. Attendees included full-time and adjunct faculty, counselors, department chairs, directors, deans, career pathways coordinators, curriculum specialists, deputy sector navigators, and students. The directors for both the Los Angeles and Orange County Regional Consortium, as well as the executive director of the LAOCRC, were also in attendance.

View Allied Health Convening presentation

View event agenda