Career Capital and the Community College

The “Geography of Opportunity” in Community Colleges: The Role of the Local Labor Market in Students’ Decisions to Persist and Succeed

“…In addition, the analyses suggest that perspectives on careers are potentially central and pervasive in the college-going pursuits of community college students, not only as a motivating force, but also as a reality shaping their daily experiences. Therefore, colleges must start to recognize and potentially foster opportunities for developing students' career capital, which is a concept describing the value of competencies, knowledge, and personality attributes individuals possess to produce economic value (D'Amico et al, 2012). With such a high proportion of students working and studying simultaneously, community college students' concurrent employment could potentially be strategic and purposeful, perhaps providing structured opportunities for them to build further awareness of available jobs in the area as well.…”

“…Persistence among community college students has been at the forefront of educational research (Liao, Edlin, & Ferdenzi, 2014). The increasing demand for community colleges to prepare more students for the workforce or to transfer to 4-year colleges or universities has generated a broad spectrum of research (e.g., Belfield & Bailey, 2011;D'Amico, Rios-Aguilar, Salas, & González Canché, 2012;Mullin, 2012). This research has primarily explored how and why community college students persist and examines the relationship between student success and employment outcomes.…”

“…As institutions committed to ensuring ''the social mobility that has characterized America'' (Cohen & Brawer, 2008, p. 41), community colleges have entered the forefront of national discussions involving U.S. economic competitiveness (D'Amico et al, 2012). Policy for ensuring the viability of economic security has refocused on issues of student success as measured by associate degree completion (Lee & Rawls, 2010).…”

An Exploration of College and Career Alignment for Community College Students

“…This multi-site inquiry was grounded in the notion that leveraging the two-year college as a gateway to the workforce requires more than technical skill, content area knowledge, or simple degree attainment. Rather, as we have argued in a series of theorizations about the relationship between academic and career choices in two-year college contexts (D'Amico et al, 2012;D'Amico et al, 2017;González Canché, D'Amico, Rios-Aguilar, & Salas, 2014), boundary-less careers involve dynamic "ways of knowing" (Defillippi & Arthur, 1994) that become relevant the moment an individual enrolls in a two-year college. In other words, after the choice of a two-year college, more choices follow-and individuals make those choices based on a combination of ways of knowing.…”

“…We contend that this purpose is timely and relevant as greater understanding is needed regarding the connections between the choices students make at community colleges and their career goals (D'Amico, Rios-Aguilar, Salas, & González Canché, 2012;D'Amico, Salas, González Canché, Rios-Aguilar, & Rutherford, 2017), as well as helping to improve community college student choices to realize the economic value of their degrees (Stuart, Rios-Aguilar, & Deil-Amen, 2014). It is expected that findings from this paper will help colleges by informing their efforts, and especially by generating discussions among faculty, administrators, and staff who are leading and implementing programs.…”