GRCC Demonstrates Impact of Non-Credit Workforce Development Programs

For many community colleges, articulating the full impact of their non-credit workforce development programs is a challenge. While professors and staff may have a wealth of anecdotal evidence, it can be difficult to quantify the big-picture impact with hard numbers and economic data. As a result, public perception is not always aligned with the true value that these programs provide, despite the fact that these programs are often a crucial component of the college’s mission alongside more traditional for-credit offerings.

But now, through a research partnership with Lightcast (formerly Emsi), Grand Rapids Community College has solid numbers backing up the notion that their non-credit programs are a powerful economic development engine, supplying the critical talent that many local employers are desperately looking for.

Evidence for this comes from an impact study recently completed for GRCC. Like many community colleges, GRCC serves a diverse mix of credit-seeking and non-credit, workforce development students. In 2017, GRCC worked with Lightcast on a study that focused on the impact of their for-credit programs. After seeing the thorough analysis and findings from that report, the administration wanted to expand that research by assessing their non-credit programs as well.

“We realized that there was a large piece of the economic development work we did in this region that we hadn’t captured in that initial report,” said Lisa Freiburger, vice president for finance and administration at GRCC.

To do the analysis, Lightcast took an in-depth look at GRCC’s certificate programs in business, manufacturing, healthcare, applied technology, and computer information systems (to name a few), as well as the college’s short-term job-training partnerships assisting local companies.

One of the biggest hurdles to measuring the effects of non-credit programs is figuring out a measurable proxy for increased human capital–the skills, knowledge, and experience gained. In academic settings, you count credits. So to obtain a similar quantitative unit, Lightcast's consulting team measured Credit Hour Equivalents (CHE). Each CHE is 15 hours of classroom instruction time per semester, and the average non-credit student at GRCC takes 6.6 over a course of study.

Lightcast estimated the wages of all the graduates of the non-credit programs in the last 30 years, and compared them to those of peers without GRCC training. Different certifications had different outcomes, but the consulting team found that the average value per CHE was $158 in earnings annually.

Lightcast then multiplied all the CHEs earned by students over the past 30 years with the average value of the CHE for that year, and added up the products for total added labor income. In order to avoid inflating the results, Lightcast economists also adjusted for attrition: alumni that may not still be working in Grand Rapids due to migration, retirement, or unemployment. Then the team estimated a counterfactual scenario to figure out how much of that added income would be replaceable if GRCC didn’t exist.

Quantifying the concrete effects of these programs is important both in justifying GRCC’s presence and planning for the future, according to Freiburger. “We really wanted a measurement process to validate the impact we were having on the community,” she said. “One of our goals is to tell our story to people who wouldn’t necessarily take one of our classes, to show that there is value to them in having us here even if they never take a single class.”