Forbes reports: National Initiative To Scale Work-Based Learning At Community Colleges including City Colleges of Chicago

Through a new partnership brokered under New America and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Accelerator for Community Colleges in the Innovation Economy, New America and ACCT have selected six community colleges to participate in the Accelerator’s inaugural Work-based Learning Capacity-Building Cohort.

The Accelerator was originally launched in 2023 to strengthen community college capacity for tech-based economic development efforts catalyzed by public or private investments. It provides capacity building for community colleges, helps navigate workforce needs for tech-based economic development, industrial policy, and industries created and shaped by emerging technologies. Work-based learning expansion, along with strengthening the role of community college trustees in economic development, are two new focus areas under New America’s partnership with ACCT.

The cohort spans coast to coast, including City Colleges of Chicago in Illinois, East Central College in Missouri, Forsyth Technical Community College in North Carolina, Santa Fe College in Florida, SUNY Broome Community College in New York, and West Valley College in California.

Read the full story in Forbes magazine.

City Colleges had its candidacy for the Accelerator cohort endorsed by World Business Chicago, a public-private economic development agency for the City of Chicago, which touts a number of qualifications for Chicago to lead as a quantum hub in the United States. City Colleges’ work-based learning capacity-building objectives are also supported by a variety of local employers, including Aon, Accenture, and Zurich North America, all of whom are part of the Chicago Apprenticeship Network.

City Colleges recently launched Chicago Moonshot, an apprenticeship initiative associated with the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park, where the district has committed to graduating hundreds of IT apprentices over the next five years.