Dissecting an international partnership

Abstract

The community college model combines liberal, vocational, and technical education in a manner that helps generate the human capital necessary for local, regional, and national economic development. The ability of community colleges to develop programming that directly responds to labour market needs provides college graduates with the combined theoretical knowledge and practical skills required for successfully gaining employment that contributes to economic development. This model holds significant promise for developing countries. Hewitt and Lee (2005/2006) argue that many tertiary education institutions in the developing world lack education models that directly link tertiary education with the workforce needs of the economy. This contributes to unemployment and stilted economic growth. The community college model offers a promising avenue to assist developing countries in building the link between tertiary education and workforce needs, thereby promoting greater employment and economic prosperity Recognition of the potential benefits of the community college model has resulted in a significant amount of international partnering. American and Canadian community colleges are increasingly working with counterpart institutions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the development of curriculum, industry linkages, and joint programming. Given the flexible and responsive nature of most community colleges, these partnerships are being forged with a variety of higher education institutions in the developing world, including both technical colleges and universities that are interested in addressing workforce development needs. Overall, this is contributing to higher education reform by increasingly institutionalizing the characteristics of the community college model on an international scale © 2009 Springer Netherlands.