Breaking Through: Helping Low-Skilled Adults Enter and Succeed in College and Careers

Funder: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Amount: $348,866.00
Funding Period: 4/1/2007 – 4/30/2009

“Breaking Through: Helping Low-Skilled Adults Enter and Succeed in College and Careers” is a national, multi-year demonstration project of Jobs for the Future and the National Center for Workforce Education (NCWE). The goal of “Breaking Through” is to strengthen post-secondary outcomes for low-income adults by focusing on strategies that will create more effective pathways into and through pre-college and degree-level programs. The “Breaking Through” initiative focuses on four key strategies to increase access to and success in college for low-literacy adults. 1) Re-organize colleges by establishing links among programs so that low-income students can navigate them easily for advancement; 2) Accelerate Learning by helping students learn more faster and complete programs more quickly; 3) Labor market payoff which means offering students intermediate credentials, jobs, and other quick economic payoffs; and 4) Comprehensive Support by helping students develop realistic plans that keep them enrolled and attending, particularly through difficult transition points.

In this initiative, six (6) colleges who have already demonstrated a strong commitment to, and significant progress toward, the goal of advancing low-skilled adults serve as Leadership Colleges. In addition, ten (10) institutions were selected as Learning Colleges, of which Mott Community College is one of them. Mott Community College is also the team leader in a group of 3-5 community colleges interested in exploring how community colleges can link adult basic education programs to credit occupational courses. MCC’s work has been primarily concentrated on three nationally identified high-leverage strategies: program/curriculum alignment; comprehensive support services and, data tracking/information systems management.

Mott Community College is creating connected pathways from workforce development training to Associate Degrees in four distinct areas: health/human services, building and construction technology, office/administrative support, and manufacturing/light industrial. The “Breaking Through” initiative is assisting MCC in continuing with its goal of increasing the college’s support of and capacity to advance low-skilled adults into occupational and technical programs