Building Employer–Community College Partnerships to Increase Working Adult Learner Success

Working while attending community college is the norm: About 80 percent of U.S. community college learners work, and half of these learners work full-time (Beer and Bray, 2019; Community College Research Center, undated). However, about two out of every five working adult learners will leave college without completing a postsecondary credential — more than twice the share of students who attend community college full-time (Carnevale and Smith, 2017).

Are Employer–Community College Partnerships Critical to Working Adult Learner Success?

Working adult learners need targeted financial and nonfinancial supports from employers to achieve success in both the classroom and the workplace (Elsayed, 2016; Holzer and Baum, 2017; Hultman and Eadens, 2020; Lerman, 2019; Tran and Smith, 2017). To induce and strengthen employer supports, policymakers, influencers, researchers, and other stakeholders recommend stronger, more-intensive partnerships between community colleges and employers (Fuller and Raman, 2022; Holzer, 2021).

Recent RAND research provides the first evaluation of how one program based on employer–community college partnerships, Achieve Your Degree (AYD), might improve the success of working adult learners. This research brief provides an overview of that evaluation, including a detailed summary of the implementation of the AYD program and its impacts on postsecondary credential completion among working adult learners.

To understand implementation of the AYD program, RAND researchers surveyed AYD program coordinators and employer partners. To understand the potential relationship between the AYD program and postsecondary credential completion, RAND researchers used regression models to examine the associations between AYD participation and the completion of short-term certificates, long-term certificates, and associate degrees based on learner administrative records over a 13-year period. The evaluation of this one statewide program speaks to how employer–community college partnerships operate and how they might support working adult learner success in a nationwide context.

The Achieve Your Degree Program in Overview

Launched in the 2015 academic year, the AYD program is jointly provided by AYD staff and more than 250 local employers at Ivy Tech Community College locations across the state of Indiana. Working adults become eligible for the AYD program if (1) they take a job with an AYD employer partner or (2) their current employer becomes an AYD partner. AYD's program model includes five core components, shown in Figure 1.

1. A formal agreement between AYD employer partners and their local Ivy Tech campus
2. A campus AYD coordinator to support employers and learners at the worksite, the local campus, and remotely
3. Tailored education and training for AYD employer partners by request
4. Remove out-of-pocket costs to learners using federal tax allowances and direct tuition billing to the employer
5. Specialized support services for AYD learners

Unlike in other employer–community college partnership programs, AYD staff work directly with employer partners to enroll working adult learners in education and training (often tailored to an employer's needs), using federal tax allowances for employer tuition assistance. This direct partnership might enhance coordination and alignment of Ivy Tech and employers in local labor markets overall.

Key Findings

Key findings from the RAND evaluation of the AYD program are summarized in Figure 2. These findings contribute to a small but growing body of research studying such partnerships. These findings can help stakeholders build out their own employer–community college partnerships to support working adult learners, perhaps replicating the AYD program model or certain components of this program.

Employers and Community Colleges Used Federal Tax Allowances to Build Direct Partnerships and Reduce Learners' Tuition Costs

Section 127 of the federal tax code allows employers to deduct the costs of employer-provided tuition as a business expense up to a maximum of $5,250 per employee each calendar year. Typically, employees pay for their tuition costs out of pocket and receive subsequent reimbursement from their employers based on these allowances. However, Ivy Tech leverages these tax allowances to build direct partnerships with employers. Under signed AYD agreements, Ivy Tech directly bills most AYD employers for their employee-learners' tuition. Ivy Tech also defers billing to working adult learners until after they have received employer-provided tuition funds, although fewer AYD employers use this payment option. In both cases, the use of tax allowances and signed agreements effectively removes out-of-pocket tuition costs to the working adult learner. Ivy Tech then uses partnerships to enhance coordination with employers in local labor markets overall. Ivy Tech employer consultants and AYD staff regularly contact local employers to understand their education-related, training, and other workforce development needs and work to meet them. In fact, about one-third of AYD employer partners requested and received tailored education and training for their working adult learners, based on study survey data.

Employer Partnership Programs Might Lead to Increased Credential Completion

Results from the regression analysis suggest a positive association between AYD participation and the probability of completion when accounting for other factors. This is particularly the case for short-term certificates, even after accounting for time since initial enrollment at Ivy Tech, demographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, and race/ethnicity) and academic achievements (e.g., number of courses taken and grade point average). Evidence supports the conclusion that the AYD program is a promising investment for improving working adult learner success. Because the evaluation data were limited, RAND researchers could not determine which specific program features (e.g., tuition support or on-site enrollment services) were responsible for the observed relationships between AYD participation and credential completion. While the statistical association between AYD participation and credential completion in a given academic term is small in an absolute sense, this relationship still represents a large, relative change in the likelihood of a working adult learner completing a postsecondary credential.

Employer–Community College Partnerships Are Sometimes Lean

While promising, the RAND evaluation findings suggest that employer–community college partnerships can be lean in practice. Lean partnerships might limit the depth of such partnerships over time — even though deeper, more-intensive partnerships are likely better for working adult learner success. Lean partnerships might also limit the different types and number of supports that working adult learners receive in the context of those partnerships (Davidson et al., 2019).

In the case of the AYD program, surveyed AYD staff reported spending a few hours per week on program tasks while attending to other, non-AYD job duties. In the case of employer partners, they reported spending a few hours per week on both AYD-related and all other workforce development efforts combined. When AYD staff did focus on AYD tasks, they reported spending much of their time working to support employer tuition payments or similar administrative program requirements. Although the survey data from this evaluation cannot speak to all employer–community college partnerships, they do underscore how difficult it can be to achieve the more-intensive partnerships that research suggests benefit working adult learners the most—even in the context of a dedicated community college system with designated program staff and employer partners with signed agreements.

Recommendations for Building and Strengthening Employer–Community College Partnerships

The RAND evaluation findings inform several recommendations for community colleges and other stakeholders to consider. Whether they are interested in replicating the AYD program or parts of it, these recommendations can help broaden efforts to build and strengthen employer–community college partnerships.

Better Leverage Federal Tax Allowances to Build Employer–Community College Partnerships

Many employers and their postsecondary partners use federal tax allowances. However, they are likely underused by community college learners and at least some employers (Dynarski and Scott-Clayton, 2006; Tran and Smith, 2017). The AYD program provides a proof of concept for better leveraging federal tax allowances for employer–community college partnerships to support working adult learners in their education and training, as well as support local employers in their workforce development efforts. Community colleges that partner with multiple employers are likely important resources to ensure that employers—especially small- to medium-sized employers—more fully use federal tax allowances. Leveraging federal tax allowances should include signed agreements to bolster the employer–community college partnerships, establish employer responsibilities, and set the stage for even stronger and more-intensive partnerships in the future.

Invest More in Learner Supports in the Workplace

The AYD program model emphasizes learner supports provided by both AYD staff and employer partners. Study survey data indicate key ways that AYD staff support AYD learners. These supports include providing orientation on the program and on Ivy Tech, helping students to enroll in the program, and, as needed, helping learners select their initial courses. Meeting working adult learners where they literally are (at work) is important. But, more might be done. Survey data indicate that providing these sorts of supports to working adult learners constitutes only a small share of AYD staff time. Community colleges interested in implementing AYD-like processes or programming should consider offering these and other services consistently at partner employers' places of business or in locations central to clusters of employer partners. Employers can provide the space and time in the workday to facilitate these supports. Employers can even co-provide these supports; research suggests that manager check-ins and mentoring directly related to education and training is important to workforce development (Hultman and Eadens, 2020). Employer-provided supports also require resources: Federal tax deductions to employers can include job-related coaching, mentoring, and training deemed "ordinary and necessary" business expenses. State and local tax incentives or grant programs can provide another financial lever to promote employer-provided supports for adult learners in the workplace.

Monitor Credential Completion Beyond the Short-Term Certificate

Evaluation results suggest that the strongest associations between AYD participation and completion were for short-term certificates that can be completed in six months' time or less. However, results are mixed in the literature about the association between short-term certificate completion and wage gains (Jabbari et al., 2025; Ositelu, McCann, and Laitinen, 2021). More research is needed.

Community colleges and their employer partners must therefore balance between providing programming that increases any credential completion among working adult learners and providing programming that increases the long-term economic prospects of such learners. Ivy Tech and other community colleges already use important tools, such as career pathways, that define the different courses and credentials leading to specific jobs in specific fields. And, the majority of AYD employer partners who responded to the study survey reported providing career pathways to their employee-learners. Clarifying which Ivy Tech credentials, short-term certificates or otherwise, map to a given stage of an employer's career pathway could clarify to employers and employees how long-term certificates and associate degrees are worth pursuing. The National Skills Coalition and multiple U.S. states also earmark credentials that provide family-sustaining wages, employment and tenure in the intended occupation, knowledge and competencies included in the credential, and more (Cruse et al., 2023). These sorts of quality assurance metrics for short-term certificates and other postsecondary credentials can be built into employer and community college career maps when designing specific credential programs.

References

• Beer, Allison, and Jacob B. Bray, The College-Work Balancing Act, Association of Community College Trustees, September 2019.
• Carnevale, Anthony P., and Nicole Smith, "Learning While Earning: How Low Income Working Learners Differ from All Other American College Students," The ACCT 2016 Invitational Symposium: Getting in the Fast Lane — Ensuring Economic Security and Meeting the Workforce Needs of the Nation, Association of Community College Trustees, 2017.
• Community College Research Center, "Community College FAQs," webpage, undated. As of July 28, 2020: https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Community-College-FAQs.html
• Cruse, Lindsey Reichlin, Jennifer Stiddard, Roderick Taylor, and Jeannine LaPrad, The Non-Degree Credential Quality Imperative, National Skills Coalition, July 2023.
• Davidson, Brittney, Tess Henthorne, Karthik Ilakkuvan, Linda Perlstein, Keith Witham, and Joshua Wyner, The Workforce Playbook: A Community College Guide to Delivering Excellent Career and Technical Education, Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, 2019.
• Dynarski, Susan M., and Judith E. Scott-Clayton, "The Cost of Complexity in Federal Student Aid: Lessons from Optimal Tax Theory and Behavioral Economics, National Tax Journal, Vol. 59, No. 2, 2006.
• Elsayed, Mahmoud A.A., "The Impact of Education Tax Benefits on College Completion," Economics of Education Review, Vol. 53, August 2016.
• Fuller, Joseph B., and Manjari Raman, The Partnership Imperative: Community Colleges, Employers, and America's Chronic Skills Gap, Harvard Business School, December 2022.
• Holzer, Harry J., After COVID-19: Building a More Coherent and Effective Workforce Development System in the United States, The Hamilton Project, Brookings Institution, Policy Proposal 2021-01, 2021.
• Holzer, Harry J., and Sandy Baum, Making College Work: Pathways to Success for Disadvantaged Students, Brookings Institution Press, August 29, 2017.
• Hultman, Justin D., and Daniel W. Eadens, "Supervisors Matter for College Students: Relationships Between Employment Type and Student Outcomes," Journal for the Advancement of Educational Research International, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2020.
• Jabbari, Jason, Yung Chun, Xueying Mei, and Stehen Roll, "More Money for Less Time? Examining the Relative and Heterogeneous Financial Returns to Non-Degree Credentials and Degree Programs," EdWorkingPaper No. 24-1046, Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, March 2025.
• Lerman, Robert I., "Scaling Apprenticeship to Increase Human Capital," in Melissa S. Kearney and Amy Ganz, eds., Expanding Economic Opportunity for More Americans: Bipartisan Policies to Increase Work, Wages, and Skills, Economic Strategy Group, Aspen Institute, February 2019.
• Ositelu, Monique O., Clare McCann, and Amy Laitinen, "The Short-Term Credentials Landscape: What We See and What Remains Unseen," New America, May 5, 2021.
• Tran, Henry, and Douglas Smith, "The Impact of Employer-Sponsored Educational Assistance Benefits on Community College Student Outcomes," Journal of Student Financial Aid, Vol. 47, No. 2, 2017.

Available for Download

Download PDF

Topics

• Continuing Education
• Postsecondary Education
• Workforce Development