Alamo Colleges joins network aimed at boosting enrollment in ‘high value’ programs

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The Alamo Colleges District has joined a network of 55 community colleges focused on expanding enrollment in programs that provide students access to high-wage, in-demand careers.

The Unlocking Opportunity network is led by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program in conjunction with the Community College Research Center at Columbia University.

San Antonio College joined a pilot version of the network in 2023. Alamo Colleges Chancellor Mike Flores credits the network for helping SAC expand capacity in its bachelor’s in nursing program.

Flores said 185 students have earned bachelor’s degrees in nursing at San Antonio College since SAC launched its RN to BSN program in 2021 … and now they enroll nearly double that each year.

“As part of the work with Aspen, (SAC has) increased capacity to 274 students annually,” Flores said. “So, almost doubling then, the bandwidth, the number of seats.”

Even with that increased capacity, Flores said interest in nursing programs across all five of the Alamo Colleges is still twice as high as the number of seats available. Flores pointed to that statistic as a sign that students are interested in degrees that open doors to well-paid fields that need more workers.

“If we look at nursing in particular, there’s a gap of 50,000 nurses within the state of Texas,” Flores said.

With the help of the Unlocking Opportunities network, the Alamo Colleges hopes to keep increasing enrollment in nursing and other “high-value” programs at all five colleges.

“We saw with SAC what that could do. The example is nursing, and we want to be able to replicate that model in healthcare and other key sectors,” Flores said.

Flores said joining the network gives them access to experts with the Aspen Institute and Columbia University and a cohort of peers to learn from.

“Every year, millions of students rely on community colleges for a low-cost pathway to what they assume will be a high-value credential,” said Josh Wyner with the Aspen Institute in a statement announcing Alamo Colleges’ participation in the network. “The leaders at each of the 55 colleges that have joined Unlocking Opportunity have made clear that they will spend the next three years working toward the reforms needed to make that assumption a reality for thousands more students.”

The Alamo Colleges has added a number of bachelor’s degrees and workforce credentials in recent years. Flores said the goal now is to find creative ways to get more of those degrees in students’ hands quickly.

For instance, courses offered in eight-week terms instead of 16-week terms, and cohorts that meet evenings and weekends are all incentives that could make the programs more accessible.

“A part-time student could actually be a full- time student in the 16-week term, right? Two and two, versus, traditionally, some folks have just taken two courses over the 16-week term,” Flores said.

“St. Philip’s has now moved to offer both evening and weekend cohorts for a lot of their programs in the health professions, as well as in the trades, and those have been successful with enrollment,” he added.

Flores said the Unlocking Opportunity network comes at a time when there’s a lot of support for workforce development, including the passage of the Alamo Colleges’ bond in May. The bond will allow the community college district to expand workforce development facilities.

“We’re one of the prime partners in Ready to Work,” Flores said. “And then we’re continuing this work as part of Unlocking Opportunity. And then now we have also federal kind of support with short-term certificates as part of Workforce Pell.”

“So, it’s connecting all of the dots, but I would say it’s really the alignment of the stars,” he added.

2025-08-26 03:28:00

By Admin

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