 Purpose:  Identify skills builder students & determine their course taking patterns  Background:  Student course taking patterns is current method for creating cohorts  Self-reported goal traditionally unreliable, maybe not for skills builders  Methodology:  Fall 2010 students who have educational goal of “update job skills”  Analyze characteristics of students to validate skills builders students.  If these are skills builders, we can identify their course taking pattern  And, create a skills builders cohort to determine their progress/success

 Student characteristics  Median age was 38, older than traditional students  28% report having a BA or higher compared to 8% of all other students  59% of the students were male, as opposed to 45% of all other students  Educational patterns  One third (33%) attended a 4-year institution before Fall 2010  A quarter (26%) had earned an award in the system before Fall 2010  Largest course enrollments were public safety and fire academy  Employment outcomes  Median wages 2 years before Fall 2010 were $49,800 and $54,600 1 year after Fall 2010  42% remained in the same industry from to  Of those that stayed in same industry, 64% had a positive wage gain

 Number of units and terms:  Median units earned in Fall 2010 =2.5 and attempted in Fall 2010 =3  Average of 5 terms and median of 6.5 units earned before Fall 2010  Types of courses:  In Fall 2010, 49% of courses taken classified as ‘Positive Attendance’  Also, 49% of courses taken were taught by temporary or contract faculty  62 % of the courses taken were occupational (SAM A, B, C)  Most common type of courses were SAM C (Clearly Occupational)  Largest course enrollments were Public Safety and Fire Academy/Sciences, followed by Math, Office Technology, English and Child Development,  Success and other factors:  Only 9% of student transferred and 6 % earned award after Fall 2010  70% course success rate, same as the overall enrollments

 Student characteristics  Median age was 30  19% report having a BA or higher compared to 8% of all other students  55% female/45% male  Educational patterns  5% had earned an award in the system before Fall 2010

 Number of units:  Median units earned in Fall 2010 =3 and attempted in Fall 2010 =4.2  Types of courses:  In Fall 2010, 24% of courses taken classified as ‘Positive Attendance’  45 % of the courses taken were occupational (SAM A, B, C)  Most common type of courses were SAM C (Clearly Occupational)  Largest course enrollments were Admin of Justice, Math, English, Child Development, Fire Tech, Registered Nursing, Physical Education, Psychology, Supervised Tutoring & Office Technology.  Success and other factors:  Only 4.4% of student transferred and 11% earned award after Fall 2010  61% course success rate, lower than overall enrollment

Goal H (update job skills) Goal I (maintain cert/lic) Student Characteristics Age3830 BA or higher (reported)28%19% % Male59%45% Award (before)26%5% Course Taking Patterns Median units earned2.53 Median unit attempted “Positive Attendance” courses49%24% Occupational (Sam A, B, C)62%45% Success Patterns Course Success Rate70%61% Transfer (after Fall 2010)9%4.4% Award (after Fall 2010)6%11%

 Cohort:  All students with goal ‘H or ‘I’ students who were not enrolled the following year. Filter out those that went on to earn an award or transfer, or  All students that earned between 1 and 18 vocational units (SAM A, B, C) in a year, received no award, were no longer enrolled the following year and did not transfer.  Cohort size N=244,926 (Annual )

 Cohort:  Students who earn between.25 and 8 units the first term (range of units earned in the fall term for Goal H students), and  Attempting a SAM A, B, C course that term, and  Were not enrolled in a Community College the following year and did not subsequently transfer.  Cohort size N=153,333 (Fall 2010)