- Salt Lake City Community College is launching an initiative to help more adults achieve employment stability.
- Partnering with the WestEd Center for Economic Mobility, SLCC aims to serve 600 to 800 students, annually.
- The initiative will create career pathways in healthcare and other high-demand fields.
SALT LAKE CITY – Salt Lake City Community College is rolling out a new initiative aimed at helping young adults transition from unstable, low-wage jobs into high-demand career pathways.
SLCC is partnering with the WestEd Center for Economic Mobility to launch the initiative, dubbed "Back on Track."
A national leader in strengthening education-to-employment systems, WestEd's Center for Economic Mobility partners with regions across the country to analyze labor market needs, strengthen postsecondary and workforce systems, and expand opportunities for individuals in low-wage jobs.
"We are thrilled to be one of eight colleges nationwide to work with and benefit from WestEd's expertise and additional resources to help us launch new career pathways for our students," said Jason Wood, vice president of Salt Lake Technical College at SLCC.
The initiative aims to ultimately serve 600 to 800 students annually at these colleges, within a three-year time period.
Wood told KSL that the emphasis of the initiative is to create ways for people to get into the workforce in a "timely manner that recognizes their experience."
"And also respects the fact that they're likely working adults. So they'll be as short as six weeks and as long as a year," he added.
It's also not designed to place people in random career fields.
In fact, at SLCC, the initiative will create up to three new career pathways that align with regional employer demands — a benefit for the state economy, too — offering students high-value credentials "that employers recognize," and on-ramps into stable, well-paying careers.
Although some of the specifics of the initiative are still being ironed out, Wood said one of the top priorities, unsurprisingly, will be the health care pathway.
He added that the initiative will also focus on upskilling people who are already working entry-level jobs.
"We're looking at how we can work with businesses and industries to train their frontline staff to become successful managers and get that first promotion," Wood said, adding that they're still working through labor market data to identify a third career pathway.
But whatever that pathway ends up being, by 2029, SLCC will have graduated two full cohorts from the program.
"This project will help us better serve people who are working but trapped in unstable, low-wage employment," Wood said. "Working with employers, we will identify opportunities for professional growth so our graduates can be more successful."
