Exploring Factors Influencing Noncredit Workforce Training Program Selection

This study explores the factors influencing noncredit workforce training program selection. The United States increasingly lacks the skilled workers or human capital required to satisfy business demands, drive innovation, and maintain a healthy economy (Stockard, 2019). Within the stratified U.S. workforce system, community colleges serve as primary providers for training the skilled technical workforce (O’Banion, 2019). Tasked with the goal of aligning worker skills with market needs, workforce development practitioners lack useful insight for engaging potential students (Bonvillian & Sarma, 2021b; Hong et al., 2023). To use limited funding efficiently, workforce development practitioners require an increased understanding of the motivational factors for noncredit workforce training program selection as key leverage points for transformational change in the workforce system (Grubb et al., 2003; Stockard, 2019; Xu & Ran, 2020). This study used a qualitative research design to explore themes emerging from semi-structured interviews with students enrolled in community college noncredit workforce training programs. Participant interviews revealed a complex interplay between multiple influential factors (including familial influence) for noncredit workforce training program selection. Central to the results, participants held clear occupational goals and tended to select programs that aligned with personal interests and high performance expectations. Findings resulting from this study could advise workforce development policymakers, designers, and practitioners on how to maximize strategic outreach efforts and system supports, enriching program designs to attract those who will most benefit from noncredit workforce training.