Rural community colleges face unique challenges in serving their students. One issue is capacity. Many community college leaders wear multiple hats, making it challenging to provide dedicated focus to new initiatives that the college may consider. These institutions are often at a disadvantage when pursuing federal workforce dollars for programs that require scale, i.e., the number of apprentices trained in a particular field. Due to the size of the institutions and the businesses they work with, several apprentices trained could be a game changer for the community but would not rise to a viable funding project for the agency.
AACC recognizes the many challenges and opportunities for rural community colleges. This hub will be updated routinely with information and resources for rural institutions.
AACC Google Rural Community College Initiative