It’s Calbright’s five year student enrollment anniversary, and we have a lot to celebrate!
Five years ago today, Calbright opened its (virtual) doors to students with three pilot programs and a large, yet achievable, set of milestones required by the California legislature.
Today, Calbright is a fully accredited college that offers eight certificate programs, serves over 4,000 actively enrolled students, has awarded over 900 certificates of completion, and is represented across California: Calbright students are in 52 of the state’s 58 counties. That’s astonishing growth – over 800% growth from its initial beta-cohort.
We are reaching our diverse target populations. Calbright students are far more diverse than those of conventional colleges, and even most community colleges. According to the most recent survey:
- 79% of Calbright students identify as BIPOC
- 90% of Calbright students are 25 or older, with a median age in the late 30s
- 40% of Calbright students are currently unemployed, 31% are displaced workers, and 7% are working two or more jobs
- 32% of Calbright students are parents or caregivers (compared to approximately 10% across the California Community Colleges systems)
Calbright has also met or exceeded every benchmark the state legislature set out. It is a fully accredited college, and has thriving research partnerships to develop new best-practices for adult college education.
A Big Experiment To Re-Imagine Community College For Adults
On October 1, 2019, Calbright opened to students. It began with a small cohort, just about 100 students, a “beta cohort” to test all its systems, because Calbright was a truly new and innovative kind of college. Doing something no-one had ever done before.
The state of California created Calbright to serve the estimated six million “stranded workers” in the state – they’re talented, they’re hard working, but they are un-or-underemployed. Perhaps they’re working multiple jobs to make ends meet, perhaps they’re taking care of kids or elderly relatives. Whatever the reason, they’re stuck. Education could help, there are companies across California who are desperate to hire talented people trained in new technology – but traditional colleges don’t fit the lives of non-traditional students, especially working adults with kids. So the education they needed was out of reach.
Calbright was created to be a bridge between stranded workers and a prosperous 21st century economy – to re-imagine college so that it fits the lives of non-traditional students, and connect them with employers trying to fill good jobs.
What California Can Do
Calbright is fast, flexible, career focused, online, free, and doesn’t use grades. Instead, it uses an approach called Competency-Based Education, which lets students move at their own pace through the course material. If students already know how to do something, they can move quickly; if they need extra time, they can take it, no problem. Students take classes on their own schedules, in ways that work for them. All adult Caliornians with a high school diploma or equivalent are automatically accepted – there is no more accessible college anywhere in the country.
Calbright’s programs are not traditional degree programs. Instead, Calbright works directly with California industrious and labor market experts to determine what skills are going to be in-demand for good jobs now and in the future, and creates certificate programs to meet those needs.
Calbright is also as personally supportive as it is high tech: Every student has a team working to support both their education and their career advancement. Success counselors, career coaches, a whole career services department that assists with resumes, networking events, practice issues, and more. All for free.
Five years ago, Calbright tested these systems. Would this new kind of college work?
The results have been extraordinary.
It’s been a fast five years and a thriving success. College can be re-imagined to better serve non-traditional populations. Happy anniversary, to Calbright’s faculty, staff, and most especially students all across California. The reason we’re here.
