Calbright College reimagines what workforce development and higher education can look like. Our online, high touch, flexibly paced, skills-based, and career-focused education model is unique and unlike any other community college in California. If a learner’s experience with education is a traditional setting, it can take a shift in mindset to understand that Calbright’s competency-based programs are built to help a student move forward when they’ve mastered material, not after their physical presence for a predetermined amount of hours in a classroom.
To help make this message more accessible, in the spring of 2022, Calbright launched a new initiative to help meet students where they are, and the College now hosts bi-monthly live information sessions where interested Californians can meet directly with faculty and staff. To date, 137 number of students have participated, and of those, 55 are currently enrolled.
“Info sessions are a great resource that introduces students to Calbright!” said Ava Burns, Senior Manager of Enrollment Services. “We talk about our different programs, how we work on the students’ timeline, and all of the wonderful ways we support our students! It’s a really great way to connect and find out why Calbright is the right choice for so many.”
Calbright’s model is designed to help people who feel stranded in the 21st century economy move into roles in the knowledge economy –It represents what more people are looking for in a college education. This is why 90% of Calbright students cite the College’s model as the reason their program was accessible – study after study shows that people want a college education that is fast, affordable, career focused, and that fits in their lives rather than demanding that they accommodate their lives to a class schedule. More and more employers are also hiring on the basis of demonstrable skills , rather than the degree they have.
When people understand what we offer, it makes a difference. We crunched the numbers, and of the people who attend information sessions, just over 58% of them take the next steps to enroll – and just under 40% of those who attended are now Calbright students.
Forty percent of those who get to know us better decide that we can help them get a better career.
That’s an incredible success rate: Calbright is what people are looking for, and engaging directly and personally with potential learners is a perfect example of how we connect with our students the whole way through their education.
“It’s a great way to introduce them to Calbright’s programs and services and our unique method of flexible educational delivery,” said Raul Sarabia, Calbright’s Regional Outreach Coordinator. “Students get to see that Calbright will really meet you where you are!”
To learn more about Calbright, or attend an information session visit https://www.calbright.edu/info-session/
