Orange County Community Colleges Drive Social and Economic Mobility with Spatially Enabled Data

A core mission of California community colleges is to provide access to education programs and workforce opportunities for every learner—foster youth, adult learners seeking general education diplomas, individuals who are reskilling, veterans, high school students in dual-enrollment programs, and low-income first-generation students. 

California Community Colleges' Vision 2030 targets increasing the number of students earning a living wage, recognizing that students often lack accessible, reliable data on the economic outcomes of their educational choices. To address this, the Coast Community College District (CCCD) is utilizing geospatial tools and data to synchronize academic offerings with labor market needs in priority sectors, including advanced transportation; biotechnology; business; digital media arts; energy; construction; utilities; nursing and allied health; information and communications technology; and retail, hospitality, and tourism. 

Given that the median household income in Orange County was $106,209 in 2022, community college students need educational programs and information that enable them to achieve sufficient salaries and economic advancement. This strategic alignment aims to provide students with the critical information and education needed to secure sufficient entry-level salaries and foster economic advancement, with career education certificates and degrees offering average returns ranging from 14 to 45 percent in health care and 15 to 23 percent in other fields. 

Community colleges have significant limitations on how they collect and share labor market information with students. Often, data on high-priority business sectors, locations of businesses hiring, salary information, and required skills are months or years old and presented only in tables and spreadsheets. Studies show that students’ lack of access to reliable and credible data about expected labor market outcomes, not surprisingly, minimizes how they weigh this information in making programmatic decisions. 

“Navigating labor market information can be daunting for job seekers. We thought ‘there has to be another way,’” said Stephanie Feger, a program director for career education and workforce development at Coast Community College District. “That’s when we decided to map the information spatially.”

Information on those spreadsheets wasn’t easily accessible, understandable, or updatable. So, CCCD deployed TalentED story maps created using ArcGIS StoryMaps, turning geographic data into interactive content to help students visualize labor market information for different occupations, who was hiring, where they were located, salary information, and skills required. As CCCD expanded partnerships with community-based organizations and workforce development agencies, the team also wanted to include more real-time data to identify living-wage careers and career pathways. One way to achieve that was by implementing a more comprehensive tool that would appeal to a larger audience.

CCCD senior research analyst Dr. C.J. Bishop expanded his analytical skillset using geographic information system (GIS) software and received additional training on GIS tools. He brought his learnings back to build out a strategy for implementing the mapping software. CCCD had initially launched the TalentED story map resource to promote career exploration but sought to do more. Working with real-time data using a Lightcast API, and assisted by Esri partner Blue Raster, CCCD has tapped into tools including ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Business Analyst, ArcGIS Hub, ArcGIS Experience Builder, ArcGIS Survey123, and ArcGIS Pro to develop better road maps for students.

“[GIS] has helped us communicate in ways that we haven’t been able to previously do,” said Bishop. 

With GIS tools in place, the community colleges are launching OC Works. This job seeker data tool is a resource for college administrators, students, guidance counselors, and workforce development partners. Their goal is to provide a shared understanding of labor market information so students and those entering the workforce can make better-informed decisions about education paths and outcomes. “We’re able to look at labor market data based off key partnerships in the region . . . to show not only key industries that we know will help people move up economically, but also what skills are needed,” said Bishop. 

“Having geospatial tools where we can identify potential partners in this work is really a game changer for understanding populations in our region where we can do outreach and where we can build partnerships,” said Feger. 

Community college program directors are also able to view up-to-date information on skills and certifications to understand how their program offerings match workforce needs. Through the suite of tools and information, students can explore interactive maps and data visualizations that display the location of jobs, public transportation information, median salaries, skills, and educational requirements for each job sector. 

Additionally, in the K–12 education sector, guidance counselors can access online maps and workforce data from different employment sectors to help younger students with college and career exploration. Throughout California, OC Works has been presented to a variety of community college districts that see the value the tool has brought to their own regions and the potential to increase collaboration with workforce development partners. They have also incorporated a regional version of OC Works at job centers for those seeking employment or skills to improve their earnings and outcomes. 

To help identify shared solutions to challenges such as enrollment, equity, and employment, CCCD is now leading a regional consortium effort that includes the four community college districts, college administrators, and district offices to educate institutional researchers on accessing Esri software. Working with Dr. Cecilia Rios-Aguilar from UCLA, CCCD is exploring Esri’s Social Equity Analysis solution for mapping areas where gaps exist in educational attainment and earnings so that colleges can develop targeted outreach strategies.

Information from consortium partners has led to CCCD working closely with adult schools to understand where gaps exist in high school education for people seeking a general education diploma (GED) and more. “This has given us a good opportunity to think collectively about the high-priority sectors with living wage jobs and target areas of where students are and what [specific] populations need,” said Feger. 

Feger and Bishop are continuing to refine their work and hope it inspires other educational institutions and institutional researchers to work with GIS. As Bishop notes, “The work demonstrates the value added of researchers being able to better understand key metrics of enrollment, equity, success and upward economic mobility in new and more accessible ways that inform colleges and their partners in the region.”