Education Design Lab announced this week that Rio Salado College is one of the participants in the Reimagining Community College Design Challenge as part of the first cohort of institutions shaping the future of workforce-aligned education. This multi-year initiative is designed to explore innovative ways to ensure students have access to the skills, credentials, and career pathways needed for success in today’s ever-evolving job market.
The full press release can be found on the Education Design Lab website.
"Rio Salado is immensely honored to be selected for Education Design Lab's Reimagining Community College Design Challenge,” said Rio Salado President Kate Smith. “As part of this first cohort, our teams will explore how our continuous efforts can further align and equip students with the skills they need for today and tomorrow's evolving workforce. I personally look forward to seeing the work Rio Salado and our fellow innovative institutions do to shape the future of community college education."
A Future-Focused Approach
Through this initiative, Rio Salado will convene a design team to explore these questions to align and develop strategic opportunities:
- How might we make skills and competencies visible to employers and learner-earners?
- How might we embed career readiness across the curriculum and guarantee applied learning opportunities in every program, for every student?
- How might we design learning opportunities as part of stackable pathways that credential skills along the way?
- How might we ensure learners have options, that learning is universally flexible with multi-modal offerings?
- How might we ensure all learners have equitable access to adequate support services?
Rio Salado and the Maricopa Community College campuses in the East Valley first partnered with Education Design Lab in 2022 as part of the Lab’s Community College Growth fund. Along with sister colleges - Mesa Community College, Chandler-Gilbert Community College and Scottsdale Community College - Rio Salado’s team designed new microcredentials and microcredential pathways for students, including the Precision Optics program which launched this year.
Collaboration and Innovation
Over the course of the next five years, Rio Salado’s team will gather information from pivotal stakeholders, including students, employees and industry partners, to identify answers to the questions outlined in the process, leveraging $50,000 in initial Design Challenge funding from the Lab to support the efforts and institutional planning.
As part of the initiative, Rio Salado will collaborate with national thought leaders, share insights with peer institutions, and contribute to Education Design Lab’s ongoing research into the future of learning.