Transform for the Future
To build on the College’s history of success with a laser-like focus on students (new, current, and successful) and the rich relationships that sustain the internal and external communities, the PTAC considered future steps for Montgomery College. We believe that the following recommendations meet the moments of a rapidly changing higher education environment.
These recommendations and action opportunities are offered to optimize the College’s capacity to address the needs of students and the community. They align and intersect with key existing documents such as the Montgomery College 2025 strategic plan and Board of Trustees’ Presidential Profile. The recommendations are built upon the four strategic objectives that guide Montgomery College:
- Keep students first
- Spark innovation
- Expand partnerships
- Nurture a culture of care
Recommendation
With urgency, implement institutional policies and practices to ensure student access, completion, and post-completion success.
Action Opportunities
Keep Students First:
- Streamline all aspects of student recruitment and enrollment.
- Review all academic programs and support services to assure that they are centered
on student needs and experiences; these should be rigorous and standards-based, and
aligned to four-year institutions, industry, and post-pandemic/future-oriented options
for the classroom and the workplace.
Spark Innovation:
- Target recruitment to adult learners and career changers based on job growth opportunities.
- Enhance equitable co-curricular programs to be broad opportunities for student recruitment,
retention, personal development, and community engagement.
Expand Partnerships:
- Establish and sustain engagement and strategic dialogues with business communities to address emerging educational needs, training needs, and public policy issues that intersect with multiple communities.
- Connect with families that are linked with our students and student prospects as appropriate to their circumstances.
- Deepen outreach and engagement with MCPS beginning at the earliest grades where we
make connections with students and families with a focus on career, family-sustaining
wages, and other opportunities rather than solely earning a degree.
Nurture a Culture of Care:
- Broaden and strengthen student support services.
- Provide comprehensive student health and wellness support services.
- Incorporate family sustaining wages and opportunity perspective into student advising in all MC programming.
Recommendation
Mobilize and collaborate with local and regional employers, business leaders, and educational partners to address post-pandemic labor market needs and expand economic opportunity for our students and all county residents.
Action Opportunities
Keep Students First:
- Partner with business and industry to develop stackable credentials and to recognize
microcredentials that cut across industry sectors and emerging skills, and respond
to labor market needs.
Spark Innovation:
- Participate in countywide assessments of labor market needs, and initiate programs to help meet workforce demands.
- Establish pipeline programs to workforce development opportunities outside of the
classroom.
Expand Partnerships:
- Strengthen outreach to businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies to provide on-time and customized training that includes upskilling and reskilling that can be held on company sites or at the College.
- Expand collaborations with business and industry to create robust programs of experiential and community learning opportunities, including internships, mentorships, real-world projects, and experimental joint learning spaces.
- Engage with members of the Montgomery College Foundation Board of Directors and the Pinkney Innovation Complex for Science and Technology Foundation Board of Directors, who represent a vast array of professions and perspectives.
- Sustain and accelerate partnerships and collaborations to create multiple career pathways
for students who move beyond the College to other learning and employment opportunities
that offer family-sustaining wages.
Nurture a Culture of Care:
- Follow-up closely with students who leave MC, whether they have completed our programs or not, to understand decisions about their future.
Recommendation
Advance a Montgomery College workforce that is innovative, competitive, culturally competent, infused with work/life balance, and relevant to institutional success.
Action Opportunities
Spark Innovation:
- Establish a future of work vision that addresses workplace flexibility and build a workforce that aligns with emerging institutional needs, culture, and staff attrition trends.
- Reimagine and support faculty in the development of new teaching and learning landscapes so that Montgomery College leads in transformational teaching approaches.
- Cultivate a positive employee work/life balance experience while also implementing
realistic expectations of job requirements.
Expand Partnerships:
- Consult with employer leaders and continue market and workforce analyses that inform
the College on the state of employment in the county and region in order to remain
competitive.
Nurture a Culture of Care:
- Sustain an environment of care for employees.