Community College Plays a Key Role Addressing Workforce Shortage
Community College Plays a Key Role Addressing Workforce Shortage
A new ASME white paper shows how community colleges can strengthen the engineering talent pipeline and prepare more students for technical careers.
When Ariel Marroquin graduated from New York City College of Technology, he immediately went to work with ComEd, an energy utility company in Chicago. He credits an ASME program for helping him get a job so quickly.
The ASME Community College Engineering Pathways (CCEP) program “gives a student like me a fighting chance,” said Marroquin, who holds a mechanical engineering technology degree and was featured in an ASME video about CCEP. “It basically polished me up. It gave me a mentorship, leadership skills, interview preparation skills, and resume preparation skills that could be utilized to land a job.”
Community college students like Marroquin may be a key piece to solving the engineering workforce shortage puzzle, said Kathleen Kosmoski, director of workforce development at ASME. Kosmoski co-authored a recent white paper that highlights how community colleges can play a decisive role in addressing the shortage and expanding access to high-demand careers.
The white paper documents outcomes from ASME’s Accelerating Engineering Pathways (AEP) initiative, which was implemented through the CCEP program. The goal of AEP was to strengthen the engineering talent pipeline by expanding access, increasing persistence, and improving career readiness for community college students.
“As we looked at the workforce and the need to fill over 3 million technical positions, we realized most of those positions can be filled with individuals who have an associate’s degree,” Kosmoski said. “So, we reached out to community colleges to see if there is an opportunity for us to bring additional resources to the colleges, their faculty, their staff, and, most importantly, their students to help them along their engineering journey and into their career pathway.”
Through the AEP program, which had an implementation period from July 2023 to June 2025, ASME engaged 395 students and 27 faculty across 15 community colleges nationwide. Nine of the participating colleges—including Marroquin’s alma mater—were Minority-Serving Institutions.
The AEP program took a comprehensive approach that included hands-on learning, mentorship, work-based learning, faculty development, and system-level partnerships. The results were impressive, showing significant gains in overall enrollment as well as in participation of women and other underrepresented groups.
Engineering-related program enrollment across the 15 colleges increased by 37 percent from Fall 2022 to Fall 2024, with women representing 53 percent of participants—far exceeding the 20 percent national average in engineering and related fields. Hispanic or Latino students made up half of participants, with growth across all demographic groups.
Average student persistence increased from 46 percent to 62 percent, signaling meaningful improvements in students’ academic continuity within engineering pathways. In addition, there was a 13 percent increase in the number of program completions and transfers to four-year institutions.
“Those are pretty substantial numbers for studying just 15 colleges over a two-year period,” Kosmoski said, adding that the program now has more than 60 participating community colleges. “What we’re undertaking now is looking at those rates across all of our [participating] colleges to see what those persistence, completion, and transfer rates will be. We think they will be higher.”
For students at Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) in Largo, Md., the program has been “a game changer,” said Alicia Jackson-Warren, PGCC’s Program Director of Career Development and Internships.
“The opportunity for PGCC students to connect with practitioners and contribute to their respective fields of study early on in their academic experience edifies the students’ academic choice and prepares them for successful entry and growth within the workforce,” Jackson-Warren said.
An essential part of the AEP program is the EMPOWER work-based learning model, Kosmoski said. This program helps ensure that students get the practical knowledge and training companies are looking for.
“Students are placed into teams and work with a company on a project,” she explained. In preparation for that project, students receive training on computer-aided design (CAD), project management, and research methods and techniques. They also take classes dealing with professional development and career readiness, where they gain skills like communication and teambuilding.
Both students and employers find value in the EMPOWER program.
“EMPOWER students demonstrate exceptional motivation and practical life experience, enabling them to apply logical engineering judgment earlier in their education and contribute meaningfully from day one,” Cameron C. Martin, executive of OMS product management and growth at Westinghouse Electric Company, said in an ASME press release. “Programs like EMPOWER strengthen the engineering pipeline by developing talent that is both technically capable and workforce ready.”
EMPOWER placements increased by more than 150percent in the AEP program’s second year, with students reporting gains in technical skills, professional confidence, and clarity around career pathways.
Kosmoski said ASME is encouraged by the results of the CCEP program so far, and they plan to continue expanding it and making sure it is inclusive of all engineering disciplines and STEM fields. To that end, ASME is partnering with several sister societies, including the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
“We’re going to have a multidisciplinary approach, so we’re addressing all the needs and not just mechanical,” Kosmoski said. “Partnering will also help us to grow that much faster. The goal is to keep students in the engineering field, help them find their passion, and help them get into the workforce in a discipline they want to be in.”
Claudia Hoffacker is an independent writer in Minneapolis.
The ASME Community College Engineering Pathways (CCEP) program “gives a student like me a fighting chance,” said Marroquin, who holds a mechanical engineering technology degree and was featured in an ASME video about CCEP. “It basically polished me up. It gave me a mentorship, leadership skills, interview preparation skills, and resume preparation skills that could be utilized to land a job.”
Community colleges support the workforce pipeline
Community college students like Marroquin may be a key piece to solving the engineering workforce shortage puzzle, said Kathleen Kosmoski, director of workforce development at ASME. Kosmoski co-authored a recent white paper that highlights how community colleges can play a decisive role in addressing the shortage and expanding access to high-demand careers. The white paper documents outcomes from ASME’s Accelerating Engineering Pathways (AEP) initiative, which was implemented through the CCEP program. The goal of AEP was to strengthen the engineering talent pipeline by expanding access, increasing persistence, and improving career readiness for community college students.
“As we looked at the workforce and the need to fill over 3 million technical positions, we realized most of those positions can be filled with individuals who have an associate’s degree,” Kosmoski said. “So, we reached out to community colleges to see if there is an opportunity for us to bring additional resources to the colleges, their faculty, their staff, and, most importantly, their students to help them along their engineering journey and into their career pathway.”
Program expands pathways for community college students
Through the AEP program, which had an implementation period from July 2023 to June 2025, ASME engaged 395 students and 27 faculty across 15 community colleges nationwide. Nine of the participating colleges—including Marroquin’s alma mater—were Minority-Serving Institutions. The AEP program took a comprehensive approach that included hands-on learning, mentorship, work-based learning, faculty development, and system-level partnerships. The results were impressive, showing significant gains in overall enrollment as well as in participation of women and other underrepresented groups.
Engineering-related program enrollment across the 15 colleges increased by 37 percent from Fall 2022 to Fall 2024, with women representing 53 percent of participants—far exceeding the 20 percent national average in engineering and related fields. Hispanic or Latino students made up half of participants, with growth across all demographic groups.
Average student persistence increased from 46 percent to 62 percent, signaling meaningful improvements in students’ academic continuity within engineering pathways. In addition, there was a 13 percent increase in the number of program completions and transfers to four-year institutions.
“Those are pretty substantial numbers for studying just 15 colleges over a two-year period,” Kosmoski said, adding that the program now has more than 60 participating community colleges. “What we’re undertaking now is looking at those rates across all of our [participating] colleges to see what those persistence, completion, and transfer rates will be. We think they will be higher.”
For students at Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) in Largo, Md., the program has been “a game changer,” said Alicia Jackson-Warren, PGCC’s Program Director of Career Development and Internships.
“The opportunity for PGCC students to connect with practitioners and contribute to their respective fields of study early on in their academic experience edifies the students’ academic choice and prepares them for successful entry and growth within the workforce,” Jackson-Warren said.
Work-based learning helps students enter careers
An essential part of the AEP program is the EMPOWER work-based learning model, Kosmoski said. This program helps ensure that students get the practical knowledge and training companies are looking for.“Students are placed into teams and work with a company on a project,” she explained. In preparation for that project, students receive training on computer-aided design (CAD), project management, and research methods and techniques. They also take classes dealing with professional development and career readiness, where they gain skills like communication and teambuilding.
Community College Engineering Pathways (CCEP)
The CCEP initiative aims to engage, equip, and empower the next generation of STEM professionals by fostering inclusivity and mobility from classroom to career for students at two-year institutions.
“EMPOWER students demonstrate exceptional motivation and practical life experience, enabling them to apply logical engineering judgment earlier in their education and contribute meaningfully from day one,” Cameron C. Martin, executive of OMS product management and growth at Westinghouse Electric Company, said in an ASME press release. “Programs like EMPOWER strengthen the engineering pipeline by developing talent that is both technically capable and workforce ready.”
EMPOWER placements increased by more than 150percent in the AEP program’s second year, with students reporting gains in technical skills, professional confidence, and clarity around career pathways.
Kosmoski said ASME is encouraged by the results of the CCEP program so far, and they plan to continue expanding it and making sure it is inclusive of all engineering disciplines and STEM fields. To that end, ASME is partnering with several sister societies, including the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
“We’re going to have a multidisciplinary approach, so we’re addressing all the needs and not just mechanical,” Kosmoski said. “Partnering will also help us to grow that much faster. The goal is to keep students in the engineering field, help them find their passion, and help them get into the workforce in a discipline they want to be in.”
Claudia Hoffacker is an independent writer in Minneapolis.
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