The CA Cloud program offered by the community college system in Los Angeles County is driving positive outcomes in terms of course completions, industry certifications by students, total number of colleges offering the program and a number of other measures.
Wider program availability: At the program’s inception in fall 2018, two of the 19 community colleges in the LA County region initially rolled out the program and that has now increased to 15 of the colleges offering enrollment, and growing.
Increasing student enrollments: Approximately 3,000 student enrollments in individual courses in the program have now occurred, meaning a significant and growing number of students are taking advantage of the program to develop their pathways into well-paying careers.
Additional competencies added – MS Azure: The program has expanded from only Amazon AWS to include Microsoft Azure, in response to employer feedback, and the program supports credentials in both. This gives students more cross-brand familiarity to widen opportunities at employers using different software stacks.
Industry certifications: Over 100 students have earned their industry credentials as a result of the CA Cloud program this past year and that number will be closer to 200 by the end of 2020, which is one important measure of successful outcomes, directly correlated to employer interest in candidates.
CA Cloud supports upskilling for current workers: Thus far, it has been determined that approximately 45% of the CA Cloud students already have a bachelor’s degree, which suggests those people are upskilling via the community college system to stay relevant in their careers.
Supports ICT sector trends: Cloud computing has become ubiquitous in many industries and many IT occupations, some of which (e.g. Data Analyst) were profiled in the recent ICT report published by CCW. Those reports are meant as planning tools for faculty so they can scale programs and adapt the competencies delivered.
Resources:
- If you would like general information about the program, please visit this page.
- If you faculty interested in learning more, please view the Look Book for the recent Regional Program Advisory on Cloud Computing and/or contact program manager Salomon Davila.
- If you are a reporter looking for more sources to cover this exciting example of industry-education alignment, please contact Lawren Markle.
