Why We’re Building a New Kind of College

By Heather Hiles, President and CEO of the California Online Community College District

I’m about to embark on the biggest challenge of my career: building a new statewide, online community college. As CEO of California’s new venture into digital community college, the stakes could not be higher and the need could not be more urgent. There are 8.5 million Californians without a postsecondary credential, making them more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than their counterparts who have one. They are also less likely to be able to support their families with a single job.

This new kind of college is an ambitious and desperately needed effort to build a better solution for working adults hungry for new skills, and the employers who want to hire them.

I’ve long lived at the intersection of technology and educational opportunity, and love the challenge of lifting a new organization off the ground. But I never quite pictured running a college. The reasons I’m taking this on have a lot to do with one of my nieces, Amber.

Amber did everything right. She went to community college and studied to be an ultrasound technician. She did well in her studies, started working in her chosen field, and found herself struggling. She was working hard and doing a good job, but couldn’t quite make ends meet. She took on gig jobs, delivering food for DoorDash and driving for Lyft and Uber. The cycle was clear -- she was working constantly, yet would never have enough time or money to get to the next level.

My wife and I were able to help break that cycle for her, giving her a very low-cost loan that enabled her to go into business for herself. When the ultrasound center where she worked was up for sale, she was able to buy it. That put her on a different trajectory. And while things are better, she's now facing the challenges familiar to all small business owners: advertising, operations, managing people and payroll, etc. Now more than ever she needs information and supports to help her succeed. This is her best chance for wealth creation.

There are millions of Ambers. Most don't get the chance to buy and run their own businesses. And if they do, they struggle out there in the world. Instead, despite their smarts, their hunger, their energy, they remain stuck in a cycle of work enables them to just barely tread water, never advancing to what they know they can be. And for many of them, it’s because they don’t have the skills they need to get a better job -- and don’t have a way to change it, given limited time and money.

My life mission has been about breaking cycles like that. As far back as the 1990s, not long after finishing business school at Yale, I had an opportunity to create a program to build pathways to work for women leaving what was then called welfare. As a co-founder and CEO of SF Works, I helped place 11,000 women into living-wage jobs by forging partnerships with employers, labor unions, City College of San Francisco and community-based partners. We had a 97 percent placement rate after participants completed a one-year training program. And 93 percent of these women had stayed in their jobs or advanced three years later. I am still proud of those results.

That mission -- to expand opportunity for people who are struggling and build up organizations that matter -- has guided me through the years since. Nearly every role I’ve had since has helped me deepen my understanding of how workers seeking stronger skills connect with businesses. Increasingly, the work I’ve done has used technology to optimize access and impact.

Because in truth, there’s an enormous disconnect that hurts a lot of people. A million jobs in California are projected to go unfilled because workers lack the right skills -- even as millions more people bide their time in jobs that are too small for them -- or in no jobs at all.

Underneath all that are stories of people like my niece Amber, who don’t have time for traditional college and need a solution that works for them. They might be just starting out, learning a new skill and looking to be connected to a career opportunity. Or maybe they are ready to become entrepreneurs. They are all lifelong learners who want to be connected to supports they need.

Employers, likewise, want folks who are ready to be both great workers and great teammates, and they want to know them as more than a resume. The online college will not only let people work flexibly, it will connect them -- to each other, and to future employers who can mentor them and hire them.  

This work is personal for me, and not just because of Amber.

Many years ago, I was a high school student who didn’t apply herself as well as she could have. What set me apart, back then, was that I happened to be good at basketball. I was so good that the University of California, Berkeley offered me a full athletic scholarship.

But something happened when I stepped onto the UC Berkeley campus. A light bulb turned on for me and I knew I wanted to fully participate in the college experience -- as a scholar and a community activist, not just as an athletic scholar. So I turned down the athletic scholarship. I applied as a regular student, got admitted and worked my way through school.

From that first visit, I saw people who wanted to change the world, and I knew we had something in common. I wanted to do that, too. It made me realize I could do something for people who’d grown up the way I had...maybe with a single mom or maybe with limited exposure and opportunity. I could build something that would create pathways for people who had none.

That light bulb has never turned off for me. And in creating this college, I believe we can take on one of the greatest barriers to opportunity in this country.

We’re at the very beginning of what this college will look like. We’re listening carefully -- to working adults hungry to grow, to employers who know there must be a better way. It’s about more than jobs, more than a stronger economy -- it’s about pathways out of poverty and instability and toward a better life.

I couldn’t be prouder to lead the team that will build it.