What Community Colleges Can Teach Workers About Staying Relevant In The AI Era

Most workers say they want to learn new skills to stay relevant in their jobs and advance their careers. This can include taking AI courses, earning certificates, and learning new technical skills to stay competitive in a rapidly changing labor market. But there is an important question that often receives less attention: How do you know whether the skills you're developing are likely to improve your career prospects?

Community colleges offer a useful answer.

For many years, a college degree was exactly what you needed to be competitive in the job market and thrive. It signaled a set of skills and knowledge that employers trusted. But in today’s labor market, that signal is weaker than it used to be. Employers increasingly want to know not just whether you have a degree, but also what you can do with it.

At the same time, the skills employers need are changing frequently and will continue to as artificial intelligence scales across the job market, eliminating some roles and changing others. As new combinations of technical, digital, and human skills are becoming more valuable, being able to demonstrate skills is just as important as gaining knowledge. Job seekers need opportunities to practice, apply, and showcase skills that are relevant in today’s labor market in ways that employers trust.

This is where community colleges have something to teach all of us.

Community colleges are often viewed as places that provide an alternative path to a degree. While they do play that role, community colleges also specialize in two things that are becoming increasingly important in an AI- and skills-driven labor market: career-connected learning and lifelong learning. They create opportunities for students of all ages and experience levels to gain work experience, build professional networks, and develop and demonstrate critical skills while they learn.

As you consider your options for updating your skills, two community college initiatives offer useful insight into how workers can make the most of their own upskilling efforts.

The first is Disrupt the Divide, an initiative in which JFF partnered with four community colleges to improve access, retention, and completion in programs tied to quality jobs in growing fields. Importantly, the initiative does not assume that every learner experiences our education system and labor market in the same way. The colleges used regional labor market information, disaggregated institutional data, and student voice to identify which programs were most connected to strong local outcomes and where opportunity gaps existed.

The second is Project ACCESS, which connects students to paid internships and other work-based learning opportunities. By directly linking learning to work, it helps ensure that what people are learning aligns with the skills and competencies employers need.

While these initiatives serve students, the lessons they offer about career resilience are relevant to any worker trying to remain competitive in today's labor market.

First, use job market data to connect your upskilling efforts to available jobs in your local labor market.

It's understandable that you would want to take general courses in AI and machine learning, data analysis, or project management. But you may be better served by aligning your efforts to upskill with the specific skills and competencies employers are advertising for in your local labor market. Look at job postings in your region, and pay attention to the skills employers are seeking, wages, advancement opportunities, and whether those roles are growing in your area.

Disrupt the Divide shows what this looks like in practice. At one participating college, leaders aligned IT and engineering pathways with local employers so students are not just taking isolated courses, but moving through coherent pathways tied to internships and pre-apprenticeship opportunities.

Second, connect upskilling directly to work.

Update your skills in real-world work settings. This can mean applying what you're learning in your current role. If you're looking for work, it may mean taking a role or short-term assignment that isn't your ideal job but gives you an opportunity to demonstrate the new skills you're developing.

The Disrupt the Divide initiative found that students consistently saw clinicals, externships, labs, simulations, and project-based coursework as some of the most valuable parts of their programs because those experiences helped them build confidence and clarify their career goals. Project ACCESS reinforces the same point by emphasizing paid work-based learning and employer-connected experiences as core ways learners build skills and opportunity.

This is also one of the most effective ways to create proof of value. The closer learning is connected to real work, the easier it becomes to show employers what you can do.

Third, treat relationship-building as part of upskilling.

Opportunities often come through relationships, and it’s important to prioritize making connections as you build your skills. Project ACCESS highlights the value of structured, repeated employer engagement, where students can build familiarity, trust, and critical skills over time. As you consider taking courses to build your skills, ask who will see your work, where you’ll meet people in the field, and how you will get feedback. Join cohort-based learning programs. Participate in professional communities. Set up informational interviews. Find ways to present or share what you are working on. In a labor market shaped by AI, your network is one of the main ways your skills get recognized.

Many workers say they want to update their skills. The question is whether their efforts align with real labor market opportunities and provide a way to demonstrate what they can do. In a labor market where employers increasingly want evidence of capability, workers should think of upskilling not simply as a way to develop new skills, but as a way to build proof of value. Community colleges are organized around those realities. You can benefit from applying those same lessons to your own career development.