Community Colleges Australia has forged new connections with two leading Southern California community colleges.
Following meetings with the Presidents of Los Angeles City College and San Diego City College, Community Colleges Australia (CCA) CEO Dr Don Perlgut said, “CCA looks forward to expanding the reach and international connections between Australian community education providers – often called community colleges because of their community development approaches – and community colleges in the state of California, which is the largest provider of workforce training in the USA, with more than 2.1 million students.”
Dr Perlgut discussed student and staff/trainer exchange programs with Dr Mary P Gallagher, Interim President of Los Angeles City College, and her senior staff; and with Dr Ricky Shabazz, President of San Diego City College.
“There is a great deal to share between our systems,” Dr Perlgut said. “We have common interests in providing post-secondary education to vulnerable and disadvantaged students, many of whom come from non-English speaking backgrounds. The US and Australian community colleges both place a high priority on social justice, which is reflected in student programs and outreach,” Dr Perlgut said.
CCA has begun planning for staff and student exchange programs, whereby outstanding Australian community education students – such as those recognised in last year’s Community Education Student of the Year Awards – could spend short exchange periods overseas, thereby broadening their training, skills and life perspectives.
“Overseas student exchange programs are widely accepted and promoted in Australia’s universities. These rich experiences should also be available to Australian community education students, of which there were 378,900 enrolled VET students in 2016 nationally,” Dr Perlgut said.
“Australia has much to learn from San Diego and Los Angeles City Colleges. For example, Dr Shabazz is currently supervising the final stages of a massive US$465 million redevelopment of the San Diego City College campus, part of a US$1.5 billion infrastructure redevelopment approved by the citizens of San Diego,” Dr Perlgut said.
“This massive infrastructure commitment by San Diego to its 100,000 community college students easily exceeds Australia’s one-off national contribution to our public and not-for-profit VET sectors back in 2009, which totalled Australian $500 million,” Dr Perlgut said.
Photo below (from left to right): Dr Don Perlgut (CCA), Dr Ricky Shabazz (President, San Diego CC) & Alante (science student at San Diego CC)
Photo below (from left to right): Dr Vi Ly (Dean of Academic Affairs, International Student Program, Los Angeles CC), Dr Don Perlgut (CCA), Dr Mary Gallagher (Interim President, Los Angeles CC), Dr Dan Walden (Vice President Academic Affairs, Los Angeles CC) & Dr Regina Smith (Vice President, Los Angeles CC)
