Forces Motivating Institutional Reform. Forces Motivating Institutional Reform. Community colleges feel the pressure to change from both external and internal sources. This Digest provides an overview of trends and issues driving change on community college campuses. The desire for change within community colleges often results from trends beyond classroom walls and off campus grounds.
Community colleges face increasing pressure to respond to shifting societal trends.
Workforce 2000, a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor in 1987, predicted that the labor force would add more older workers, women, people of color, and immigrants. Concomitant to these domestic changes, industrial globalization requires workers highly skilled in adapting to international cultures. In this effort, community colleges face competition from the growing private education sector. Linked to economic and labor force pressures is the need for students to gain technological literacy. Community colleges that are flexible enough to incorporate the latest hardware and software will be better equipped to increase educational access, because technological developments are stimulating new ways of thinking about educational service delivery.