Contract education is the unit of a California Community College that provides responsive, short-term, customized workplace education and training to businesses, municipalities, and government agencies. Through outreach, partnerships, and ongoing industry involvement, contract education staff engages with local businesses to gain a thorough understanding of their most pressing and urgent workforce training and education needs.

Contract Education’s mission is to assist businesses locally, regionally, and statewide to enhance the transferable skills of the California’s workforce. By collaborating with employers to develop a high-performance workforce, contract education’s goal is to contribute to building strong regional economies and improve the State’s global competitiveness.

• The California Community College system holds the largest body of workplace-specific training curriculum in the world and has a vast network of subject matter experts, educators, and consulting professionals that can be utilized to design and deliver training programs for your organization.
• Contract education performs as an agile, entrepreneurial unit within a community college; therefore, contract education professionals can quickly develop custom training solutions that meet your organization’s education and productivity goals.
• Your local community college is a tremendous resource to help find grants and funding sources that can help cover the total cost of employer training programs. Many colleges are adept at securing and administer Employment Training Panel (ETP) funding— the state’s premier program that reimburses employers for the cost of training incumbent workers—on behalf of your organization. ETP programs help ensure that California businesses have the skilled workers they need to remain competitive in a global economy. Contact your local community college contract education unit to see if your business if eligible for ETP funding.

• Because of the vast resources and highly-experienced subject matter experts available within the community college system, contract education can deliver training programs to any level of staff, from entry level to the “C” Suite. Programs range from advanced manufacturing, logistics, leadership, computer applications, to customer service. By working in partnership with regional community colleges, contract education professionals can gather and manage the resources to develop customized curriculum and training on almost any subject.
• Contract education offers fee-based employee development and training programs, short-term education, consulting, and technical services. Programs offered include for-credit, non-credit, or not-for-credit. The contract education department at your local community college is dedicated to helping your business upskill employees and enhance productivity.

Your local community college works to meet the needs of organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to multinational corporations. The following list is a sample of the organizations that have contracted with California Community Colleges for workplace education and training.

• Alcoa Fastening Systems
• Bayless Engineering
• Boeing
• IKEA
• Kaiser Permanente
• California Steel Industries
• California Department of Human Resources (CalHR)
• Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
• The Hain Celestial Group
• Impax Laboratories, Inc.
• Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
• Marriott Hotels and Resorts
• Northrop Grumman
• PG&E
• San Francisco International Airport
• Skanska USA Building
• Space X
• Starbucks
• Svenhard’s Swedish Bakery
• Tesla
• Transportation Security Administration (TSA)