2 min read July 2023 — Tarrant County College is one of the ten-largest community colleges in Texas, offering a wide range of affordable, accessible high-quality academic and technical programs. Invest: spoke with Chancellor Elva Concha LeBlanc about the colleges’ recent highlights and partnerships, new programs, campus redevelopments and the outlook and priorities for Tarrant County College moving forward.
What are some highlights and milestones for Tarrant County College over the last 12 months?
This is a very exciting time for us. Tarrant County College annually adds $2.1 billion in income to the Tarrant County economy. We are a key player in the economic development of the whole region and the knowledge economy focused on common outcomes. We’re shifting our thinking from enrollment to student learning outcomes and what we’re producing, highly skilled students ready for the workforce. We have three major roles, including being student-ready for all ages. We are extremely proud of our Pathways in Technology Early College High School (PTECH) initiative. It has been a real game changer. The Early College High Schools initiatives target students, including those who are the first in their families to attend college and have English as a second language, who might not otherwise consider attending college, are provided with the opportunity to graduate with a high school diploma and 60 college credit hours. Roughly 23% of our student population are in early college high schools or dual enrollment, and we recently graduated over 535 early college high school students. Of those, 100% of them earned a high school diploma. Those are individuals who likely would not have attended college in the past. Some are moving straight into the workforce, but many are continuing their education at four-year colleges/universities. Further, about 55% of the nearly 8,000 students that recently graduated are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This is due to programs with the PTECHs and dual credit, as well as the number of students that are coming back to reskill and retool.
We have amazing technical programs that are in high demand, including in aviation, welding, construction, management and accounting. This also includes small business development, nursing, and allied health programs. We have 70 technical programs that prepare students for the workforce and partner with 1,200 businesses in the North Texas region. Those partnerships are extremely important and help us provide opportunities such as apprenticeships and internships. Seventy percent of our students work and go to school. Being able to get apprenticeships for them also becomes a seed change. The business community’s advantage is that they learn about these students during the apprenticeship long before they hire them. It’s also beneficial for the students because they’re earning money while learning a craft and skills that will help them become employed. It’s a win-win for everybody. A significant number of our students transfer to universities, and we have articulation agreements with colleges all over the United States. The Top 10 universities where most of our students transfer to are the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of North Texas, Tarleton State University, Texas A&M University, UT Austin, Texas Wesleyan, and Texas Christian University. Our pathways allow students to get a sense of the different programs we offer early on in the collegiate experience, and support a seamless transition from public schools to TCC.
We are also continuously looking to add new programs with quality-developed curriculum to fit the needs of the business community. One example is the film industry. The Yellowstone tv series brought great interest to our community, and the film industry came to us. We are working with them and will launch this fall a program that provides the community an educational pathway into the film industry. Another great example is our work with the health industry. We adapt program curriculum and the student learning experience to meet the needs of hospitals in the region. We respond to the need for more nurses, radiologic technicians, paramedics and through the various allied health programs we have to offer. We continue to add certificates to those programs as the industry advances and demand for specialized skills increases.
Our aviation programs are also extremely important. We train pilots, airframe mechanics, avionics and other programs related to it, such as welding and composites. We also have a Nondestructive Inspection, Testing, and Evaluation program that teaches students how to examine airplanes using sophisticated tools, such as x-rays, ultrasound, and fiber optic equipment to make sure components or systems function as designed. Those with this unique skill set are in high demand as the detection of flaws not only improves safety but brings cost savings. Cybersecurity is another important area. This includes networking, programming, and ethical hacking.
Regardless of the program, our focus is on helping guide students and their decision-making process. It’s all about the student and we use that as our compass. We also have community partners and foundations that are supporting our efforts. We look at innovative ways to support our students and have a program called Tarrant To & Through (T3). The focus of T3 is to get students to graduate from high school and college and into the workforce. We’re looking at the possibility that it may be a better investment for the students to start at Tarrant County College and then continue at any of the area universities.
In November 2019, Tarrant County voters approved TCC’s $825 million bond proposal to fund a plan that will construct, improve, renovate and equip facilities throughout the six-campus district. This includes the major redevelopments currently underway at the Northwest and Southeast Campuses (tccd.edu/bond). With the support of additional college funds, the entire bond program is nearly a billion-dollar reinvestment into the community’s college. We have six campuses, and one is online, which is a huge success. The pandemic helped us appreciate the online environment even more, and we improved our support system and created more opportunities for students.
What specific steps is the college taking to shape the future of higher education for both the community and the students?
A few years ago we had visioning sessions that engaged different stakeholders, including our students. We created a strategic plan with three goals and eight principles. The goals are to be student-ready, to serve the community. And work as one college. The most important piece in terms of programs staying current and innovative are the advisory committees and continuous conversations that we have with the business community. We are more entrepreneurial and nimble in adapting to and accepting changes to meet student and industry needs. We focus on the strengths of our employees and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit. We have also identified courses and programs that do well online and offer those to people working that need to acquire the skills as quickly as possible.
What’s your outlook for the higher education landscape and how does this outlook inform the priorities?
I anticipate a very bright future for Tarrant County College and all the post-secondary institutions in the local area. This region is growing by leaps and bounds. We’re getting people from out of state who bring in new ideas and view the world through a fresh lens, which adds to the possibilities of what we can do. We will be much larger in our public school partnerships, and early college high school and dual enrollment will increase significantly. We will have 21st century workforce programs that we’ll be able to expand. There are some programs that are very expensive to offer and we are almost maxed out. For example, the aviation pilot training is finite because of FAA regulations. Nursing could double and it still wouldn’t be enough. It’s amazing what we’re doing with the healthcare industry; all of that will increase and require greater partnerships with the business community. There’s a possibility for us to bring back programs that we used to have in areas such as semiconductor manufacturing technology. It depends on the global economy and decisions made by our president and presidents of other countries.
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