The U.S. job market is reaching an unprecedented level of strain. The impact of artificial intelligence on entry-level, white-collar careers has yet to be fully realized, and employers in healthcare, manufacturing and other vocational industries are desperate for qualified talent.
As Americans hunger for career-ready graduates, three college presidents are embracing strategies that stretch the limits of what was once thought possible at their respective institutions.
The Blueprint is a bi-monthly column that analyzes strategic trends among college and university presidents and chancellors across diverse sectors of higher education.
“So many of our students look to us to escape poverty and transform their families and their community,” says Daniel Corr, who recently retired as president of Arizona Western College. “That’s an amazing privilege to step up.”
Breaking tradition to meet workforce urgency
Corr’s most ambitious response to workforce demand took shape in the Entrepreneurial College, a reimagining of how quickly a community college can deliver job-aligned training.
The idea emerged after the governor’s office asked Arizona Western to rapidly train fiber optic technicians to support broadband access in La Paz County. Corr and his team streamlined approvals, adjusted pay structures to attract industry experts and centralized decisions to match the speed of business.
“In higher ed, we often do things because they’ve always been done that way, or we fear the worst-case scenario,” he says. “There was an opportunity to start from scratch and for me and my team to put our stamp on this institution.”
The success of that effort led to a semi-autonomous arm capable of launching credit and noncredit programs with flexible tuition and accelerated timelines. It has also inspired Corr to more strongly prioritize the needs of neighboring K12, higher ed and industry partners.
“What we had to do was change the mindset about how we organized our business practices,” Corr says.
Nearly three years later, the Entrepreneurial College has trained thousands and partnered with hundreds of employers, positioning Arizona Western as both a workforce engine and a test case for how higher education can rethink its own operating model.
The vocationally minded liberal arts college
A community college is expected to attune itself to career and technical education. However, Roanoke College President Frank Shushok is breaking long-held assumptions of a private liberal arts college.
“The demand right now is too high for some of our local community colleges,” he says. “Roanoke would like to meet that need so more people can get these credentials.”
The four-year Virginia college was recently approved to offer an associate’s degree, rewarding dual-enrolled K12 students preparing for careers in healthcare and education.
Roanoke also recently launched an online continuing education platform geared toward local opportunities in cybersecurity, project management, construction and the skilled trades.
Add in Roanoke’s articulation agreements with neighboring community colleges, and Shushok is building an ecosystem of postsecondary pathways that allows students to seamlessly transition between the workforce, CTE and a bachelor’s degree.
“I’m trying to publicly challenge the idea that there’s a hard bifurcation between going to vocational school or higher education,” he says. “The line does not have to be that hard.”
Training for the AI economy
At Golden Gate University, President Brent White is betting that artificial intelligence will redefine not just the workforce but the fundamentals of higher education itself. The institution has overhauled pedagogy and academic programming to embed technology into nearly every aspect of the student experience.
Golden Gate has replaced traditional general education requirements with an AI-centered core that prepares students to reason, write and build automated workflows using emerging technologies.
“Students who graduate without AI fluency are obsolete the minute they graduate,” he says.
The university is also using AI to personalize instruction and assessment, allowing students to demonstrate applied skills through real-world problem-solving rather than static assignments.
Golden Gate established a School of Psychology that researches how AI will transform human behavior, while the university’s law school is launching new courses that integrate AI into legal research.
For White, the sweeping changes build on Golden Gate’s longstanding focus on working adults, while positioning graduates to prepare for a shifting economy.
“AI has fundamentally changed higher education and opened up opportunities to provide high-quality access to a lot more students.”
