Redesigned Pathways to Help California Domestic Workers Advance Toward More Stable Careers
WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility is helping community colleges create education pathways for specific types of learners and local job markets, focusing on creating opportunities for better paying jobs.
The Challenge
Domestic workers—those who care for children, elderly people, and disabled people in their homes—provide essential healthcare services. But these workers face serious challenges: very low wages, long and unpredictable hours, and no benefits. Many need food assistance just to get by.
To help fix this problem, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office partnered with the United Domestic Workers Union to help their members prepare for careers with steadier hours and better pay.
The challenge? Community colleges offer so many different programs that it’s overwhelming to figure out which ones to choose. Educators need to better understand what domestic workers want to achieve by going back to school and which programs would actually support their upskilling requirements.
How We’re Taking Action
The Center for Economic Mobility joined the partnership to help colleges with the design process. First, we learned more about the union members. Surveys revealed several critical characteristics that informed the development of the demonstration project:
- Most of the domestic workers were women over the age of 50.
- A large number were not fluent in English and had minimal academic training.
- While individual goals varied, many expressed interest in medical assistance careers or launching their own business.
Twenty colleges elected to participate in the project. After holding launch meetings to clarify project goals and expectations, we created a virtual community of practice to support colleges to adapt their current offerings to the needs of the domestic workers and to create a space to learn from each other. These events covered topics such as the following:
- Designing and Scaling Career Pathways for Adult Learners
- Leveraging Credit for Prior Learning to Accelerate Progress
- Building Effective Welcome Centers and Intake Strategies
- Supporting Learner Retention and Persistence
- Understanding and Addressing Adult Learner Barriers and Needs
- Integrating Basic Needs Support into Academic and Workforce Pathways
- Engaging in Cross-Functional Team Design for Adult Learner Strategies
Colleges used this information to develop pathway strategies, leverage workforce boards and regional partnerships to connect with employers, and adopt metrics for tracking the success of adult learners. Within a year, 581 union members had enrolled in college programs.