Workshops

AI is already shaping how adult learners search for jobs and navigate daily life, yet many noncredit and adult education programs still hesitate to bring it into the classroom. Presenters cover the why behind AI, practical strategies to help faculty (especially part-timers) build real confidence, and how to ensure equitable and responsible use of AI for students in online courses, followed by a full 10-minute Q&A with all three presenters.

English language learners are succeeding in vocational pathways when instruction, support services, and workforce partnerships are intentionally aligned. This panel explores how integrated education, contextualized English instruction, career navigation, and employer partnerships help multilingual learners persist, earn credentials, and transition into high-demand careers. Attendees leave with practical ideas and proven practices that reduce barriers, improve student outcomes, and create equitable workforce opportunities.

Artificial intelligence is transforming education, the workplace, and everyday life, making AI literacy an essential skill for all learners. Santiago Canyon College developed fourteen AI courses across five noncredit programs to support academic pathways and career readiness. This session overviews SCC's AI integration across noncredit education, and participants leave with a vision for integrating AI across noncredit education and expanding opportunities for students while advancing the goals of Vision 2030.

This is hands on practice, not a lecture. Participants will select activities designed for faculty or administrators and use AI to create something they can apply in their role. Projects include developing a course tutor, adapting instruction for different students, identifying issues in attendance data, analyzing survey feedback, and improving a repetitive staff process. Each activity includes time to review the results, make corrections, and personalize the content so it reflects the participant’s own voice and needs. Okay, based on this, please put together a little bit more of a arrival time, how you can plan to take advantage of this. There will be potential bragging rights and possible prizes for winners. Details on how to submit your answers will be available at the AI lab.  Laptops will be available, please be ready to log into your account to use the large AI LLM of your choice.

This practical, strategic workshop covers the current state of California Community College enrollment and the promise of Noncredit Adult Education through CAEP. It addresses key noncredit programs, current initiatives, funding basics, data reporting, and strategies for growth. Attendees leave with a comprehensive understanding of why growing noncredit pathways matters for adult learners' social and economic mobility.

How do you start, build, and sustain a successful Older Adult program? Three California Community College models, from the perspectives of a dean, a director/associate dean, and a faculty coordinator. Panelists share practical approaches to faculty leadership, curriculum, enrollment, community partnerships, student engagement, and program sustainability, plus how colleges can build programs that support lifelong learning as the 50+ learner changes.

As colleges expand noncredit to meet Vision 2030 and beyond, how can we build differently, understanding what has historically kept it from flourishing? This session explores the intersection of institutional and instructional design, and how intentionally shaped educational ecosystems move us beyond buy-in toward healing, trust, shared governance, and stronger relationships, while keeping credit and noncredit programs complementary, fiscally sound, and true to their distinct purposes.

Adult learners bring valuable knowledge and skills to college, whether they begin in credit or noncredit programs. Why should their prior learning count in one pathway but not the other? This session explores how colleges can extend Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) into noncredit, helping students earn credit for what they already know and build toward certificates on both sides. We'll examine equity implications, mirrored course strategies, and practical approaches for a CPL model that supports adult learners across the full noncredit-to-credit continuum.

Discover how Santa Ana College broke down institutional barriers and built noncredit-to-credit career education opportunities through curriculum, funding, and student activities, from Academic Senate and Curriculum Council advocacy to practical tools like an internal noncredit course substitution and college-wide Credit for Prior Learning processes. Focusing on the Automotive Technology Pathway, contextualized English for Work curriculum, and the Student Success Conference as models, attendees learn best practices to build a noncredit-to-credit ecosystem that prioritizes equity and honors student experiences.

Access opens the door, but what happens when noncredit ESL students enter transfer-level English? In this interactive session, you'll hear de-identified student voices describe unfamiliar systems, academic expectations, uneven support, readiness, and belonging. Using a Language and Race Critical Theory (LangCrit) lens, you'll examine how advising, placement, classroom norms, and institutional structures shape the transition, and leave able to name one opportunity to make noncredit ESL-to-credit transitions more intentional and equitable.

How can colleges create meaningful pathways for students whose education begins while incarcerated? This workshop moves beyond isolated courses to examine how noncredit education, counseling, workforce preparation, and reentry support work together as a coordinated pathway, combining industry-aligned instruction with communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and professional conduct. Attendees leave with concrete ideas for designing accessible programs, building correctional partnerships, and helping students transition from custody to continuing education and employment.

Ready to take your online Adult Education programs to the next level? Faculty from Santa Ana College School of Continuing Education's Adult Secondary Education Program and Counseling Services discuss their success strengthening online courses and support services, meeting students where they are, and preparing them for future transitions. Whether you're just starting your online programs or looking to improve, this workshop helps turn your goals into action.

California Community Colleges are transitioning from TOP codes to the federal CIP system—but this is more than a coding change. This session will explore what is changing, why accurate coding matters for noncredit visibility across curriculum, workforce, accountability, and funding systems, and what colleges need to do now. Presenters will highlight key implementation considerations, share Cerritos College’s local approach, and discuss strategies for sustaining accurate coding beyond the transition.

This session supports Vision 2030 activities #7, 8, 9, and 13 by highlighting how not-for-credit programs respond to immediate workforce and community needs while addressing program fiscal sustainability, demonstrating the flexibility and relevance of these programs for adult learners and industry partners alike.

How well do your noncredit offerings align with regional workforce demand? Explore a new statewide dashboard that brings together labor market information and a comprehensive inventory of noncredit career technical education programs across California. Through a live demonstration and practical examples, attendees see how the dashboard helps examine existing offerings, identify potential program gaps, and make more informed decisions about workforce-focused program planning.

This panel showcases the benefits of not-for-credit workforce training and development programs, bringing together program administrators from a variety of not-for-credit and fee-based programs to explore how they partner with industry on customized training solutions that support employee recruitment, retention, and retraining, strengthen talent pipelines, and support succession planning.

As noncredit programs expand alternative attendance accounting and distance education, colleges need reliable systems that translate instructional activity into accurate attendance and MIS reporting. This session explores Alternative Attendance Accounting Method–Noncredit, positive attendance, and SX05 attendance-hour reporting through research, program, and information systems perspectives, covering current practices, reporting challenges, and opportunities to automate attendance calculations and data reporting.

Most Hispanic adults who would benefit from noncredit programs have never heard of them, and many who do hear never make it to a classroom. This session covers both halves: who this audience actually is, since they are not one group, and what happens after someone raises their hand. Multilingual websites, phone support in the languages your students speak, and follow-up that actually happens. Most of it costs nothing.

Noncredit education works best when it is part of the local economy. Dr. Michael Sacoto, Executive Director of the Orange County Regional Consortium, opens the session with strategies for building strong partnerships between colleges and local businesses. Enrique Perez, Acting President of Santiago Canyon College, then moderates a panel of chamber of commerce leaders. The panel will talk about what employers in our region need and how noncredit programs can become real partners in local economic development.

What can meaningful collaboration achieve for adult learners? Join United Resource Center and North Orange Continuing Education as we highlight how the architecture of our partnership has evolved. Today, our shared student population benefits from optimized academic pathways and integrated support systems designed to enhance retention and success. In this session, we will outline the innovation we bring to partnerships and share critical insights where collaborative frameworks require realignment. You will leave with practical strategies you can adapt to strengthen partnerships at your own institution.