San Diego Continuing Education (SDCE) joins forces with California Community Colleges during April for National Community College Month. The month of advocacy supports and celebrates the academic achievements and civic contributions made by continuing and community college students.

SDCE is California’s largest noncredit institution and the adult education division of the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD). SDCE serves large populations who come from rural areas and inner-cities. In some cases, enrolled students have dropped out of high school as teenagers and are coming back to school for the first time, decades later. Others are immigrants, refugees, formerly incarcerated or opportunity youth.

SDCE offers the region’s only free short-term career training programs in priority workforce sectors such as Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Construction and Utilities, Health and Information and Communication Technologies. Many students achieve their high school diploma and/or career training at SDCE and then transition to a SDCCD college, City, Mesa or Miramar.

In March 2019, SDCE opened two new Career and College Transition and Rising to Success Centers at its Mid-City and Cesar Chavez Campuses. SDCE’s adult learners have access to full time assistance with career planning including resume critiques, interviews, job search strategies, career assessments, exploration and research, decision making, goal setting, assistance with transition to college and/or employment.

“SDCE’s career centers are especially prepared to help students who have no family history or experience with accessing higher education,” said SDCE’s President Carlos O. Turner Cortez, Ph.D.

By 2020, 65 percent of all jobs in the economy will require postsecondary education and training beyond high school, according to Georgetown University on RECOVERY Job Growth and Education Requirements Through 2020.

“Many middle-skills jobs require more than a high school education but less than a four-year college degree,” said President Turner Cortez. “Free career training is one of the best and fastest paths to a career with living wages.”

SDCE awarded 9,434 certificates of completion in 2018-19, more than any other noncredit educational institution in California.