Beyond the Factory Floor: The experiences of displaced manufacturing workers as they retrain in community college settings

Abstract

<p>This study describes and examines the experiences of displaced manufacturing workers as they lose jobs and retrain in community college settings. The analysis included perceptions of community college services and programming designed to help the workers transition into retraining programs, along with those factors that they identified as contributing to or inhibiting success. Given the recent, permanent structural shifts in the U.S. economy, which have decimated the manufacturing sector, learning more about the experiences of displaced manufacturing workers will better prepare community colleges to serve this population more effectively.</p>