(NewsNation) — As the economy continues to change, America’s colleges and universities have to adapt to prepare their students for a shifting job market.

Some schools found their programming didn’t necessarily fit the jobs available to their students. Preparing students for a career or further education is crucial for these schools, which are often on the frontline of serving students from the lowest-income families.

Texas’ San Jacinto College and Ohio’s Lorraine Community College are two schools that have adapted their schools to economic trends.

Retooling for high-tech jobs of the future

Lorain County Community College (LCCC) in northern Ohio has long been known for preparing students to work in fields like automotive manufacturing.

But Marcia Ballinger, who serves as the school’s president, described a transformation in the local economy as old-school industrialization gave way to more high-tech industries.

“We are transforming what is being described as Ohio is the Silicon Heartland,” she said.

As that transformation occurred, Ballinger worked with college officials and dozens of employers over the past decade to retool the school’s educational offerings.

“We have built out Ohio’s only program at a community college in micro-electromechanical systems…which is a foundation for semi-conductors and the chips industry,” she said.

Now, students are increasingly being trained to join this new workforce. For instance, the college is co-designing a curriculum with Ford focused on electric vehicles.

Ballinger pointed to the college’s “Earn and Learn” programs as helping students attain these degrees. In these programs, a student splits their time between the classroom and doing paid jobs and internships with local employers.

She noted these programs can help students afford the cost of their degrees. The applied bachelor’s in micro-electromechanical systems, for instance, costs around $15,000 to attain; in the same timeframe, Ballinger estimated that a student can earn $18,000 through the Earn and Learn program.

Providing flexibility

Located in the Greater Houston area, San Jacinto College serves just over 30,000 students.

A little over a decade ago, officials at the school came to the conclusion that they had to make changes in order to prepare their students for an evolving job market. Part of that was changing their academic offerings.

“We reduced actually the number of degrees we were offering to our students and to our community,” said Joanna Zimmerman, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Services at the school.

The goal was to make it easier for students to either find stable employment or continue thier education at nearby schools like the University of Houston.

To do this, the school consolidated some degrees. For instance, what was an Associate’s Degree in Psychology was changed to a degree in Behavioral and Social Sciences.

“We wanted to help students have as much flexibility and opportunity as they were moving forward with what they wanted to do,” Zimmerman said.

School officials also reduced the number of general studies degrees it ofered, which functioned as a sort of undecided category for students.

Instead of leaving students undecided on a clear study track, students were connected with career services staff to help guide them toward achieving a more specific degree.

From 2015 to 2020, the school was able to reduce the percentage of students getting General Studies degrees from 23% to 13%. But the instability of the pandemic did frustrate this plan, and the school saw an increase to 21% in 2021.

Despite the setback, they found that by advising students on their education, they’ve managed to reduce the credit hours students take before graduating. In 2017, the average number of semester credit hours until graduation was 87; by 2021, that had dropped to 78, below the state average of 80.