Industry-Driven Workforce Strategies: The College of the Canyons High Road Training Partnership Case Study

In today’s changing economic landscape, effective workforce development requires a strategic blend of partnerships between business and industry, workforce and economic development, and education. 

High Road Training Partnerships (HRTPs), led by the California Workforce Development Board, aim to address economic inequalities and adapt to the evolving nature of work by fostering deep collaboration across workers, labor, and employers. The HRTP partners follow three core components, which are:

• Grounded in Equity, Job Quality, Climate Resilience principles
• Industry-Driven: Customized for industry needs and future demand
• Worker-centered: workers as invaluable members, shaping programs and afforded leadership. 

The College of the Canyons (COC) in Santa Clarita, California, was awarded a competitive HRTP grant to develop a new model that creates opportunities for future technicians, technologists, and students in advanced technologies within the Santa Clarita Valley and the Greater Los Angeles area.

The Foundation Components: Collaboration and Data

The success of the HRTP model relies on ongoing proactive collaboration and effective community engagement, two components that continually drive workforce initiatives at COC. For this initiative, COC partnered with the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation (SCVEDC), which served as a critical industry connector.  

Additionally, COC leveraged its existing industry partners through its state-of-the-art Advanced Technology Center (ATC), which provides education and hands-on training for the future of work in high-demand, high-skill, and high-wage jobs.

The project supported the COC in gaining a better understanding of the skills required for the advanced manufacturing sector, ensuring that students are well-prepared. The project methodology consisted of convenings with employer and community partners, a quantitative survey distributed to COC’s manufacturing partners, and in-depth qualitative interviews that enabled all voices to be heard, including workers, management, and C-Suite executives.

Leveraging the expertise of the CREATE Energy Center at COC, part of a national network of community colleges funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance energy education and training, COC students actively conducted Industrial Energy Assessments for local manufacturers throughout the project, with instructor guidance. This aligned workforce training directly to sustainable, modern business practices and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) alignment.

Full Capacity Marketing: Research and Strategic Communications Support

From July 2024 to the project’s conclusion in September 2025, Full Capacity Marketing (FCM) served as the strategic communications engine for the COC/SCVEDC partnership, designing the communications framework to capture the project’s impact and lay the foundation for its scalable replication across industries. Working with COC HRTP leadership, FCM’s scope of work included the following. 

Quantitative Survey Design and Analysis: FCM developed a quantitative survey distributed to COC’s manufacturing partners to identify key concerns that would be explored further in the research project. Employer and community partner convening sessions, industry benchmarks, and best practices informed the questions. The survey aimed to identify key themes for deeper exploration and focused on four areas: talent recruitment, workforce retention, technology & AI, and management.

FCM analyzed the quantitative survey results and validated the findings with the latest secondary research. These insights helped us develop detailed interview questions used for the qualitative interview and the facilitator’s guide to support the COC/SCVEDC leadership in conducting the interviews. 

Qualitative Interview Facilitator’s Guide: Building on the insights from the quantitative survey, FCM developed a facilitator’s guide to support the COC/SCVEDC team in conducting in-depth, multi-level partner interviews with workers, managers, and C-suite executives to capture the human perspective behind the data for a more holistic understanding of workforce needs.

Data Storytelling & Report Development: FCM worked with COC leadership to compile all research and analyze the key themes and findings. FCM wrote the report, designed its professional branding, and exported it as a printable PDF for maximum distribution.
Branding & Digital Presence: FCM designed project infographics and fact sheets to educate key partners about the project. We created an optimal landing page layout on ATC’s website to clearly communicate the project’s findings and value to a broad audience.

The Blueprint for Future Success

The COC HRTP project has resulted in a deep, validated understanding of the skills required by the advanced manufacturing sector, laying the groundwork for a sustainable, community-driven career pathway model that connects students, employers, and educators.

The initial quantitative survey highlighted significant workforce challenges in the advanced manufacturing sector. The tailored qualitative interviews for workers, managers, and C-suite executives confirmed the quantitative survey results but revealed critical nuances – particularly differences in how executives, managers, and workers view the same issues. For instance, while all groups identified finding skilled labor as a critical challenge, executives framed talent recruitment as a systemic issue, managers pointed to immediate operational impacts, and workers emphasized wages and benefits as the deciding factor. One big concern found through all research was the future of employment pipelines as it relates to generational workplace differences. 

The COC interview data also highlighted the heavy reliance on OJT (on-the-job training) and the demand for more structured programs, particularly in soft skills and management. Managers reported feeling overburdened as trainers, while workers expressed frustration with informal, uncompensated training. This aligns with Deloitte’s latest Global Human Capital Trends research, which identifies increasing work stress, and its impact on mental health, as a top concern among employees. While some companies implement structured onboarding lasting “weeks to months,” learning is often continuous and nuanced.

Additionally, those interviewed do not take advantage of the public workforce system, a network of agencies and programs designed to connect job seekers with employment, career training, and education, while also assisting employers in finding qualified talent. There is a need to bring together the public workforce system, education, and economic development leaders to increase awareness about public resources and elevate the opportunities in advanced manufacturing.

COC’s survey and interviews indicated minimal AI integration in direct production, with current use focused on administrative tasks. Interviews, however, surfaced critical human factors: resistance to new technologies (particularly among older workers), fears of job loss due to automation, and concerns about misinformation. Workers stressed the need for clear policies and hoped AI would serve as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for workers. 

The Rotational Internship Model

The most significant outcome of this research was the validation of a scalable solution: the Rotational Internship Model. Identified as a better fit for the region’s advanced manufacturing sector than conventional apprenticeships, this model functions as a ‘speed-dating’ process for career paths, in which a student/incumbent worker is supported by working in several departments in sequence for a fixed period of time to learn the skills required for employment and to assess best fit in terms of career goals. This allows the prospective employee to determine their best fit within the organization and understand company career pathways while allowing the employer to assess if they want to hire the intern once the internship is completed. 

Full Capacity Marketing is proud to have contributed to this pioneering work, transforming a successful grant project into a clear, replicable blueprint that other communities and industries can adopt to build their own resilient, high road career pathways.

Is your organization ready to transform a successful grant project into an industry-leading, replicable framework? Partner with Full Capacity Marketing to engineer your narrative for scale, impact, and future funding.