The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD, District, or Client) has contracted with Madrid Consulting Group to prepare an Environmental Scan for each of the nine District campuses. The District colleges that have been evaluated are:

• East Los Angeles College
• Los Angeles City College
• Los Angeles Harbor College
• Los Angeles Mission College
• Los Angeles Pierce College
• Los Angeles Southwest College
• Los Angeles Trade Tech College
• Los Angeles Valley College
• West Los Angeles College

The effort is led by Henry Madrid, Principal with Madrid Consulting Group, Bellflower, CA. The Environmental Scan is generally defined as a collection and analysis of strategic information with regard to the College’s external setting and environment in which it functions. This external setting includes strategic information about its adjacent resident population environs, College Service Area, business sectors, competitive community colleges and educational institutions, local and regional labor market, and local economic context. The environment in which a college functions also includes past economic and future area, resident, and business conditions. The Scan data is not meant to be prescriptive, but rather to be instructive such that it raises issues, stimulates dialogue, generates ideas and provides support for better decision making. Scanning is a continuous process. Since the data includes information (e.g. projections, etc.) that may change, a Scan must be updated at some point in the future. For this reason, in addition to this Report, extensive raw economic and business data has been provided to permit future manipulation and analysis by the LACCD Colleges. In addition to the Report and electronic database, a one-year lease of an on-line economic forecasting Model (Strategic Planning Model) has also been provided. The Model permits unlimited jobs and occupations forecasting. This demand data is also converted to academic programs by Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) Code.

A summary of potential benefits are listed as follows:

• Better able to meet the College’s Economic Development Mission
• Be well-informed and better anticipate the economic future
• Be more agile and market responsive, e.g., adjust curriculum based on actual labor force demand
• Identify the location of current and future job
• Forecast demand by highest growth and highest paying jobs
• Identify opportunities for fee-based courses
• Better identify and target potential student markets: current community college students not being captured, high-school students, area residents, service area employees and businesses, avocational course customers
• Better identify the competition-(private and public institutions)
• Scrutinize daycare demand/supply conditions
• Identify household spending on education (tuition, supplies, materials, etc.)
• Compile compelling data useful in competing for Federal Grants and Bond Issue Campaigns
• Identify contributors, Fortune 1000 companies and other potential foundation donors
• Identify potential Business Partners for training programs
• Identify and better serve special Industry Clusters Identify small and home-based businesses
• Conduct small area analysis at the Zip Code level
• Forecast job growth/decline by industry, time period, or area
• Convert jobs forecasts to SOC occupations Convert SOC occupations to academic programs by CIP Code and FTE/CHE units
• Identify educational requirements and hourly wages by projected occupations
• Compare current college full-time equivalent student (FTES) or Credit Hour Equivalent (CHE) output with forecasted growth and adjust programs accordingly

The Environmental Scan as presented herein has utilized non-traditional data sources. These Scans utilize private-sector data that has been purchased as opposed to traditional Scan studies that use free government data. The principle benefit of private sector data is that it is generally richer, more comprehensive, more current, and is provided at the small scale geographic level. Another limitation of government data is that it excludes sole proprietorships, businesses with no employees, and suppresses data with small numbers. The result is that there are major gaps in public data sources. This improved data opens new doors of opportunity for better analysis and more focused strategic planning by community colleges.

Most Exhibit tables include a common data set consisting of; Zip Code, student headcount by Zip Code, population, and number of households. This uniform base information is provided to permit further data analysis and cross tabulations.

The major products include a printed copy of all documents, exhibits, graphs, and maps in a three- ring binder. In addition, Adobe PDF copies of the entire report and all Microsoft Excel/Word files have been provided. In addition, a database of all establishments located in Los Angeels County has been provided to permit future data manipulation. The Scan also provides a one-year lease at the CCbenefits, Inc., Strategy Planning Model. This Model permits further unlimited on-line jobs and occupations forecasting by each college.