Port of Los Angeles, California Community Colleges Team Up on Workforce Development

LOS ANGELES — The Port of Los Angeles and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Feb. 4 signed an agreement to collaborate on initiatives to better prepare community college students for careers in the evolving goods movement industry. The Memorandum of Understanding or MOU brings together the resources of the port with a college system that is the largest provider of workforce training in the nation.

The MOU focuses on critical issues facing the maritime industry, including zero-emission operations, decarbonization, environmental stewardship and changing technologies.

“The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office partnership with the Port of Los Angeles, a large employer in the region, will help position our colleges to support students for good jobs and careers in the climate economy,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian. “This collaboration exemplifies Vision 2030’s focus on Workforce and Economic Development recognizing that employer engagement is an essential component.”

Partnership activities outlined in this MOU include:

• Collaborating on how to create career path opportunities for community college students
• Improved job-seeking processes for community college students and alumni, especially in high-demand job categories
• More opportunities for community college students to participate in user experiences and research activities
• Port informational sessions at community college career centers
• Providing port experts for career and recruitment fairs on community college campuses

The agreement builds on the port’s ongoing efforts to promote workforce development and build clear connections between skills learned in today’s colleges with the skills in demand by employers in the goods movement industry. In November 2024, the port and UCLA signed an agreement to foster collaborations with neighborhoods and communities around the port, and create new learning, research and workforce opportunities for UCLA students and faculty.

Other workforce initiatives underway at the port include the opening of a new $16 million International Longshore and Warehouse Union or ILWU-Pacific Maritime Association or PMA Maintenance and Repair Training Center on Terminal Island, offering programs to reskill and up-skill ILWU workers. The Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach, ILWU, PMA and California Workforce Development Board are also in the process of building a 20-acre training facility. When completed, it will be the only workforce training center in the U.S. dedicated solely to the goods movement sector.

The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation, composed of 73 districts and 116 colleges serving 2.1 million students per year. California community colleges provide career education and workforce training; guaranteed transfer to four-year universities; and degree and certificate pathways.