To track educational attainment progress, ICCB and Illinois community colleges have set annual postsecondary credential benchmarks through 2025 to ensure the state meets workforce demand for higher education certificates and degrees. ICCB has created action plans, collaborated with state partners on projects including the Illinois Governor’s Office, Illinois P-20 Council, Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Board of Higher Education, Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and Illinois Department of Employment Security and evaluated policy to meet the need for increased certificate and degree credentials.
To track progress with the 60% by 2025 Illinois goal, in 2009-10 ICCB and IBHE established annual postsecondary credential benchmarks through 2025. Illinois needs to increase postsecondary graduate production by 4.4 percent each year through 2025 to generate 600,000 more individuals with a postsecondary credential. For the Illinois Community College System to meet its share of additional graduates it needs to generate 2,200 additional graduates from its fiscal year 2009 baseline of 53,053 graduates each year through 2025. Thus, in fiscal year 2025, it’s expected the Illinois Community College System will generate approximately 88,253 graduates within that fiscal year. To view the Illinois Community College System’s progress as part of Illinois’ 60% by 2025 Illinois goal, please select Illinois Community College System 60% by 2025 below. More detailed graduate college-level and credential-type data are available through ICCB’s Annual Report (Appendix C) and Data Book (Section III).