CSU East Bay (CSUEB) offers its MPA program exclusively for Alameda County public employees. The curriculum meets the MPA program’s PLOs and the County’s workforce development needs. CSUEB uses the rotation model of blended learning, and courses are flipped with the application activities tied to County-specific work processes and issues.
The Department of Public Affairs and Administration (Department) at California State University East Bay (CSUEB) has offered its MPA program at the CSUEB Hayward Campus since the 1960s, and a significant number of program graduates are employed in the public sector in the East Bay Region. Alameda County is the 7th most populous county in California and is located in the East Bay Region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As part of the Alameda County Workforce Development and Succession Planning effort, Alameda County wanted to provide Alameda County public employees with educational opportunities for the development of personal, professional and leadership skills.
A significant part of the Alameda County Workforce Development and Succession Planning effort was to create career ladders for the public employees that were tied to educational achievement. Earning a MPA degree was one of the identified educational achievements that Alameda County tied to career advancement, and the Department formed a collaborative partnership with Alameda County to offer educational opportunities directly to Alameda County public employees.
The Department offered the Alameda County MPA program exclusively for Alameda County public employees at the Alameda County Training and Education Center, which was located in Oakland and was a convenient location for the public employees. Alameda County and the Department discussed which courses in the MPA curriculum best fit with Alameda County’s educational and professional development needs, and the Department designed a curriculum that met both the MPA program learning outcomes and the workforce development needs. The Department offered the program using a cohort model where students in a given admission cohort complete a pre-determined schedule of courses along with other members of the cohort.
To maximize employee participation in the MPA program, the courses were offered using the rotation model of blended learning where students rotated weekly through in-person class sessions and fully online class sessions. The courses were also flipped courses in that the lectures and other content-introducing and instructional activities were covered online in an asynchronous fashion while the in-person sessions consisted of synchronous hands-on activities. In the in-person sessions, students were able to practice skills, apply concepts, problem-solve, analyze case studies, and role play different scenarios. Most of the in-person activities were directly tied to County-specific work processes, organizational structure and culture, new and ongoing County projects, County policy formulation and implementation, and County budgeting and finance issues.
To date, the Department has admitted five different cohorts of 30-33 students each to the Alameda County MPA program. Over 100 students have graduated with MPA degrees, and over 93% of the students who began the program successfully completed it. A number of graduates have moved into higher levels of responsibility within Alameda County, and Alameda County has been able to develop effective workplace succession plans. In addition, tAlameda County has been able to use the Alameda County MPA program as an employee recruitment tool.
The partnership between the Department and Alameda County has been recognized by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the Alameda County Administrator as providing a valuable service to Alameda County and to Alameda County public employees. The Department and County partnership has been so successful that Alameda County is seeking another CSUEB department partner to offer a degree-completion undergraduate program targeted to Alameda County public employees.