Higher education is leading the charge in a region-wide effort to address a projected critical shortage of nurses in southern California.
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Colleges and universities aren’t often portrayed as critical producers of talent; but those that are serious about proving their value are looking to change that narrative.
If higher education institutions want to be drivers of strong local economies, they have to be responsive to the labor market. That means: seeing—not guessing—where industries are growing, partnering with employers to identify precisely the skills they need to fill key roles and adapting programming and capacity to deliver those skills at scale.
Recent efforts in California offer a powerful example of this strategy in action: most notably through a sweeping, region-wide nursing workforce initiative that shows how a major public higher education system can collaborate with other institutions, employers and intermediaries to align itself with labor market demand to meet both economic and community needs.
California Colleges Stepping In Where The Market Is “Shouting” For Nurses
Labor market data shows that Southern California is on the cusp of a nursing crisis. Projections reveal that Los Angeles County can expect more than 6,400 job openings annually for registered nurses through 2035; but the number of nursing graduates at public institutions is falling short of that demand, resulting in an anticipated gap of 1,100 unfilled nursing positions each year.
Governor Newsom has urged the region to address the problem collectively, and higher education institutions are stepping up in response. Earlier this year, the leadership of California State University (CSU), in concert with 19 community colleges in Los Angeles County and a broad coalition of employers and workforce groups, launched the Los Angeles County Nursing 2035 Initiative — acknowledging the looming shortage and committing to taking collective action to counter it.
The coalition has developed a multi-pronged strategy that can serve as a model for other regions and other sectors.
Diagnosing The Dilemma
This fall, the coalition released an in-depth report, From Pipeline to Pathway: Strengthening Los Angeles County’s Nursing Workforce for the Future, which aimed to diagnose why the nursing pipeline has repeatedly failed to deliver enough nurses—and what must change.
Some of the report’s stark findings:
Public higher education institutions face serious constraints on expanding capacity: shortages of nursing faculty, and, critically, not enough clinical placement slots for students to get hands-on experience at hospitals and clinics. These bottlenecks limit the number of students who can be admitted and trained, even when demand and student interest are high.Clinical placement slots are disproportionately going to private institutions, leaving fewer for public programs, which are generally more affordable and accessible to students. Even when new nurses graduate, many struggle to get hired—especially into residency or transition-to-practice programs—because hospitals lack consistent onboarding pathways and resources. At the same time, experienced nurses are leaving early due to burnout and unsustainable workloads.
The report concludes that the problem isn’t lack of student interest: it’s a misaligned regional system. Education, clinical training, employer demand and workforce retention are disconnected and poorly coordinated.
Higher Education Leading The Charge
Rather than waiting for the private sector or the state to fix the problem, CSU recognized that higher education could lead the charge toward a solution by actively engaging with labor market realities, workforce demands and employer needs.
The Nursing 2035 coalition is focused on three main strategies: expanding capacity in public RN degree programs, strengthening opportunities for students who earn associate degrees in nursing to build toward a bachelor’s degree and improving coordination across higher education, employers and workforce agencies.
Through the Nursing 2035 Initiative, CSU and its partners are investing not only in classrooms, but in systems: regional coordination, shared data infrastructure, streamlined educational pathways and support mechanisms (mentorship, residency programs, better onboarding) that help new nurses stay in the profession.
This is the kind of responsive, demand-driven higher education that can drive strong local economies: when talent supply is aligned with market demand, communities can not only fill jobs, but stabilize critical services (like healthcare, in this case), support good wages and reinforce social infrastructure.
Why This Matters — And What Other Regions Should Learn
For regions beyond California—and beyond nursing—this model offers a blueprint: higher education doesn’t just react to student demand or academic trends. It actively monitors labor markets, works with employers to map needs and then adapts its programs and capacity to meet those needs, building stronger local economies and more resilient communities in the process. California’s emerging efforts have surfaced a few key lessons for other regions to consider:
Data matters: By commissioning a comprehensive regional analysis, the initiative surfaced exactly where the bottlenecks are — not just in raw demand, but in capacity constraints, faculty gaps and structural misalignment. That kind of clarity is essential for designing effective solutions.
Coordination across sectors: The collaborative brings together community colleges, universities, employers, workforce agencies, intermediaries and public policy organizations. When stakeholders cooperate and share data and resources, the whole system becomes far more agile and responsive.
Pathways, not dead ends: Instead of treating an associate degree or entry into a nursing program as an end in itself, the initiative emphasizes easy transfer, bridging degrees and structured career pathways. That supports expanded economic mobility and long-term retention.
The Los Angeles County Nursing 2035 Initiative—spearheaded by CSU and Compton College—shows what’s possible when higher education treats itself as a foundational piece of regional economic infrastructure, rather than as an ivory-tower afterthought. The collective response also illustrates how regions can work together to address key challenges before needing the state to step in.
If higher education wants to be a real driver of economic mobility and community well-being in the 21st century, it needs to be responsive to the labor market; and that includes being willing to redesign systems, align across sectors and invest in long-term workforce sustainability. California’s emerging model offers a powerful new paradigm to show what’s possible.