Sacramento, CA — November 18, 2025 — Calbright College, the flexibly paced, online, competency-based California community college dedicated to providing skills-first training to adult learners, released the findings from its Annual Student Experience Survey for 2025. The results confirm the urgent demand for Calbright’s model, with the college achieving a 66% student enrollment growth over the last year, while student feedback remains highly positive: 74% of survey respondents reported satisfaction with their programs and overall experience at Calbright.
“The surge in enrollment, coupled with consistently high student satisfaction, underscores the critical role Calbright plays in California’s education and workforce development landscape,” said Don Orth, Vice President for Student Services and Success at Calbright. “Student feedback has always been a core part of Calbright’s growth and evolution, and continues to drive enhancements in the experiences and support that empower every learner to accelerate their education and career goals.”
The 2025 Annual Student Experience Survey highlights Calbright’s success in delivering career-focused, flexible programs that meet the immediate needs of working-age adults.
Key Insights from the 2025 Annual Student Experience Survey
- High and consistent satisfaction: 74% of survey respondents reported satisfaction with their programs and overall experience at Calbright. Overall, satisfaction has remained high over the last four years among respondents, at 70% or higher each year of the survey.
- Strong recommendation: 87% of respondents agreed they would recommend Calbright to a friend. Respondents have consistently shared they would recommend Calbright to a friend over the last four years, at more than 75%.
- Career mobility is students’ main driver: About 70% reported that Calbright has supported them in making progress toward their educational and career goals. Students’ top career goals are focused on improving their life-work fit and entering new career fields, underscoring Calbright’s role in supporting California students making career pivots, upskilling, and reskilling for today’s regional and state economies.
- Skills-first, flexible programs deliver for students: Consistent with the findings of the last two years, the main educational goal among respondents was “receive skills training with a badge, certificate or industry certification,” with 73% of 2025 respondents selecting this category as their main educational goal.
These findings reinforce Calbright’s mission to provide career-focused pathways to economic mobility that fit the lives of working-age adults.
Advancing State Priorities
Calbright College is California’s innovative, flexibly paced community college designed to provide self-paced education and job skills training for adult learners. Calbright addresses the critical need for accessible higher education and job skills training for the 6.8 million Californians aged 25-54 with a high school diploma but little to no college experience, and millions more working-age adults aiming to upskill or pivot careers.
Calbright’s charge by the California Legislature to provide accessible and relevant education and job skills training aligns not only with Chancellor Dr. Sonya Christian’s California Community Colleges’ Vision 2030, by removing barriers to higher education, but also advances Governor Newsom’s Master Plan for Career Education and his emphasis on skills-based mastery as a path to economic opportunity for more working-age adults.
About Calbright College
Calbright College is a new kind of community college designed to support the needs and goals of adult learners. Established in 2018, Calbright is a statewide, online, and flexible California Community College that offers accessible and career-focused programs — based on in-demand skills from IT to CRM Platform Administration to Data Analysis. Calbright’s free and flexibly paced model, which utilizes competency-based education, works within the schedules of California’s working-age adults to provide the rigor of higher education without the logistical hurdles of a traditional institution.
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