Adam Lazar is three semesters away from earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of New Mexico, but for the last two years, he’s already been working in the field and earning the highest wage he’s ever made. When he graduates, the 28-year-old will have a full-time job waiting for him at the same company.
While many of his classmates struggle to find paid internships, Lazar has held a mechanical engineering internship at Redwire Space since 2024. He credits his career success not to the degrees he’s earning, but to a 10-week noncredit bootcamp he took at Central New Mexico Community College. The program, called the Internet of Things, is one of the nearly 80 (and counting) noncredit, nondegree programs offered through CNM Ingenuity, a nonprofit branch of the community college focused on short-term workforce training programs.
“Before starting the bootcamp and working where I am now, I didn’t have the greatest view of my future in New Mexico,” says Lazar, who previously worked as a technician at Aspen Avionics. Without a degree, he quickly reached the ceiling there. The bootcamp has had “the biggest impact out of everything I’ve ever done in my entire life,” he says.
Every Friday during the bootcamp, guest speakers from companies in the area talk to the class. One of those speakers in Lazar’s cohort was a senior robotics engineer at Redwire. After the talk, Lazar approached him to learn more, and the engineer encouraged him to apply for the internship. A couple of months later, he got the position, even before he completed his associate degree, and he uses the skills he learned in the bootcamp every day.
Many community colleges have been expanding their noncredit offerings, as student interest in short-term programs of all kinds has exploded—but few have gone as far as Central New Mexico Community College. The effort is bolstered by the state of New Mexico, which set aside $60M over three years, beginning in 2025, to fund short-term credentials of value. About a third of that money has gone to CNM. Since then, enrollment in CNM’s noncredit, nondegree programs has surged from roughly 6K to about 10K this year.
“A lot of community college noncredit suffers from the fact that they don’t have much of a subsidy or cushion, so they end up chasing enrollment and money more than they should be,” says Iris Palmer, director of community colleges at New America. “Because Ingenuity has the funding, they can be more strategic.”
The state funding covers 100% of program costs for students—significant support, considering the average cost for the bootcamps is $12K.
“The state support for higher education, particularly at a time when many schools are closing or shutting down programs, is significant,” says Tracy Hartzler, president of the community college. “The fact that we have a state that believes in workforce funding has been a game changer for us. We would not be in the same place if we didn’t have this funding.”
Bridging the Credit Divide
CNM allows anyone in the country—including students, professors, community members, and businesses—to submit ideas for short-term programs. The submissions go to a “triage team” consisting of CNM Ingenuity, the college’s Department of Academic Affairs, and its Division of Workforce and Community Success.
The integration of the college’s academic side with its noncredit side is one reason why the programs have been as successful as they are. At many colleges, the two sides largely operate as separate divisions, with students being in either one camp or the other and often not crossing over. CNM has prioritized bridging noncredit and credit programs, offering prior learning credit to students who complete noncredit work. As Lazar worked toward his associate degree at CNM, for example, he was able to skip a coding class due to the prior learning credit he received from the bootcamp.
“We try not to use the phrase ‘nondegree,’” says Hartzler. “We want to make sure that when we offer credentials—and increasingly these are certificate or short-term programs—we design them with the learner journey in mind. We want to make sure that people are seeing quick success, but we know that once individuals feel that success or receive that raise, they often realize they will benefit even more if they have the degree.”
But in the meantime, students can get to work more quickly in a high-wage, high-demand field. This drives the creation of the programs. Andrea Sisneros Wichman, senior director of programs at CNM Ingenuity, says the college uses industry data, but also relies on direct conversations with employers and economic development organizations to decide which programs to pursue.
“It’s usually not a big lift for us to just try it and give it a shot and see if it works,” Sisneros Wichman says.
Sometimes the programs don’t work out, such as a Manufacturing Essentials program designed for entry-level jobs in manufacturing. Employers insisted they needed the program, but students weren’t interested in what ended up being a low-paid job. So the program was paused.
Other programs, in fields like quantum technology, electric vehicle technology, and aerospace, have taken off. Some of these programs are meant for people who already work in the field and need to upskill, while others are designed to stack into degree pathways. Sisneros Wichman says the average age of the noncredit students is 35, and many are career changers.
For Leslie Chavez, who completed the quantum technician bootcamp in May, the goal was to change careers and find a well-paid job. The bootcamp can apply toward credit in the college’s technology, engineering, and skilled trades programs, but it can also serve as a standalone launch pad into a job in the field.
Chavez has a bachelor’s degree in biology and worked for nearly two decades as a veterinary technician. While she loved her job, there wasn’t much room to move up and increase her pay. So she decided to indulge her side interest in quantum science, which she had been learning about independently through books and podcasts, and enroll in the college’s 10-week quantum technician bootcamp. The program launched last year in anticipation of an explosion of jobs in the field after New Mexico and Colorado were awarded over $40M from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to advance the sector.
“Quantum science can be very intimidating,” Chavez says. “But there were no prerequisites for the bootcamp, which made it seem achievable for anyone. Fortunately, it wasn’t just a math class—it was very hands-on.”
Throughout the bootcamp, Chavez and her classmates used the same equipment that scientists around the world use in the semiconductor, solar manufacturing, and optoelectronics industries. They recreated Nobel Prize-winning experiments to understand the science and philosophy of quantum technology and deconstructed and reassembled low-pressure vacuum machines.
The class also spent time on resume building and professional skills, an essential component for learners like Chavez who didn’t have any formal experience in the industry. One of Chavez’s instructors introduced her to a representative at the quantum networking company Qunnect, which opened an office and research facility in Albuquerque earlier this year.
The company hired its first New Mexico employee from the first cohort of the bootcamp, and Chavez became their second employee. She received an offer the day after she completed the bootcamp, with a salary 65% higher than what she made as a vet tech.
Future of Funding
New Mexico’s three-year investment in short-term credentials of value ends after next year, but Hartzler is hopeful for more funding. The state appears supportive, as evidenced by its approval of a $1.5B higher education budget for fiscal year 2027—a more than 15% increase over the previous year—which includes other investments in workforce development and training.
The advent of Workforce Pell could also make a difference, but Hartzler isn’t betting on it yet, despite the fact that nine of CNM’s programs are likely to qualify—a higher number than many community colleges are projecting. Hartzler describes the federal program as “inflexible and overly bureaucratic.” Noncredit programs, in particular, have to jump through a lot of hoops to qualify.
“We are advocating for more years of the state workforce money until federal Workforce Pell and changes to WIOA waivers come into place,” she says. “We really want that flexibility.”