Regional Joint Ventures
Regional Virtual Production Academy Sustainability Plan
Removing Barriers Through Online Access
By requiring all courses to be delivered online through the California Virtual Campus Exchange, the RVPA removes geographic and scheduling barriers that disproportionately affect students in underserved communities. Students no longer have to wait for a required course to be offered locally and can progress toward completion across any participating college.
Project Description
Participating Colleges
The Need
The Bay Area’s Information and Communication Technologies/Digital Media sector has the largest student enrollment of any sector across all age groups yet significant gaps remain between the skills students develop and what employers in virtual production and digital media industries require. No single college can offer the full range of courses needed to develop all required competencies in this fast-changing field. The Regional Virtual Production Academy (RVPA) was designed to solve this problem through a first-of-its-kind multi-college collaborative. Having successfully completed three funded years, the RVPA now requires a sustainability structure to continue serving students without ongoing regional funding.
Project Purpose
This sustainability plan transitions the RVPA to a college sustained model. It also documents how additional Bay Area colleges can join the RVPA and provides a replicable blueprint for building new multi-college collaborative programs across other disciplines.
Measurable Goal
- 3,721 students positively impacted
- Estimated 15% of the 24,805 Bay Region students enrolled in pathways leading to RVPA credentials.
- Success is measured by degrees, certificates, and apprenticeship completions across Applied Photography, Digital Media, Graphic Art & Design, Multimedia, and related TOP codes.
Available VP Pathways
Bay Area community colleges are now offering specialized coursework in virtual production, blending creativity, storytelling, and technical skills to prepare students for cutting-edge roles in entertainment and media.
Activities
- Cost-share management: Establish and document governance processes for managing the collaborative's shared funding structure, including annual role review and allocation adjustments, with quarterly coordination with BACCC's Regional Operations Manager.
- Expansion - joining the RVPA: Define clear requirements and steps for additional Bay Area colleges to join the collaborative, including CVC Exchange participation, MOU execution, curriculum alignment, and local SWP cost-share commitment.
- Guidance for new collaboratives: Publish a step-by-step guide - drawing on the RVPA Program Handbook - for other colleges and regions seeking to build multi-college collaborative CTE programs in new disciplines.
- Marketing and outreach: Develop consistent student- and industry-facing communications to drive enrollment, promote career outcomes, and expand awareness of the virtual production pathway across member colleges.
BACCC Priorities
Collaboration & coordination in critical sectors
Supports ICT/Digital Media through a five-college collaborative model that expands access and builds regional capacity beyond what any single college can achieve alone.
Vision 2030 Connection
Action 3: Quality online programs + Equity in Access
The RVPA’s online delivery model advances Vision 2030’s call to meet learners where they are by removing geographic barriers and accelerating time to completion for students in underserved communities.