Manufacturing the neoliberal subject: corporate capture of vocational education at a US community college

This study investigates the corporate capture of vocational education at a North Carolina community college, arguing that public institutions are being repurposed as subsidized human resources arms for transnational capital. Beholden to the neoliberal paradigm, the democratic mission of public education is subordinated to the short-term profitability needs of private firms. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the study demonstrates how the vocational education curriculum combines “human capital” and “deficit” models to produce compliant neoliberal subjects. Situated within the anti-union context of the American South, this model reinscribes historical industrial paternalism under the guise of workforce development while enforcing labor discipline through intrusive behavioral interventions that extend corporate control into students’ subjectivity. The study concludes that this employer-driven model compromises workforce resilience by producing nontransferable skills, leaving workers vulnerable to market volatility while socializing the costs and risks of training onto the public.