#4. The business of education (is education)
CCCS
Strategic Plan 2015-25: “The
Colorado Community College System (CCCS) is the largest higher education
provider in the State of Colorado, with 13 colleges across Colorado
serving more than 151,000 students each year. Our 13 COLLEGES are statewide economic engines, building the
innovative workforce and business
partnerships that support a vibrant, growing Colorado economy.”[i]
(Bold mine)
“It’s the economy,
stupid!” 1992 campaign slogan for Presidential candidate Bill Clinton
“Is that all there is, is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing”
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing”
(as sung
by Peggy Lee, 1969)
In AV#171 - 173 I have shown how “workforce development”
threatens to supplant education as the central reason for school. Last week I portrayed the business community
as “needy” enough, and—as it is prone to be—impatient and bossy enough, to do
more than step on the toes of educators. It now wishes to take the driver’s
seat and steer education in a new direction.
Educators are asked to follow.
This newsletter now asks if this fundamental change has already taken
place with our state’s community colleges.
The evidence here suggests their current focus is no longer aligned with
the mission of the Colorado Community College System. If true, Colorado is hardly alone; it is part
of a shift nationwide. (Addendum A provides numerous
examples from across the country.)
Overstated? You might have said that a year ago, in my
tongue-in-cheek prophecy (AV#156):
2071 – Department of Workforce Development – A History
Published by the Colorado Department of Workforce
Development and Training
(once known as the Colorado Department of Education),
January 2071
Was it really so off the mark? Today, in 2018, at the Community College of Aurora
campus, guess where you go for Adult Basic Education and GED prep classes? The
CCA’s Center for Workforce Development.
Colorado – CCCS
The mission
and vision of the Colorado Community College System (CCCS)[ii]
reads:
Our
Mission
We provide an accessible, responsive learning environment that facilitates
the achievement of educational,
professional and personal goals by our students and other members of our
communities, and we foster an atmosphere that embraces academic excellence, diversity and innovation.
Our
Vision
Colorado
community colleges are unsurpassed at providing quality educational opportunities for all who aspire to enrich
their lives. (Bold here and throughout is mine.)
When I was
an adjunct faculty at Arapahoe Community College ten years ago, that would have
felt right. That was then. Nothing about
training for the workforce, designing
courses to meet the needs of business, or
carrying out industry’s wishes to bridge
the gap between employers and job-seekers.
Exactly
what we hear now—as we see in the CCCS
Strategic Plan 2015-25. A clear
shift in emphasis from the mission and vision, yes? A brief look back might
trace when Colorado’s community colleges began to assume this new—and markedly
different—role. The history matters. This did not happen overnight.
“Sing Johnny one note”
This first story speaks of
“educational providers” (i.e. community colleges). Not a word about education. As Gov. Hickenlooper said then—and keeps
saying—it’s all about training. (“Trained”
or “training” used six times in the “education” section of his recent
State-of-the-State.)
June 24,
2015 – “Help coming for state’s middle
skills workers,” The Denver Post.[iii]
Colorado
has plenty of people looking for jobs and plenty of employers looking for trained workers. Bridging the gap
between the two is the goal of a public-private partnership announced Tuesday to train and place “middle skills” workers.
The Markle
Foundation’s Rework America Connected initiative is billed
as “an innovative effort to build a 21st
century digital labor market that connects job seekers, employers and educational
providers….”
But state
officials — including Gov. John Hickenlooper; Jerry Migler, provost of the Colorado Community College System; and
major employers — said the need is clear for a program that provides workers
with training and a conduit to
companies in search of their skills.
Grady
Cope, CEO of Reata Engineering and Machine Works, an Arapahoe County-based
contract manufacturer, said the firm has a chronic shortage of skilled
machinists… “Of all the manufacturers I know, the No. 1 biggest issue is
finding skilled workers,” Cope said. “We need a pipeline to develop and deliver them.”
“Pipeline”—a perfect metaphor for the
tunnel-vision of this brave new world. (It appears 10 times in articles quoted
in this newsletter.)
(A week later) June 30, 2015 – “Colorado’s community colleges put a badge
on workforce development,” Denver
Business Journal.[iv]
Colorado's
plan to enhance workforce development to meet the demand of growing industries
in the state took another step forward with the announcement of a new
"badge" system for community college students.
Students
can earn a "badge" designation during traditional college coursework
or on the job that's designed to meet a
specific demand or need in an industry, the Colorado Community College
System (CCCS) announced Tuesday….
CCCS also
developed its badge program through CAMA's (Colorado
Advanced Manufacturing Alliance) grant project, which is funded by the
Department of Labor.* That program is meant to advance the U.S.'s manufacturing industry and address current
workforce needs….
"Developing
these badges gives us a tremendous opportunity to partner with business and
industry and grow the workforce and the economy," said Nancy McCallin,
president of CCCS. "After creating the coursework for the badges, we hope
to continue these partnerships and
benefit other parts of our curriculum."
*Yes, funded … not by the Department of Higher Education, but by the
Department of Labor. QUESTIONS: Is the U.S. Department of Labor determining what colleges will
offer? In the nation’s capital today,
does Labor Trump Education?
Other stories reveal, again (my theme
in AV#173) how educators—in this case, community colleges—are expected to respond
to the “needs” of business. And note the euphemism of “partnerships.” How often do you detect evidence of an equal
voice for the colleges? Government and
business are in charge; community colleges are at their beck and call.
Listen to Dr.
McCallin suggest a new “mission” – her
word – for community colleges.
July 22, 2015 – “Biden discusses economy in visit,” The Denver Post.
[Vice-President] Biden toured the community
college’s new Advanced Manufacturing Center, scheduled to open this fall as
part of a $3.5 million federal grant that bought equipment to train workers in advanced manufacturing technologies.
Nancy McCallin, the president of the
Colorado Community College System, said 74 percent of the jobs in Colorado
require some education after high school, making the administration’s tuition
proposal “so critical.”
“The
community college mission and role is so important to provide the workforce
training for us to compete in the world,” she said.
(For
another quote from the article – so much
for that English degree! – see end note.[v])
When CCCS gives its version of its evolving purpose, it shamelessly defines
its mission in the language of the marketplace. It calls to mind that cynical, reductionist
line from the 1992 Clinton campaign: “It’s
the economy stupid!” I guess it is
too much, given less than 300 words in an ad, for the college system to use the
word “education” more than … once.
(QUESTION: Does this embarrass anyone?)
Nov. 15, 2015 - “Community
Colleges of Colorado: The CHAMP of the Colorado economy,”
The Denver Post, Advertisement.[vi] (Not quoted in full, but you get the
message.)
To
build the new-generation workforce,
the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) – representing 13 colleges across
the state – is now leading an important initiative called the Colorado Helps
Advanced Manufacturing Program (CHAMP).
CHAMP,
funded by a $25 million federal grant [NOTE:
again, from the Department of Labor], is an innovative partnership of
colleges, businesses and community partners focused on growing the pipeline of
skilled workers for the booming advanced manufacturing industry in Colorado.
“Colorado
is in the midst of a manufacturing revolution, thanks to a surge of innovative
technologies and state-of-the-art facilities,” said Dr. Nancy McCallin.... “The industry requires sophisticated skills
that translate into rewarding careers and high salaries.”
Through
CHAMP, the community colleges integrate
industry-driven content and expertise with the academic programming in
manufacturing to provide a skilled
Colorado workforce. It provides students with demand-driven skills and knowledge to meet the rapidly changing requirements
of today’s business and industry.
It
also promises tremendous opportunities for Colorado’s community colleges to
partner closely with business and industry
to grow the state’s high-powered workforce and the economy.
… Colorado’s community colleges … with CHAMP, are
positioned to lead the expansion of the
advanced-skills workforce to ensure Colorado’s long-term prosperity.
The Chamber of Commerce couldn’t say it any better! See the “Profile of Partnerships with Chambers
of Commerce & Community Colleges,” from the United States Conference of
Mayors[vii]. Note two bullets on the goals and benefits of
this relationship:
·
Quick determination and identification of skills
gaps and building programs and credentials that meet industry needs.
·
Unified approach to serving business needs by harnessing the resources of the
Chamber and workforce development partners.
Care to see how much the
Chamber and business community have thought about and planned these efforts?
A look at the 130-page Talent Pipeline
Management Curriculum[viii]
makes it clear: business will not only
plan, it will lead.
(See Addendum B for excerpts.)
|
News reports – can we please ask
harder questions?
Upbeat stories in the media about this new direction have added
momentum. To be sure, there are great
stories. Only a Scrooge would deny that – especially when read on Christmas
morning! But who ever said nice
anecdotes equal good policy?
Dec. 25, 2016 – “Shop is window
of opportunities - A record 181,000 Colorado students were enrolled in Career
and Technical Education courses in 2015,” The Denver Post.[ix]
These days, CTE
(Career and Technical Education) courses span
agriculture, skilled trades, business marketing, criminal
justice, culinary arts, fashion design and Science,
Technology, Energy, or STEM.
“This is not your granddad’s vocational
education,” said Sarah Heath, state director/assistant provost for CTE in the
Colorado Community College System.
CTE
Headcount for past three years[x]
|
|||
Students in
High school
|
2014-15
96,854
|
2015-16
100,552
|
2016-17
101,235
|
Middle school
|
20,721
|
23,687
|
22,407
|
Such articles contrast the costs at a four-year university with those at a community college. Greeley residents, we read, pay only $2,021 a year for classes at Aims Community College, versus $31,745 a year for Colorado residents seeking a
“We tried to understand the value proposition
from the student’s point of view,” says Valencia College president
Sandy Shugart. “It has to be about the
end result—work.”
(Addendum A, Florida)
|
business degree at CU-Boulder. And
yet that disparity invites the question: are community colleges— with their
financial struggles—finding that a new way to survive is to provide the
training businesses do not want to offer? The story continues:
Aims is part of the state’s 13-college
community college system, which is at the forefront of CTE programming in
Colorado. Aims, like the other schools, tries
to meet the needs of the community by offering courses that can be useful in
the job market upon graduation or help boost skills needed at a four-year
institution, Aims president Leah Bornstein said.
“We embrace
our role,” she said. “We pretty much offer everything for everybody.”
Perhaps community colleges are a willing partner. But do they have
a choice, given the powers that be-- the Governor, the legislature, and the
business community—all pushing in the same direction?
Colorado is backing the CTE cause in several
ways. Lawmakers in 2015 passed legislation to create a “talent pipeline” to
quickly train and get students into
high-demand industries. The legislature allocated nearly $500,000 to the
state’s Department of Labor and Employment to help implement the program.
More
on those badges – a national journal features a Colorado district (APS) because….?
“Schools and the Future of Work,” a special issue from Education Week (Sept. 27, 2017),
included “Rewarding Fine-Tuned Skills.”[xi]
The article opened with a positive account of how one senior in Aurora Public
Schools benefited from earning five digital summit badges. Strange: take a chronically low-performing
district, do a puff piece on how it has added digital backpacks—and say nothing
as to whether this helps APS improve achievement. That is beside the point. It’s what’s happening man!
At the 40,000-student Aurora district, the
digital badging program arose from within its college- and career-success
department as a way to make students aware of skills—like collaboration and
information literacy—that businesses want from employees, while staying rooted
in the Colorado Academic Standards.
Education
Week might want to ask if earning digital badges has any impact on APS
students meeting those standards (academic
goals, I would note, once strongly backed by the business community). Or
if, in taking guidance from business, those standards even matter. (More on
this in AV#175.)
“A better job” - “Is that all there is?”
Community colleges do not have the
clout of four-year institutions. Few devoted alumni will protest if they fear
their beloved alma mater is drifting off course. They have nothing close to
what is referred to as “the powerful higher-education lobby” in
Washington. No wonder community colleges
are more compliant when government and business seek to bend and twist their
educational mission, just so they can meet the demands of the economy.
To be sure, most people attend community college
in the hope their classes will help them with their career. One – just one – component of the opportunity
… (remember the CCCS mission statement back on page 1) … “to enrich their
lives.”
But since when did we say the purpose of education equates to “a stronger economy,” or “a better job”?
As Peggy Lee sang, “Is that all there is?”
How
sad if we cannot define the purpose of education as something greater than
that.
**
Business has
succeeded in bringing about a change in the mission of community colleges. Next
week, the final newsletter in this series, I look at CareerWise Colorado and
similar apprenticeship programs. Is their goal to change the mission of high
schools too? When “career preparation” takes
juniors and seniors out of school almost half the time (two days a week as juniors, more than two days as seniors) and into a company, are we raising, or lowering, our
academic expectations? I will conclude
with a letter to the business community.
Educators value and need the support of business. We are glad to be “partners” —when the work
is aligned with our mission. But when it is not, we have to say, “No thanks.”
***
Addendum A
Community Colleges – Colorado Mountain College, Florida, Wisconsin
“Hungry
to be relevant”
In
a similar example in the western U.S., the Morgridge Family Foundation has made
key investments in Colorado Mountain College to expand dual enrollment and
certification pathways. CMC is a network of 11 campuses spread across the
lightly populated towns of the Rocky Mountains. It even allows high-school
students to earn an associate degree at the same time they graduate from high
school, with zero student debt.
The
Morgridge Family Foundation also supports community colleges in Florida and
Wisconsin, viewing these investments as both educational and poverty-fighting
measures. Carrie Morgridge believes that four-year colleges and universities
can learn much from well-run community colleges … “Higher education is going to
have to have this huge makeover to catch up with what good community colleges
are doing now,” she says. “Community
colleges are a powerful tool. We’ve found they are hungry to be relevant in the
communities they serve.”
COMMENT: At what point does a hunger to be useful to the community
lead an institution to become something other than what it was meant to be … and become what business wants it to be?
Community Colleges - Across the
country
“Employers
are integral to career tech programs” - Education
Week- March 24, 2015[xiii]
Three years ago, budding efforts to
bridge the gap between business and education struggled. A close look at the
language in this article reveals how these so-called “partnerships” with
education look more and more like a desire, from the business community, to
control the agenda.
The rapidly changing job market and the new wave of career
programs taking hold in schools are offering up a new challenge for
educators: how to form deeper, longer-term relationships
with employers in their communities.
No longer called “voc ed”
or considered an alternative pathway just for struggling students,
today’s career and technical education programs
aim to prepare students of all academic levels for the option of
entering the workforce or going to college….
As schools strive to keep
up with the technology and make their curricular offerings relevant to workforce
opportunities, many are looking to businesses
and policymakers to take a bigger role than ever before in shaping and
supporting those programs.
COMMENT: Even
then, however – “looking to businesses to take a bigger role in shaping…”—educators
seemed willing to concede a lot of ground.
Why? Because business had more leverage?
Because we were out of our depth, a focus on preparing students for the
workplace was quite foreign to us?
"Education
can't do it alone anymore," said Kimberly A. Green, the executive director
of the Silver Spring, Md.-based CTE directors consortium. As students in the
new economy need a different skills set, employer feedback is paramount—and not
just through the old model of an advisory committee that meets once or twice a
year. "It requires more interaction, more regular connection, more guidance to stay abreast
of workforce change," she said.
COMMENT:
Ask the business community for “guidance”—sure, why not? The message from all sides was that public
education wasn’t cutting it, and if “partnering” could help, well, OK.
Facing shortages of
skilled workers, many businesses are eager for schools to produce
more highly educated graduates.
"The education
system always lags behind the labor economy in terms of the jobs created,"
said Edward E. Gordon, the author of Future Jobs: Solving the
Employment and Skills Crisis, published in 2013 by Praeger Publishing.
"The problem now is that the changes are occurring so fast that the school
system is being left behind in the dust."
COMMENT: “In the dust.” Blind. Is this why business
stepped in? And why collaboration became
something more intrusive? We see frustration
rising to the surface in such articles.
The “nimble” world of free enterprise versus the turtle-like education
system. Schools and colleges can’t act FAST ENOUGH. Business knows how to GET
THINGS DONE, so we can’t just be partners.
We need to push …
"… Employers are
in the business of running their businesses," said Debbie Davidson, the
vice president for business workforce solutions at Gateway Technical College in
Kenosha, Wis., which works with K-12 schools and employers. "They all
say there is a skills gap. Our job
is to define the skills."
Rather than
asking employers to fill out a survey, Ms. Davidson writes down
what they say at the meetings and responds with curriculum
ideas. Employers will be more engaged if they feel their opinions are
valued, she said, adding that "they are not contributing if they just
rubber-stamp ideas."
COMMENT: Do
I have this right? “Our job,” the
job of the college, is to define the skills business wants us to teach? Further on we read of “the college's
workforce-training faculty.” I suppose
it helps to define our roles … and to be sure we no longer use words like
… teach.
The
article closes with Kimberley Green of the CTE directors’ consortium acknowledging
business seeks these ties – for its own good.
No major news here, true?
As employers give
more of their time, though, they start to see themselves as
"collaborators" and "co-owners"
entitled to a return on their investment, said Ms. Green, of the
career technical education consortium. "There has to be a value
proposition as to why employers are involved in this," she
said.
“The Case
for Community College” – Time
Magazine – June 1, 2017[xiv]
Time’s article
pointed out the grim financial picture for many community colleges. It presented two options for their survival,
and made clear the direction most two-year programs are headed.
Across the nation, community colleges–which
educate about 40% of all undergraduates in the U.S.–are facing declining
enrollment and tightened budgets. Even
as officials hold them up as the answer to bridging America’s yawning
blue-collar-skills gap, many are ill equipped to deliver on the promise. Less
than 40% of community-college students graduate, and many drop out their first year.
While more than 80% of two-year students say they want a bachelor’s degree,
only 14% get one after six years.
Today community colleges largely break down
into two categories: schools meant to help students transfer to a four-year
college, and occupational institutions … that are focused on placing students
in jobs. Both grant associate’s degrees, cater to commuters and other
nontraditional students and offer a comparative bargain….
Since the Great
Recession, the vocational approach has become the favored model. “Community colleges are now seen as the
primary vehicles for workforce training in this country,” says Carrie
Kisker, director of the Center for the Study of Community Colleges.
Time pointed to
several success stories, including two in South Dakota and Wisconsin. Both
indicate that business, again, takes the lead… while community colleges
respond. (Or is it acquiesce?)
Lake Area Technical Institute (LATI) in
Watertown, S.D., a relatively inexpensive two-year college
… is a model for the growing number of
politicians, CEOs and academics who believe that community colleges have the
potential to become much needed engines of economic and social mobility.
Last year, 99% of its students entered the workforce or went on to four-year
colleges. The school has an 83% retention rate, well above the national
community-college average of about 50% ….
The evolving curriculum is designed with input from more than 300 regional
businesses …
Time compared the community college system in South Dakota with
that in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania’s 14
community colleges are run as stand-alone shops, without a state-level office
to coordinate them. Unlike South Dakota’s LATI, which shapes its coursework around the needs of employers and relies on
their donations of heavy-duty machinery for its classrooms, Keystone State
schools have been left largely on their own. “The chronic lack of resources
makes it more difficult for community colleges to respond to the workforce needs than in a state where they’re
better supported,” says Kate Shaw, executive director of the Philadelphia-based
education nonprofit Research for Action.
COMMENT: Colorado’s structure sounds more like South Dakota, as our community
colleges are all part of one system. Easier,
this way, to shape “coursework around the needs of employers,” and “respond to
the workforce needs.” Easier, too, to shift the mission across the state, in
all 17 colleges.
Virginia
“More
Scrutiny for Community Colleges,” Inside
Higher Education, Oct. 17, 2017[xv]
Take, for
instance, a recent report out of Virginia that criticized the state's 23 community colleges for failing to
get students associate degrees and certificates. The legislative report
criticized the community college system, saying that only 39 percent of
the state's community college students earned a degree or credential within
seven years….
The report also
found that the colleges are struggling
to meet employers’ demands. For instance, there is a demand for employees
in finance-related fields, but 13 of the colleges don't offer relevant programs.
Ten colleges reported being unable to
provide all of the work-force programs and credentials that can lead to
employment in high-demand occupations such as certified nursing assistants,
emergency medical technicians, pipe fitters and welders….
"People inside and out of the system
want to see more people graduate," said Jeffrey Krause, assistant vice
chancellor for strategic communications at the Virginia Community College
System. "They want to see completions and see people acquire skills and credentials to succeed in the workplace."…
Scott Jenkins, a
strategy director at the Lumina Foundation, said it isn't just attainment goals
that are driving lawmakers.
"For the
last 20 to 30 years, state legislatures have been underwhelmed when you look at
the traditional completion metrics of enrollment, persistence and graduation at
community colleges," he said. "What
is new is that you have a lot of states that are investing in community
colleges as a primary strategy around preparing people for the work force, and
community colleges are more receptive to a small amount of dollars because
they're much nimbler."
**
by Tim Pratt, Education Next, Fall 2017
Reynold
Essor was sure of two things when he got his high-school diploma last spring:
he wanted to get out of Brooklyn, and he wanted to go to college. Earning a
degree, his counselors told him, “can help get more money in your pocket.”
So he
headed to SUNY Adirondack, a public two-year community college in upstate New
York that describes itself as “a leader
in the region’s workforce development, preparing the next generation of leaders
for a bright future.”
COMMENT: Is this
what community colleges should be? When did community colleges assume this
role? Would any of them have made this
claim 10 or 20 years ago?
**
“Revving Economic Engines at Community
Colleges”- by David Bass, Philanthropy
Magazine, Summer 2017[xvi]
(That headline speaks volumes. The subtitle is equally
direct: “Want to get America back to
work?
…”)
Ohio
From the opening paragraphs –
“Ohio
has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs since the mid-1990s, leading to an
alarming rise of emptying towns and non-working residents. That’s a problem
Karen Buchwald Wright is dedicated to reversing.
“Called ‘a quiet philanthropist’
by her local newspaper, Wright has made a loud impact on the local
economy—through a combination of jobs created at her company and philanthropic
investments in the education infrastructure of central Ohio. She has poured millions into area community
colleges, technical schools, and trades oriented public colleges, with the aim
of helping people acquire the skills they need to become valued employees.
“Wright’s support for community
colleges is closely tied to her workforce….
“(She) focused on four area
institutions—Central Ohio Technical College, Stark State, Zane State, and the
Knox County Career Center. She funded the development
of courses that workers can take to build mid-level skills that are in short
supply today.”
New
York
Many corporate givers are also coming
aboard, seeing a solution to twin goals: helping disadvantaged people prepare
for financial opportunities, and
improving the job skills our economy needs to thrive. Goldman Sachs, for
example, recently gave $2.2 million to LaGuardia Community College in Queens.
Pennsylvania
Community
colleges with a strong occupational focus also have the capacity to energize
local economies. The Pittsburgh-based Claude Worthington
Benedum Foundation supports community
colleges both to boost their region’s productivity and to unleash economic
opportunity for disadvantaged high-school students.
Every year, the Benedum Foundation
makes about $3 million of grants to job training
programs at community colleges and high schools. One of many examples is
the Advanced Technology Center they funded at Westmoreland Community College in
southwest Pennsylvania. The college has partnered with local businesses to
create specialized labs where students can be trained in computer-aided
drafting and design, electronics, metallurgy, and other advanced manufacturing
techniques. The goal is to train, and
re-train, workers so well-paying manufacturing businesses in the region
stay healthy. Local firms look to the
college as an employment pipeline. They provide new equipment and even
instructors on how to use it.
“It’s
really a nice model of secondary and
post-secondary corporate training all in one location,” says James Denova,
vice president of the Benedum Foundation. “Its real value is in the proximity
to major companies.” That allows a two-way human flow: employees who need skill
training can head to campus, and community college students who would benefit
from exposure to real-world work culture can attend classes at company sites.
Florida
One way leaders at Valencia College in
Orlando, Florida, have found to improve completion rates is through condensed
offerings. With support from the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation and other
donors, Valencia has created what it calls its “career-express” model— intensive, short bursts of training, in
collaboration with nonprofits and companies, that immediately produce a
valuable credential…. These classes are focused on the
end result most community-college students seek: a better job leading to a
better life. “We tried to
understand the value proposition from the student’s point of view,” says
Valencia president Sandy Shugart. “It has to be about the end result—work—and not about the training itself. …”
For funders
… While top-flight
community colleges are still an exception, we are seeing a rapid expansion of
the ranks of well-run schools that are
aggressively responding to local job demands, addressing America’s rapidly
shifting social makeup, and nimbly serving as feeders to the millions
of middle-skill jobs that will open over the next two decades.
Addenda B
U.S.
Chamber of Commerce – Talent Management Pipeline Curriculum (2014)[xvii]
…we have organized a TPM Academy that is focused on developing the
capacity of business organizations seeking to organize employer members and orchestrate talent supply chains. The
TPM Academy is supported by a curriculum and related software tools that will
give staff inside these organizations the knowledge, skills, and ability to implement talent supply chain solutions
on behalf of their employer members.
**
Talent
Pipeline Management: The supply chain strategies and tools used
by employers and employer collaboratives to source and develop talent for
positions that are critical to their competitiveness and growth. The TPM
Academy is built on three foundational principles that focus on the six major
strategies and how to use them to support continuous improvement. [They include:]
· Employers
Drive Value Creation—Employers play a new leadership role as end customers
in closing the skills gap for jobs most critical to their competitiveness.
· Employers
Organize and Manage Pipelines—Employers organize and manage flexible and
responsive talent pipelines in partnership with other employers and their
preferred education and workforce providers.
**
Clearer
Signals: Building an Employer-Led Job Registry for Talent Pipeline
Management (2017) – Explores how employers can improve how they signal their
hiring requirements to their preferred and most trusted education and workforce partners by creating more structured data
around their job profiles.
Education,
Community College, and K-12 Education Agencies
· Align
curriculum to meet employer competency and credentialing requirements
·
Coordinate feeder institutions and programs to build performance-based career
pathways to targeted sectors and employer collaboratives
· Align
career guidance, work-based learning, and job placement services
· Provide
data on program enrollments and completers to support talent flow analysis
· Engage in
continuous improvement efforts with employer partners
Community
Colleges - Tension
at the top
A spate of resignations and terminations among
community college presidents is provoking worries about a shortage of qualified
candidates to fill these positions. Community
colleges, perhaps more than ever, are on the front lines of policy discussions
about rebuilding the nation’s economy and future. (Inside Higher Ed, May
20)
Addendum C
SKILLS FOR GOOD JOBS AGENDA: THE BLUEPRINT[xviii]
by
the National Skills Coalition, Nov. 2016
Its “eight visionary proposals” included this:
#2. Job-Driven Community College Compact for
Today’s Students
America’s
community and technical colleges play a critical and growing role in ensuring
workers and employers have the skills to compete. But our
federal policies are not structured to support these institutions or the
students they serve. We’ve treated community colleges as gap-fillers between
the traditional K-12 and higher education systems even as more students pass
through their halls, and more local employers are engaged by their technical
training programs. It’s time to
establish a new federal policy that invests in partnerships between community
colleges and community employers, supports programs that lead to
industry-recognized credentials, and allows today’s students to obtain skills
for the jobs of tomorrow.
2020 GOAL: America will have a new federal policy—the Community
College Compact—that provides dedicated financial aid for working students, industry-responsive investments in career
and technical education programs, support services for working students,
and accountability measures that track employment and wage gains to ensure that
investments lead to results.
[i] https://www.cccs.edu/wp-content/uploads/documents/StrategicPlan.pdf
[v] http://www.denverpost.com/2015/07/21/vice-president-joe-biden-talks-economy-raises-campaign-cash-in-denver/
Also from that article:
“In a discussion after
the tour, welding student Arlene Pace told Biden about how she graduated from
the University of Colorado with a degree in English but couldn’t find a job. She saw openings for welding and went back to
school, working nights to pay her tuition. “Do you think you can make a good
living?” Biden asked her.
“Absolutely, I can make a
good living,” she replied.
[x] 2014-15 from -http://coloradostateplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/CTA_report_14-15.pdf ; 2015-16 and 2016-17
numbers from Sarah Heath,
email, Nov. 29, 2017.
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