The Healthy Workforce Ecosystem

Transcription

1 The Healthy Workforce Ecosystem Creating the conditions for business attraction, growth and retention 2015 The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) Linking Learning and Work CAEL,

2 What Makes a Healthy Workforce Ecosystem? Companies choose communities that have the right workers with the right skills. Communities that align education and training to economic development grow jobs, reduce unemployment and increase quality of life. A healthy workforce ecosystem is one where the range of providers K-12 systems, public and private universities, corporate education, two- and fouryear colleges, skills training programs and economic developers all play their part in meeting the range of employer and target sector needs. This means communities will have: New and better jobs Increasing prosperity Access to resources Education options that build knowledge, skills and capability Programs that build resourceful and resilient workers Linking Learning and Work CAEL,

3 A Healthy Workforce Ecosystem Linking Learning and Work CAEL,

4 The Energy Source Target high-demand skills and jobs. Identify what jobs are being created and in what industries. Leverage your talent pool. Strong educational output can help attract companies and focus your sector targeting. What s Driving Job Creation? How Coastal Maine is Strategically Aligning their Workforce Development Programs CAEL is working with Coastal Counties Workforce Inc. (CCWI), a local Workforce Investment Board in Maine. CCWI chose CAEL to help them identify key industries in their six county region, to articulate career pathways within these industries and to build or nurture existing regional partnerships to support them. Each industry is evaluated on a variety of factors including size, projected growth and replacement jobs, degree of regional specialization, accessibility of occupations, the job multiplier effect, economic development interest and the existence of sector-based associations, intermediaries and engaged employers. The CAEL process identifies job families within the target industries and defines the roles, key responsibilities and education requirements of occupations along the career pathway. In addition, CAEL is facilitating ongoing stakeholder discussions to ensure that local realities are reflected to develop strategies, define partner roles and provide CCWI with a blueprint for expanding the work in the future. Linking Learning and Work CAEL,

5 The Clouds Gather Know what they trust. Be aware of which certifications, degrees and credentials your employers recognize. Don t let it sit. Today s new skills are stale tomorrow. Continually validate and refresh the information. Are Employers Engaged and Drawn to Your Community? How the Energy Industry Created Curriculum to Train Current and Future Power Industry Workers The Energy Providers Coalition for Education (EPCE) a signature initiative of CAEL is a group of industry representatives that develops, sponsors and promotes industry-driven, standardized, quality online learning programs to meet the workforce needs of the energy industry. EPCE partners with colleges to create online curriculum that supports clean energy solutions and smart grid deployment in order to train current and future industry workers. In EPCE s nearly 15-year history, more than 5,000 electric power industry workers across a wide range of job categories have furthered their education. The programs combine online instruction with both classroom and apprenticeship training. EPCE also built a model to move high school students directly from energy industry coursework into employment and/ or into a postsecondary energy industry certificate or degree program. Linking Learning and Work CAEL,

6 The Rain Dance Reveal the range of opportunities. Identify skills at all levels and show career pathways as well as individual jobs. Are Workers Aware of Career Opportunities? Help workers and students make better career choices. Share sector career information with youth, incumbent workers, career changers, mature workers and untapped talent pools. How Colorado Is Attracting New People to Advanced Manufacturing CAEL worked with the Colorado Community College System and a consortium of nine Colorado higher education institutions with the goal of developing a pipeline of skilled advanced manufacturing workers. The result of this project was the Career Action Platform found at which includes an industry career map, job pathways and skills crosswalks from related industries, as well as a crosswalk tool that shows veterans how they can apply skills gained in the military to jobs in manufacturing. CAEL conducted a public relations campaign to help promote the site, as well as training for college advisors to help their student utilize it. CAEL continues to work on other significant components of the project, including the development of a prior learning portfolio template for advanced manufacturing and working with the consortium to strengthen the colleges partnership with the employer community. This year, CAEL will provide a series of training sessions for the colleges on prior learning assessment, manufacturing portfolio assessment, serving veterans and marketing to adult learners. Linking Learning and Work CAEL,

7 The Groundwater Test Support talent development for everyone in your community not just traditional students. Make sure that target-industry learning opportunities are available to both traditional learners and other adults incumbent workers, the underemployed and other non-traditional students. Do Local Educational Options Meet the Range of Learner Needs? Make learning count. Encourage colleges to award credit for workplace and other non-classroom learning. It will help accelerate completion and save money. How Nashville is Increasing the Talent Pool By Engaging Adult Learners The Nashville Chamber of Commerce partnered with CAEL to help determine how area colleges, universities and technology centers can engage new learners, including adults. Using CAEL s Adult Learning Focused Institution (ALFI) criteria and toolkit, Nashville Colleges identify opportunities to become more adult-focused. CAEL identified opportunities for the institutions to build and leverage strategic partnerships between employers and educational institutions to engage more adult learners. In addition, CAEL is working with Tennessee institutions to encourage non-traditional learners to enroll in college by helping them gain college credit based on learning from their work, military and other non-academic experiences. Linking Learning and Work CAEL,

8 The Thriving Plant Life Know what you have. Make sure you know what your education and training systems are doing and not doing before investing in new programs. Do Education and Training Programs Build Knowledge, Skills and Capabilities? Measure the outputs. Make sure that job growth projections are matched by increases in target sector degrees and credentials at entry, mid and advanced levels. How Northeast Indiana is Focusing its Diverse Education Community to Meet Target Sector Needs CAEL worked with Northeast Indiana s Big Goal Collaborative to create an education training asset map of the region that showed how the current landscape of skills aligned with the needs of the target and growing economic sectors. As part of the project, CAEL: Identified which education programs were directly linked to the region s employers Reviewed economic and labor market data to verify which sectors were growing Created a set of sectors and occupation groups that focused on the education asset inventory Reviewed education and training programs to document the programs and offerings that related to the target lists this included a full list of programs and a sector-by-sector breakdown of the types of institutions, credentials and program disciplines Provided analysis and regional recommendations to better align program offerings to meet target sector needs Linking Learning and Work CAEL,

9 The Trip Back to the Clouds Always be learning. Promote continuous skill development at the workplace, online and via partnerships. Gather feedback; adjust. Constant communication with workers and employers ensures program relevance. Are Programs Building Resourceful and Resilient Workers? How Ohio is Helping Manufacturing Workers Apply their Skills in Emerging Sectors When a cosmetics manufacturing facility in Ohio announced that it was closing, many of the employees were unsure what they would do next or whether the skills developed there would serve them in any other industry. In reviewing their job roles and responsibilities, CAEL discovered that many of those same skills are desired by pharmaceutical manufacturers. CAEL created skills crosswalks to help the transitioning workers leverage the value of their experience and prior learning to identify new career paths, and to progress through training more rapidly than they had expected or thought possible. CAEL worked with local colleges and the Bio Science Industry Association to help the employees fill the remaining skills gaps so that they were ready for jobs in the emerging pharmaceutical industry and to become able to adapt to changing economic conditions. Linking Learning and Work CAEL,

10 Contact CAEL for Community-wide education and training asset inventory Target sector skills profiles Assessment of education/industry alignment Mapping target sector career pathways Sector-based workforce initiatives Fundraising for workforce efforts Target population initiatives (mature workers, career changers, etc.) Local and regional workforce/economic development strategy For more information visit: Or contact: Joel Simon, Vice President, Workforce and Economic Development Linking Learning and Work CAEL,