Moving Forward: CA’s Community Colleges and Economic Recovery

Pam Sornson, JD on June 17, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

Mask-wearing, rising vaccination rates, and a growing pool of COVID-19 survivors are indications that the Los Angeles region is moving closer to ‘re-opening’ and returning to however that ‘new normal’ might look. The Governor is stepping up to support the momentum by heavily investing public dollars in workforce and employment recovery activities. At the top of his ‘California Comeback Plan‘ prioritization is tightening the relationship between California’s community colleges (CCCs) and its Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The investments recognize the value of encouraging industry participants to inform workforce training and education decisions. Through these partnerships, the industry-building efforts of both – the business and its future employees – start and continue on the same page. And informing the actions of the emerging collaboration is the High Road Training Partnerships (HRTP) initiative.

 

Follow the Money

In his ‘Comeback Plan’ proposal, Governer Newsom includes $157 million to build out the HRTP infrastructure. While building on existing business/CCC relationships, the initiative also embraces social and cultural elements emerging as the COVID-19 pandemic and roiling social concerns reveal them. Three specific challenges – Equity, Climate, and Jobs (the ECJ Initiatives) – impede forward momentum by both the State and its residents:

Economic Inequities – California’s communities of color and those with differing abilities or characteristics have borne much of the brunt of economic declines driven by the pandemic. In addition, discrimination against gender, race, or social ‘status’ erodes both personal and community resources, leaving everyone poorer in the process.

Climate Change Realities – While endeavors continue to slow the progress of adverse climate change, efforts to build in resilience to its impacts are also critical for the future economic success of the State and its residents. In California, higher temperatures, less rainfall, wildfires, etc., create challenging environmental situations in the areas least able to withstand them. Communities that don’t have access to ameliorating resources (like air conditioners) or are situated in geographical areas that are more innately hazardous (located closer to pollution-emitting sites).

Job Quality Concerns – Underpaid and under-represented workers have also suffered unnecessarily excessive losses over the past several years. Employees who don’t receive healthcare benefits, don’t have union connections, or aren’t paid a ‘living wage’ despite full-time employment are more likely to have suffered more and more adverse health and economic challenges since the onset of the coronavirus concern, and, in most cases, for years or even decades.

All of these factors adversely affect all of California’s industries. The HRTP is already establishing partnerships with key participants in eight industrial sectors as a launch to the ‘high road’ industry/CCC collaborations needed in each: logistics, janitorial, healthcare, hospitality, the Port system, the public sector, public transportation, and water management. California’s leaders now realize that resolving the economic challenges driven by these factors will contribute immensely to California’s recovery from the pandemic while also addressing decades-old injustices that have hobbled its progress.

 

LA County Realities

With its enjoyable climate, strong industrial base, and encouragement of innovation, Los Angeles County supports thousands of businesses that generate billions of dollars every year. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic caused stoppages and delays in all of its industries, which seriously eroded the County’s economy and that of each of its residents. Recovering from those negative impacts will require innovation and collaboration amongst all its stakeholders, including its individual businesses and its 47 community colleges.

While the Governer’s Comeback Plan provides a framework for building the future economy, the COVID-19 situation will also continue to impact – and sometimes delay – forward movement. CDC COVID-19 guidance and protocols from LA County continue to control re-opening efforts for all of its community colleges. Because an independent Board of Governors governs each school, each school will make its own ‘re-opening’ decision. All, however, remain subject to overarching state-issued rules:

Until more vaccinations are received, the mandate for maintaining social distancing and mask-wearing standards remains. As of June 10, 2021, LA County ranked 70th of 584 counties for its high number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents (12,409). Also as of that date, the County had fully vaccinated 55% of its residents aged 16+, with an additional 10% having received at least one dose. Millions remain unvaccinated, however.

Those schools that choose to open in-person classes and events must limit attendance to 50% capacity and adhere to rules governing informal social gatherings.

The housing of students on-campus can resume within specified density and cleaning parameters.

Entry screening and exposure containment rules guide actions to reduce exposure to the virus as well as appropriate responses when it is detected on campus.

With summer’s arrival and the Fall ’21 term imminent, all LA County community colleges and their constituents must comply with COVID-19 limitations, rules, and protocols.

 

Pasadena Realities

The City of Pasadena continues to evolve its protocols and practices as COVID-19 waxes and wanes within its borders. While also encouraging everyday precautions such as hand-washing and mask-wearing (following California’s June 15 mask-wearing guidelines), in early May, the City also lowered its ‘risk’ level to the ‘Yellow Tier.’ Most businesses can open for customers up to a 50% capacity at this tier, although physical distancing protocols remain in place. In addition, indoor gatherings, including those occurring at Pasadena area colleges, are subject to additional restrictions that include limitations on the number of guests per facility capacity, restrictions on food and beverage consumption, and ventilation requirements.

At Pasadena City College, the Board of Directors continues to evaluate situational realities, so the protocols put in place for the Spring 2021 term remain in effect until further notice. The school’s COVID-19 Transition Task Force has issued a series of recommendations for the criteria that will guide safe re-opening procedures to protect the health and safety of all of PCC’s constituents. In the meantime, PCC staff and students who intend to return to the school in person for any reason must follow Current Campus Access practices. And there’s a new FAQ web page to help everyone assess the School’s COVID-19 related activities to determine if those impact a personal sense of risk or safety.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an irreversible change on everything from the Governor’s Office down to a PCC student’s backpack. As the State, the County, the City, and the School look to resuming ‘normal’ operations, everyone must do their part to reduce and contain the spread of the disease. By doing so, they not only improve the odds that their lives will soon return to ‘normal,’ but they’ll also play a role in getting California back on its economic feet and maximize the Governor’s investment in its community colleges.

Online or In-Person: Re-opening California’s Community Colleges

Pam Sornson, JD on June 17, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

To say that the COVID-19 pandemic up-ended California’s community colleges is the understatement of the century. Enrollments plunged as the system prioritized student health and safety. Whole programs were moth-balled when they couldn’t reiterate in the all-digital format. For leadership, the Coronavirus has proved to be a much-needed wake-up call to pay more attention – MUCH more attention – to the needs and realities of its entire student population, especially those learners who face higher obstacles and steeper challenges.

As the 20-21 school year ends and the Fall 2021 term nears, decision-makers are now grappling with a series of questions: whether to ‘open’ the campus earlier rather than later; which courses to offer, and when, if at all, it is advisable to expect a ‘return to normal.’

 

Return Considerations …

As is everything else ‘COVID,” the most appropriate response to the ‘how do we recover our colleges?’ concern is dependent on who’s answering the question, the location of the school, and the types of courses their school offers. A total of 73 college districts administer California’s 116 community colleges, each of which is managed by an independent Board of Directors. Each Board can take the CCCCO’s guidance while also crafting re-opening policies that better fit its particular school constellation.

College districts in economically advantaged communities are more likely to continue providing predominantly online learning because their students have the assets available to access those – computers, reliable internet access, and fewer family or job constraints. Communities without those economic benefits serve students without those assets, who would benefit more from an in-class return option.

The types of offered programs can also influence the decision. Many classes at the community college level are specifically ‘hands-on’ opportunities, such as auto mechanics or entry-level nursing. Schools that offer a higher number of hands-on courses may continue to experience enrollment declines if it’s not safe for their learners to return in person.

Virus saturation and vaccine engagement also play a part in the decision. Communities that are still experiencing spikes in active case numbers have a higher risk of viral spread across campus should they re-open too soon. Communities that have welcomed vaccines have some semblance of assurance that in-person learning doesn’t also mean potential hospitalization or premature death because of the disease. They could open their on-site learning options with more confidence in experiencing a close-to-normal academic year.

These factors demonstrate the challenges faced by the State’s community college administration, from the top office to the smallest school. Consequently, it’s almost impossible to gauge how each college will respond, as each must balance the realities of their individual constituencies.

 

 

… From the Student Perspective

For too many students, the possibility of returning to college in any format just isn’t viable yet. In the year since schools closed, circumstances forced many into situations that aren’t amenable to returning to school in any capacity:

Some dropped out completely as the pandemic grew because they had no digital tools to maintain their connection. Their situation hasn’t changed.

Others were not able to move forward in their education using only technology. In-person classes are optimal to facilitate the best education outcome, especially for kinetic learners who absorb information better by watching and doing.

Others assumed new responsibilities as family caregivers, supporting those still-employed family members as they worked to maintain the household.

Still others simply found work, not in their chosen field, but any job they could find. Making ends meet by whichever means were available became their new reality.

These concerns will continue to play out in re-enrollment numbers as students balance their desire to further their education with the other demands in their lives.

 

 

… From the Education Perspective

The schools themselves must balance a myriad of concerns as they determine when, how, or even if they will re-open. Fundamentally, their priority is to provide educational resources in as optimal a fashion as possible. However, in reality, a myriad of concerns impacts the provision of those resources, many of which are beyond their control.

Courses requiring lab attendance also require additional safety precautions. Decisions must consider the number of students who want to take the course with the amount of space and time in which limited lab space can be available.

Classroom teaching opportunities must also take into account social distancing mandates when students are expected to gather indoors. Mask-wearing will help reduce transmissions but may also inhibit the value of the presentation.

The digital versus in-person dilemma also remains relevant since some students have the resources to learn from anywhere while others simply do not.

 

… From the Facilities Perspective

Just having students, faculty, and staff arriving on campus can cause problems, too.

The social distancing mandate requires space to spread out. While some campuses have the available square footage to accomplish that goal, the shift may seriously erode the value of the lesson. Reducing class size to accommodate the spread may also mean that some students are just excluded from the course altogether.

Maintaining campus sanitation is also a concern. Most college campuses host thousands of people every day, all of whom move about from building to building and room to room. Keeping clean all those surfaces – doorknobs, desktops, washroom counters, etc. – is a daunting task even without the potential presence of a deadly virus. Adequate ventilation is also a necessity in the time of the air-borne Coronavirus.

Actual physical access also may be impeded if in-person classes resume with safety precautions in place. For example, at Glendale College, an elevator connects the uphill parking garage with the bottom-of-the-hill campus. Maintaining appropriate social distances between students limits the elevator’s capacity to one student at a time, which is untenable when hundreds of learners need to use it every day.

 

… From the Administration Perspective

In addition to the preceding realities, administrators must also weigh the significance of equity in their decision-making process. The COVID pandemic has starkly revealed the inequities inherent in the community college system, where students of color, differing abilities, and reduced economic situations have been particularly hard hit. For these college leaders, remaining a viable education opportunity requires attention to a different level of concerns.

Rural community colleges reported steep enrollment declines throughout 2020 as students who also worked to support their education lost their jobs.

Some students may have experienced significant personal losses due to the pandemic, becoming homeless, or losing supportive family members to the disease. Reconnecting with them requires both additional resources and the staffing and logistics resources to manage those supports.

For many students, the pandemic made the goal of pursuing an education just too challenging to achieve. The lack of resources and no true educational alternatives have caused many learners to give up their dream of a better economic life through higher education. School administrators who wish to reconnect with these students will need a different set of skills and resources to regain their trust and interest in returning to school in any capacity.

 

With summer here and the Fall 2021 term just weeks away, each of the constituents of the California Community College system is wrestling with how to return to the college experience, if there’s a decision to return at all. Community members with vested interests in the re-opening of the schools will be best informed by tracking the circumstances occurring in their communities and keeping up with the actions and decisions made by their local community college leadership.

 

Economic Recovery and California’s ‘Vision for Success’

Pam Sornson, JD on June 4, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

California state law charges its California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) with implementing its higher education and workforce development goals. To do so, the CCCCO works in conjunction with state, local, and regional governments and businesses to pursue policies and connect its community college resources to the economic needs of all of its constituents. Its Strong Workforce Program is one element of that process.

At the same time, however, the CCCCO is also laser-beam focused on the needs of its California Community College (CCC) students, all 2.1+ million of them, who access its services across 116 colleges and attend their choice of its 380,000+ courses. Coordinating the efforts of all those resources to achieve the nebulous goal of ‘student success’ is a daunting task, one that requires attention to innumerable details while pursuing a singular vision. In the case of the CCCCO, that ‘vision’ is titled the “Vision for Success” (Vision), and it sits as the guiding star of all the work done both at the CCCCO administrative office and across all those schools.

 

The Vision for Success

For California’s community colleges, ‘success’ is now defined as a well-educated graduate who finds personal and career fulfillment in whatever realm they choose, whether that’s a career-trajectory job, the launch of their own new business, or just the accomplishment of skills that bring them joy. To meet these diverse needs, the CCCCO launched its Vision project several years ago by clarifying its seven core commitments and four strategic goals.

 

CCC Vision for Success Commitments

The strategic pursuit of each goal is imbued with seven fundamental commitments that hone its focus even more tightly to ‘student success’:

Prioritize the student’s end goal – every student, every time.

Maintain ‘student success’ as the guide for course design and program decisions.

Match high success expectations with equally high support services.

Use information to inform decision-making as well as reveal outputs and outcomes.

Be a role model for transparency and fluidity, demonstrating the ability to flex to meet needs as demands change.

Encourage innovation and creative action through all educational levels, academic activities, and administrative processes.

Lead the way to success for the student, the school, the business, and the community.

These commitments guide the Vision development process.

 

CCC Vision for Success Goals

Each of the four CCC Vision goals builds on the commitments to pursue a specific objective:

Closing the achievement gap that unnecessarily impedes the progress of too many students of color and varying abilities. Inherent biases built into the system a century ago continue on as barriers to today’s learners, inhibiting their growth and their capacity to contribute fully to their community.

Streamlining the student experience by simplifying the education process. Early data revealed that many CCC students accumulated excess and unnecessary credits that did nothing to improve their enjoyment of life, their capacity to work, or their employment prospects. By eliminating the courses that don’t serve student needs, the CCC’s now direct student attention and resources toward programs that will help them accomplish their personal goals in a reasonable timeframe.

Streamlining student success by easing the completion, graduation, and next-step process. The CCCs worked diligently to increase their student body’s degree and certification attainment numbers, develop programs that matched industry certification requirements, and assist learners in completing those programs in a timely and economically feasible way. They also enhanced their connections with California’s 33 four-year universities, easing the transfer process so that their learners could achieve their prerequisites at a CCC cost while also moving forward to attain the more expensive four-year degree.

Connecting with local businesses and industries to facilitate job placement of graduates. They developed a two-way sharing arrangement that benefits both the school and the company:

companies share their expertise to enhance training programs (work-based learning) and develop their own worker training programs (workforce training) while

the schools would modify/add courses and programs that respond to current and future labor force needs.

Pursuit of these four goals, colored as they are by the seven commitments, assures the community, the school, and the student that a CCC education is now a reliable and high-quality path to a better job and an improved economy.

 

Vision for Success Optimal Outcomes

Reliance on data to direct attention works in other areas as well as informing program decision-making. The CCCCO also uses it to track its own performance metrics, and it’s now approaching the end of its first five-year metric-tracking cycle. The Vision launched in 2017 and gave itself five years to establish both processes and baselines for its goals. It also layered desired metrics over those goals, creating a firm foundation upon which to measure success. To track the efforts that calculate these metrics, the CCCCO also had to overhaul its data tracking system, which previously stopped gathering student information when they completed their programs. Those systems didn’t include data revealing subsequent student success metrics such as job attainment, career placement, or transfer successes.

Using the upgraded data gathering process and in correlation with industry and labor force data, the CCCCO set for itself six metrics that, if accomplished, would demonstrate its success and truly connecting its colleges to the needs of the State’s industries. By 2022:

    1. increase by 20% the number of students achieving job and career accreditation for known and identified in-demand jobs.
    2. increase the number of CCC-four-year university transfer students by 35%.
    3. reduce the number of unnecessary credits earned by students to reduce their cost and their time to completion.
    4. increase Career and Technical Education (CTE) student attainment of ‘field of study’ jobs by 15+%.
    5. reduce by 40% the equity gaps between white and non-white/differently-abled students to ensure they receive their full share of the CCC promise. This metrics includes full closure of the gap by 2027.
    6. improve success rates across all measures in regions where adult educational achievement levels are low. Not all of California’s nine economic regions are equally adept at serving the educational needs of all of their diverse populations. This metric compels the State to look at those regions where gaps exist and find resources and solutions to reduce those gaps.

 

California’s Vision for Success for its many community college students is also its vision for the success of its communities and economies. The State’s dedicated focus and investment in assisting its diverse learner populations in attaining their goals also further the State’s goal of improving its economics, currently and in the future. The Vision for Success foundation provides all involved in those processes the parameters and guidance they need to follow through with its mandate while also following through with personal, social, and community goals.

California’s Strong Workforce Program

Pam Sornson, JD on June 4, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

All successful initiatives require the coordination of resources. California’s economy will flourish post-pandemic when the coordination of all its resources unite to accomplish that singular goal. Fortunately, that’s the actual goal of the California Community College’s Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO), which is tasked with manifesting state mandates at the ground level through the modernization of its community college system. And the whole process hinges on the Strong Workforce Program (SWP) department of its Economic and Workforce Development Division (WEDD).

 

Many Resources + Enlightened Leadership = Strong Schools and an Educated Workforce

The CCCCO is itself the product of several coordinated resources – its ‘divisions,’ – each of which provides an integral infrastructure element and all of which combine to create a unique and formidable education leadership enterprise. These nine divisions together embrace all the initiatives set for the CCC system by both the State and its own internal directives, from its relationship with governments and funding management to technology acquisition and ‘institutional effectiveness.’ Division leaders oversee the system’s operations within their purview to ensure that those conform to standards and policies and facilitate the success of its overall day-to-day, term, and annual practices.

Looking forward, however, is the work of the WEDD, which uses data and economic realities as the foundations of its program, funding, and grant development strategies. The WEDD applies these resources to achieve its overarching goals of providing CCC students with 21st Century skills and abilities they need to fulfill the purposes of the State’s 21st Century industries and businesses.

 

‘WEDD’: An Enlightened ‘Marriage’

Within the WEDD are seven individual initiatives. Each of them also plays an integral role in the Division’s success, and all address the issues that affect each of the State’s 116 community colleges:

Approaching the needs of students of all ages through the California Adult Education Program (CAEP) and the California Apprenticeship Initiative (CAI).

Manifesting the intent of the federal Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). When re-adopted in 2018, enhanced support for underserved student populations, adding even more financial and other supports to ensure all California learners can access the education of their choice.

Responding to a state-wide shortage of nursing resources through its Nursing and Allied Health strategies, which coordinate entry-, mid-, and advanced-level nursing opportunities throughout the CCC and broader California University systems.

Setting policy and practice guidelines through its economic and workforce development goals that knit together the schools’ resources with the needs and drivers of their local businesses and industries.

Setting processes in motion by investing in youth education through its K-12 Strong Workforce Program (K12 SWP). In 2018-2019, the State invested $150 million to develop, support, and expand Career and Technical Education (CTE) resources that assist high school students transition into both post-secondary education and the job of their dreams.

Focusing on the issue through its Strong Workforce Program (SWP).

 

SWP: Better Education. Enhanced Mobility. Stronger Economy

While it began as a simple assignment – spend $248 million a year to add one million more middle-skilled workers to California’s labor pool – the execution of the SWP is oh-so-much more complex. The project builds on the three fundamental elements of a successful business: people, process, and product.

 

People

Strong workers grow from successful students, and ‘student success’ is really what the SWP is all about. The program gangs six target areas to encompass all CCC students with the supports they need to succeed.

Standardized career pathways that lay out the courses and directives learners use to navigate their way into, through, and out of school and into the career or work of their choosing.

Curricula design that matches employers’ needs with educational resources. When coordinating the efforts of both those parties, each of them benefits, as does their mutual student/worker.

CTE faculty expertise that draws from business and industry to inform and direct school investments and asset acquisitions.

Regional coordination across California’s nine industrial regions. The State’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency tracks job numbers, worker numbers, industry developments, and more to determine where people might find work and the type of work they might find there. With that information, local and regional leaders can invest in the supports needed by those businesses, including supporting the local schools that are developing their workforce. The parameters of the nine regions correlate to the various resources that are innate to the geography and climate of the region, and the State directs its resources to individual regions based on the needs of those specific regional assets.

Appropriate funding dispersed where it’s needed the most – to students, so they can complete their education and move forward into their careers, and to schools so they can invest in the resources that best serve their communities.

Data collection and analysis, which provide the evidentiary foundation upon which sound educational decisions are made.

 

Process

Pursuing outcomes rather than milestones, the SWP uses data to track student success through to its actual desired end: a well-trained worker ensconced in a well-paying, satisfying career, fulfilling the dreams of a happy employer. But the SWP process also adds the elements of innovation and entrepreneurship to support those learners who have more to give than just an honest day’s labor. While the curricula support training for all students, those who want to put their education to work following their personal paths to independence are fully supported. Encompassing the needs of all learners according to their needs, the SWP provides the processes required to facilitate their dreams and launch their careers.

 

Product

While still a work in progress, the ultimate end product of the SWP is already visible: across the state, community colleges are building programs that support workforce development and forging new and collaborative partnerships with local and regional businesses. At the same time, they are also executing their State mandate to become the workforce development engine envisioned by California’s enlightened leadership those several years ago.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the immense and growing value of the SWP and the State’s WEDD. Investments made a decade ago by people who could not imagine the economic chaos of 2020 are now not just paying off but proving prescient in their wisdom. Because so much groundwork is already in place, the process of rebuilding the economy post-pandemic can be built upon its infrastructure, which will certainly speed the process and move the State more quickly into a thriving, economically sound future.

Bottom Up: LA’s Industrial Base

Pam Sornson, JD on May 20, 2021

Considering its size, complexity, and global reputation, it’s not a surprise that metropolitan Los Angeles attracts more business, industry, innovation, and talent than virtually any other city in the world. Providing a skilled, well-trained workforce to fill those millions of jobs is a challenge, however. That’s why the ‘workforce development’ sector is as significant a player in the region’s economy as are all those businesses. And the many California Community Colleges (CCC) that dot the geography are at the center of that workforce development universe.

 

 

Seven Major LA-Region Industries

The Los Angeles ‘region’ is more than just the County and City of Los Angeles. It actually includes 88 cities and all of Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Ventura counties and is home to 19+ million people and about a quarter of a million businesses. It’s also one of the world’s most influential cities due to the depth, breadth, and scope of its industrial base. Just its two major shipping ports can generate more than $1 billion in a single day.

However, despite the immense variety of its businesses, several specific industrial sectors act as major hubs through which other industrial subsectors emerge. A 2013 study done by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), determined that seven primary industries are foundational to the region’s economy. They not only engage large workforces currently but they are also expected to experience ‘high growth’ as they expand into the future:

Construction,

Transportation and logistics,

Manufacturing,

Bioscience,

Hospitality and tourism, and

‘Professional services’ (which includes its immense entertainment complex).

Consequently, the State government has based its economic and workforce development strategy on supporting and assisting these industries. It emphasizes their significance when aligning its workforce training efforts with its state-school (CCC) educational objectives and initiatives.

 

 

Four Major LA Sub-industries

Four sub-industries within the larger sectors are especially relevant, as they offer the best outlook for sustained growth and longevity:

Aerospace & Defense

These LA-based businesses employ over 90,000 workers directly and engage more than a quarter-million more in related side and supply chain activities. As the name implies, ‘space’ exploration is a key focus, as is defense systems development, creation, and implementation. These companies provide the creativity, engineering, and manufacturing resources needed to drive America’s immense defense networks and lead the world into the sky. They need a workforce capable of engaging with their current projects and trained sufficiently to build those that are coming next. Military experience is not required (in most cases).

Advanced Transportation & Cleantech

In this case, ‘advanced transportation’ includes introducing and developing autonomous and electric-powered vehicles and all the accouterments that go along with that evolving industry. Notably, while the region isn’t known for its vehicle manufacturing specifically, it is accepted as a global hub for the research and development, design, and engineering that creates the foundation for the world’s cars, trucks, and other vehicles.

Further, given the area’s spectacular climate and environmentally friendly population, ‘clean tech’ rides – non-polluting, low-carbon emission transportation – are also significant to this industry. Consequently, the region is also growing its clean and green businesses and industries to support its early adoption of these newer, ‘greener’ transportation options. Demand for a well-trained workforce in these companies and enterprises continues to grow.

Life & Biosciences

At the heart of this vital industry is California’s unmatched university system, which trains the researchers and scientists it needs to unlock the secrets of today’s most pressing health issues. With their insights and creativity, the sector pumps out the research that drives vaccine development, life-altering cancer treatments, advanced surgery techniques and strategies, among thousands of other health, medical, and bioscience resources.

In addition to direct health-related research done at the schools and their affiliated labs, bioscience companies also align their activities geographically by establishing ‘cluster parks’ close to the hospitals, clinics, and other facilities that will assist in advancing their work. With the explosion of health-specific technology, this industry is experiencing extreme growth and is always in need of a middle- and highly skilled workforce.

Digital Media & Entertainment

This IS LA, after all, the center and heart of the world’s entertainment industry. However, that industry has grown well beyond its ‘moving picture’ origins and now encompasses – literally – any and all real and virtual creative formats for movies, television, music, the arts, digital gaming, virtual reality, and more.

While the ‘big names’ are still globally familiar (20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony, etc.), this industry is mostly comprised of thousands of smaller businesses, entities, and individuals, all of whom contribute to its bigger economic picture. This ‘creative’ economy’ supports all facets of imaginative generation, from original ideas to fully developed productions. Each stage along that continuum requires a well-trained worker to bridge the gap between what’s been created and what needs creating. The resulting economic base contributes significant revenues into state and local treasuries.

 

LA Industry Organizations

It takes an immense volume of teamwork to harness the vast swath of opportunity presented by the LA region’s industrial base. Two notable commercial and economic groups have convened to identify what that work is and strategize how to accomplish it.

The Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC)

This think tank non-profit combines the talents of economists, analysts, business leaders, advisors, and public policy wonks to evaluate the impacts of time, innovation, pandemics(!), and other influences on the region’s economic inputs and outputs. The digital age has already disrupted the traditions and practices of several industries and will certainly do the same on many more. Automation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and other innovations are forcing businesses to rethink their business model, which triggers a chain reaction across industries and workforces. Finding solutions to these evolving challenges that respect both the organization’s ‘bottom line’ and its human resources needs is at the heart of this agency’s work.

The LAEDC also works in conjunction with other, similar regional work-related councils and partners, each of which adds insights and contributions derived from its own unique geography and constellation of industries.

In addition to these regional economic development agencies, the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance, the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership, the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation, and the Valley Economic Alliance, the LAEDC also works with numerous strategic partners that represent the wide variety of ethnicities, industries, disciplines, and interests that make up the thriving LA economic and social culture.

 

PCC EWD: At the Center of All the Action

The Pasadena City College Economic and Workforce Development department (PCC EWD) represents the nexus where these economic and industrial theorists meet up with their boots-on-the-ground practitioners. The PCC EWD melds together the directives of the State government and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) and the demands of its business and industry neighbors. To address those competing influences, the EWD conducts its activities through five ‘pillars,’ each of which represents an individual facet of the larger economic development puzzle:

Achieving Student Success

The Robert G. Freeman Center for Career and Completion 

This on-campus facility provides the support students need to accomplish a successful educational journey and find their chosen career.

Facilitating Work-based Learning

Located within the Freeman Center, this initiative connects student learners with businesses and companies that both need workers and are invested in offering on-the-job training.

Supporting Small Businesses

The Small Business Development Center offers guidance and counseling on all things ‘business.’ Its experienced counselors and advisors can help both startups and established entities overcome hurdles and build towards a more profitable future.

Providing Workforce Development Support

As a partner to those businesses, the PCC EWD also acts as a training center, providing the inputs they need (facilities, materials, etc.) to re-train or upskill their existing workforce. This partnership reduces the business costs associated with training while enhancing the educational capacity of the school.

Offering Education for All

The PCC EWD Extension offers learning opportunities for any learner, whether their objective is to find a job or just learn something new.

With these five pillars in place, fully functional and gearing for life after COVID, the PCC EWD is well situated to embrace the businesses in its community and support them through the challenges they are about to encounter.

 

Los Angeles is one of the world’s major industrial centers, made up of thousands of businesses and populated with millions of talented, resourceful, and innovative workers. The many regional community colleges act as the workforce development resource for these industries and contribute the workers that drive the economy. In the East LA region, the PCC EWD is playing its part in this intricate dance, pursuing state and college mandates while responding to the needs of its students and its local business community.

 

Top Down: Directives for California’s Community Colleges

Pam Sornson, JD on May 17, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

The directive to “put your money where your mouth is” is no more aptly apparent these days than by its manifestation through government investments in California’s community colleges (CCC). The State’s proposed ’21-’22 budget reflects its dedicated intention to improve revenues, advance equity goals, and address the myriad of students’ needs that existed prior to COVID-19, as well as those that emerged during that pandemic. The financial directives are more than just suggestions, however: they actually set the parameters around decision-making at individual schools and connect the dots between the State’s economic growth aspirations and the local and regional efforts needed to accomplish those.

 

Proposed Budget Reveals Economic Challenges …

The California state government is now struggling with the budget shortfalls caused when the overwhelming COVID-19 virus began its spread in early 2020. A $54.3 billion gap between its estimated ’20-’21 budget and its actual revenue required several significant adjustments to its’ 21-’22 financial plan. In crafting the proposal, leadership noted the damage and recovery disparities revealed by the economic impact on the State’s various populations:

Wealthier populations fared better over the course of the pandemic than did their less economically advantaged neighbors. A strong stock market helped; people in higher income brackets typically invest more into (and gain more benefits from) publicly held companies. Further, the professional industries that support higher-paid occupations suffered fewer disruptions and less contraction than industries that rely on less extensive skillsets.

Those industries that employ middle- and low-wage workers suffered the most negative impact of the pandemic. These industries tend to be more service-related, and their labor force typically includes a less educated and more ethically diverse worker population. The coronavirus cut off the opportunity to access service-based businesses and forced many companies to close, leaving their workers unemployed and without other occupational options. Making matters worse, many service-related companies and even industries are not expected to re-emerge as the services they provided were co-opted by technology and other providers. This situation leaves millions of unemployed workers with no obvious employment prospects that engage their current skillsets or developed expertise.

 

 

… and the State’s Long-Range Bull’s Eye(s)

The proposed budget addresses these challenges by outlining preferred spending strategies that play out over three main themes:

Addressing Long-standing Equity Gaps

The racially charged national incidents that occurred throughout 2020 triggered increased attention to equally alarming social concerns within California. In June 2020, the California Community College Chancellors Office (CCCCO) issued a “Call to Action,” urging leadership at the State’s 116 CCCs to identify and ‘take action’ against the structural and embedded racism that remains an unwanted element of the system’s configuration. Statistics reveal that almost 70% of all CCC students identify with at least one ethnic group, making the overall CCC student population one of the most ethnically diverse in the country. Inequities in access, resources, or opportunities buried deep within the existing system unfairly discriminate against these students. The directives included in the “Call to Action” were extrapolated from a collaborative webinar engaging numerous CCC participants and were designed to ferret out and eliminate these biases. The directives are broad in their scope and provide a template for each campus to use to move its equity-improvement project forward:

    1. Conduct a system-wide review of police and first responder training and curriculum to identify embedded racial or ethnic biases;
    2. Encourage campus leaders to host open dialogues that address the campus ethnic and equity climate;
    3. Include audits of the classroom ethnic and equity climate, too, and develop an action plan to ensure both inclusive classrooms and an anti-racism curriculum;
    4. Urge District Boards to prioritize the review and updating of their Equity plans;
    5. Shorten the time to a full implementation of the CCC DEI Integration Plan recommendations; and
    6. Encourage the system-wide engagement with the virtual “Community Colleges for Change” on the Vision Resource Center.

These investments indicate that State leadership is taking note of the current uncomfortable realities of both COVID and racial bias disruptions and engaging the opportunities presented by 2021 economic recovery efforts to address them both.

 

Building Support for Small and Mid-sized Businesses

In addition to the $500 million already allocated to support the State’s small business community pursuant to the CA Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant, the ’21-’22 budget also includes another $575 million to support its Equitable Recovery for California’s Businesses and Jobs plan.

This budget item reflects the significance of the State’s small business community, describing it as ‘California’s economic backbone’ and noting that it employs nearly half of all private-sector workers and creates two-thirds of the new jobs that typically develop over the course of a year. Support for these critical entities comes in several forms:

It provides microgrants of as much as $25,000 to specific small business populations, including those most impacted by COVID and those that serve disadvantaged or underrepresented communities. It also offers grant support to small-business cultural entities, including museums, art galleries, and arts associations.

It proposes maintenance-level funding of $777.5 million for the California Jobs Initiative, which facilitates jobs development and sustainability, regional development opportunities, and small business innovations, including those relating to emerging climate change concerns.

It creates tax incentives to encourage new business development and attract existing businesses to relocate to California from other states.

It also provides funds for the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (iBank) for loans to COVID-impacted companies and supports manufacturing efforts designed to achieve the State’s climate goals.

The title of ‘California’s ‘small’ business community’ in no way describes its significance to the state’s success as a whole, and these budget allocations indicate the importance that it plays as a foundation to the State’s successful economic future.

 

Increasing Investments in Workforce Development

The proposed budget maintains its ongoing focus on workforce development strategies that support student engagement and encourage higher education institutions to collaborate with their local workforce partners. Most notably, a one-time investment of $120 million supports the State’s student population by providing emergency student financial assistance to essentially allow a no-cost ‘do-over’ for learners who’ve lost a year of tuition because of COVID-caused school closures.

The funding includes support for efforts aimed at work-based learning, facilitating the development of a reliable and flexible online learning infrastructure, and the expansion of apprenticeships, both in numbers and in the scope of their variety. Enhanced mental health services and supports for student retention and both enrollment and re-enrollment are also on the table. All of these efforts remain true to the State’s intention to grow its economy by building and maintaining a strong workforce development pipeline from its community colleges into its businesses and industries.

 

The State is proposing these and other economic-related incentives to encourage rebuilding the economy post-pandemic while also recrafting its economy on a more equitable and sustainable foundation. By strategically investing in both its community colleges and its small business community as long-term economic assets – ‘putting its money where its mouth is” – the State is revealing its intention to harness them together as a unique and unstoppable workforce development team, capable of withstanding not just a pandemic but any other economic calamity that will certainly emerge in the future.

Education Policy: Driving the American Dream

Pam Sornson, JD on May 10, 2021

Pam Sornson, J.D.

The policies establishing and defining public education change both with time and politics and by necessity. As societies grow, the reasons to provide education services to any percentage or configuration of the population change as social and economic needs demand. Circumstances evolving throughout the 20th Century are now grounding the policies driving the U.S. education sector in the 21st.    

 

Religious Beginnings Evolve to Equity Goals

School policies have come a long way since the first European settlers launched the American experiment in the mid-1600s. Over time, as those policies evolved, the reasons to make the changes reflected the mindset of the day, often addressing a need arising from very topical social or economic circumstances.

The 16th Century settlers initiated the American education system, establishing in 1635 the first free public school to teach children to read the Bible. Within ten years, Massachusetts required towns of 50 people or more to open a school; those with 100 or more residents were also required to provide a Latin Grammar master. 

(The settlers also established a parallel education system of Latin schools, primarily to educate the sons of the ‘elite’ classes while inadvertently setting the foundation for economic disparities in education that persist to this day. But that’s a tale for another edition.)   

Massachusetts also launched the inaugural state-based Board of Education to develop a state-wide structure for public education. Driven by Horace Mann, the principle behind the Board was to use education to address widening social gaps and to overcome poverty. Mann’s advocacy resulted in establishing a uniform six-month school term, better pay for teachers, and better resources for schools in general. 

The federal Department of Education (DOE) opened in 1867 for the primary purpose of helping states establish effective public school systems. While this remains its principle purpose today, the DOE has also expanded its purview to include higher education in general (beginning 1890) and vocational education (in the early 20th Century).

The Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, known as the ‘G.I.’ bill, of 1944 provides educational funding and other supports for military veterans, beginning with soldiers returning home from the second World War. Supporting the academic and career aspirations of millions of former and active service people, the G.I. bill and its successors are considered one of America’s most significant contributions to its current social, political, and economic foundations.  

Today, the country’s education systems remain state-based and under the control of local and regional Boards and Commissions, which are empowered to create and direct policy to address its unique social and cultural needs. However, the federal government’s role in impacting nationwide education systems remains significant. It continues to press towards its goals of promoting student achievement and supporting educational excellence and equal access initiatives across the country.   

 

20th Century Challenges Created Today’s Education Systems

The chaos of the 20th Century both eroded America’s confidence in its educational capacities and illuminated many of the critical challenges inherent in virtually all of them. In response, the federal government and its DOE initiated a series of policies to address each challenge, intending to create a more equitable and effective national education environment:

The 1917 Smith-Hughes Act was the first to clarify that education should train the student for ‘the real world,’ and not teach only Greek and Latin scholarly standards. The Act culminated years of debate centered on the need for agricultural, vocational, and industrial education opportunities for both men and women. Almost as a precursor to today’s policies, the law addressed the lament that then-existing educational practices were ” … satisfied to go on as in the past, paying little heed to changing commercial demands.”

The 1936 George-Deen Act provided funding for vocational education in public schools, including training for ‘distributive’ occupations and training for the traditional vocational trades themselves. The grants added training for product sales, services, commercial management, and other related vocational activities to curricula across the country. Nursing was added to the funding recipients by the Health Amendments Act of 1956. 

The purpose of these federal laws was not to mandate that states implement them in a rigorous or uniform manner. Instead, the federal government allocated millions of federal dollars to the states to support their individual efforts in establishing these educational programs. 

That trend continued into the second half of the 20th Century:

The launch of the Soviet ‘Sputnik’ satellite triggered the 1958 National Defense Education Act, which escalated the country’s higher education investments in its emerging science, math, and technology industries. The Act also began the nation’s investments in its students, providing funding for low-cost student loans to facilitate educational goals. The law’s reach was significant: in 1960, there were 3.6 million college students in American. In 1070, that number had grown to 7.5 million.   

Civil rights and anti-poverty bills passed in the 1960s and 1970s also enhanced the federal presence in state-based educational systems:

Federal policies encased in Titles VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and Section 504 of 1973’s Rehabilitation Act prohibited racial, gender, and disability discrimination throughout the entire country. 

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 launched the Title 1 Federal Aid program for economically disadvantaged children.

1965 also saw the passage of the Higher Education Act, which provides direction for post-secondary education and financial assistance for needy college students.  

Today’s DOE sits as a federal Cabinet-level entity, and its authority encompasses every layer of the nation’s educational systems to serve its (currently) 50+ million students. 

Every state is now mandated to execute its policies in alignment with these federal standards. However, each state continues to set its own educational goals and standards according to its individual economic, social, and cultural drivers. The aggregated state and federal laws reflect how the events of the last 150+ years continue to impact today’s communities and offer insights into how educational policies can shape both the present and future for every resident in every state.    

California’s Higher Education Policies = Economic Growth

Pam Sornson, JD on May 10, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

Like all the states, U.S. education law grants California a wide berth in setting its individual educational standards. And, as its own unique State, California has established itself as a national leader in developing relevant, innovative, and insightful education policies to advance its governmental initiatives and improve the lives of its residents. Notably, California higher education policy leadership has also proven adept at including the nuances of the times in its policy-making practices, specifically addressing pressing social and cultural issues and weaving them into its overall educational strategy.

 

California’s Public School Policies

Well before there was a California State Department of Education (which was eventually established in 1921), there were free public schools for all children. San Francisco opened the first one in 1849, although it was only accessible for ‘poor‘ children, and by 1854, there was a steady public school system across the entire State. In 1867, public school education became accessible for all children, and in 1874, school attendance also became mandatory for children between eight and fourteen years.

It wasn’t until 1902, however, that California’s public education policies also incorporated the funding needed to include high school students within its purview. From that point, state policies regarding funding provided increasingly valuable resources to students enrolled in the State’s public schools.

 

Policy Development Factors

Many social, geographical, and economic concerns drove policy discussions through the middle of the Century.

A 1933 Long Beach earthquake triggered school building construction supervision by the State Board of Education (established in 1927).

A 1944 report revealed the impact of unequal school funding, noting that schools in poorer neighborhoods did not enjoy the same high quality of education as that found in wealthier neighborhoods.

In 1946, the Mendez v. Westminster case resulted in the prohibition of segregation in California’s schools and opened all school doors to students of every color and ethnicity.

In 1968, a legal case, Serrano v. Priest, argued that funding schools through local property taxes was fundamentally unfair to students in poorer communities. The State Supreme Court agreed and set the stage for efforts to equalize school funding across all regions.

In 1978, the newly passed Proposition 13 set a single standard for all property taxes across the State and put control of those funds in the hands of the state Board of Education. Those funds continue to be used as the school system’s primary operating funds.

In 1988, Proposition 98 created “School Accountability Report Cards, which provide comparisons between schools on significant educational goals, including student achievement, school environments, school resources, and demographics. The State has updated the cards at least ten times since their introduction.

In the Mid-1990s, the State’s education system launched an extensive reform to limit class sizes and institute state-wide English and Math standards. At the time, it was the most significant school system overhaul in history.

Through the last two decades, California’s education policies have continued to evolve to reflect the needs of the times. Adoption of the Common Core State Standards (eventually adopted in 42 other states) provided flexibility to local leaders to deal with concerns arising in individual communities (by reducing the number of school days, i.e.). It overhauled how the State pays for education by increasing taxes on wealthy people and directing spending to improve student services.

 

California’s Community Colleges

As they did with public elementary and high schools, California higher education policies have also led the way with community college (CC) initiatives, beginning with the launch of the nation’s first ‘Junior College’ – Joliet Junior College opened its doors in 1901.

California’s first public CC opened in Fresno in 1910.

The 1917 Junior College Act increased funding for community college development and expanded the mission to include the precursors of today’s industrial, domestic, and commercial programs.

College Districts (CD) were introduced in 1921 as an aspect of the State Board of Education, with Modesto CD inaugurating the resource.

The state legislature formalized the original Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960. It established the subject matter parameters of the University of California and California State University systems and clarified that one of the missions of the CC’s, in addition to academic and vocational training, is also to provide ‘workforce training services.’

By the 1960s, the State’s population sat at 16 million. The CC’s had enrolled 340,000 students, and all had ‘open door’ policies admitting anyone who sought entry.

Since the 1970s, the State grappled with numerous issues as it wrote and rewrote the policies governing its higher education schools:

Funding was always a concern as revenue sources ebbed and flowed in confluence with economic activities.

A series of laws (see Proposition 13, above) revised its funding models, shifting those resources to support whole programs (as opposed to individual courses), and created the Student Success Act, which realigned the mission of the CC system to pursue ‘student success‘ as its primary goal.

 

Skills Gap Drives Changes

Notably, in 2010, the Government again revised its Higher Education Master Plan policies to reflect then-emerging realities that continue to impact both the State’s CCs and its economy. Research had revealed a significant ‘skills gap’ between what the CCs were teaching their students and what was needed by state and regional industries and businesses.

From this reality emerged the “Doing What MATTERS for Jobs and the Economy” (DWM) project, an initiative driven by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO). As the “Great Recession” of 2007-2009 receded, the State faced significant economic challenges, including more than two million unemployed workers. At the same time, many of its industries and businesses were suffering from labor shortages, and available workers lacked the skillsets and knowledge they needed to get and hold a well-paying job.

The DWM project addressed both these concerns through a single but comprehensive strategy:

Identify the major industries driving regional economies in each of the State’s 15 regions.

Strategize public and private financial investments to optimize skill-building programs in each region that correlate to those local industries and businesses.

Authorize and empower the community colleges in each region to provide the training needed by its business and industrial community members.

The DWM prioritizes labor market needs as the focal point of its budgeting and program development strategies and encourages innovation in both colleges and businesses to inform and build deeper connections. Added to the vision of the Student Success Act, the DWM project formally establishes California’s community college system as its crucial workforce development resource, making it a critical aspect of the State’s economic growth engine.

Discerning a New Dawn for DEI

Pam Sornson, JD on April 18, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

April 18, 2021

Technically, the phrase ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) incorporates three distinct concepts, each of which is tied to the goal of embracing all elements into a single whole, regardless of differences or disparities:

The word ‘diversity’ describes a “condition or instance composed of differing elements;”

The word ‘equity’ describes a state of “freedom from bias or favoritism,” and the establishment of “justice according to natural law or right,” and

The word ‘inclusion’ refers to adding into a group things that were previously excluded. In populations, it refers to those people excluded because of varying abilities or different races, sexual orientations, social classes, or ethnicities.

How individual populations experience DEI efforts depends on their geographical and cultural nuances.

In the European Union (EU), an amalgamation of 27 separate nations, DEI refers to the inclusion of people from other EU states.

In Asia, the phrase often applies to the broadly diverse workforce populations of multinational corporations.

In other countries, however, more often, ‘DEI’ is used to address challenges arising from racial or tribal segregation.

Australia works to achieve ‘diversity’ in its culture by improving the inclusion of its Islander and Aboriginal peoples into its otherwise white communities while

South Africa uses it to address the lingering racial offenses and injuries caused by Apartheid.

In the U.S., the term ‘DEI’ and its individual tenets have garnered feverish attention in the past few years, as a series of killings across the country spurred unrest and protests against the appearance of racism in the country’s policing communities. These outbursts continue to multiply and grow even though the country has been ‘educating’ its people about the need to embrace DEI since at least the 1960s and the times of the Civil Rights movement.

Fortunately, there are signs that, finally, social discourse arising from the lack of DEI in mainstream society is making a difference. The year 2020, as difficult as it was, may be the year that the DEI tide will finally turn toward – truly – justice for all.

 

Opening Eyes and Minds to Long-Entrenched Racial Disparity

The Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM)

Although his was not the first publicly decried unnecessary death, George Floyd’s killing in Minnesota in May 2020 triggered a veritable tsunami of support for the “Black Lives Matter” movement and similar endeavors worldwide. Just as thousands of people raised the voices against the seemingly indiscriminate killing of unarmed people of color, so were billions of dollars donated to charities and non-profits dedicated to raising the social profile of racial and social injustices.

According to Candid, a global philanthropy-tracking agency, in the month after Floyd’s May 6th death, over $5 billion dollars had been committed or pledged to international racial equity organizations, an amount that equals more than half of all such donations received since 2008.

Not only is the amount raised a surprise, so are the identities of its recipients as well as many of those donors:

The “Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation” reported receiving over $90 million in 2020 and is now developing the infrastructure needed to manage those funds.

The National Association of Colored People (NAACP) received millions from Apple, Airbnb, and the beauty brand, Glossier.

The Equal Justice Initiative also received millions from Amazon and Uber.

Technology companies are not shying away from supporting a more equitable society.

Facebook pledged $10 million to racial justice agencies while

Microsoft vowed to increase its DEI investments by $150 million to double its black and African American staff numbers by 2025, accelerate its transformation to a truly inclusive culture company-wide, and enhancing the transparency of its DEI efforts and reporting.

Intel donated $1 million to support grassroots BLM groups, including Black Lives Matter.

Retailers are also contributing to finding a solution to the scourge of racism:

Walmart pledged to spend $100 million creating a center for racial equity that will enhance economic opportunities and workforce development for all employees.

Nike released a new social media video, “For once, Just Don’t Do It,” while also promising to invest $40 million over four years to strengthen and support American’s Black communities.

Target committed $10 million to the National Urban League and the African American Leadership Forum.

Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate (AAPI)

More recently, the country has experienced a wave of violence against people of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage. Since March 2020, over 3,700 attacks on Asians were reported, which is a jump of about 30% over the preceding year. More than half, 68%, were females, which led some researchers to surmise that the perception of Asian women as being subservient and meek may have made them more prominent targets.   

There has been a significant outcry against these attacks as well, with tech giants Amazon, Microsoft, and Xbox asserting their rejection of such actions. Additionally, prominent marketing agencies and retailers have also stepped up, with Yelp launching a new feature that allows Asian-owned companies to advertise that fact on those web pages. Coca-Cola has pledged almost two million dollars to fight Asian hate, and Etsy followed with a half-million-dollar pledge.    

It is commendable that so many globally recognized entities are donating significant amounts to equity-based organizations. However, the more accurate indicator of actual change may be their comparable commitment to doing better within their own organizations. Outwardly stating their commitment to addressing internal equity challenges notifies their customers and clients that, this time, they mean business when they assert their intention to overhaul their outdated systems. While the social drive to do this kind of good is valuable in and of itself, it may be that each of these companies also recognizes that eliminating inherent biases and prejudices may be good for business, too.

At least, that’s what the statistics are now saying …

 

The Rising Significance of DEI as an Economic Growth Determinant

Not surprisingly, in the months since the Floyd tragedy, researchers have been investigating the impacts that it had on social opinions, and their research indicates that consumers are as inflamed by the event as their corporate neighbors:

In one study, 60% of all Americans of all generations now assert that how a brand responds to social inequities will determine whether they buy or boycott those products or services. On another question, 60% also indicated that brands should take affirmative steps themselves to address inequalities in their communities. Another 57% believed it was also the brand’s duty to educate their public.

Another study revealed that almost 40% (38%) of U.S. consumers are ‘much more likely’ to support companies that speak out in favor of the BLM movement, and 39% will stick with companies that financially support BLM entities.

And in a Forbes survey of 1,000 American shoppers, 91% believed that the companies they shop at should actively work to create the changes necessary to combat racism, inequality, and social injustice. These consumers saw their favorite brands as allies in the fight to reduce the social angst driven by inequality. Those most fervent in their beliefs are the Gen Z consumers, who will probably comprise as much as 40% of the global shopping economy in 2021.

So, it appears that the past year of social unrest driven by racial disparities impacts the marketing and investment decisions being made by global commerce entities. It also seems that their responses are to pivot towards a more ‘DEI’ frame of mind for their entire organization, not just for their customers. These two reactions to the current social justice unrest suggest bigger, better, more sustainable DEI advances are in the future.

DEI: CA, L.A. & PCC

Pam Sornson, JD on April 18, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

April 18, 2021

The concept of connecting economic partnership to fair and just business practices is gaining traction. Recent national events, both positive and negative, suggest that truly meaningful change may be on the horizon. Many of America’s largest corporations have recently spoken out against racism of any kind and, perhaps for the first time, suggested that doing further business with them will depend on their potential corporate partners’ inclusive and equitable activities. For businesses everywhere, these developments suggest that now is a great time to reevaluate the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and to explore how enhancing those efforts can offer opportunities that may have lain dormant for years.

 

DEI: California’s Challenging History

Even a cursory review of its history reveals Southern California’s racially imbued biases, which tragically flow through the filters that informed the racially fraught evolution of the United States itself. Inherent and entrenched racism has hamstrung many of the regions’ diverse communities, limiting their opportunities and reducing their access to resources while also – ironically – restricting the area’s opportunity for economic growth by shutting out a significant percentage of its workforce population.

 

For African Americans

The struggle for equality in California has been ongoing since the first wave of African Americans (Blacks) arrived in the 17th Century.

By the time of the Gold Rush, when California became a state, many free and formerly enslaved African Americans had settled up and down the coast, buying land, participating in the community, and pursuing riches in the state’s lucrative gold mines. Their progress was effectively halted in 1850, however, by the all-white, newly installed state legislature. Despite voting to prohibit slavery, that group also passed laws banning Blacks from voting, owning land, and black children from attending school with Caucasian children. The orders significantly hindered African American economic opportunity for years.

Things did not improve for Blacks in California as decades receded into the 19th Century and the 20th Century dawned. The passage of “Jim Crow” laws in many states, including California, imposed legal sanctions for Blacks that did not apply to whites, effectively eliminating gains made after the American Civil War. The spread of both hatred and the Ku Klux Klan affected thousands of African Americans who had immigrated to the state in search of a better life, especially after the end of Worl War II.  

By the mid-20th Century, California’s Black population had settled in enclaves throughout the state, many in the LA region. Like neighborhoods in the rest of the country, LA’s African American communities struggled to integrate both before and after the Brown Vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954. That court case triggered significant racial unrest across the nation, which, by 1965, was roiling California, too. 

On August 11, 1965, an altercation between white police and a Black family in Watts, California, triggered a five-day riot that left 34 dead, caused over 1,000 injuries, and over $40 million in damages. While politicians tried to alleviate the racial stress over the next 20 to 35 years, by the 1990s, unfulfilled promises again gave way to significant racial angst. In 1992, the police beat Rodney King in a South Los Angeles street, which was both recorded and shown widely around the country. When juries acquitted those four officers of any crime, the ensuing riots left 58 people dead, over 1,000 buildings destroyed, and over $1 billion in damages.  

In the 28 years since those events, by many accounts, things have still not changed demonstrably for LA’s Black populations. Employment challenges, extreme poverty, and a lack of training opportunities continue to condemn generations of African Americans to lives of reduced productivity and prosperity.        

 

For Asian Americans

The challenges posed by exclusion have been just as significant. Despite their immense contributions to the country’s development, they, too, were often treated as second-class citizens in both social policies and practices.

In the 1860s, Chinese migrants worked alongside white people building the western portion of the Transcontinental Railway. By 1870, Chinese migrants comprised 20% of California’s labor force, even though they comprised less than 1% of the nation’s population. Their collective efforts threatened the white communities in which they lived and caused the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which established a prohibition against Chinese naturalization for the subsequent 60 Years.

 In the early 1900s, South Asian Indian immigrants landed in California’s agricultural valleys, working the fields as farm laborers. Their efforts were also rebuffed as a “Hindu invasion,” and Congress outlawed what was called the “tide of the Turbans” in 1917.

By 1924, all Asians (except Filipino nationals) were excluded by law from obtaining many opportunities enjoyed by whites, including the right to seek citizenship, own land, or even marry a Caucasian person.

The 1942 passage of Executive Order 9066, which segregated Japanese Americans as potential enemies and stripped them of their possessions and rights, only deepened the mistrust between that community and its non-Asian neighbors over the next seven decades. (Star Trek’s George Takei tells of his experience as a young boy in a Japanese detention camp.)

Tragically, these long-past racist events laid a significant foundation for the social and inequitable tribulations that continue to plague the United States and California.

 

DEI: California’s Promising Future

Equally tragic, today’s news mirrors many of those past injustices, as violence and political actions aimed at Black and Asian citizens trigger more racial unrest. In Los Angeles, the angst seems particularly painful, considering a full 20% of the region’s population is of Black or Asian heritage and contributes significantly to the County’s economy.

However, the good news is that LA’s response to the situation over the past year is definitely different from actions taken in previous dark times.

In early June 2020, the LA County Health Department reported the racial breakdown of recent COVID-19 cases and deaths. Those metrics clearly showed whites were affected less by the disease than other races (Blacks, Islanders, Latinx, and Asians), causing it to declare that “racism is a public health issue” and the root cause of healthcare inequities between Whites and Blacks. ‘Public health issues‘ typically garner more resources and support than concerns that don’t rise to that level.

Also in June 2020, the LA Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) steered a $50 million endowment to the John H. Mitchell Trusts to improve the entertainment industry’s diversity and ethics endeavors. The funds will support scholarships and academic programs that will increase the diversity of the industry’s workforce. Both UCLA and USC contributed an additional $5 million each to further the cause.

In July 2020, just weeks after the George Floyd incident, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors established an anti-racist policy agenda, the Anti-Racism, Diversity, and Inclusion Initiative (ARDI), which was quickly embraced by LA county department heads. Further, although it took some time, the ARDI recently appointed its inaugural Executive Director, Dr. D’Artagnan Scorza, to lead the County’s DEI efforts. (Dr. Scorza participated in Pasadena City College’s Workforce Development Conference in November 2020 and spoke about his philosophies and goals with PCC’s Salvatrice Cummo, the executive Director of PCC’s Department of Economic and Workforce Development.)

In September, even the LA Times acknowledged its past wrestles with racism and vowed to do better. That Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong now owns the media outlet indicates that the Times will follow through on its pledge.

 

Pasadena City College Embraces its Diversity Pledge, Too

Pasadena City College (PCC) is well attuned to the needs of its entire student population and has worked to ensure that each student has the representation they need on campus. The African American Advisory Committee, the Asian American & Pacific Islander Advisory Committee, and the President’s Latino Advisory Committee each acts as a nexus between its constituents and school administration.

However, believing that those efforts may not be enough, PCC recently invested its inaugural Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Dr. Kari Bolen. In this position, Dr. Bolen sits at the right hand of PCC superintendent/president Dr. Erika Endrijonas, where her inputs, insights, and wisdom will help guide the school to an even more inclusive and equitable future.

Dr. Bolen shared with PCC’s EWD Executive Director, Salvatrice Cummo, her thoughts on her new charge and her aspirations for the school going forward. A graduate of USC and former Director of Intercultural Affairs at Pepperdine University, Dr. Bolen brings an in-depth knowledge of the region’s racial and social history.

As John F. Kennedy said, “Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” Based on these positive responses to the challenging racial unrest of the past, it appears that California, the LA region, and PCC are well engaged in the trend towards building a more equitable and fair economy that benefits all of their people, regardless of race or ethnicity. It’s about time.

Work-Based Learning – A Primer

Pam Sornson, JD on March 31, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

Because of trending changes in automation, remote work, and ecommerce driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, some analysts surmise that as much as 25% of the nation’s workforce will need to switch occupations in the emerging, post-COVID economy. For many workers, that switch may require retraining, upskilling, or even a complete overhaul of their employable skillsets. At the same time, those same trends are driving employers to overhaul their existing workflows so they can continue to compete in the new local and regional economies. Both populations face a similar challenge: how to identify and master new marketplace demands to capture the economic possibilities that will arise as the pandemic recedes.

Fortunately, there’s one tool that addresses the differing needs of both groups. Work-based Learning (WBL) allows employers to train new, potential employees on the specific skills they will need to secure a job while, at the same time, offers workers the opportunity to learn what they need to know to regain their economic foundation.

 

What is Work-Based Learning?

‘Work-based learning’ is typically organized through an educational program. The program facilitates both classroom instruction and connections with relevant businesses, so the student gains valuable occupational insights from both resources. And it is what its name suggests: student workers learn new skills and hone existing talents while they are actually performing valuable services for their employers.

According to federal policy, WBL consists of three components:

The alignment of classroom lessons and workplace experiences

For schools transitioning to add or become workforce development centers, alignment of course and program curricula to current industrial demand is critical. Instructors may require additional training and resources to modify their work to conform to emerging workplace requirements. Working with business leaders can inform those processes to ensure accuracy in the finished syllabus, ensuring that the student gains as much as possible from the effort. Introducing the theoretical and practical aspects of an occupation in a classroom setting gives the student insights into job requirements that can then be experienced hands-on in the workplace setting.

The application of technical, academic, and employable skills in a workplace setting

In the workplace, employers build on classroom lessons by providing hands-on, real-life occupational experiences in worksite workflows and systems. Learning while onsite also offers the student the opportunity to evaluate other potential occupations or careers that they might not have been aware of or considered.

Overarching support from both educational and occupational mentors

Not least significant is the relationship that frequently develops between the student and the employer/trainer. Sharing by the employer/trainer of not just the training needed but also personal experiences within the business and industry provides the student with invaluable context for the work they may elect to take on for the rest of their career.

Collaborated training that marries classroom theory with workplace experience allows students to integrate both more fully and with deeper comprehension into their occupational skill base. In some cases, the WBL occurs in apprenticeships or internships; in other cases, student workers may be volunteers. In all cases, both the student worker and the employer gain value from the process. Once complete, the WBL experience delivers a knowledgeable, well-trained employee who is prepared to provide full operational capabilities on the first day of their job.

Further, the WBL experience solves a seminal challenge for many job seekers: it’s sometimes impossible to find work without also having pre-existing experience, but it’s also difficult to gain experience without having a job. And, as the national and global economies embrace the changes forced by the pandemic, more workers will be facing that dilemma, having had a job or career in what is now an obsolete field, and not having knowledge of or experience in the occupational fields emerging Post COVID.

 

WBL as an Economic Driver

The COVID-19 pandemic forced all kinds of changes to how work gets done. It introduced automation in place of human workers, transitioned whole onsite workforces into remote workforces, and redirected traditional commerce activities into digital resources, not the conventional face-to-face encounters experienced at brick-and-mortar stores. Experts believe that many of those changes are likely to be permanent and that they have already altered the post-COVID labor market. Those changes will also exacerbate an already concerning issue in today’s workforce: according to a 2016 Pew Research study, 35% of adult workers acknowledged that they did not have the education or training necessary to accel in their jobs or careers. The coronavirus concern almost certainly exacerbates their challenge while forcing even well-trained workers into the same situation.

WBL opportunities provide a solution to this dilemma for both potential employees and their future employers.

For employers, partnering with a local college that provides WBL opportunities facilitates the updated training their workforce needs without also requiring a specific investment in workforce training by the business itself. In California, local community colleges receive funding to provide the teachers, facilities, and materials needed to improve the skill base of their community business and industry partners.

For potential employees who are retraining for new jobs, WBL learning enhances their retraining experience and speeds their ‘time-to-market’ as skilled and well-trained workers.

 

WBL as a Social Driver

Also not insignificant to the WBL discussion is the recent spotlight on America’s racial tensions and the need for increased diversity in the country’s labor force. In too many cases, students of color or who are otherwise disadvantaged are overlooked as possible job candidates, nor do they always have the opportunity to obtain the high-quality training offered to their white counterparts. The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated these issues. Researchers at the Brooking Institute believe that WBL opportunities can alleviate them.

In a recent report, the Brookings experts identify three tenets of WBL that can be particularly effective when experienced by a diverse student population:

The worker/employer relationship supports the growth and development of the worker, not just in technical skills but also in ‘soft skills,’ such as timeliness, accuracy, and efficiency. Removing institutional barriers that currently impede the diverse student population will open up the values that these relationships offer.

The social capital that develops as the student worker becomes conversant in occupational norms and engages in the business as one of its valuable assets. Connections made in the student role can become valuable career assets later on.

Exposure to new environments and expectations that would not be available in other areas of the student’s life. Especially for ‘first generation’ college-goers, a WBL opportunity often opens doors to previously unknown possibilities.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently altered the global economy. Businesses and industries must modify their workflows and expectations to maintain their markets in the emerging, post-COVID world. As vaccines take hold and the global economy slowly re-opens, more businesses will be needing upskilled and well-trained workers to fill the voids created by the crisis. Those who are willing to provide work-based learning opportunities to student workers are likely to gain precisely the quality workers they need.

Building an Interface between College and Career – Work-Based Learning

Pam Sornson, JD on March 31, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented economic disaster in America and around the world. The 2021 COVID-19 vaccines offer hope that at least some of the disaster’s damages can be mitigated sooner rather than later. For many companies, rebuilding the business will require rethinking a future strategy to embrace both the new way of doing business and the revitalized economy’s new opportunities. In many cases, that strategy improves when an appropriately trained workforce meets emerging job requirements.

For the past year, the Work-based Learning (WBL) division of Pasadena City College’s Economic and Workforce Development department has been envisioning and developing the resources needed to ensure that the new workforce successfully meets economic demands.

 

Both Viruses and Vaccines have Economic Impact

Statistics indicate that America’s economy plummeted in the first quarter of 2020, dropping an astonishing 31.4% due to the explosion of the coronavirus in all 50 states. Like other countries, the U.S. ordered non-essential businesses to close, throwing millions of people out of work. In subsequent months, some of those jobs came back as businesses reinvented themselves in digital form. However, many companies and even industries were not feasible in a solely virtual reality, and their former employees remained unemployed throughout the coronavirus crisis. Looking forward, experts suggest that finding new work for these displaced workers will depend on businesses revising their workforce needs and workers upskilling themselves to qualify for new employment opportunities.

Just as the virus shut down the world, effective vaccines to combat COVID-19 promise to open it back up. News of the first two vaccines’ success, both two-dose courses introduced by Moderna and Pfizer, triggered a stock market boom, pushing last November’s Dow Jones stock index average to spike over 30,000 points for the first time.

Further, ever-increasing vaccine availability in 2021  suggests a continued resurgence of both the American and global economies. At the beginning of Q2 2021, more people have received at least one dose of the two-dose regimes than were initially expected. The Spring 2021 release of millions of more doses, including those from new providers, will protect a growing percentage of the world’s population. The global economy is already responding positively to the bright financial forecast.

 

Businesses Can Respond To Those Impacts …

The emerging economic expansion will also task employers with adapting their processes to meet its new demands. The almost immediate transition to remote-based work as the COVID-crisis grew has created its own nexus of new skills, as both workers and organizations revised workflows to accommodate that newly working-from-home labor force. And while those transformations initially satisfied the then-demand to maintain the status quo during the pandemic, they were not developed to embrace the transformative mindset now needed to optimize performance in the new economic reality.

One set of experts believes that employers need to do more than just accept the work-from-home reality if they intend to thrive into the next economic boom. Instead, they should embrace both the emerging digital opportunities and also understand how those capacities change the recruitment, coaching, and management of their workforce.

To accomplish new goals arising from both those opportunities, organizations should consider how they can innovate two of their most important assets:

Their technologies: The pandemic sped up the pace of technological advancements, sometimes reducing the time for new releases from several years to just a few months. Legacy tech systems will need revamping or replacing, and staff will require further or re- training on the evolved systems.

Their workforce: As noted above, new technology is changing how work gets done, and companies need workers that come with the skills required to meet those new demands. As well, many employers now recognize the high values they find when searching for new workers in an expanded and more diverse talent pool. Too often undervalued, job candidates from diverse ethnicities and backgrounds can provide identical skillsets while also imbuing their value with unique nuances derived from their distinct, cultural perspectives. A diverse workforce with strong foundational technical skills offers the flexibility and agility their employers will need to transition into the new economy and beyond.

 

… By Building the Workforce They Need For The Future

Well before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, developing California’s advanced workforce has been the focus of California’s Community Colleges. In 2012, state leaders recognized the immense untapped economic opportunity that lay within their higher ed system of 116 community colleges and began investing in them as a means of boosting the state’s economy. Consequently, those schools are now working in partnership with their local and regional businesses and industries to develop the talent pipelines needed at those local levels. One of the partnering methods that continues to gain in popularity is that of Work-based Learning (WBL).

 

Work-based Learning as a Workforce Development Tool

WBL embraces the partnership between an employer needing skilled workers and an education provider with access to a wealth of untapped talent. The resulting collaboration creates the nexus that results in a skilled, well-trained workforce for both organizations and the industries in which they work.

Developing a WBL partnership with a local community college provides many benefits to all three participants.

For employers:

Their inputs generate training programs designed to meet their specific needs, regardless of the nature of their work.

They gain exposure to a diverse candidate pool that they might not have seen before.

They can temporarily fill roles without committing to a long-term hire situation.

Providing on-the-job training during the education phase ensures that their future employee will be fully functioning their first day on the job.

For students:

Exposure to work-related ‘soft skills,’ such as communication, team-work, and following directions, enhances their academic pursuits.

Work experience during school provides insights into career opportunities they may not have considered.

Connections made with the company build relationships and networks the student can explore post-graduation.

For the school:

California’s community colleges have budgets designed to address the needs of their community industries. WBL collaborations provide critical insights as to the appropriate spending of those funds.

Business partnerships also open doors to other opportunities for which the school may also have resources. While a technology company may be looking for technicians, it may also need bookkeepers, HR specialists, etc.

The schools also have vested interests in the success of their community. A healthy economic community generates more students.

 

One of the pillars of Pasadena City College’s Economic and Workforce Development department (PCC EWD) is its Work-based Learning division, headed by Jacqueline Javier. She and her team assist both employers and students make the WBL connections they need to fuel to demand for a well-trained workforce. Considering the speed with which the vaccines are opening local, regional and national economies, the work of PCC’s WBL division can’t happen fast enough.

 

 

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