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.

 

 

Why Leadership Sets the Standard for Workplace Ethics

Pam Sornson, JD on March 9, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

Remember the Enron scandal? Somehow, one of America’s largest corporations disintegrated into disaster, costing hundreds of employees their jobs and thousands of investors their life savings.

How did it happen? The collapse was caused by epic accounting scams and thousands of falsified documents created and published by Enron’s corporate leadership.

Why did it happen? Evidence revealed that advisors at Enron’s fiduciary accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, repeatedly – over the course of 12 years – ignored the “extreme” or “very significant financial reporting risks” contained in Enron’s financial filings and tax records.

Both companies collapsed when their leadership became more interested in making money than maintaining professional and fiduciary obligations to clients and workers.

A recent report indicates that a corporate culture that exhibits a high commitment to work ethics standards – unlike those at Enron or Andersen – plays a significant role in an employee’s election to commit some form of workplace misconduct.

 

Internal Workplace Ethics Create or Alleviate Risk Factors

The willingness of workers to commit some form of misconduct occurs in every company and at all levels of workforce and management. The forces pushing people to ‘bend the rules’ are many, including meeting their performance metrics, keeping their jobs, or advancing their personal financial goals, among many others. However, research indicates that workers who perceive a high tolerance for unethical behavior in their corporate leadership are more likely to commit misconduct than those whose jobs require a higher standard of ethical care.

In its report, the 2020 Global Business Ethics Survey, the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI), discusses the significance of those workplace ethics violations. The study reviewed six categories of ‘misconduct’ – abusive behavior, conflicts of interest, corruption, discrimination, sexual harassment, and health and safety violations – and asked participants if they had personally committed any of those behaviors. Then they asked if the workers had been influenced by witnessing such behaviors by co-workers or management.

The resulting statistics reveal that people who witnessed workplace misconduct felt comfortable committing misconduct themselves, almost twice as often as those who took the step without that additional influence. While more than one in five workers (22%) in five global regions have personally violated their corporate ethical obligations, those who saw others acting inappropriately followed through on their comparable impulse almost twice as often (37%).

 

Even more interesting was the reported origin of the unethical impulse: those workers who perceived a ‘lack of ethical leadership or organizational values’ in their company were more likely to feel comfortable breaking the rules. Specifically, when workers sensed that corporate leadership lacked a commitment to ethical standards, they felt less pressure to behave ethically and became more comfortable with committing ethics violations themselves:

Almost half (49%) reported a willingness to break the rules when they saw their bosses – and their boss’s bosses – cutting ethical corners.

One in four (25%) took the step when they perceived only moderate leadership investment in maintaining ethical standards.

However, when workers sensed a strong management commitment to workplace ethics, the percentage of workers willing to act beyond those parameters dropped to 13%.

The study revealed that even management personnel are willing to bend the rules when they see someone in a comparable or more superior position doing the same. Almost one-third (30%) of top management respondents reported thinking about committing misconduct after witnessing colleagues act on their impulses. A quarter of middle managers reported the same, while 22% of first-line, lower management fell to that standard. Remarkably, only 17% of workers who were not in management positions reported knowingly committing misconduct on the job after watching a peer or supervisor do the same.

 

Preventing Ethics Violations Starts at the Top

Clearly, the ECI report indicates that maintaining appropriately high ethical standards across any organization is set and modeled by those in top leadership positions. Other experts indicate that ‘high ethics’ are about more than just following rules. In addition to not committing the offenses listed above, the HR professionals at Chron also suggest building into corporate culture the foundational principles of decency and fairness and exhibiting those principles at all opportunities. Doing so will enhance the corporate reputation as well as develop and sustain high company morale.

To achieve these goals, Chron suggests taking three affirmative steps to signal to the workforce that leadership has and will maintain a high commitment to ethical practices at every level of the enterprise:

1) Stress the value of acting with integrity in all situations. The ECI report shows that people who witness unethical behaviors are more likely to behave unethically themselves. This chain can be broken when each individual is reminded that they have an independent mind and an independent obligation to behave appropriately. Leadership can model that behavior by praising the high ethics demonstrated when people do their best work.

2) Promote a ‘team player’ approach for all workers, regardless of their status within the company. Often, lower-level employees develop resentments when they feel that supervisors are receiving credit for their work. Applauding the work contributed by every worker and underscoring the success of working together as a team will reduce the likelihood that someone feeling less than valued will act out by committing an act of misconduct.

3) Establish clear corporate policies about which behaviors will not be tolerated, including the six listed above, and any additional standards that may be relevant to particular industries.

Be sure to spell out the consequences when workers don’t comply with the rules. Consequences could include a verbal reprimand, a written report, a note in the HR file, or, when circumstances warrant, suspension or termination.

If appropriate, post a written notice of the policies where everyone can see and read them.

Finally, provide a safe system for employees to report unethical activities so they can act ethically without bringing unnecessary attention to themselves.

These standards should be presented at hiring and reviewed with all employees regularly throughout the year.

 

The damage caused by the Enron scandal was, for some victims, tragically permanent. The situation was made so much worse, though, because it was also completely avoidable. If at any point after the misconduct began, any one of the offending employees at either Enron or Andersen had resolved to pursue their ethical obligation and report their concerns to the appropriate authorities, then they would have avoided the sometimes catastrophic calamity that caused thousands of investors to lose of millions of dollars.

 

Final lesson: don’t be an Enron.

 

Building Work Ethic from the Top Down

Pam Sornson, JD on March 9, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

Perhaps the biggest reason to establish and maintain an ethical workplace is attracting and retaining the highest quality workforce. Not only can you count on your workers to bring their best game to the worksite every day, but their high ethical standards will also help you to improve your organization’s reputation, market share, and profitability. One top tool for discovering top talent? Recruiting for and hiring workers who hold themselves to a high personal work ethic standard. 

 

A Strong Work Ethic Informs Job Performance, … 

Having a strong work ethic helps employees to make appropriate decisions when confronted by ambiguous business situations. Rather than choosing to find an ‘easy’ solution to a work problem, they elect to do the ‘right’ thing to accomplish the desired goal even though it may take more time and more effort. They also choose not to enhance their personal situation at the expense of their employer or colleagues. They actively engage in teamwork to further the best interest of everyone, including the business. Recruiting for and hiring people who declare a high personal sense of ethics can alleviate many human resource challenges over the long term.  

 

… Impacts Customer Satisfaction, …

Having a highly ethical workforce is also attractive to customers. Customers will return to vendors when they can trust that they will be respectfully treated and the quality of goods or services will always be high. This concept applies when purchasing items as well as when the company name is in the media. Companies with good products but poor business ethics rapidly lose credibility and can find themselves losing customers as quickly as those whose products are sub-par. 

In many cases, unethical work practices (not keeping sales promises, ‘price gouging,’ swapping inferior materials for advertised higher quality materials, i.e.) are or become apparent to consumers, giving them both the opportunity and a reason to shop elsewhere. 

 

… and Improves Financial Results. 

Companies that maintain high ethical standards across their operations also often enjoy higher levels of economic success for a variety of reasons:

Reduced risk of loss

Corporate management has an obligation to protect corporate assets, including those of the company and those of its stakeholders and investors. Ethical management of those assets ensures that the best interest of each stakeholder is considered when making business decisions and appropriately balanced when conflicts arise. Companies that develop a reputation for having ethically strong leadership attract more investors who are willing to invest more resources over time. 

Reduced expenses

Ethically managed companies often employ equally high-quality staff people and then pay them for all the values that they bring. These practices improve employee morale, not just for each worker but for the workforce as a whole. Maintaining a satisfied and productive workforce can reduce the costs incurred by hiring and onboarding new employees since happy workers don’t usually leave their satisfying jobs.

Greater customer loyalty

Acquiring new customers can be easy when introducing a fresh and novel product. Retaining customers over time isn’t so easy when the product quality they receive doesn’t match its advertising or when their calls for assistance go unanswered. Ethical workers will ensure that products retain their quality consistently and perform their customer service work with the same level of ethics with which they perform their other work. Happy customers will return to trusted vendors, and it’s much less expensive to engage with returning buyers than it is to look for new ones. 

 

One way to determine the high value of ethical business practices is to look for success in companies that pursue ethics as a primary business principle. Ethisphere was founded in 2006 to demonstrate that companies do better when they focus on doing business with integrity, invest in their communities, and look for long-term success over short-term gains. Each year, the company highlights the efforts of international corporations that demonstrate optimal business ethics regardless of the condition of their markets or regions. Not surprisingly, the companies that make the “World’s Most Ethical Companies®” honoree list are also globally known for providing consistent, reliable, and market-leading products and services. 

 

Building an Ethical Workforce

Building an ethical company requires building an ethical workforce, and assisting business leaders in doing that is the Center for Work Ethic Development (CWED). This organization provides training and support for companies that want to improve their fortunes by investing in the capacities and skillsets of their workers. Its simple premise is that helping employees realize their full potential also helps their employer businesses become more successful. Its training protocols follow a simple path:

instill values to drive behaviors;

train behaviors to impact outcomes;

emphasize that outcomes underscore results. 

 

The ‘A’ Game

The CWED embeds work ethic behaviors in its ‘soft skills’ training – those skills that facilitate communication, collaboration, and inclusiveness in work habits and practices. In too many training programs, potential workers gain necessary ‘hard skills’ – machine controls, keyboarding, the ‘how-to’s of work, etc. – without ever learning the soft skills needed to employ those skills while working within a team or collaborating through challenges. The ‘A’ Game teaches seven principles that, together, embody the values inherent in these soft skills:

Attitude

Attendance

Appearance

Ambition

Acceptance

Appreciation and   

Accountability. 

When trained in these skills, workers in any occupation can improve both their personal performance and contribute more value to their employer’s success. 

Josh Davies, the CEO of the CWED, was a recent guest on the podcast of the Economic and Workforce Development Department (EWD) at Pasadena City College (PCC) (listen here).  He also spoke at the recent Future of Work Conference (watch it here.) He asserts that training a workforce in both hard and soft skills gives American businesses the best opportunity to:

bridge the current ‘skills gap’ (where there are jobs available but no skilled workers to fill them), 

provide more and better occupational opportunities, and 

drive the economy forward. 

Building these skills will be especially significant as vaccines reduce the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic and more businesses open their doors. 

 

As that pandemic recedes, more companies will be reopening and looking for ways to rebuild their market share. Statistics demonstrate that those organizations that invest in improved corporate ethics – from the C-Suite to the maintenance staff – stand the best chance of not just surviving the pandemic but thriving in the new economy that emerges in its aftermath. 

Teaching Teachers to Teach ‘Work’

Pam Sornson, JD on February 27, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

Many academics get into the teaching field because they have a passion for a particular subject or concern, and they want to share what they know with eager learners. However, many don’t anticipate teaching both the theory and the technical aspects of their field of study, leaving the nuts-and-bolts elements of the topic up to industry practitioners. In the case of many community college instructors, that presumption is changing as those schools shift their focus to developing a workforce in addition to facilitating an academic foundation. When that happens, and community college teachers are asked to include technical elements in their materials and practices, they often look to other educational professionals to help them optimize that process. In many cases, they find those professionals at the National Council for Workforce Education (NCWE). 

 

A Nexus Between School and Work

Too often, traditional educational programs provide insights into the ‘why’s’ of a subject matter, but not so much the ‘how to’s.’ The hands-on training needed to implement the learning in the real-world falls to businesses and industries. At the same time, those businesses and enterprises struggle to facilitate hands-on training that matches or makes the best use of theoretical teachings. It often happens that the ‘education element’ doesn’t provide the foundation needed for the ‘hands-on element,’ which compels companies to add those resources into their training, too.

The purpose of the NCWE is to bridge this gap – to facilitate the connection between the theory behind the work and the teaching of the actual work so that students take both elements together into their new jobs and careers. It teaches community college teachers how to knit together both theory and practice into a single program, so students acquire both knowledge forms simultaneously. 

 

A Myriad of Challenges

The concept of ‘teaching teachers to teach work’ is relatively new, so much of the work being done these days focuses on developing the necessary partnerships between schools and businesses/industries. Each side of the equation must address several concerns before a true partnership can emerge:

From the School’s Perspective:

Overcoming Institutional Inertia

Today’s community colleges are an accumulation of traditional practices, attitudes, and standardized goals, many of which haven’t been reviewed in years. Without the research and data needed to reveal those standard’s actual value to their students, many such schools are content to continue in their well-settled ways. Changing those attitudes takes time and work, and often scads of data are needed to justify the transformation. 

Redirecting Resources

Those institutions have also already invested millions of dollars into their programs and the resources – including the teaching staff – that accompany those courses. They are, reasonably, hesitant to shelve those assets in favor of newer, more relevant options. 

Working with New Partners

After years in academia, it may be daunting to some educators to suddenly have to partner up with a business person whose attention is decidedly not focused on the theory of the subject matter. Developing new collaboration and cooperation skills is another aspect of the new form of teaching that can be unsettling for a theoretician. 

 

From the Business’s Perspective

Extracting Practice from Theory

Unlike the educator, the business person has a narrower focus for the workforce: know the job and get it done. In many cases, the underlying theory behind the work is only peripherally meaningful on the work floor. Companies that willingly engage with schools in job skills training must collaborate with the educators to ensure that course materials align with workplace demands.

Defining Needs

Another challenge for the employer is to define precisely what skills and abilities are needed and determine the teachable elements required to ensure that students learn those skills appropriately. In many cases these days, those skills involve using advanced technologies, which may not be in the curricula offered by the teacher. This situation may require further collaboration to determine who will provide that training and to find funding for the project.

Proving Effectiveness

Obviously, the best ‘teachers’ are the hands-on training and experience gleaned in the shop. It’s only when the student actually performs the work that needs doing can the collaboration declare success. Businesses can help teachers teach to effectiveness by being clear about expected results. 

The NCWE offers specialized training opportunities for teachers who want to provide their students with the jobs, theories, and skills they’ll need to succeed. 

 

Coordinating Cultural Shifts, Too

Another high attribute of the NCWE is its attention to diversity and equity concerns. The agency specifies “justice’ as one of its core competencies and supports the work of all educators to find and share resources with all their students inclusively. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed significant gaps in how learners can or can’t access educational resources; the NCWE is working with schools across the country to devise ways to bridge these gaps and ensure that all students gain access to the education of their choice.  

One of these equity initiatives is the “Building Community Partnerships to Serve Immigrant Workers” (BCPIW) initiative launched in 2015 by its Executive Director Darlene G. Miller. This project facilitated collaborations between community colleges, local worker centers, and community-based organizations to provide much-needed services and supports for the immigrant worker populations. Pasadena City College was one of many schools around the nation that participated. There, the BPCIW team was able to clarify the types of training needed by the region’s immigrant community, streamline the transition of learners from English-as-a-second-language (ESL) studies to other workforce education programs, and develop pre-apprentice programs for day laborers.  

You can hear Director Miller discuss equity and more on our podcast. She was a welcome participant at PCC’s “Future of Work” conference in November 2020. 

 

With its mission of helping community college instructors promote workforce education and student success in an inclusive way, the NCWE impacts the future occupations and careers of thousands of community college students across the country.  

 

Workforce Development: Upskilling Assets

Pam Sornson, JD on February 27, 2021

Many companies have spent years assembling and training a strong corps of excellent workers, each of whom takes pride in their work and their employer’s business. Times are changing rapidly, however, and sometimes workload evolutions extend beyond existing training levels and skillsets. When that happens, the boss is often dismayed by how to go about retraining or ‘upskilling’ those valuable worker assets.

Fortunately, the push to grow the economy by putting everyone to work has also driven the growth of ‘workforce training,’ which allows employers to access community assets, such as their local or regional community college, to provide those training services at minimal expense.

At Pasadena City College (PCC), the Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) is building the school’s workforce training capacity. Here’s why that’s important.

 

Workers Need Training

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, America was struggling with a lack of middle-skilled workers, especially in its manufacturing industries. “Middle skills jobs” are those occupations that require more than a high school education but not a full, four-year university degree. A recent report reveals that the gap of unfilled middle-skilled manufacturing jobs will grow from approximately half a million in 2018 to over 2.4 million in 2028. Those vacancies stall growth, reduce production, and could cost the country as much as $2.5 Trillion in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) over the next decade.

The manufacturers themselves point to the lack of training as the cause of the skills gap crisis and clarify that the gaps occur across the industrial sphere, from supply chains to engineers, to operations managers. Increasing access to and the scope of middle-skill training for entry and upskilling purposes is one way to reduce the gap and get both people and industries back to work. And turning the nation’s focus to this need for training couldn’t come at a better time: as of December 31, 2020, there were 6.6 million unfilled job openings across the United States.

 

Community Colleges can Provide Training

The idea that a community college can become a generator of ‘up- and middle-skills training’ has gained significant traction across the country. In California, the push comes from the state legislature and has become the central pillar of focus at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO). Those entities see the pivot to job-focused education as a win-win situation for everyone involved:

Providing educational resources that offer students the opportunity to find meaningful and economically viable work makes the best use of both the education and the student/worker.

Pivoting community college curricula to focus on building the economy makes the best use of both public and private investments.

Developing a more robust, better-trained workforce enhances the local economy by ensuring that local businesses have can hire the skilled labor they need as their industrial sector demands evolve.

Stronger economic regions are good for the country as a whole, making it more competitive in increasingly global markets.

 

Reimagining the Community College

To achieve these goals, however, community colleges themselves must make the hard decisions to turn away from traditional ‘community college’ coursework and programs and turn toward retooling their resources to meet the needs of future workers, businesses, and industries. These efforts take time and require inputs from both educators and the companies and industries that will be seeking employees.

Opportunity America (OA), is a Washington D.C. think tank that researches and promotes economic mobility for working-class Americans. Its President and CEO, Tamar Jacoby, was a panelist at PCC’S “Future of Work” conference in November 2020.  OA makes several recommendations for optimizing the workforce training value offered by community colleges in its seminal 2020 report, “The Indispensable Institution: Reimagining Community College.” The brain trust encourages colleges and the businesses that would engage with them to envision the goal not to be student graduation numbers but graduate employment numbers, instead. To achieve this ‘high graduate employment‘ plan takes effort on multiple fronts:

By the school:

Invite all potential workers, not just typical college-aged young adults. Millions of older or otherwise challenged workers also need training and/or upskilling to maintain their current occupations.

Root programs and courses in the local and regionals industries that need the workers. Ensuring job opportunities is critical to assisting graduates in finding work.

Provide ancillary supports to reduce or remove the barriers to education that so many un- or underemployed workers now experience.

Include technical skills to enhance academic coursework. These skills are often foundational to the new job and to the career that will follow it.

Include work-based learning, so the employee is ready to work on Day One.

Include both credit and non-credit opportunities. Training for training’s sake is, in itself, a laudable goal.

Issue credentials that carry value in their relative industries. Optimally, skills that earn credentials are suggested by the businesses themselves.

By the community:

Accept invitations to participate in training development and implementation.

Offer knowledge, insights, and other industry-specific information to fine-tune the curricula.

Participate in school-based job fairs to share information with students and faculty about career opportunities.

Look to the community college as an employee-generator resource.

 

To Benefit Businesses

Providing inputs to the school also offers several benefits for the employers:

they can contribute to the foundational knowledge of their future workforce;

they can streamline training to meet their specific needs;

they are assured of a well-trained worker upon graduation.

Of course, another significant benefit for employers when partnering with a community college is that they can develop a training center for future employees at considerably less cost than those incurred if they created the resource strictly in-house. Instead, those financial resources can be used to update equipment and machinery so that the newly hired employee has the tools needed to become productive the day they start.

 

The number of unfilled jobs in America is staggering, as is the number of available workers who lack only the training to fill those positions. The community college is rapidly becoming the connection resource for both learners and businesses who are each seeking a comfortable and profitable future.

If you’re interested in joining the PCC EWD in its workforce development endeavor, email us at EWD@pasadena.edu.

 

 

Remote Learning, Connectivity & Professional Development

Pam Sornson, JD on February 17, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

The swift transition from in-class to fully remote schooling was a struggle for some people more than others. For many students, such a shift wasn’t even an option because there was no ‘remote’ connectivity opportunity in their home. In other cases, teachers struggled to bring their resources and curricula online, having relied on traditional classroom teaching methods throughout their careers.

Both situations reveal that America’s emerging digital learning and educational resources are not equitably distributed or uniformly understood. As the COVID-19 Pandemic recedes and without some dedicated attention, those gaps will become wider as online education and remote schooling become more mainstream.

 

How Connectivity Impacts Learning Opportunities

Access to information has become a vital element in many of today’s systems. Many schools already use online portals and social media ‘nudging’ campaigns to connect with and encourage their students.

However, in some communities, access to the Internet isn’t a given or even an option. Even before the Pandemic, many of the country’s rural regions didn’t have Internet access, according to research done in 2019 by Johannes Bauer, director of the James H. and Mary B. Quello Center at Michigan State University’s Media and Information Policy Institute. Dr. Bauer and his colleagues studied access to digital resources in 25 Michigan school districts and found significant differences in the level of resources available throughout the region:

Overall, more than half (56%) had broadband access in their homes, while 23% waited through slower service. Another 14% relied solely on their cell phones to connect, and 7% had no access at all.

There was a rural-versus-urban divide, too. While a little over half of students (54%) living in small towns or the countryside had broadband access, over 70% of city and suburban learners could access the Internet easily from a home-based resource.

The divide became more significant when discussing homework, too.

Of the un-connected students, 64% reported simply not finishing their homework because they didn’t have an available resource outside the school building.

Almost half (49%) of those using cell phones and 39% of those with slow internet service admitted to skipping their homework.

Less than one in five (17%) of the broadband students acknowledged avoiding school work after school hours.

The research revealed how Internet connectivity or the lack thereof related to learning and academic achievement:

After balancing data to reflect socio-economic and other factors, those students who did not have broadband access scored an average of half a letter grade below their well-connected friends.

They also scored less well on digital skills tests, averaging three points less than their Internet friends.

SAT scores also suffered when learners had little or no access to digital resources outside their schoolroom.

The data suggests that those who have only limited access to Internet resources may also be limited in job and career opportunities because of their reduced skill base.

 

 

Corporate Response to the Digital Education Crisis

Around the country, hundreds of Internet service providers (ISPs) and wireless carriers have stepped up to assist local students and families become or remain connected to the Internet while forced to school at home. For those families with access but no longer have work, many of these companies have increased access speeds at no charge, waived late payment fees, or suspended usage caps for customers hardest hit by the shut-downs.

For example, Verizon facilitated unlimited connectivity for up to a quarter-million underserved students in California to assist them in staying connected to their school and their studies. The telecommunications organization also provided digital ‘hot spots’ – Internet access points – in communities that didn’t have that resource previously. (Full disclosure: Verizon was the sponsoring organization for Pasadena City College’s Future of Work Conference, held virtually on November 12, 2020.)

When the COVID-19 Pandemic is under control and society settles into its ‘new’ normal, these challenges facing America’s students will need more significant and comprehensive attention.

 

 

How Connectivity Impacts Teaching Opportunities

Another population hugely affected by the remote learning phenomena is America’s teaching corps. Almost overnight, hundreds of thousands of classroom teachers became remote instructors and began delivering their standard curricula via a digital device. However, for many teachers, the switch to digital also required a steep learning curve on digital technologies, a subject they may not have been familiar with, nor were they prepared to adopt.

In many instances, classroom materials didn’t translate well to a digital format; they required additional preparation and handling to become operative in the new ‘space.’ At the same time, the ‘remote teaching’ adventure added to the teacher’s day a myriad of new obligations that were necessary to maintain contacts with and tabs on their students:

Virtual classes required logging into certain websites designed to manage large meetings. Connections with students weren’t always stable or available.

Assigning and collecting assignments became a digital affair, too. Email attachments and ‘Dropbox’ folders became the new way to ‘turn things in,’ and teachers had to track which method was used by which student when accepting digital homework or assignments,

In some cases, teaching was best facilitated through a newly launched website, often designed and posted directly by the instructor. Some educators are familiar with website design and function, but many (arguably most) leave such technical details to the technology professionals.

On top of these new activities, teachers were also expected to maintain all-digital contact with their school administrators and their students’ parents and families.

Data collected before and after the onset of the Pandemic reveals how teachers recognized the need to become adept at these newly require digital skills.

In the first six months of 2019, data collected by Frontline Research and Learning Institute, an online professional development services provider, indicates that instructors completed well under a thousand courses per week of their professional development activities related to remote learning, including studies on Zoom, Google Classroom, and distance learning.

By contrast, in the comparable timeframe in 2020, teacher access to those professional development activities spiked into the thousands:

Almost 12,000 teachers accessed Frontline’s ‘Virtual’ teaching professional development activities in mid-April 2020, and

Almost 16,000 instructors accessed the ‘Distance’ learning portals in early April.

The data indicates that it’s not just students who need improved digital skills to succeed in their online education. Teachers, too, need access to training to enhance their capacity to deliver their standard curricula and materials in the new, all-digital formats.

 

Higher Education Policies Drive Economic Growth

Pam Sornson, JD on February 17, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

At its heart, higher education policy focuses on optimizing all available assets to improve student outcomes. Layered over that fundamental truth is a myriad of specific concerns and mandates, each of which must be considered before making a final policy determination. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, creating an overarching policy that adequately addressed the majority of relevant higher education concerns was a challenge; during and after the pandemic, that challenge is and will be even greater.

Pasadena City College’s (PCC) Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) also perceives student success as its highest goal, but it pursues those outcomes a little differently than other higher education institutions. Rather than focusing on a student’s course grades as their highest achievements, the EWD seeks to provide its students with vocational and Career and Technical Education (CTE) insights, work-based learning opportunities, internships, and other occupationally related activities that will enhance their job-finding and career futures. The EWD sees ‘well-employed workers’ as its ultimate achievement, and it is structured to provide the services needed to produce those outcomes.

And like all higher education schools, the parameters and standards applied to those CTE courses and programs are designed according to – yes – policy.

 

CTE Policies and the Emerging American Economy

Not all education policies fit every form of educational opportunity. CTE and related training education requires policy creation that responds to the needs of the community and the students. In the U.S., there is a severe labor force lack of workers with well-honed ‘middle skills,’ those acquired beyond high school but don’t flow from a four-year degree. Jobs that require these types of skills exist in every industry, and many industries report that the lack of workers in these positions significantly impairs their productivity. A recent survey revealed that up to 47% of all manufacturers struggle to fill open middle-skilled positions, while in healthcare, 35% of such jobs remain unfilled, and even over 20% of retail posts remain open due to a lack of a qualified pool of applicants.

The ongoing challenge posed by this gap in qualified workers is that both they and the economy suffer. Most middle-skill jobs pay reasonably well to start and offer the opportunity to earn significantly more as those careers develop. Middle-skill workers can earn enough to qualify for mortgages, car loans, and other upwardly mobile assets, which enhances their lives and stimulates and helps to grow the local economy. When those positions remain unfilled, those businesses achieve less than their optimal outputs, earn fewer revenues, and have fewer resources to contribute back to the community.

The response to this challenge is to develop educational policies that support middle-skill training and then invest in the resources needed to make that training available, which is precisely what many states are now doing.

 

 

Public Dollars Follow Policy Recommendations

These days, government investments in CTE programs are rising as agencies seek employment opportunities for thousands of unemployed workers. In many cases, those investments follow the recommendations of researchers who study both the factors that inhibit or prevent potential workers from obtaining the new training, as well as local and regional industry labor realities. Connecting the two – removing educational barriers while providing needed training opportunities – promises a better-skilled workforce and a well-employed community.

 

At the State Level – Tennessee

One state has been pursuing these objectives for several years. Tennessee has developed several unique initiatives designed to address specific educational challenges facing the state’s citizens:

Drive to 55

The state intends to equip 55 percent of Tennesseans with a college degree or certificate by 2025. It’s harnessing the efforts of its private sector partners, community, and non-profit organizations to work together to develop the training and employment opportunities needed to lift more than half its citizens beyond a high school education.

Tennessee Promise

In conjunction with the Drive to 55 initiative, the Tennessee Promise scholarship program offers high school graduates two free years of community college education.

Tennessee Reconnect

Also an adjunct to the Drive to 55 initiative, this program facilitates free community or technical college education to any adult who wants to obtain one.

As the Drive to 55 initiative rolled out, Tennessee recognized it lacked the data needed to justify its actions and with which it could build stronger foundations for future educational and economic growth. In 2017, it launched the Tennessee Postsecondary Evaluation & Analysis Research Lab (TN-PEARL) as that research facility.

Working together with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research, and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, the TN-PEARL studies the barriers that prevent Tennesseans’ from achieving post-secondary success and helps to guide state policy on alleviating those challenges. Its Leadership, Policy, and Organizations department chair, Carolyn J. Heinrich, discusses her focus on workforce development, public management, and social welfare policy and how those impact social and economic investments in middle-income communities with Salvatrice Cummo, the Executive Director of Pasadena City College’s Economic and Workforce Development department.

 

At the Federal Level

At the federal level, higher education investments also got a boost in late 2020, when Congress passed a $900 B COVID relief package. Contained within the Bill are several policy improvements designed to ease access to high education opportunities both during and after the COVID pandemic.

    • The new formula for Pell Grant eligibility provides full grant access to families that earn up to 175% of the federal poverty standard (225% for single-parent families). Those making 275% (325%) are guaranteed the minimum grant allowance.
    • The “expected family contribution’ is replaced by a ‘student aid index,’ which can be negative, indicating those students with the highest need for financial assistance.
    • The Bill also significantly changes the Federal Application for Financial Student Aid (FAFSA) document, reducing the number of questions from 100+ to just 36. This change makes it easier for potential students to move through the federal financial aid system.

In addition to forgiving $1.3 B in low-cost loans to historically Black colleges, the Bill drives $22.7 B in funding toward higher education. It offers maximum Pell Grant funding to 1.7 million additional students and guaranteed minimum funding to another 500 M more.

 

The policies that drive Tennessee, other state government, and federal government higher education spending reflect the data flowing from researchers like TN-PEARL, which add insight and clarity to the challenges facing both potential workers and employers. Using that data allows decision-makers to shape CTE and technical training policies that will make a difference in the lives of the country’s workers – both actual and potential – which will, in turn, build the country’s economic fortunes, too.

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