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.

PCC Extension: A Gateway to Enriched Living

Pam Sornson, JD on January 23, 2021

By Pam Sornson, JD

Although not new to Pasadena City College ([PCC] – the program goes back decades under several other names), the PCC Extension program recently transitioned into the fifth Pillar of the school’s Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD). And while also not new to the school (she’s been working at PCC in various roles for years), Director Elaine Chapman, MBA, M.Ed, is delighted with the program’s new placement. In conjunction with the EWD’s other pillars (the Freeman Center for Career and Completion, Work-based Learning, Workforce Training, and its Small Business Development Center), PCC Extension offers extensive learning and growth opportunities for virtually anyone who is looking for an education but not necessarily a certification, degree, or transfer opportunity.

 

A Gateway, Indeed

According to Chapman, PCC Extension acts as the other side of PCC’s ‘same coin:’ offering learning opportunities to students who aren’t looking for foundational job and occupational training, certification, or degrees. Instead, the program focuses on providing both ‘learning for learning’s sake’ opportunities, as well as upskilling or enhanced training for workers to take back with them immediately to their jobs. In effect, the PCC Extension provides educational and learning opportunities for – literally – everyone and anyone who wants to continue to grow but doesn’t need or want any added credentialing.

The PCC Extension sees its activities as performing two significant functions for the PCC and Pasadena community:

1) Enriching Lives Because Learning is Fun

It offers courses and programs that lift the lives of their learners. Those courses teach the theory, skills, and practices that simply enhance one’s quality of life, including new languages, computer skills, health and fitness perspectives, and many more. Students flock to these programs because they have an innate interest in the subject matter and want to learn more, not to find a job or even to improve their work at the position they hold. They want to study because it offers enjoyment and satisfaction to learn more about those things that one finds attractive.

These students’ backgrounds vary as much as their scope of personal interests:

Some are new to the college experience in general and may never have thought of themselves as a ‘college student.’ The PCC Extension opportunity offers an open option so they can explore the higher ed space without having to make an extensive commitment to something they may not be prepared to manage. Many find the experience so pleasant and encouraging that they choose to continue into new classes or even new career study options.

Others may be community college students or graduates. They have already enjoyed a taste of ‘college life.’ They are looking for a similar experience in a subject matter they enjoy regardless of its capacity to underscore a career option.

Still others (and there are notable examples of this) who have extensive backgrounds and long careers in significant industries who just want to learn how to write a book, understand human physiology, or speak Japanese. They sign up because they know the learning will make them happier in their lives overall. (Chapman herself has pursued ‘learning for learning’s sake’ education that taught her more about one of her favorite hobbies.)

The PCC Extension as a learning facility embraces the truth that everyone is (or should be) a life-long learner. It consequently offers those programs that will engage the interests and passions of its life-long learning community.

2) Providing a True “Community Center”

All that learning energy flows the other way, too. As the PCC Extension presents wider learning opportunities, it also attracts more local and regional people to share its resources. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, on-site classes were also places to gather, meet new people who shared the same interests, and explore even more options to expand into a larger community sphere. Through the auspices of the PCC Extension, the community as a whole can unite under PCC’s learning umbrella to learn more about itself, its members, and its resources.

Not insignificantly, many of those who engage with the PCC Extension are both PCC alumni and have enjoyed successful careers. Their continuing participation in the school also encourages their continued support of the school, sometimes through donations made to the PCC Foundation.

 

How It Works

The PCC Extension also focuses on providing not-for-credit resources that fill working adults’ needs, including self-improvement courses, workforce training, and professional development. And it offers personal interest courses that simply answer a question or respond to an urge to do something new. New parents, newly arrived immigrants, people with disabilities, veterans, and ‘older’ learners are typical students who find through the PCC Extension the information and skills they need to live a better life.

Previously, to facilitate those learners, PCC Extension classes were offered beyond the traditional ‘school day’ – evenings and weekends – so students could attend after conventional school hours. The silver lining around the COVID concern is that almost all of the PCC Extension courses are now also offered online so that learners can access them from anywhere, at any time.

Teaching at PCC Extension

Another valuable asset of the PCC Extension is its instruction staff. Many of its teachers are actually proficient experts at their particular craft who, as individuals, approached the school with a course proposal to share their skills with the student community. Consequently, the instructional corps offers a widely varied menu of program options that aren’t ordinarily available as traditional college curricula. Those opportunities highlight another value of the PCC Extension: it provides learning opportunities taught by subject matter experts that are not available anywhere else in the world except through PCC. The broad scope of these learning options is yet another demonstration of the values provided to the Pasadena community (on-site and virtual) through PCC’s portal.

 

An ED with Vision

With a career history working in highly regulated organizations and with sensitive populations, Chapman brings a unique skill set to her role as Director of the PCC Extension. She sees the overarching program as a nexus between the community college and its Pasadena-region neighbors, and she’s always looking for ways to extend those relationships. Her passion for connecting anyone interested in learning with resources that interest them is also evident in her association with LERN, an organization dedicated to developing resources and opportunities for continuing education and life-long learning around the world.

In her current role, Chapman is careful to gauge the student population’s needs with the school’s capacity to find the best, most-likely-to-be-successful fit for new classes and new learners. By continuously expanding the course offerings to provide relevant and topical options, she can fulfill otherwise unmet community needs. The computer courses are especially enticing in these days of COVID-induced ‘all online all the time’ demand.

In her opinion, situating the PCC Extension within the EWD enhances both organizations’ capacities – the EWD in general and the PCC Extension specifically – to reach even more constituents and build even more bridges between the school and the people who live near it. As a pillar for the EWD itself, the PCC Extension provides another opportunity to include community engagement in the organization’s overarching work: to develop the systems and partnerships that will drive the Pasadena regional economy forward.

PCC’s Extension program isn’t new, but it isn’t old, either. It is a living, teaching, and learning enterprise that continuously works to enhance all its constituents’ lives. Its position in the EWD IS new, and the EWD itself is unique (just three years old), and that newness also suggests a promise of even bigger and better things to come. For Elaine Chapman, it offers yet another opportunity to continue her personal goal of life-long learning.

 

PCC 2021: New Faces. New Opportunities.

Pam Sornson, JD on January 23, 2021

By Pam Sornson, JD

Like the rest of the country, the Pasadena community has experienced a churn of its beliefs, norms, and expectations, and its future functioning will reflect the consequences of that churn. Likewise, Pasadena City College (PCC) has gone through a metamorphosis as it transitioned from a traditional ‘on-site classes college to an ‘all-digital’ iteration (at least for the time being). Other changes that reflect a response to these challenging times are the addition of a new leadership role and the selection of a new leader for an existing role.

Through the Fall of 2020, PCC canvassed the state-wide higher education community for inspirational leaders to fill the existing role of Vice President of Instruction (VP Instruction) and the newly created position of Chief Diversity Officer (CDO). Though not new, the Office of Instruction provides critical infrastructure support for the college’s inner workings. Definitely new, the CDO role will focus on eliminating cultural and institutional biases to improve the PCC experience for all its constituents. The search for new faces and new insights demonstrates PCC’s commitment to providing its students with educational and leadership excellence. Each appointment offers the promise of new opportunities to respond to newly emerging demands.

This edition of the Pulse provides an overview of how the Office of Instruction functions within the school’s administration and why PCC chose to address the community’s equity and diversity challenges by creating the position of Chief Diversity Officer (CDO).

 

PCC’s New Vice President of Instruction (VP Instruction)

The word “instruction” carries so many meanings:

It signifies increases in student knowledge, adding more nuances and layers to foundational understandings.

It also signifies an effective teaching capacity, to impart knowledge in a manner that facilitates learning.

In today’s higher education sector, managing college-level ‘instruction’ also means working with unions, committees, and Boards of Directors to ensure the school, as an institution, achieves its internal goals and external mandates of graduating successful students into the world.

At PCC, the job of advancing the school’s core education mission falls to its VP Instruction. As PCC’s many parts all play roles in achieving its many tasks, the work is complex, and weaving their individual activities into a functioning whole takes vision and strategy. Ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion is a critical element of a successful school, of course, as is managing the various state and federal regulations that overlay much of PCC’s infrastructure. Consequently, the person who fills this chair must have the requisite experience, skillset, and innate talent to oversee all those aspects while facilitating the successful completion of educational programs by every student.

 

 

PCC’s Chief Diversity Officer

Pasadena as a city is a widely diverse community. It’s racial and ethnicity breakdown spans the globe in terms of the cultures and backgrounds represented:

35% White;

32% Hispanic (white & non-white);

17% Asian;

9% African-American

7% ‘other’ = multiracial and Native Indian, Alaskan, Islander, etc.

Not surprisingly, because it draws many of its learners from its surrounding city and region, PCC’s student community also reflects this broad range of ethnicities and cultures. Accordingly, to ensure appropriate representation of each group in administrative and academic decision-making, the school seeks inputs from three relevant Councils and Committees: the African American Advisory Committee, the Asian American & Pacific Islander Advisory Committee, and the President’s Latino Advisory Committee.

Each committee engages directly with PCC’s President/Superintendent (Dr. Erika Endrijonas) and school leadership in advancing the best interests of its own PCC students, inculcating relevant, multicultural nuances into college life, and promoting the interests of every student according to their specific racial or cultural needs.

 

 

PCC’s Asian American & Pacific Islander Advisory Committee (PAAPI)

This committee’s work encompasses the cultures and values emanating from the many nations and cultures that populate the Asian and Pacific Island geographies. In addition to assisting PAAPI students in thriving throughout their PCC journey, the Committee seeks out comparable supports, services, and partnerships within Pasadena’s business and industrial community, to build connections and maintain cultural continuity in PCC curricula and programming.

 

PCC’s President’s Latino Advisory Committee (PLAC)

This committee works to enhance Latinx students’ support as they reach for their academic and career goals. The Committee itself is populated with both PCC professionals and like-minded community members, broadening the potential for the Latinx student’s support and success. One of its primary endeavors is raising funds for its PLAC Scholarship.

 

PCC’s African American Advisory Committee (PAAAC)

Although just under 10% of the overall population, PCC’s African American student body wields a strong presence on campus. The PAAAC directs its efforts at improving every Black student’s performance, from encouraging their enrollment, helping them work through their programs, and encouraging them to continue into a productive and rewarding future. The Committee also reaches into the Pasadena community to find African American resources that will further enrich its Black constituents, including The Association of Black Employees (TABE).

Support for African American students, in particular, is centralized in the school’s Black Student Success Center (now operating virtually). The Center houses two unique programs designed specifically for the African American population, Ujima and Blackademia:

Ujima

This culturally based learning collaborative seeks to empower and advance the interests of PCC’s Black student community. The school designed its programs and support systems to encourage self-awareness, academic success, career development, and more. Dedicated counselors and coaches urge learners to pursue their goals through accountability and maintain a composure that promotes Black Excellence.

Blackademia

Academic excellence is easier to achieve when there’s access to a full slate of support and resources. PCC’s Blackademia focuses on the educational (and eventual career) success of the school’s African American students by providing academic coaching, success workshops, resource referrals, and networking opportunities.

There’s also a Transfer Bound program offered to African American students who transfer to a four-year school to complete their bachelor’s degree. Through it, PCC’s Transfer Center celebrates Black Graduation each year, giving these talented learners the accolades they deserve and the encouragement they crave to continue on their successful educational track.

Pasadena City College has always been sensitive to its need for diversity, equity, and inclusion as essential elements of its culture. A dedicated Chief Diversity Officer will have the opportunity to unite and hone these committees’ activities to expand further and enhance the lives of all of its students, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

 

While decidedly different in their focus and purpose, both positions – VP of Instruction and CDO – have significant impacts on the whole of PCC’s school and community. The two new Officers will provide further clarity in their separate roles, and their individual perspectives are sure to enhance the PCC experience for the entire PCC community.

 

 

 

Spotlight: PCC Business Partners – LifeLine Ambulance

Pam Sornson, JD on January 16, 2021

LifeLine Ambulance: Extraordinary Service in Extraordinary Times

By Pam Sornson, JD

As the grandchild of Holocaust survivors and the child of parents who immigrated to the United States from Ukraine in 1979, young Maxim Gorin had no idea how his future would unfold. When the economic crash of post-9/11 paused his financial service career, Maxim, like his grandparents and parents before him, needed to figure out his next move. Finding a way to give back to their community became his family’s new goal. Father and son found an excellent opportunity to fulfill that desire when they embraced their entrepreneurial spirit by buying two ambulances that launched LifeLine Ambulance (LifeLine) in 2002. Maxim Gorin hasn’t pondered his future since.

In fact, their forward-thinking ability has facilitated the growth of their business from 2002 to today. Since its inception, Lifeline has grown from two vehicles and seven workers to 70+ ambulances and 290 employees. All of them are dedicated healthcare professionals invested in providing the highest quality care to their transport customers. Added service levels and capacities reflect the company’s ongoing attention to customer needs and community demands. And innovation in the face of adversity demonstrates Gorin’s deep dedication to providing unprecedented protection for his customers and team.

 

Early Years; Learning Curves

Gorin and Lifeline spent their first decade in business in the San Gabriel Valley (SGV), providing essential ambulance services to the region’s many hospitals and clinics. In addition to ensuring that he hired the most highly skilled EMTs and other healthcare personnel for each rig, Gorin also studied the ins-and-outs of the SGV, managed the day-to-day operations, and scheduled activities to respond to more urgent demands.

Those lessons facilitated the company’s growth. Over the next few years, Lifeline added transfer services that were more in line with client hospitals’ needs. LifeLine provides Bariatric, Neonatal/Pediatric Intensive Care, and Critical Care transportation, including Balloon pump, Impella, ECMO, and LVADS( Left Ventricle Assisted Devices). Each urgent service iteration required additional in-depth training of the Lifeline Ambulance staff, requiring Gorin to upgrade his certifications, expertise, and mandated skill sets. The fundamental challenge was to provide intensive, comprehensive services to ensure patient care continuity through emergency transportation.

By the end of 2019, Lifeline had expanded to cover both Los Angeles and Orange County, with contracts to serve several regional hospitals, dozens of urgent care clinics, and healthcare service providers. Gorin had learned to pivot toward filling the community’s demand for ambulance services by maintaining a vigilant eye on emerging concerns and issues. The company was ‘on a roll’ …

 

COVID Challenges Up the Ante

… and the timing couldn’t have been better. As the COVID-19 pandemic swept over LA, more people required ambulance transport, and LifeLine was available to accommodate many of those additional needs. At the same time, as more information about the virus became available, Gorin’s dedication to keeping his people and rigs safe and sanitized facilitated his capacity to meet the rising demand to protect and transport COVID patients:

When sanitizing supplies ran low, he developed a new business plan to manufacture them with an Australian Company in China.

When the first shipment of those supplies arrived in June, he was able to keep his enterprise protected while donating excess supplies to hospitals and police departments throughout the LA/OC region.

He also began a bartering system with other healthcare services providers, trading his sanitizing products for other PPE necessities like hospital gowns, gloves, etc., keeping his employees, colleagues, and community safe.

Sharing Knowledge and Service

By Summer 2020, Gorin was actively sharing with the SGV community what he had learned from LifeLine’s COVID-19 crisis management and his 20 years of providing exceptional urgent health care to medically fragile patients. Shortly after joining the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership (SGVEP), Max was soon sitting on its Board of Directors, though not fully realizing the value of joining the organization; he was about to become closely engaged with PCC.

 

Looking for Workers; Finding a Partner

The second half of 2020 was exceedingly difficult, as the COVID pandemic swept through Southern California in wave after wave. Gorin needed 50-60 new team members to fill the increased demand for critical ambulance transportation services. The challenge was to identify specially trained workers who had the skill set and understood the nuances of working in a mobile, COVID-impacted setting. His introduction to PCC’s Health Sciences division proved advantageous for both parties.

 

Sharing Assets Improves Both Operations

PCC’s Emergency Medical Technology program is designed specifically to train ambulance service technicians to work as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) on fire trucks, at police departments, and of course, in an emergency vehicle setting. Successful students must meet the requirements of California’s Code of Regulations for EMT training and receive an Occupational Skills Certificate upon graduation. Gorin is interested in immediately hiring PCC EMT graduates and possibly contributing to their education.

Throughout late summer 2020 and into the fall, he collaborated with Dr. Micah Young, PCC’s Division Dean of Health Sciences, and his staff about building a partnership, that would benefit both LifeLine and PCC’s EMT candidates.

Dr. Young offered classroom and academic resources tailored to Gorin’s specific ambulance rig needs. Gorin found the existing PCC curricula excellent when provided with the necessary context only developed through hands-on experience.

Mr. Gorin provided a variety of learning options, all of which enhance the education received by PCC students:

He was willing to provide a ‘ride-along’ to interested PCC students so they could witness ambulances in full operation and gain the skills needed to perform this job. Each Ride-Along Candidate receives hands-on practice in essential emergency medical response:

Perform an assessment;

Measure vital signs;

Operate gurney in general, and related to specific patient’s needs;

Create accurate and informed reports

Use appropriate bedside manner when dealing with any patient that could be facing life-threatening circumstances.

He introduced students to Emergency Room personnel with whom his staff interacted daily, so they could see the nexus of care as it transitioned from ambulatory to clinical.

Gorin devised his partnership aspect to ensure the students receive the full 36 hours (three twelve-hour shifts) of EMT ambulance experience required for certification purposes by the California Code of Regulations.

He and his staff embrace the opportunity (when available) to discuss with candidates the myriad of career options within the healthcare field and how their fundamental EMT training offers a solid foundation for building future careers.

Between them, PCC and LifeLine developed an agreement that gave PCC students exceptional insights into the healthcare field as they worked towards their EMT certification and future occupations. It also allowed Gorin and LifeLine to develop a ‘talent pipeline’ of well-trained, experienced EMTs who would be ready to work the day they graduate. Gorin and his professional staff act as mentors to the learners, offering insights and encouragement, even as they study for exams. Gorin knows that many will not become LifeLine employees as they explore other healthcare career options discovered while in his tutelage.

The first Ride-Along cohort group launched in November with15 student candidates, and by December’ the group had increased to 20 new candidates. By all accounts, the endeavors were successful, although Gorin thinks if he gets five EMTs out of the lot, he’ll be lucky. Once their minds are opened to the possibilities, the PCC candidates are soon looking at other healthcare occupations that may better suit their skills and abilities.

 

Max Gorin couldn’t imagine his future as he immigrated to the United States so many years ago. However, as a successful businessman, dedicated community member, and American citizen, he is proud of the opportunities he has gained and the opportunities that LifeLine Ambulance can now offer to the LA/OC region’s EMT students at PCC. Extraordinary times, indeed.

Five Pillars: One PCC EWD

Pam Sornson, JD on January 16, 2021

By Pam Sornson, JD

The phrase “workforce development” suggests a myriad of images, from an on-site training session to a planning meeting for a future project. At its heart, however, is the notion that every person who wants to work should be able to work to the best of their ability. 

At Pasadena City College (PCC), ‘workforce development’ means providing the education and supports that every student needs to find their way to the occupation of their choice. The department is built on four central ‘pillars’ that form its foundation and streamline its focus on improving student outcomes through occupationally based initiatives:

its Robert G. Freeman Center for Career and Completion (Freeman Center), 

its Work-based Learning initiative, 

its Small Business Development Center, 

its Workforce Training initiative, and

its PCC Extension, which provides enrichment education for learners from all walks of life, regardless of their intent to find work related to their learning. 

 

Each pillar provides guidance and resources directed toward a specific element of the workforce development strategy:

Support from the Freeman Center ensures that PCC students have everything they need to persist through their college experience and to land the jobs they want, and 

Work-based Learning gives PCC students hands-on learning and experience in the occupation of their choice;

Experts at the Small Business Development Center offer business and development help to the area’s companies (including those that train and hire PCC graduates), so they can meet their corporate goals.

Workforce Training programs provide basic and upskilling training for potential and existing employees of the region’s employers and companies. 

The PCC Extension shares PCC educational resources with its greater community through online courses. An extensive catalog provides learners of any age or capability with access to work and personal interest-based programs so that they can pursue their educational aspirations at their own pace.       

 

Understanding how each pillar functions gives readers some insights into the purpose of the EWD and the values it brings to the Pasadena economic region. 

 

The Robert G. Freeman Career Center

Choosing a career can be difficult for students who are unsure of their aspirations, talents, or skills. The Freeman Center counselors help connect students to those personal assets, then point them toward jobs and careers where their talents can shine. But the Center also offers so much more:

assistance to find resources that respond to the many social, family, and personal barriers experienced by so many potential learners. 

Ongoing support as students labor through their coursework and 

assistance finding on-the-job training opportunities, so learners attain needed hands-on skills in addition to classroom theories.

 

The Freeman Center resources have helped countless PCC students identify, work towards, and achieve their occupational and professional goals.

 

Work-based Learning (WBL)

‘Work-based learning’ is precisely what its name describes: providing on-the-job training in conjunction with classroom lessons so that learners gain a broader understanding of the work they’re planning to do, perhaps for the rest of their lives. This business/education partnership represents a ‘best practice’ for many jobs and professions. The students gain needed preparatory skills before actually landing the job; the businesses can train future workers to their exact specifications, and the school can graduate not just students but workers into the regional economy. In the last Academic year, 2019-2020, the Office of WBL added 45 committed community entities to its roster of community partners. 

PCC’s WBL efforts focus on three themes:

increasing student achievements, so they persist through to the end of and complete their educational program;

facilitating access to technical skills that are best taught in a hands-on setting, through apprenticeships, internships, and other on-the-job opportunities, and

enhancing student employability, so learners finish their schooling with both credentials and a job lined up.

 

The Small Business Development Center (SBDC)

The SBDC offers workshops, one-on-one consulting, venture development, and training to both students and any area business looking to improve its operations and outcomes. It connects PCC students with companies to develop training and mentoring opportunities and helps businesses create the internal practices and assets they need to thrive in today’s challenging economy. 

Structured around four primary programs, the SBDC is a resource for cutting-edge business and industry information designed to meet the needs fo virtually anyone who seeks financial success through productive and rewarding work:

PCC Venture Launch

This 10-week program facilitates the testing of potentially viable business models by exploring both theory and hands-on practices. Free to PCC students, it creates the real-world pressures and demands facing today’s start-up companies and allows attendees to experience both success and failure in a safe, testing-only situation. 

The Gig Economy Program

The ‘gig’ economy is driven by those thousands of independent contractors who perform critical services outside of an employer/employee relationship. While currently in development for 2022, the inaugural 2016-2018 program gave students insights into the demands and expectations of this economic development style, the benefits it offers, and the challenges it poses. 

Biz Ed Workshops

These informational workshops and seminars help people turn their excellent product and service ideas into successful businesses. They provide the corporate leadership training that encompasses the guts of today’s mandated workforce standards, including taxation, HR management, regulatory compliance, etc. 

1:1 Consulting

Perhaps its most popular service, the 1:1 consulting services offered by the SBDC’s many business and industry experts give company owners in-depth analysis and support for their unique challenges and problems. Grant funding pays those consultation fees, too, so PCC’s business community can access this resource at no cost.  

 

 

Workforce Training 

This innovative program offers businesses the opportunity to train and upskill their workers using PCC teaching and facility resources. Tailored to meet the needs of the adult learners as well as their employers, Workforce Training provides both credited and non-credited courses to polish today’s highest demand skills, including technical competence, business innovation, leadership, and customer services. 

Four fundamental facets round out the Workforce Training module: 

The Employment Training Panel

The EWD acts as a contractor for the ‘ETP,’ which is a funding source that helps to pay for the upskilling and training of California’s workers.

ETP Contract Training

This ‘Just in Time’ training strategy maximizes ETP funds and facilitates workforce training opportunities on the PCC campus. The practice eliminates the need for in-house training by our community business partners. 

California Training Initiative

In conjunction with the California Workforce Association, the EWD delivers training to a variety of local employers. 

TAA & I-TRAIN

These two federally funded programs – Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and I-TRAIN, the Job Training and Education Information Network – subsidize students’ efforts to find and engage with an appropriate training program, including those whose jobs have been displaced due to foreign trade.   

 

 

PCC Extension

Whether students are looking to upskill for their job or just learn a new skill in their free time, PCC’s Extension offers a myriad of programs designed to fill those diverse needs. Reading programs, online youth courses, and even programs aimed at America’s military families are just a click away.

 

Unfortunately, today’s sprawling educational systems aren’t structured to ensure that every possible learner achieves their precise and very personal work and career goals. Instead, legacy training programs are too often corraled into out-dated (albeit well-meaning) protocols that were designed to meet now-irrelevant needs. And, in addition to being obsolete, irrelevant, or both, many potential learners aren’t even able to access these opportunities due to time, financial, or other social constraints. Consequently, society suffers the loss of priceless human resource values as viable and eager workers are stalled in their work-seeking efforts. 

Pasadena City College’s Economic and Workforce Development department (PCC EWD) aims to reverse these legacy practices and facilitate every aspiring worker’s education and training. Its four pillars provide a robust mix of training and experience so that its students, its local and regional business community, and its greater economic community can all thrive. 

Community Colleges as Economic Engines: Opportunity America

Pam Sornson, JD on December 31, 2020

By Pam Sornson, JD

Perhaps only two other circumstances have disrupted America’s economy as thoroughly as has the COVID-19 pandemic: the 1929-1931 Great Depression and the Second World War. Each of those events caused immense upheavals across the nation’s economy, resulting in both devastating losses and unexpected gains, as whole industrial sectors shrank or grew in response. 

Those events also impacted the lives of millions of workers. Most of them were able to embrace the positive changes and pursue occupations and goals that may not have been available in the pre-war/Depression eras. Mid-20th Century researchers dubbed this shift in earning capacity ‘economic mobility’ as people began making more money per year than their parents. Economic mobility soon became a hallmark of the ‘American Dream,’ whereby a child born into a family in the bottom 20% of the nation’s average annual income bracket could, with the right tools and a reasonable portion of good fortune, rise to the top income bracket over the course of their working life. Those moving up through those brackets were ‘upwardly’ mobile, while those who slipped lower were ‘downwardly’ mobile.    

 

 

Achieving the full promise of that upward economic mobility is possible only when other compatible ‘mobility’ factors are available, however:

‘Relational’ mobility describes the individual’s personal capacity to move beyond their current economic status based on their skills, talents, and abilities. Those who can discipline their efforts and resources to achieve their higher goals are often able to gain higher levels of personal success than those who don’t have those abilities or drive.  

‘Social’ mobility reflects the opportunity to move into a different social ‘class’ or status that is perceived as ‘higher’ than that to which a person is born. Social mobility often flows from the economic success of one’s parents; children born to wealthier families usually have easier access to higher education and other resources, which then improves their capacity to improve their earning capabilities over those of their families. 

‘Structural’ mobility refers to how well workers adapt to the changing occupational needs of the economy. Those who maintain skillsets relevant to emerging industries will enjoy the opportunity to move from occupation to occupation, regardless of their actual work.

When all these various forms of mobility come together, the odds go up that a person will improve their station in life. Gaps or lacks in any one mobility ‘sector’ can impede or prevent any upward momentum altogether. And when people don’t have the capacity or opportunity for upward mobility, local, regional, and national economies tend to shrink. Ergo, the concept of ‘mobility’ in all its forms can directly reflect a community’s economic capacity and opportunities. 

 

 

 

Opportunity America: Framing a Response to the COVID-19 Impact on Mobility

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the discussion around social, relational, structural, and economic mobility more critical than ever. Hundreds of thousands of businesses are shuttered, and millions of people are out of work, some permanently. Many of those suffering these economic hardships have lost whatever economic momentum they may have garnered over their careers, and they now find themselves in a declining spiral of downward mobility. For the country to recover, society must address the economic challenges created by COVID as those are experienced through these various ‘mobility’ lenses.

One agency taking on the challenge is Opportunity America (OA), a Washington D.C. think tank dedicated to developing policies directed at improving the resources that drive economic mobility upward: skills, career options, training, business ownership, and entrepreneurship. The group’s primary focus is research that grounds sound economic and social policies capable of steering the country to achieve higher growth goals. OA has determined that one of the country’s most appropriate resources for combating the recession and rebuilding the economy – and thereby generating necessary economic ‘mobility’ factors – is its community colleges.  

 

 

The Indispensable Institution – Reimagining Community College

In its seminal report, “The Indispensable Institution – Reimagining Community College,” OA explains why America’s 1,100 two-year colleges have the best chance of rehabilitating both the labor force and the economy. Crafted by a working group of 22 education, economic, and social research experts, the report shines a light on the educational, social, and societal elements contributing to the American working class’s slow decline. It also provides recommendations for turning that decline around by reimagining its community colleges as workforce development engines to reinvent and revitalize the nation’s economy. Doing so will shift the focus away from the colleges’ traditional goal – transferring its students to a four-year school – to that of building a globally recognized talent pipeline that stands on its own as a high-quality, educationally excellent workforce resource. 

As a template for consideration and future planning, the report’s eleven recommendations address the challenges that have evolved within traditional higher education processes and rethinks them into opportunities for renewed growth and impetus. It looks at how community colleges have operated in the past and the social and economic implications of their limitations. The recommendations themselves provide clearly defined steps forward that will require effort from the schools, their leaders, their communities, and their governmental allies. 

 

 

Social and Policy Recommendations (identified by report number)

1.  Connect educational programming to local industrial demand

Most community colleges have designed their curricula and programming to feed into their four-year university partners’ academic requirements, and too many of those provide little or no work-based skills upon which the student can build a career. Instead, the OA suggests that redirecting those courses to provide the exact skills and training needed by local businesses gets those industries the trained labor force they need when they need it. It also builds a job market that’s attractive to learners looking for a comfortable future that doesn’t require a four-year university degree. 

2.  Recognize the needs of mid-career adults

Many older learners need to acquire new skills to find work in today’s evolved marketplace. They may be wanting to improve their fortunes in their existing careers, or, due to COVID or other economic causes, their previous occupation no longer exists, and they’re starting anew. Flexible class and course scheduling and enhanced credentialing opportunities provide them with stepping stones to these new positions. 

3.  Connect admissions to employment, not graduation

Colleges should no longer tolerate ‘unemployed graduates’ as acceptable outcomes for their students.

4.  Engage local businesses in the learning process  

Even the best-trained teacher can’t match the depth of knowledge of the working professional. Local businesses know what they need for skilled workers, in both the short and long term. They are excellent resources for colleges that are redesigning their offerings. 

10.  Integrate the community college with local job-training programs

Public agencies frequently offer training programs for local citizens, which can, in some cases, overlap with programs provided by the local community college. This duplication of effort and cost is unnecessary. Instead, consider collaborating on what programs local industries need and which public or college resource should be the training provider. Building in equal standards across both systems ensures high-quality workers emerge from both. 

11.  Direct public funding toward programs tied to regional economic growth

Every region hosts a cluster of industries that thrive in its unique geographic and political environment. Community colleges that design their studies to drive those industries forward will build a healthy future for both those businesses and their graduates. Governments can tie public education funding to achieving those goals.

 

 

Internal College Considerations

Inside each school, the report suggests several changes that will facilitate the transition from its traditional practices to those which support this forward-thinking vision. 

5.  Build on foundational skills and career-focused competencies

Foundational skills include problem-solving, communication capacity, critical thinking, and basic research abilities. Job-focused competencies like applied math, teamwork training, situational analytics, and time management improve every worker’s productivity, regardless of their actual work. 

6.  Include work-based learning

Apprenticeships, internships, and job-related exposures all provide learning opportunities that are unavailable in a traditional classroom teaching environment. Colleges should actively seek the funding and partnerships needed to support such learning opportunities.

One of the pillars of Pasadena City College’s Workforce Development department is its work-based learning office. Program Manager Jacqueline Javier shares her efforts to connect PCC students with valuable work experience before completing their studies.    

7.  Recognize the value of non-credit education

Non-credit education frequently provides the ‘just-in-time’ training needed to get into a new job. However, without accreditation, those efforts don’t also feed into a certification program that provides assurances for employers. Learners would benefit when both their credited and non-credited efforts are recognized.  

8.  Offer valuable credentials

Building on the nob-credit recognition is the need for credentialing opportunities that demonstrate value in the current job market. Tying those credentials to existing industry standards ensures both workers and employers that the education offered is appropriate and qualified.  

9.  Recognize student needs

It’s a challenging world these days, and many prospective community college students must balance family and economic challenges with gaining an education. Streamlining educational efforts through well-defined course and program descriptions give students a map to follow that has a reasonable expectation of both college success and future employment. For older and working learners, recognizing skills and abilities already mastered can enhance the end diploma and resume. 

The national, regional, and local economies in 2021 will be vastly different from those that existed even just one year ago. How the country builds itself back better than before depends on harnessing its existing assets in new, more productive ways. Its community colleges can play a significant – potentially critical – role in that evolution, and Opportunity America’s report provides insights and guidance on how they might move toward those goals.  

You can listen to a discussion between Tamar Jacoby, the Founder of Opportunity America, and Salvatrice Cummo, Executive Director of PCC’s Economic and Workforce Development (PCC EWD) department on PCC EWD podcast episode 25.  

Our FoW Experts Offer Answers to Three Critical Workforce Questions

Pam Sornson, JD on December 31, 2020

By Pam Sornson, JD

With so many crises bearing down on the country and the world these days, it’s difficult to know which specific concerns to prioritize and which ‘next steps’ offer the most promise for a true solution. Those same problems occur within individual industries, too; leaders in every field have no shortage of ‘hot button’ issues to deal with on a daily basis. Many of them wisely turn to subject matter experts to find comprehensive information and a deeper understanding of the issues they face.

The same confusion is true in the field of education. Many educational leaders are not also experts in technology, logistics, or other concerns that have arisen because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their go-to experts are those professionals in other related fields who can offer insights and options that will work in an educational setting.

 

The roster of Panel Participants, Sponsor Representatives, and Keynote Speakers at PCC’s recent Future of Work Conference are all such experts. The insights they shared there can be significant for college administrators grappling with managing the pandemic while also planning their future semesters.

As an aspect of the Conference, we asked our guests to respond to three questions, each of which is relevant to the overarching theme of the conversation, “Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Workforce Development.” Their individual answers reveal the depth and breadth of their personal knowledge and experience; their collective response reveals that there are solutions to these problems and that, in many cases, there are specialists already working on them toward a more positive future.

 

 

Question 1: Are there ‘best practices’ for workforce development solutions?

Answering this query also meant assuming a relatively consistent description of the actual problem. Even before the coronavirus, America was suffering a significant skills gap as industries grew ever more technically complex. At the same time, training programs (when and where those were available) remained rooted in outdated legacy systems and standards. The explosive technological growth driving the corporate and industrial sectors has outpaced any comparable growth trajectory in the higher education sector, leaving industries without workers and potential workers without skills.

For the FOW participants, closing the skills gap is the primary ‘best practice’ for workforce development. The COVID concern has both underscored and highlighted that challenge as the most significant obstacle to genuine economic growth in the future:

Our opening Keynote Speaker, Josh Davies, CEO of the Center for Work Ethic Development, noted that COVID has changed our expectations of ‘workforce development’ because the transformations it has caused have eliminated as many as 42% of existing occupations. Those workers now need to find new jobs in new fields and learn the new skills they’ll need to be successful. His recommendations for best practices include:

eliminating obsolete job training programs in favor of new options designed to respond to actual workplace demands;

expanding apprenticeships into more fields to encourage hands-on learning and

expecting every worker also to be a life-long learner. Change is not only inevitable, it’s also happening faster than ever before.

 

Our closing Keynote Speaker, Sheneui Weber, Vice-Chancellor of Workforce and Economic Development at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, also shared her insights on workforce development, but from a different perspective. She noted that California is developing a Racial Equity Task Force as a ‘best practice’ means of including all available human resources in the economic recovery effort, including older learners and those who don’t fit the standard ‘worker’ or ‘student’ model. She also sees achieving digital competence as a ‘best practice’ strategy that will benefit all businesses and workers equally. Ms. Weber encouraged listeners to embrace the disruptions imposed by COVID as opportunities to rethink their business model and future planning considerations.

 

The panelists also share their insights on workforce development best practices:

Tamar Jacoby, CEO of OpportunityAmerica, believes that developing community colleges to be the logical providers of emerging workforce skills training should become a civic ‘best practice.’ Embedding the industrial region’s economic foundation into local community settings ensures that appropriate and timely workforce training is available to all at a reasonable price and with appropriate consideration of learner challenges.

Reg Javier, Executive Director of the CA Employment Training Panel, suggests building in prerequisites for underserved populations earlier in their educational journey, at the middle and high school levels. Connecting foundational education goals with future career opportunities will create a labor force ready to work from the day of graduation.

Clayton Pryor, Director of Workforce Development, Advocate Aurora Health (AAH), echoed the ‘best practice’ of more collaboration across schools, businesses, and governments. AAH is already blazing that trail by partnering with both local businesses and technology schools to ensure its hiring pool is adequately prepared when they’re finally ready to go to work. It also adopted innovative promotion policies that move experienced workers up through the company, following their occupations’ logical ranks.

Donald Bradburn, Kaiser Permanente’s Director of Workforce Planning and Development, advocates for expanding apprenticeship opportunities in as many different disciplines as possible to take full advantage of the benefits of hands-on, in-the-field learning. Like AAH, he also suggests upskilling existing workers into new roles and including technology training as a standard in all training programs.

Dr. Darlene Miller, Executive Director of the National Council for Workforce Education (NCWE), adds that facilitating more flexible work schedules would also go a long way to ensure all who wanted to work could do so when their calendar permits it. Limiting every program to a standard one-size-fits-all timeframe also excludes those who don’t actually fit that size.

Dr. D’Artagnan Scorza, founder and Director of the Social Justice Learning Institute, encourages collaborations with schools and businesses, especially for those programs designed to serve underserved pops. As an added ‘best practice’: he advocates a continual focus on building Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion into the economic partnerships that drive whole regions, such as the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.

This discussion offered a plethora of both great strategies and workable role models.

 

 

Question 2: How do we manage COVID-19 concerns?

One thing all FOW conference participants agreed on was that the COVID-19 pandemic is providing an excellent opportunity to learn how to handle unexpected challenges. The public health crisis has impacted all aspects of society, and no one person or entity is immune from its continuing fallout.

Clayton Pryor intends to extend newly established, COVID-driven solutions to address future challenges. His organization has already demonstrated corporate adaptability in this situation, and he is confident that these lessons will provide him with excellent tools to use in the future.

Donald Bradburn has been impressed by innovations in service delivery models that facilitate similar services but in unorthodox ways, citing a ‘drive-through clinic’ as an example.

Both Sheneui Weber and Ramona Schindelheim, co-moderator of the event and Editor in Chief of WorkingNation, encourage using COVID-19 related responses as teaching tools for future concerns, health-related or otherwise.

They all agree that the pandemic has revealed the need for flexibility, even in the face of maintaining high-quality standards for all services.

 

 

Question 3: How do diversity and inclusion affect today’s and tomorrow’s workforce development practices?

This question triggered another near-unanimous response: every organization must be intentional about expanding its labor pool’s diversity to ensure it attracts and retains the high-quality workforce it needs to thrive.

Some panelists commented on the challenges presented by a newly established ‘diversity drive’:

Dr. Scorza, Mr. Javier, and Erica Jacquez, Executive Director of External and Government Affairs at Verizon, all mentioned the problems created by a lack of fundamental skills. These issues are made worse when technical skills are also absent. They each noted the need for added skills training at much earlier stages in a learner’s life (middle school and beyond).

Ms. Jacoby and Dr. Miller noted that, too often, the ‘preferred’ pool of potential workers is limited to a certain age and lifestyle range that leaves out older workers and those who must manage other life concerns in addition to gaining an education. These populations would benefit from a more flexible schedule and increased apprenticeship opportunities in addition to the traditional college experience.

Mr. Bradburn recommended expanding the diversity strategy beyond the corporate perimeter to include supply chains and third-party vendors. Actively searching for minority-focused companies with which to do business automatically includes the ‘equity’ element in those transactions.

 

Other panelists highlighted their organization’s diversity success stories:

Verizon (Javier and Jacquez) shared how the company’s focus on connectivity provided vital internet connections for college students who had lost that resource when they lost access to their school.

Ms. Weber underscored the fact that California’s Racial Equity Task Force is actively researching the challenges posed by unequal economic situations to find solutions to those challenges and the additional problems they cause.

 

The insights, opinions, and suggestions offered by the panelists at Pasadena City College’s second annual Future of Work Conference provide invaluable assistance to any entity – school or business – seeking to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and emerge from the calamity stronger than ever. We so appreciate their time and attention.

 

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