Emerging Influences on the Future of Work

Pam Sornson, JD on December 17, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

December 19, 2023

The disparities embedded in today’s society have a negative impact on everyone. Workers who aren’t compensated appropriately often rely on already stressed public resources to make up the difference. Those public assistance reserves are limited at the best of times; people compelled to seek that support are also often unable to put back into those coffers what they are taking out. The ultimate consequence is that the whole community suffers when its reservoir of assets (both human and material) is depleted.

The new year promises to be momentous as society continues its course out of the chaos of the pandemic and into its re-envisioned economic future. Three emerging influences appear to be rising rapidly, and each offers a unique context in which to examine nascent workforce development opportunities:

Artificial Intelligence,

The newly launched Infrastructure Bill, and

The possibilities afforded to all through a centrally sited EWD department in every community college.

Themes one and two arise in the technology and economic policy sectors, and both of those are potent influences on theme three. Throughout 2024, we will be tracking the evolution of these phenomena, with particular attention paid to how technology and policy impact higher education. The focus will be on how well – if at all – innovations in the greater workforce development sector can reverse the erosion of economic health caused by the pandemic and previously accepted social policies.

 

Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe?

Today’s artificial intelligence (AI) is the product of decades of development, beginning in its current iteration when Alan Turing published his treatise, “Computer Machinery and Intelligence,” in 1950. Already, AI responsible for ‘automating’ many jobs, making them more productive while reducing both their errors and their costs.

However, recently released digital applications (“ChatGPT,” as an example) are challenging many traditional occupations by taking over some or all of their functions, effectively displacing the humans who previously had performed those tasks. In many, many cases, the results are overwhelmingly positive:

Doctors can make more accurate diagnoses so patients get better treatment;

Automated drones can access locations where humans cannot go, and the images they collect provide exceptional data that may not have been discovered otherwise;

People with disabilities now have automated tools that facilitate experiences they would never have encountered.

As laudable as those accomplishments are, however, the technology also comes with many drawbacks and challenges. The reality is that AI doesn’t actually ‘think’ independently like a human does. Instead, it scours billions of digital files to find those it determines to be most ‘related’ to the question posed. The program does NOT also determine the accuracy, truthfulness, or relevance of the data it produces; it simply posts it for the reader to consume ‘as is.’ Too many people are already relying on AI to provide them with accurate, timely information related to their computer queries, but because the user can’t tell whether what they’re reading is actually applicable to their situation, any subsequent decisions they make based on that erroneous ‘information’ can be disastrous.

Despite these conflicting attributes, AI is here to stay, and its influence on industry, the workforce, and the economy will continue to grow. The next step in mastering it will be to ensure that people who use it understand that they can’t or shouldn’t rely on it as a credible resource.

 

The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)

Now two years old, the IIJA has had a significant impact on the country’s economy. As a government investment vehicle, the Act is substantial:

It provides 452 distinct ‘funding pots’ that offer

Over $850 billion in funding options.

Overall, the Bill is expected to invest $1.2 trillion in rebuilding the country’s aging and decaying foundations.

Major construction and reconstruction projects, such as bridge and tunnel repairs, long-deferred highway maintenance, and environmental cleanups, are now underway, providing well-paying jobs for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Its companion law, the  Build Back Better Act (signed into law August 16, 2022), directs funding toward projects supporting economic development activities, including financial resources for child care, elder care, rebates, and tax incentives for environmentally sensitive initiatives. Its Registered Apprentice program provides funding for thousands of paid on-the-job training opportunities across virtually all industries.

Not least, both Acts mandate intentional remedial actions to ‘level America’s economic playing field’ that is now so rife with inequities and disparities.

 

The Expansion of Workforce Development Hubs within California’s Community Colleges

Admittedly, this premise is still just that: a possible response to the nation’s current challenge of finding appropriate job training and education for its unemployed that also responds to the high industrial demand for skilled labor. California’s community college system is a world-class network of educators, innovators, and collaborators. Together, these 116 schools offer courses and programs to almost two million students each year. Their impact on their local community is enormous and growing.

They are also at the center of the State’s investment in its economic infrastructure. The leaders in Sacramento have poured billions of dollars into developing their higher education system into a workforce development incubator. Their intentions and investments direct school administrators to build partnerships and strategies with neighboring businesses and industries to align those labor demands with the training programs the schools will provide. These propositions have been manifesting over the past several years and are already showing success in many locations. The current scheme is to continue this forward momentum until every corner of the state has in place the labor development tools it needs for its local and regional economies to thrive.

 

The lessons learned throughout 2023 about how society values (or doesn’t value) its human labor assets will inform our analysis of 2024’s economic development actions. We hope you continue to follow our progress. Thank you for your continued support of our work.

Looking Back: How We Actually Value ‘Labor’

Pam Sornson, JD on December 17, 2023

Throughout 2023, the Pulse presented several distinctly different perspectives on how today’s society values ‘labor.’ The conversation is a response to recent events that have compelled a reflection on how society ‘works’ and how those who keep it running are compensated. It’s not about how each individual worker performs. Instead, it’s about how a community system flows because of the labor its workforce performs. The advent of the ‘essential’ employee highlighted how sometimes menial labor provides the highest value available at that moment. The question is, ‘How did one type of occupation become so much more ‘valuable’ in society’s eyes than another that provides as much or more actual worth to the community?’

The data revealed that how labor is ‘valued’ often has little to do with its level of effort or even the consequent high value of its outcome. Instead, workers are too often compensated based on aspects that have almost nothing to do with their skill level or capacity and much more to do with their status.

 

Status as a ‘Value’ Determiner

A plethora of studies indicate that the ‘value’ of human labor is often assigned unequally and that there are three primary ‘classes’ of workers that bear the brunt of those inequities:

Those at the bottom of the economic scale,

Women, and

Migrants.

The Economically Disadvantaged

Typically, workers in this group perform the community’s ‘hidden,’ sometimes deemed ‘menial’ tasks, such as janitorial work, rote clerical activities, and agricultural activities. The work itself is often not intellectually demanding but instead involves sometimes strenuous physical effort to perform. Because the qualifications for the job are usually minimal, most of these occupations are at the very bottom of the pay scale, typically garnering only minimum wage or slightly above.

What was remarkable about the COVID-19 pandemic is that it showcased how critical these jobs are to keeping society humming. These occupations were deemed ‘essential,’ and the employees providing the labor were compelled to continue working after the shutdown even though doing so posed a risk of catching the virus.

More than half (62%) of California’s farm labor was deemed ‘essential’ even though those jobs pay only an average of about $16 per hour.

The lowest-paid workers in most healthcare settings were also suddenly considered ‘essential’ because they kept those facilities sanitary.

In retrospect, it seems decidedly unfair that those who perform roles that are deemed ‘essential’ to the foundational management of the country and workers who were asked to risk their lives to continue doing so should also be some of its lowest-paid workers. However, up until the pandemic hit, that’s the way this particular form of labor was ‘valued.’

Women

Despite comprising more than half (51.1%) of the population and despite the 1967 passage of the American Equal Pay Act, companies continue to pay women less than their male counterparts for performing the same job duties. On average, full-time female employees are paid only 83.7% of what men are paid for the same work, which results in a deficit of ~$10,000 per year in wages. Much of the disparity is due to lingering but unfounded concerns about ‘family’ intrusions into the work environment, a notion that presumes women are still absorbing the bulk of domestic responsibilities while working full-time. Men are not typically subjected to the same limitations.

In other circumstances, women are also not paid at all for much of the labor they perform in their homes and in service of others. Around the world, females perform 2.5 times as much non-paid labor (housekeeping, caregiving, etc.) as men; this statistic doesn’t change even in countries that enjoy high economic stability.

The data suggest that long-time cultural norms continue to influence not just how much female workers get paid but also how the value of their labor is calculated.

Immigrants vs. Native-born Workers

America is a land populated by people who came (or whose ancestors came) from somewhere else. Today’s immigrant community makes up approximately 14% of America’s population and comprises 18% of its workforce. Almost half of this group is Hispanic, another quarter is Asian, and nearly 10% have African heritage.

Together, America’s foreign-born workers perform a significant percentage of the country’s ‘essential services:’

    • In California, 69% of agricultural workers are immigrants.
    • In Nebraska, immigrants comprise 66% of that state’s meat packaging industry.
    • In Alaska, 70% of the state’s seafood industry is of foreign descent.

In addition to those labor contributions, these communities are also responsible for a sizeable volume of consumer spending. A 2019 survey reveals that the nation’s immigrant population, in general, is responsible for spending over $1.4 trillion annually in U.S. markets. They are also more likely than native-borns to open a new business and to work in the burgeoning STEM industries. Immigrants also file more than 75% of the patents developed in U.S. universities.

Despite these notable contributions to the country’s economy, immigrants are typically paid ~12% less than natural-born workers at the national level and more than 25% less than their comparably educated, native-born colleagues in California.

 

Pay Disparity is Expensive

These data demonstrate that the ‘wage gap’ in the United States and worldwide is vast — and expensive. The ‘gender gap’- the difference between average wages for men and women- may amount to as much as $7 trillion in reduced global economic activity. Those lost dollars would cover living costs that now often limit the opportunity to work, such as child care or caregiving expenses. With those issues managed, the workers who would normally do those chores are able to find paying work to earn a better living, pay more in taxes, and lessen the economic burden on social services. Employees who are paid equally for doing the same work are less likely to quit prematurely, which reduces the expense of hiring and training new workers. Almost all studies demonstrate that when people are appropriately compensated for their work, regardless of the type of work it is, they are more willing to contribute and participate in their community as responsible citizens.

 

Looking ahead into 2024, these evolutions in how ‘work’ is perceived will continue, and several emerging influences will significantly impact the direction those adaptations will take. Two, in particular, have already compelled alterations in workflows and investments: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the newly launched federal Infrastructure Bill. Each of these phenomena refocus the context in which ‘work’ occurs, as well as how it’s performed. And for both, the community college system is gearing up to build the appropriate workforce to move them forward.

The FOW Panel Two: Student Focused Systems Change

Pam Sornson, JD on December 3, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

December 5, 2023

The four phases of economic growth are consistent: expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. The circumstances of the past few years — the pandemic, wars, social unrest, etc. — have driven many aspects of the global economy into a contracted state, if not a full-on trough. The bad news is that many people have suffered financial hardships caused by these realities. The good news is that there’s nowhere to go but up from where we find ourselves at now. Those evolutions in the world’s industrial complex have caused revolutions in how work gets — or will get — done. The schools and training programs needed to build the new workforce are in development now, and the people ‘in charge’ of their progress are collaborating on how it will go moving forward.

At least that’s the takeaway from the discussion presented by the second Panel of expert guests at the Future of Work conference (FOW) hosted by Pasadena City College’s (PCC) Economic and Workforce Development division (EWD) on October 26th (watch the replay here). These four industry specialists offered their vision of how today’s education systems can flex to better engage with each other to fill the workforce demands of the future.

 

Four Perspectives. One Primary Goal.

The overarching subject matter for the Panel focused on how to revise existing systems to maximize the student/ trainee’s experience and opportunity to achieve success. The individuals gathered to talk about their personal experiences and the aggregate wisdom those engendered, and how they use that knowledge to inform their current work within this arena.

 

From the Industry Perspective

Dennis Rodriguez, Director of Business Development for Black & Veatch, a global engineering firm, offers an ‘industry-based’ context. He notes that his firm actively engages with several elements of the workforce development (WFD) sector. They seek available, relevant funds from governments and then use those funds to partner with schools to design and build needed business-focused training programs. Obviously, the schools themselves are integral collaborators in the process.

 

From the Government Perspective

Kelly Mackey, State Director of Strategic Apprenticeships, CA Department of Industrial Relations, shared how California is going all-in with apprenticeships. Her newly formed agency incorporates an array of WFD services and supports that previously had operated as silos. Now, they’re working together towards common goals, including building DEI, equity, and social support into WFD initiatives. The State’s growing focus on ‘registered apprenticeships’ seeks to find paid work-based learning opportunities that connect those who need work with the businesses that need them. Adding a financial compensation aspect to the arrangement allows students to maintain their lives while learning; the companies get the assurance that their next ‘hire’ will be appropriately trained to do the job.

 

From the Worker Perspective

Nicole Feenstra, founder of the marketing entity ‘The DNA Agency,’ brings a unique thought to the chat: why aren’t we marketing jobs to learners and workers to businesses? In many instances, those looking for work don’t know how to find it, while those who need workers can’t seem to locate them. This communication disconnect cements the divide between potential employers and employees, exacerbating the economic challenges of unemployment rates and unfilled job openings.

Instead, she suggests, companies should consider modifying their methods to attract potential workers. Her research shows that typical ‘job search’ messaging can’t compete for attention against the panoply of digital distractions constantly streaming through electronic devices. Advertising jobs today mandates using similar tags and enticements as those that attract millions of viewers to cute cat videos.

But that’s not all that’s needed, Feenstra says. Gaining attention is simply step #1. Step #2 is giving viewers follow-up options that actually move them to take action. And all of these activities should be coordinated across the EWD and WFD spectrum.

 

Chancellor-Rodriguez-8×10-300dpi

From the Education Perspective

Dr. Francisco Rodriguez, Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, shared two fundamental aspects that characterize the work being done by his ‘agency,’ the nine LA-based community colleges.

    1. They are focused on collaboration with educational, industrial, and governmental partners. With constant outreach to other schools, State, regional, and local government agencies, and business and industry leaders, the schools are forming partnerships that will together build the region’s new economic foundation.
    2. They are ‘tuning up’ their internal operations to reflect their external goals and initiatives. Dr. Rodriguez sees the District as a role model for organizations of any type. They intentionally seek out DEI and multicultural hires to expand their leadership perspectives. They’re adding new courses and programs related directly to the needs of their business partners. And the District is actively engaged with the Legislature to ensure that policy, funding, and actions all coalesce around these WFD principles.

 

 

WFD & Emerging Trends

Collectively, the Panel also discussed how emerging trends are affecting their decisions and practices.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already encroaching on all of their sectors.

Current and future workers will need proficiency in these technical skills, so the schools and the government are developing responsive training programs to provide that option.

Businesses must compete with the software phenomenon, too, so they’re also reimagining their operations using an AI lens.

AI doesn’t replace ‘soft skills,’ however, according to the Black & Veatch representative. Even with all the promise shown by the technology, its value will only be as good as the humans who develop and implement it.

Global competitiveness is also spurring innovation, instigating conversations about what needs to be done to compete in that realm effectively and how to best pursue support and enhancements for those projects. The panelists confirmed:

Dedicated government funding will ensure training programs are both relevant and sufficient to restructure the economic foundation.

Local and regional resources are vast and deep. Both the educational and industry leaders on the Panel agreed that further exploration and development at the local level will retain economic resources in those areas while also strengthening the outcome for the State as a whole.

Improving the messaging among WFD participants from all segments will encourage communication, outreach, and connections that will result in enhanced economic activity.

 

It’s clear that Los Angeles, LA County, and the State of California are all in the midst of significant economic and social upheavals, some in the form of industrial contractions, others definitely in the throes of economic troughs. It will take a village to remediate all these situations, and the conversation presented by the Panelists at PCC’s FOW Conference was informative for all who attended. It offered insights and action items for anyone who is invested in furthering their local, regional, and state economies.

 

The FOW Panel One: What’s News with Training, Trades, and Transformations

Pam Sornson, JD on December 3, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

December 5, 2023

An enormous volume of information and insight emerged from the Future of Work Conference (FOW) hosted on October 26th by the Economic and Workforce Development division (EWD) of Pasadena City College (PCC). The past two editions of the Pulse covered several elements of the conversation:

The three keynote speakers, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency leader Secretary Stewart Knox, California Senator Anthony Potantino, and Union Station Homeless Services CEO Anne Miskey, shared their vision of today’s economic situation as they see it through their particular lens.

Opinions offered by the elected officials in attendance, California Assemblymember Mike Fong and Pasadena City Mayor Victor Gordo, revealed their perspectives on how EWD initiatives impact their constituents.

The two panels of industry experts discussed each of the two overarching conference themes:

How education can (and should) lead the way to a stronger economy and

How to revolutionize worker pathways to ensure qualified applicants are available for current and emerging jobs in high-demand industries.

There were very well-educated and experienced professionals sharing high-level insights on what needs to be done to improve California’s economy. However, the actual content that came out of those two panel discussions has not yet been covered.

In the last Pulse edition, we presented an overview of the questions we asked each of our panel participants. Their comprehensive responses enlightened both their colleagues on the dias and the ~200 attendees about the subtle nuances at play in this complex system of education, government, and industry. In this article, we will share the data offered by Panel One participants. This edition’s second article explores the subjects the other group was talking about.

 

 

Panel One Topic:    Training, Trades, and Transformation of Pathways

Each of the three panelists shared how their individual experiences in life drew them into EWD issues and how their occupations have led them to their current role as leaders in their sector.

County Agency Leader Kelly Lobianco

Kelly Lobianco, the inaugural leader of LA County’s Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), spoke about how working with veterans in New York City early in her career helped her understand the power of the pivot. The center she helped to develop was unsuccessful until they realized their services weren’t available where the veterans happened to be – restructuring the organization made it more helpful for its intended population and more sustainable as a viable resource.

In her role with the new LA County agency, she gets to apply a similar mindset to her department’s emerging challenges. The DEO is a mashup of several previously individual departments that operated separately, even though they shared many common goals and resources. Now, as a combined force, the new organization is focusing on leveraging the assets available through the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to improve the fortunes of LA County’s workforce stakeholders.

She notes, in particular, how the new funding brings with it a focus on socially beneficial elements and how they can enhance the success of every project. She expects her team to include needed social services and resources within any EWD project they’re working on.

She also shares her agency’s augmented attention to equity issues. As she learned in NYC, funds must be deployed where they’re needed, so she’s working on ensuring that people can access whatever resources they need to move forward, regardless of where they live within the county.

 

Union and Labor Leader Ernesto Medrano

As a long-time Union advocate and current Executive Secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, Ernesto Medrano came to his understanding of the work world when laboring at a local fast food restaurant in the 1970s. Even then, he was concerned about the economic and life challenges presented to people with few or no trained skills, and that exposure ultimately led to his role in Union leadership.

These days, he’s tracking the diversity gap in the building trades (which are a critical element of the Infrastructure Bill), as well as perceived barriers to the educational resources that lead to jobs and careers. The federal government, he notes, is putting millions of dollars into career training programs to ensure a sufficient supply of well-trained workers for existing and emerging job openings. As a strong champion of the community colleges, Medrano sees them as critical players in the workforce development environment. He’s working now with PCC to develop courses that feed the demand for workers in specific trades. The rise in apprenticeship opportunities also bodes well for those who score those positions and the companies and industries in which they will work.

 

Pasadena City Mayor Victor Gordo

Mayor Gordo represents a significant population within the LA region: he’s a Mexican immigrant who experienced employer exploitation as a young man and became a labor lawyer to combat those systems. As Mayor, he’s struck by how ‘both sides’ of the EWD strata — employee and employers — often share identical concerns: there are not enough resources available to address all the challenges they (individually) face. He describes it as a ‘disconnect’ between job seekers and job offerers because neither group seems to know what the other group is doing. From his chair, improved communication between the two will go a long way to alleviating the divide.

He also sees EWD initiatives as projects with many layers. Not only must open jobs be filled by qualified workers but ladders must also be built within those occupations to facilitate their upward mobility.

As a civic leader, Gordo’s attention is on embracing new businesses and industrial sectors and the EWD opportunities they bring to the table. In Pasadena, he asserts, there’s been a boom in the biotech sector, which has led to an expansion of innovation and the growth of new sub-industries. Those new jobs come with new skills, and Gordo sees Pasadena City — and Pasadena City College — as major players in finding the training resources those workers will need. He also sees the need for a broad-based educational strategy because, he aptly shares, “there is no one pathway to success.”

 

To get the full skinny on what went down on October 26th, you can stream the replay here. To learn what Panel Two participants had to say about revolutionizing worker pathways to occupational success, read on to our next article in this edition of the Pulse.

 

The Future of Work – Messengers & Changemakers

Pam Sornson, JD on November 18, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

November 21, 2023

Elected officials weren’t the only participants at Pasadena City College’s (PCC) 5th Annual Future of Work Conference, hosted on October 26th by its Economic and Workforce Development division (EWD): 

The three featured Keynote speakers – California Labor Secretary Stewart Knox, Senator Anthony Portantino, and Anne Miskey – brought nuance and insight into the ongoing discussions. 

The two assembled panels were populated by notable experts in their fields of education, communications, labor, and industry. 

The audience was populated by knowledgeable professionals from a variety of organizations, all of whom are deeply invested in this expanded community conversation and several of whom asked really interesting questions. 

The audience also included the recipient of the inaugural California Changemaker Award, Sheris Davoodi of Glendale Community College (seen above with PCC Interim President/Superintendent Dr. Jose A. Gomez), who has spent her career helping students from all walks of life achieve their educational and occupational goals.   

This assembly of talent, passion, and intelligence offered many angles and contexts to contemplate the serious subjects at hand.

 

Keynote Speaker California Senator Anthony Portantino

A long-time supporter of California’s community colleges, Senator Portantino represents California’s 25th State Senate District. His many successful projects include securing $4.5 million for the Glendale CC Virtual Reality & STEM Pilot project and pushing two school safety bills through into law.  

In his comments as the Keynote for Panel Two, the Senator encouraged conference attendees to stay flexible and fluid in how they address this myriad of complex EWD issues. He applauds the work being done to expand access to trade jobs. He also sees a need for an expanded education model that facilitates learning and advancement through many modalities, not just the traditional few (2- and 4-year colleges, dedicated trade schools, etc.) currently in use. He suggests focusing on the ultimate goal for the entire sector: what jobs will be available, and how do we train those who will fill those positions? “It’s about the individual … and what they want to achieve for themselves. We need everyone from across the spectrum to have access to these opportunities.” 

Senator Portantino’s inclusive message was an apt introduction to the subject matter for Panel Two: Innovating Student Success Systems Change. 

 

Keynote Speaker Anne Miskey, CEO of Union Station Homeless Services

As a bookend to Speaker Stewart Knox, who spoke about the state’s efforts to alleviate the challenges arising in EWD systems and programs, the day’s second Keynote, Anne Miskey, spoke about the people toward whom many of these efforts are directed – community members experiencing homelessness.  

A nationally recognized leader in developing strategies and solutions that approach the root causes of homelessness, Ms. Miskey has worked with the country’s most influential leaders, including First Lady Michelle Obama, the White House, and several federal departments, including Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Labor. She currently sits on several notable boards and committees, as well, including the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Ad Hoc Committee on Women’s Homelessness, the Technical Assistance Collaborative, which focuses on issues of mental health, addiction, and homelessness, and the Steering Committee for the Provider Alliance, a network of over 70 non-profit organizations working on homelessness. 

In her work as the Chief Executive Officer of Los Angeles Union Station Homeless Services (USHS), Ms. Miskey sees firsthand the consequences of insufficient economic resources and the impact that circumstance has on an individual. The statistics are alarming:

Every day, there are approximately 2 million people in the state who are at risk of falling into homelessness. 

Between 2020 and 2023, the number of homeless individuals in Los Angeles County rose by 9%. (Los Angeles City saw a 10% increase.)

The fastest-growing population within the homeless community are seniors, those 65+ years old who don’t have the financial resources to maintain their previous lifestyle.

The second fastest-growing group of people entering homelessness are families with children. Eight percent of the total homeless number are children under age 18, while 5% are ‘transition’ age – 18 to 24 years.  

Approximately 40% of people aging out of foster care will become homeless by age 26, and

A full 30% of college students are either currently either homeless or at risk of becoming so in the near future. 

Not only do these unhoused individuals represent escalating burdens on social services and other public resources, but their absence from the labor force represents a significant loss of talent, skill, and initiative that could and should be put to use for their own and the community’s greater good. 

Accordingly, Ms. Miskey offered information on existing barriers to improvement as well as possible solutions to the homelessness concern for Conference attendees to consider.

 

Barriers

She notes that obstacles to progress exist in both the population being served and the agencies that are trying to serve it.

Barriers to Individual Success:

The absence of affordable, convenient training and education centers leaves many people with no options for bettering their economic situation. The current structure of today’s educational system requires students to have the time, money, and opportunity to attend. 

The absence of childcare is an extra burden carried by single mothers who are also homeless. Today, 30% of LA County’s homeless are single females, and those with children don’t usually have the financial resources needed to pay for that service.

Barriers to Agency Success:

Ms. Miskey notes the adaptations her agency needed to make to deliver more efficient and effective services. Starting out as an employment-focused organization, the enterprise had to adopt and coordinate a constellation of social services to better meet its constituents’ needs. 

A negative cultural mindset also permeates the homeless concern. In too many cases, she says, people who are looking for work and are also homeless are seen to be less desirable as workers, and that perspective certainly impedes the process of finding work for this group.  

 

Possible Solutions

In light of those considerations, Ms. Miskey suggests several avenues that the sector could adopt to ease the homeless problem while also alleviating the unfilled job opening concern.

Create meaningful connections with the unhoused individuals. Providing support and comfort initially (food, shelter, mental health, and addiction services) builds both their internal frame of reference and their trust that their community can help them.

Create equally meaningful connections between the unhoused population and its attendant service providers. Achieving access to entry-level jobs that lead to solid career opportunities is the ultimate goal, so support agencies might consider developing short-term training programs to get their unhoused community members into the work world as soon as possible.

Provide employers with similar support. The USHS has helped many companies hire and sustain new employees who continue to struggle with internal issues. The added support resources allow the worker to retain their job while reducing the unexpected demand on the employer.  

Ms. Miskey also followed a comment thread that ran throughout her presentation: the LA region needs not just more affordable housing. It also needs an across-the-board increase in wages and salaries. Too many people in these lower economic sectors must choose between rent and medicine, or child care, or food. Paying them a living wage raises them up into a better life circumstance while also preventing their slide into the morass of homelessness, hopelessness, and despair.    

 

The Inaugural California Changemaker Award

Sheris Davoodi  – Programs and Services Specialist – Career Services, Glendale Community College

For 15+ years, Ms. Davoodi has served the student community at Glendale Community College by providing career development services and courses in her roles as the Programs and Services Specialist and Adjunct Instructor. Her hands-on practice shares skillsets and insights for many career and occupational choices, including customer service, business technology, and business management communications. She and her team arm their student clients with soft skills, organizational effectiveness, and computer literacy capacities to facilitate their entry into the ’employee’ sector. For a brief moment, she also held the role of Interim Director for PCC’s Robert G. Freeman Center for Career and Completion. 

Her selection as the inaugural recipient of this prestigious honor is well-made and appropriate, considering how many learners have succeeded in their career dreams because of her thoughtful training and mentoring strategies. Congratulations, Ms. Davoodi. 

 

 

The Future of Work Panels: Questions and Overview

Pam Sornson, JD on November 18, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

November 21, 2023

Many topics were discussed at the recent Future of Work Conference hosted by Pasadena City College’s Economic and Workforce Development division (PCC EWD) on October 26th. Speakers, panelists, and audience members all contributed unique and relevant inputs to the broader conversation, adding color and nuance based on their particular EWD sector and expertise. A short synopsis of the questions posed to them all – and the questions some of them asked in response – may help Pulse readers make more sense of the two Panel dialogues that will be presented in our December 5th edition.

 

Three Overarching Conference Considerations

There were three primary considerations proposed as the foundation of the day’s conversations:

How can we better align the goals and systems of California’s three major EWD elements: state-based workforce development programs, community college career technical education courses (CCC CTE), and trade union participation?

How do we adapt the California community college academic system’s best-in-class student success innovations to better meet learner and employer needs?

How can we best align our CCC efforts with national and State priorities, including enhanced union engagement, to connect industry sector priorities to growing and emerging economic opportunities?

These are not insignificant issues. The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and its ancillary industrial and social upsets has roiled the traditional way of doing business. The panelists, speakers, and audience members were eager to share their views on how those developments have impacted the way they do their work.

 

Two Panels. Many Perspectives.

The day’s two panels focused on related but different aspects of the EWD environment. The first one focused on transforming educational pathways to occupations and careers. The second Panel focused on modifying student success systems to reflect the influx of desperately needed system change. Each panelist was then asked to respond to specific questions within each topic to elicit their particular perspective on those issues. The aggregation of opinions and expertise provided an excellent overview for audience members of the many facets involved in addressing these pressing EWD concerns.

 

Panel One:  Training, Trades, and the Transformation of Pathways

Panelists on the first chat of the day represented three major EWD subsectors:

Government: Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, whose focus for his 20+ years in leadership has been to promote safe, family-friendly environments throughout [LA].

Unions: Ernesto Medrano, a construction trade union chief who currently holds the role of Executive Secretary, Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, and

Service Agencies: Kelly LoBianco, the inaugural director of LA County’s newly formed Department of Economic Opportunity.

Their responses to questions asked by Moderator PCC Interim President/Superintendent Dr. Jose Gomez reflect the views they’ve developed based on their unique histories and careers and on the roles they currently hold within their sector. The takeaways from the conversation enlightened the audience about how these three systems are working together to repair organizational damage while reinventing elements that disappeared.

What are the biggest influences on the building trades these days?

How can we build an equitable workforce while rebuilding the economic infrastructure?

How can we best manage the EWD investments directed at each of your agencies?

The commentary by the panelists stimulated equally interesting questions from the audience:

How can small businesses connect with these development opportunities?

Is there training available for the administration jobs that industries are generating?

What opportunities are available for former prison inmates?

Are funds and support systems in the works for the families caring for these workers, especially for child care?

The queries and responses presented by both panelists and audience members provided insights into individual elements of the EWD sector as well as raised further questions for future discussion.

 

Panel Two: Innovation in Driving Student-Focused Systems Change

The second Panel was equally informative, as it focused the conference’s attention on community colleges and the success of their students. These four experts represented distinct elements of the EWD sector: government, business, communications, and (of course) education.

Government: Kelly Mackey, State Director of Strategic Apprenticeships, State of California Apprenticeship and Workforce Innovation Unit, CA Department of Industrial Relations

Industry: Dennis Rodriguez, Director of Business Development, Black & Veatch, a construction corporation focused on infrastructure resources, including power and water utilities.

Communications: Nicole Feenstra, Director – The DNA Agency, a messaging and marketing agency engaging directly with the residential construction industry.

Education: Dr. Francisco Rodriguez, Chancellor, Los Angeles Community College District, which includes nine California Community Colleges in the LA County region.

In addition to the overarching ‘student success’ inquiry for this Panel, they were each asked to offer their thoughts on several ancillary topics, as well:

How will technology impact student success?

How do we create a culture of collaboration within your agency?

What is the State doing about diversity within career pathways?

How are industries bridging the worker/workforce supply/demand gap?

How do we recruit potential workers to industry-focused programs?

How can we collect the feedback we need to clarify our processes and achieve our goals?

And, again, members of the audience had their own concerns to raise:

Are we teaching soft skills as well as technical capacities?

Are we including older workers in evolving EWD systems?

What are we doing to reach into communities to find those who want access to these resources?

The substance of these conversations was wide-ranging and comprehensive. They will be featured in the next edition of the Pulse.

Overall, it was an energetic, informative, and community-building kind of day, where all participants – keynote, panelists, and audience members – gave their particularly relevant contributions to the broader conversation. Clearly, the residents of Pasadena, the Los Angeles region, and California in general are very well served when it comes to addressing pressing workforce challenges to create the economic foundation of the future.

Assemblyman Fong and Mayor Gordo Discuss the Future of Work

Pam Sornson, JD on November 6, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

November 7, 2023

Attendees at the recent Future of Work Conference, hosted by the Economic and Workforce Development Division of Pasadena City College (PCC EWD), were very fortunate to hear from speakers representing all levels of government: state, regional, and local.

California’s 49th District Assemblyman Mike Fong joined PCC EWD Vice President Salvatrice Cummo in welcoming the crowd of ~200 guests.

Stewart Knox, Secretary of California’s Labor & Workforce Development Agency, provided the opening Keynote remarks, then ably moderated the event’s first panel of EWD professionals.

Pasadena City Mayor Victor Gordo joined Panel #1 to discuss how his career as a labor lawyer informs his advocacy for enhanced educational and career entry and ladder opportunities across all of his city’s ethnic populations.

Together, they provided significant insights and information about how California, Los Angeles County, and the City of Pasadena are individually addressing workforce development initiatives within their respective boundaries. The first article in this edition of the Pulse featured Secretary Knox’s presentation. In this article, we are sharing the inputs provided by Assemblyman Fong and Mayor Gordo.

 

Assemblyman Mike Fong

Assemblyman Fong’s 49th District (one of 80 in the state) encompasses the western side of the San Gabriel Valley, including nine cities (Alhambra, El Monte, Arcadia, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel, San Marino, South Pasadena, and Temple City) as well as three unincorporated areas (East Pasadena, North El Monte, and South San Gabriel). The district is home to almost half a million people (~462,000), 85% of whom identify as Asian or Latino.

In his role as Assemblyman, Mr. Fong is a passionate advocate for advancing employment and workforce initiatives that impact all of his constituents. He sits on multiple committees, including those addressing economic concerns (banking and finance, budget, higher education, and trade and investment, to name just four), as well as diversity and equity issues that are focused on the well-being of disabled and unhoused people, ethnic communities (Asian, Pacific Islander, Mexican), and the LGBTQ+ community.

To conferencegoers, Mr. Fong was highly complementary about the work being done across the region supporting workforce development goals. He noted that the businesses that populate the region’s 11 primary industry clusters (Aerospace, Biosciences, Entertainment, Trade, Advanced Transportation, Design, the ‘Ocean’ Economy, Fashion & Apparel, Tourism, Information Technology, and Food Manufacturing) all benefit from the increasingly sophisticated collaborations between their participants and the colleges and training programs that provide their labor force.

He also touched on the importance of ensuring that all possible workforce members receive the support they require to achieve their personal and occupational goals. Those with challenges, such as physical, health, or economic impediments, need additional resources to move up in the world, and Fong is working to ensure that there are appropriate community resources available to help them do that. He sees the trades (those in the construction industry, in particular) as drivers of economic growth, and training programs that feed these occupations will contribute much to the future economy. “The speed of change is rapid,” Fong asserts. “California’s governments are in tune with these demands and are actively collaborating with in-the-field, local partners to address their challenges.”

 

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo

A long-time advocate for workers, Mayor Gordo works diligently with ‘both sides’ to make meaningful and fruitful connections between labor and industry. Ironically, both of those ‘sides’ – workers and the businesses that hire them – cite the same concerns about economic growth opportunities: there are not enough resources available for people or organizations to find the means to move forward. He says he’s also very aware of the lack of communication between the two groups – workers don’t know of available jobs or training programs, while employers with staffing problems need help finding qualified employees. In many cases, a lack of information about trade and skill development programs stymies potential workers from finding the support they need to find well-paying work. From Gordo’s perspective, improving the communications channels for both potential labor force members and the companies that employ them will help to alleviate the stress the city now experiences due to unfilled job positions.

His insights on the complexity of building a workforce in Pasadena, in particular, flow from his own life experience. A Mexican native, Mayor Gordo has lived in Pasadena since emigrating to the country as a young boy. His parents (a dishwasher and seamstress) worked hard to provide a good life for their six children; Gordo himself contributed to the family fortunes by delivering the Pasadena Star-News newspaper for eight years (from age nine to 17). As the first of his family to graduate college (he’s an alum of PCC), he went on to earn a law degree and entered politics in 2001, representing District 5. He was elected Mayor in November 2020.

In this role, Gordo is tasked with managing city growth in these unprecedented times. “The bio- and biotech industries are growing, and Pasadena offers resources that support this aspect of the expanding healthcare sector. They need more workers, however, and we’re looking at how to attract young people to these career options.” His challenge is that the City does not yet have a fully vested system to make these labor-demand connections. “We need to forecast where we’re going and share that information with the [young people who need to hear it].”

Throughout his career, Gordo’s focus has remained steadfast on the welfare of the city’s underserved populations. In addition to his role as Mayor, Gordo acts as General Counsel and Secretary-Treasurer of Local 777 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA). He sees the unions as significant assets for current and future growth, and works with those representatives to build both entry-level and career-climbing opportunities for learners not interested in pursuing a traditional ‘college’ education. Secretary Knox commented with a smile on how often Mayor Gordo reaches out to his office for support and resources on behalf of his Pasadena constituents.

 

These three elected officials, Pasadena City Mayor Victor Gordo, California 49th District Assemblyman Mike Fong, and Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Stewart Knox, ably represent the interests and ambitions of thousands of California’s workers and businesses. Their contributions to the 5th Annual Future of Work Conference are highly valued and greatly appreciated.

Future of Work Keynote Speaker Stewart Knox Talks About Connections

Pam Sornson, JD on November 6, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

November 21, 2023

The October 26th 5th Annual Future of Work Conference hosted by the Economic and Workforce Division of Pasadena City College (PCC EWD) was an unabashed success. The event gathered individuals from all walks of the EWD sector to discuss how government, industry, and the higher education system will rework their collaborations to meet tomorrow’s labor force demands. The crowd of close to 200 professionals was treated to two lively panel conversations, two informative and inspiring keynote addresses, and several insightful and well-informed questions.

This edition of the Pulse presents comments made by the invited elected officials, one each from city, regional, and state governments. Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, 49th District Representative Mike Fong, and Stewart Knox, Secretary of California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), all brought compelling tales about what their agency is doing to support EWD initiatives. While each represents a unique population, they all face similar challenges: who needs work? Who needs workers? How do we connect the two?

 

Secretary, CA LWDA, Stewart Knox

Keynote Speaker Stewart Knox, Secretary of California’s Labor & Workforce Development Agency

Almost 30 years of EWD experience informs Mr. Knox’s leadership of this critically important state agency. In addition to his work here, he’s also spent much of his career working in and with the California Community College system, the California Employment Training Panel, and the Northern Rural Training and Employment Consortium. Several Counties have also benefitted from his role in their EWD environments.

As keynote speaker, Mr. Knox was enthusiastic about the future of California’s economic development strategies and especially about the emerging collaborations arising from enhanced partnerships between government agencies, industries, and colleges. He underscored the need for ‘connections’ at this critical juncture in the State’s economic trajectory. “Our work has changed a lot,” he notes. “Artificial Intelligence will change it more. Our EWD system is growing and changing, and we need to be prepared to change with it.”

The looming changes he sees are many:

High school students today are expected to change jobs or careers at least ten times in their lives.

Seniors (people over 50) are continuing to work beyond the traditional retirement age of 65.

Many workers need training and upskilling to find work in the post-COVID era.

Technology is disrupting more industries than ever before, and that trend will only grow.

The data suggest that an educational/industry restructure that incorporates ‘lifelong learning’ as a central tenet will respond to all of these emerging concerns. Mr. Knox encouraged conference attendees to include the design and build of lifelong learning programs into their ongoing discussions.

 

He also noted how the state government is addressing these issues. Its investment in apprenticeship development is significant and on target. More than one in three California high school graduates do not pursue further education, and many of those end up in menial or only entry-level occupations. Instead, Mr. Knox suggests they consider finding an apprenticeship in an industry they like. California has over 800 recognized apprenticeship jobs and over 1,400 apprenticeship programs training ~73,000 workers to take them. In fact, the State is so invested in these programs that it’s investing hundreds of millions of dollars to grow the available number of apprenticeship spots to half a million by the year 2029.

Knox says the State is also fully invested in evolving its connections with its community college system. The colleges provide services to underserved learners, and California wants to help each school meet the needs of its particular populations. Knox suggests that enhancing the support offered by career centers can help more students get through to not just their certifications but also the jobs they seek. Connecting these students with industry-specific counselors, as well, will also improve graduation and job placement metrics.

 

Looking forward, the Labor Secretary noted the State’s involvement with academic committees, industry leaders, and union representatives to ensure that all players in the sector are engaged in the same conversation.

The State is developing innovative marketing campaigns to attract students back to school after a significant drop-off during and after the pandemic.

In the colleges, for-credit and non-credit course completion will be recognized as ‘educational acquisition’ for credentialing purposes.

The Academic committees will have the information they need to make appropriate decisions for institutional investments.

The State is also expanding its partnerships with unions. Union membership numbers ~2.5 million, and those jobs are responsible for maintaining much of the State’s infrastructure. As the unions themselves grow, so will their support from and engagement with the public agencies that need those well-trained labor resources.

The government is working on itself, too. According to Secretary Knox, the state legislature is reviewing statutes to eliminate those that don’t support today’s EWD demands. Too many of the current regulations were designed and implemented in very different economic times.

More financial support is encouraged, as well. State coffers are already dedicating millions of dollars to educational directives. The federal government offers additional funding, too, especially, says Knox, in conjunction with the Pathways Program, which provides funding for internships in many industries.

 

The experience Secretary Knox brings to his role is invaluable for how it informs his decisions going forward. Early in his career, he was teaching GED classes to students who had lost their jobs due to contractions in the timber industries. They, too, were seeking new skills to obtain a new future in a new job. Knox sees the same unemployment issues emerging now from the petroleum and other industries as those are evolving post-COVID and in this new economic era. He’s using that gained knowledge and inputs from today’s technology to build appropriately responsive job training opportunities.

California is fortunate to have a man with the qualifications of Stewart Knox in the top leadership position at its premier economic development agency.

How to Revolutionize Worker Pathways – Panel One Speakers

Pam Sornson, JD on October 16, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

October 17, 2023

On October 26th, the Economic and Workforce Development division (EWD) of Pasadena City College (PCC) is hosting its 5th annual Future of Work Conference, “Revolutionizing Worker Pathways“. The Conference is free to attend (register here), and refreshments will keep participants and attendees alert and engaged throughout the event.

In addition to the regular sharing of ‘workforce development’-related insights and information, as a new feature, PCC’s EWD will present the inaugural “Los Angeles Changemaker Award” to the individual whose activities and efforts are deemed both notable and significant to LA County’s economic and workforce development initiatives.

 

Two Panels – Two Questions

This year’s theme, ‘Revolutionizing Worker Pathways,’ embraces the many perspectives that overlay development planning for today’s and tomorrow’s labor force. Industries are in constant flux, so demand for new and emerging skills and abilities is always an issue. At the same time, unemployed workers need training on said skills and abilities, and, in many cases, those programs are not yet in place. At the heart of the conversation is the need to build and sustain an economy that provides a comfortable living for all workers while offering services and supports for the entire community. So much to talk about!

To tackle the subject matter, the Conference is convening two panels, each of which will address one of two fundamental elements of the discussion. The questions asked will address foundational concerns that permeate the EWD sector:

Panel One: Training, Trades & Transformation of Pathways

What do learners need to know to find work in their chosen occupation?

What skills are required, and where are those taught?

How do schools and work-based learning opportunities facilitate a transition from student to employee?

Panel Two: Innovation in Driving Student-Focused Systems Change

What’s already working in California’s education systems to train and place tomorrow’s skilled employees?

What assets need development to enhance the education system’s capacity to support all learners?

How does the EWD community overhaul systems that are obsolete or irrelevant?

The topics are designed to elicit opinions and responses from all EWD sector participants, including educators, business owners, industry leaders, government agencies, and community leaders. Accordingly, each panel is populated by a team of professionals, each of whom plays a critical role within their EWD’ sphere of influence.’

In this article, you’ll meet the experts on Panel One, who will be discussing how to revise existing (or build new) pathways to ensure better employment success for current and future students. In this Pulse edition’s companion essay, we’ll look at who will be sitting on Panel Two.

 

Panel One Speakers:

Training, Trades & Transformation of Pathways

Who better to talk about schools, politics, and trades than educators, government officials, and trade leaders?

 

Dr. Jose Gomez – Dr. Gomez has just recently accepted the job as Interim Superintendent-President of Pasadena City College, bringing with him his deep EWD experience in leadership and advisory roles at California State University at LA, the California State Senate, the Office of the California Attorney General, and the Office of the California State Treasurer. As a young learner, Dr. Gomez attended both Mt. San Antonio and Citrus community colleges before graduating from California State Polytechnic University (BA) and the University of Southern California (MA, MPA, Ph.D.). Consequently, Dr. Gomez has personally navigated many of the systems over which he now presides at PCC. His Harvard graduate degree in Leadership in Education underscores his dedication to helping learners – and schools – achieve their highest ideals. His input to the conversation will be invaluable.

 

Victor Gordo – The Mayor of Pasadena grew up in the city and is a proud Pasadena Unified School District graduate. He was the first of his family to attend college (he’s an alum of PCC), and he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in business and finance from Azusa Pacific University and a law degree from La Verne College of Law. He parlayed that educational foundation into a career in politics, working as a field representative for District 5 for then-mayor Bill Crowfoot. District 5 is a notably diverse community; in 2001, Mayor Gordo was elected to represent it on Pasadena’s City Council. pHe followed that opportunity by representing the City of Pasadena on the Rose Bowl Operating Committee, serving on the Council’s Finance Committee, and serving as Chair of the Council’s Economic Development and Technology Committee. He was elected Mayor in November 2020 and steered the city through the pandemic, significant social unrest, and an exhaustive search for a new City Manager. He also serves as the General Counsel and Secretary-Treasurer for the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 777.

 

Ernesto Medrano – The recently elected Executive Secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council is excited to lead his contingent of union workers into the new economic era. Planning to build on the momentum driven by the White House and emerging demands by workers for better working conditions, Medrano intends for his agency to add and ensure union involvement in developing that promising economic landscape. The scope of Medrano’s agency position encompasses 48 separate local unions and district councils, with more than 150,000 members representing 14 trades. After 40 years in the union organization sector, Mr. Medrano brings an educated and sophisticated voice to this conversation.

 

Kelly Lobianco – As director of the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity, Ms. Lobianco brings 15+ years of non-profit and public servant strategizing to this newly inaugurated role. Combining the efforts of four county units into one, this new branch oversees many of the region’s economic and workforce development endeavors that, together, provide support, direction, and resources for the County’s millions of workers. In her role as leader, Ms. Lobianco will be coordinating services that directly impact the region’s job creation strategies, industry partnerships, and business supports, among many other initiatives.

 

Panel One begins at 9:45 a.m. on the 26th, following the keynote address by California Labor & Workforce Development Agency Secretary Stewart Knox. It promises to be an informative and instructional morning. You won’t want to miss it.

 

Education Leads the Way to a Stronger Economy – Panel Two Speakers

Pam Sornson, JD on October 16, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

October 17, 2023

The suggestion that education should be at the heart of economic development isn’t a novel idea. For years, experts have proven that countries with well-skilled workers enjoy stronger economies and a notable competitive advantage over nations that haven’t invested in their educational infrastructure. National, regional, and local economies all benefit when their shared workforce increases productivity, and even more so when those training and labor opportunities are available to all members of the population, regardless of their age, race, or gender. Communities that invest in a solid educational infrastructure experience lower poverty rates, better gender equality, and overall economic stability, which, together, reduce the social services burden on the government while enhancing the safety and security of the community at large.

Considering that sizeable impact of education on economic outcomes, it’s not surprising that the topic of choice for Panel Two at Pasadena City College’s 5th Annual Future of Work Conference is exploring  “Innovations in Driving Student-Focused Systems Change.” While California’s community college system is already one of the best in the world, it also sees how new gaps and challenges stemming from recent economic upheavals render some of its programs obsolete. That divide between college and career is growing more prominent as industrial systems change while education systems remain stagnant. The LA region intends to fully recover from the pandemic and all its social, political, and economic fall-out, so it is dedicated to revising its education systems to facilitate those inevitable changes in how industries and economies ‘work.’

 

Clarifying Barriers

Accordingly, the second set of panelists on Conference day will discuss leveraging existing educational resources to meet emerging labor demands. There are numerous obstacles to forward movement on the issue, however:

The speed at which the pandemic dismantled many industrial norms surprised most people. In many cases, industrial sectors are still evaluating which internal system elements need revision, replacement, or retirement.

Some occupational categories will need complete overhauls, not just because of technological improvements but also because the workforce is shrinking. Innovators may have to learn to achieve more productivity with less human power to do the work.

The introduction of technology in almost every industrial sector often requires an entirely new set of skills, many of which weren’t even considered just five years ago. Many of today’s educational resources are not yet set up to offer these courses.

Clearly, there is much to discuss, and this set of panelists offers unique and advanced perspectives to enlighten all in attendance.

 

 

Panel Two Participants

 

Moderator: Salvatrice Cummo,

Vice President of Economic & Workforce Development, Pasadena City College

A long career in ‘business’ – family, non-profit, publicly traded – informs Ms. Cummo’s educational perspective. Having worked successfully in retail, she left that occupation to lead the Pasadena Small Business Development Corporation, where she and her team developed practices and tools to assist emerging companies in becoming more successful and profitable. She was named Director of Economic and Workforce Development for Pasadena City College in 2017 and was appointed Vice President in that role in 2021.

 

Dennis Rodriguez,

Director of Business Development, Black & Veatch

This century-old, employee-owned engineering/construction corporation prides itself on its commitment to solution-focused innovation. Mr. Rodriguez manages public sector business development for the Western United States. He brings his years of experience to the panel in LA’s political and business community, where he worked as an aide to LA city council members and as a leader in the LA Chamber of Commerce and the LA Neighborhood Initiative, among many other affiliations.

 

Kelly Mackey,

State Director of Strategic Apprenticeships, State of California Apprenticeship and Workforce Innovation Unit, CA Department of Industrial Relations

MacKey is a celebrated innovator in workforce development, having received the President’s Award from the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) for her pioneering effort to build the country’s first public sector apprenticeship pathway. By doing so, she demonstrated that apprenticeships and work-based learning initiatives can evolve within all aspects of public life, including in government systems. Her insights will reveal how perceived obstacles don’t need to be barriers.

 

Dr. Francisco Rodriguez,

Chancellor, Los Angeles Community College District

As the leader of the country’s largest community college district, the LA Community College District (LACCD), Dr. Rodgriguez presides over nine colleges and 200,000+ students every year. These schools are often the first step for learners on their path to a better life, with half coming from low-income families. The District spends over $200 million per year in student aid, ensuring that every student has the resources needed to begin, persist through, and complete their early college education, whether that’s to pursue a trade or transfer to achieve a four-year degree. Dr. Rodriguez’s long history in both education and education administration provides him with insights and opinions that will surely educate FOW Conference attendees.

 

Nicole Feenstra,

Founder – The DNA Agency

A creative entrepreneur, Ms. Feestra uses her marketing and brand development skills to promote the high values of the trades as a career choice, most notably welding. A gifted storyteller, she knows how to connect an audience with her client’s resources with wit, charm, and precision. She will share her experiences developing marketing tools for trades-based educational programs with the panel and attendees.

 

The Conference is hosted by the Economic and Workforce Development Division at Pasadena City College (PCC EWD) and runs on October 26th, 8 am to 2 pm, in the Crevelling Lounge on campus. Attendance costs nothing, but registration is strongly encouraged.

 

Career-focused Pathways Enhance Student Success

Pam Sornson, JD on October 2, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

October 3, 2023

In essence, the goal is to develop a system that results in ‘wins’ for everyone and every entity involved: students, businesses, industries, and communities. How to achieve that goal is a challenge, and there are as many opinions about ‘next steps’ as there are people joining the conversation. However, if all participants can agree to a single, overarching, and ultimate ‘universal’ objective (such as a ‘healthy and growing economy’ or ‘no unfilled job openings,’ as examples), then each can determine how their assets and capacities will contribute individually to accomplishing that singular intention.

 

Training, Trades, & Transforming Pathways

Forging a path toward that goal is the subject matter for our first panel of experts at the upcoming (October 26th, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.) Future of Work Conference hosted by Pasadena City College (PCC). (It’s free. Register here.) The events of the past three years have revealed glaring gaps in workforce development preparations and outputs in California and across the country. Thousands of job openings in occupations critical to maintaining economic foundations are unfilled because there are no workers – or no trained workers – available to accept them. In May 2023, on National Skilled Trades Day, America’s industries were missing over 400,000 welders, 18,000 aircraft mechanics, and 78,000 truck drivers. These gaps in workforce capacities limit the productivity of both the company that would hire them and the industries and supply chains with which those are affiliated. It’s a domino effect; when a business can’t complete one leg of a journey, or can’t fulfill an order for one part of a machine, or doesn’t have the resources to facilitate one element within a logistics strategy, then all aspects of that combined joint project – contractors, vendors, merchants, and consumers – also fail.

The lack of skilled tradespeople isn’t a new development, however. For decades, trade school enrollment has been dropping as society shifted its focus to a four-year degree as the ultimate educational standard. Consequently, many people best suited to a trade-type occupation lost their opportunity to attend the school that would have given them that training. Now, there are plenty of job opportunities within those fields that need filling. As of this Spring, there were over 10,000,000 job openings across the nation, but only 5.7 million unemployed workers who might fill those positions.

The pandemic appears to have opened a door to remedy this situation. It both eliminated whole swaths of occupations that were rendered irrelevant or obsolete by technology while also revealing an ever-burgeoning demand for more skilled labor across many industries. Schools with programs that were no longer relevant are now contemplating new avenues for training purposes that will respond to the labor demand. Industries with emerging needs – technology, infrastructure, security, etc. – are looking for responsive resources to fill those gaps (in terms of both educational resources and HR assets). Meanwhile, the government continues to pump billions of dollars – local, state, and federal – into workforce development projects in an effort to regain lost ground and build the foundation for a new and refreshed economic future. With so much of the previous system in disarray, ‘now’ seems like the right time to intentionally move away from what’s not working and toward new endeavors that promise more success.

 

Innovations in Student-Focused Systems Change

Understanding what kind of labor industries and businesses need, however, is just one part of the solution. Another factor is developing the educational resources necessary to address those workforce requirements. Accordingly, the second panel at the Future of Work Conference will discuss the nuances involved in transitioning outmoded existing college and trade school resources into structures that respond to today’s economic and labor force demands. Improving the connection between college and career will also (ostensibly) improve student success metrics, too. These conference panelists, too, have a challenge facing them.

In July 2023, the California Employment Department’s Labor Market Information Division (EDD- LMID) reported:

California’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment percentage is 4.6, which is up a bit over the low point reached (3.8%) in the Summer of 2022.

Three of the state’s 11 major industries have yet to regain their pre-pandemic employment numbers: financial activities, government, and ‘other’ services.

Year-over-year job gains from 2022 through 2023 are promising, with the highest numbers of new jobs added occurring in private education, health services, and leisure and hospitality.

These are relevant factors that can feed the Conference discussion.

And there is growth to be had, too. Looking ahead, EDD-LMIC research also offers indicators of future job creation opportunities. Just three main sectors will account for 65% of the job growth volume over the next year:

The expansion of the leisure and hospitality industry will continue by as much as 7.3%, adding over 130,000 new jobs, primarily in the food services and drinking establishment sectors.

The social services sector (including private education, health services, and social assistance) is expected to grow an additional 4.3%, with almost half (41%) occurring in the social assistance subsector alone.

The business and professional services section will be growing, too, by almost 3% (2.7). Nearly one in five of those new occupations (18%) will involve computer systems design and related activities.

This panel must also consider long-term growth expectations. The California EDD issues 10-year predictions about workforce demands in the state’s 15 economic regions, with the most recent covering the decade between 2020 and 2030. For example, the Los Angeles Basin region (Los Angeles County) is predicted to have significant employment growth in occupations that cross several industrial sectors, including general and operations management, software-related fields (including developers, security, and quality assurance analysts), and accountants and auditors. Registered nurses will also be highly valuable, as will project management and business operations specialists.

 

The task ahead for the participants at PCC’s 2023 Future of Work Conference is daunting. Creating a ‘win-win’ scenario that builds both a robust workforce and a strong economy will challenge each of them to not just impart their wisdom, but also to collaborate with their conference colleagues to new ways of seeing and thinking about ‘workforce development.’ It’s a conversation you won’t want to miss.

California’s Chief Workforce Guru Opens FOW Conference Discussion

Pam Sornson, JD on October 2, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

October 3, 2023

The State of California’s presence in the nation’s Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) sector is notable for many reasons. Not only does it have one of the biggest economies in the world (~$3.6 trillion in 2022), it is also:

The home to one of the world’s largest port systems (together, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles comprise the San Pedro Bay Port complex, which manages an annual cargo value of over $300B),

Acts as a geographical and logistical base for countless industries and businesses (eleven major industrial sectors and more than four million small businesses) that generate trillions of revenue dollars each year, and

Hosts the largest collegiate collaborative in the world. The Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC) of 19 community colleges encompasses all the community colleges within Los Angeles County.

Accordingly, anyone involved in EWD efforts within the state (and out of it, too) should take the opportunity to listen when the leader of California’s Labor & Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), Stewart Knox, offers to talk about what he and his colleagues see as critical issues within that environment.

 

LWDA Secretary Stewart Knox …

California’s Secretary for the LWDA, Stewart Knox, will be the keynote speaker at the October 26th Future of Work Conference, hosted by Pasadena City College’s (PCC) division of Economic and Workforce Development (register to attend here.) For almost 30 years, Mr. Knox has immersed himself in employment-related issues from all sides of the EWD prism. His expansive career has included roles such as Director of Workforce at both the college (Yuba Community College) and municipal (the City of Glendale) levels, as a director for workforce training programs in rural communities and at the state level, and as EWD director for San Mateo County, to name just a few. Each assignment broadened his understanding of the complexities involved when building a viable and successful economy using workforce development skills and resources.

Knox’s connections across the EWD sector – at schools, in school districts, in economic forums, and as a local, regional, and state-based leader – give him a far-reaching vision of not just where California is now but also where it can (and probably should) go in the future. His perspective will be a welcome introduction to the conference’s primary focus, how to revolutionize worker pathways through education and training programs to their chosen careers with the companies that need them. His experience with virtually every element of the EWD platform informs his overarching comprehension of how each individual system works and how they merge together to function as a cohesive and singular economic development organization.

From early-stage training programs through workforce systems development and implementation to establishing and tracking economic outcomes, Mr. Knox understands the relevance of all players within the sector and how their individual efforts combine to improve the outcomes for all.

 

… And California’s Emerging Economic Landscape

Mr. Knox will speak to a well-informed audience of business, industry, educational, governmental, and social sector participants. While everyone from any walk of life is welcome to attend, the target audience of this free event consists of those already immersed in EWD and related issues and causes. And they will have a lot to talk about.

Reduced State Funding Capacities

California experienced significant economic and workforce contractions during the COVID-19 pandemic, some of which were made worse by accompanying social and environmental disasters. The impact on the state’s economy was immense; California lost billions of dollars in revenues while, at the same time, escalating spending to accommodate the burgeoning demand for an expansive constellation of emergency services. The immediate consequence of those economic contractions is the $24 billion deficit facing the Governor in January as he developed his 2023 state-wide budget.

A Reduced Workforce Population, Too

The state is also dealing with a reduced overall population compared to what it had at the beginning of 2020. Over the last ~three years, California has experienced a net loss of over 817,000 people through deaths (some of which were COVID-related), departures to other countries, or – most often – departures to other U.S. states. Of all the states, California is one of 18 that lost population numbers since the beginning of the pandemic, and it has experienced the fourth-highest rate of loss, too. A notable consequence of this reality is the state’s loss of a congressional seat (shifting down from 53 to 52) after 2020 census numbers revealed insufficient population counts to maintain that position. Consequential to that development is the loss of a voice at the national government level as well as a reduction of the federal resources distributed to the states based on their population levels.

A Diversifying Economic Map

Shifts in economic capacities within and outside the state are also affecting the EWD conversation. A Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce report suggests that it’s no longer feasible to consider California as a ‘single entity’ for EWD and industrial development purposes, so applying a unified strategy to remedy all the issues within the state isn’t likely to succeed.

Instead, the agency looked at the state as a collection of regions in its analysis as to why businesses continue to move away. For example, the northern half of the state, with its economic center being in the Bay Area, derives its economy primarily from the technology sector, while the southern half, centered around Los Angeles, looks to logistics and entertainment as its economic hub industries. Economic ties between these regional entities and those in other states (but not also in California) can lure businesses beyond the California state border to communities where living costs are lower and growth opportunities are more plentiful.

 

These are just three of the many, many issues facing California as it works to design the next iteration of its economy. Attendees at the October 26th Future of Work Conference will have the opportunity to hear what the state’s workforce development leader has to say about them and learn more about how they can contribute to the conversation themselves.

Get the PULSE in your inbox!

Name(Required)