The Innovation Intake

VOLUME NO. 2 | ISSUE NO.2 | MAY 2013

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Education Employment www.theinnovationintake.com

July 21–24, 2013

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VOLUME NO. 2 | ISSUE NO. 2 | MAY 2013

IN THIS ISSUE: Trying to hit the constantly moving target of employment pg. 9 PUBLISHER

www.innovate-educate.org P.O. Box 9919 Santa Fe, NM 87504 EDITOR

Jamai Blivin MANAGING EDITOR

Amy Schilling DESIGN

Mary Sweitzer Design www.marysweitzerdesign.com ADVERTISING SALES

adsales@innovate-educate.org TITLE GRAPHIC

Incubox Creative www.incubox.com CONTACT

editor@innovate-educate.org All contents Š 2013 innovate+educate. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent from innovate+educate. Permission to reprint may be sent to editor@innovate-educate.org. Publisher reserves the right to accept or reject all advertising material. Questions or comments not related to The Innovation Intake should be directed to info@innovate-educate.org.

All opinions expressed are those of the contributing author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Innovation Intake or innovate+educate.

FEATURES THE NEW WORLD OF WORK | 5 How do we become a college and career ready nation?

DEPARTMENTS LETTER FROM THE EDITOR | 4 CORPORATE HIGHLIGHT | 12 POLICY | 14 YOUTH MOVEMENT, INC. | 16 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | 18 ON THE STREETS | 20

T H E I N N O VAT I O N I N TA K E

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LE T TE R F RO M T H E E D I T O R

The New World of Work - and how to get there

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ver THe PAST THree yeArS, Innovate+educate has been fortunate enough to work with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, our board

companies and many collaborative partners in addressing the critical issues around education to workforce. We believe that defining college and career readiness is at the heart of this work and understanding what young adults need to navigate along the entire education to career continuum is critical for our own country’s global competitiveness. Overall, the system is failing millions of our students annually, and our organization’s passion and vision is working to solve the issues at hand.

The free market (led by young adults, displaced workers, re-entry, industry and some education pioneers) is pushing change for the future of learning in the world--whether policymakers or the “institution” of education like it or not. New terms such as “Individualized Learning”, “Adaptive Learning”, “Deeper Learning”, and“Personalized Learning” are all vocabulary floating around and being ©2013 by John Trever, The Albuquerque Journal

used to try and define the work of “college and career readiness”. To me, it doesn’t really matter what it is called. What matters is this: Change is desperately needed and is knocking at the front door, back door and side door.

As Innovate+educate moves into our second year of publishing The Innovation Intake (thanks to our many subscribers), we will focus on the pathways to success…and the new world not only OF work but TO work.

Because we know that the numbers tell us the old way no longer works.

Jamai Blivin, CeO, Innovate+educate

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Jamai Blivin & Merrilea J. Mayo, PhD

The

New

of WORK Education Employment

With the divide between education and workforce growing, what is it going to take for people, corporations and educational institutions to hit the ever moving target we call ‘career ready’?

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Today, we have 6.5M young adults between 16–24 not in school and not working...what is happening to them?

How do we stop losing more every year?

3

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of college grads are unemployed or underemployed. 8

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58%

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50%

Only of college students graduate with a postsecondary degree.7

of employers report that graduates are not adequately prepared for work. 6

THE

71% of college students work while in school.5

BIG QUESTION

How do we maximize college and career options when the time-honored pathway from school to career no longer works for most?

CONTINUED

The Big Question: In this new world of work, how do we maximize college and career options when the time-honored pathway from school to career no longer works for most?

We Need a Disruptive Solution to Introduce Skills-Based Credentials as Alternatives to Degrees

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onsider the scenario. Despite the fact that 90% of all jobs require a high school diploma,3 7,000 students in the U.S. drop out of high school every day.2 As a result, our nation faces a historical high in the number of young adults under the age of 26 without jobs. In fact, 6.5 million of our young adults are neither in school nor working.9 This includes 53% with college degrees, often saddled with an accompanying crush-

ing debt, who are either unemployed or underemployed.8 While the lucky ones have achieved the roles they seek, many more have been overlooked. Despite having the skills and knowledge required for the new world of work and the global high tech economy, many young adults in the U.S. have no opportunities to prove their skills and translate them into careers. The statistics represent real people, individuals who through their actions, such as dropping out of high school or college, illustrate that the system no longer works for the majority of young adults and students. What’s more, we are not only failing our young adults, we are putting our nation at risk.

s the job market continually evolves & becomes more technical, it’s easy to blame the education system for failing to prepare students for work. But, the original public education system, including its credentialing system, wasn’t designed for a highly technical world and consequently wasn’t built to be nimble & adaptive (ironically, two of the critical skills lacking in many of today’s job seekers).

New technical information doubles every two years,10 which means that halfway through a four-year degree, students are already behind. Graduating students are led to believe their degrees qualify them for jobs, when in fact, many employers seek candidates with degrees that no one seems to have. This is the direct result not of poor college planning, but rather of the disparate timelines of school and economy.

As long as the time-to-degree is four years—and the rate of change of technology and economic cycles is six months to two years—the majority of our students will probably graduate with the “wrong” degrees. The “right” degrees weren’t known or may not have existed when these students started college. If education is truly obsolete in its current structure, then why is industry still hiring using degrees, the traditional measure created by the education system as its primary credential for hiring?

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What’s in a Name (or a Degree Title)? nnovate+educate has been working in STeM (science, technology, engineering and math) education for many years, and we believe in the four-year degree! But, what we have learned through our work is this: while the knowledge underlying a degree may be as valid as ever, the college degree as a title, in matching individuals to jobs, is irretrievably broken.

It is not surprising that we have over 50% of employers reporting

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difficulty filling open jobs,11 and unless the millennia-old trend of increased technological change and work specialization simply grind to a halt, the youth unemployment situation will continue to get worse.

Dr. Tony Wagner of Harvard University and best-selling author of The Global Achievement Gap: Why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need - and what we can do about it, sums it up beautifully: “In today’s highly competitive global “knowledge economy,” all students need new skills for college, careers and citizenship. The failure to give all students these new skills leaves today’s youth—and our country—at an alarming competitive disadvantage. Schools haven’t changed; the world has. And so our schools are not failing. rather, they are obsolete: even the ones that score the best on standardized tests. This is a very different problem requiring an altogether different solution.”7

The Skills-based Solution o this end, Innovate+educate has begun using cognitive skills assessments to measure students' underlying skills. These assessments accurately map to over 95% of all jobs, predict on-the-job performance five times better than a degree, and—best of all—allow those with the “wrong” degree to qualify for available jobs. The tests are based on three to five truly fundamental skills: literacy, numeracy, critical observation, critical listening, and the ability to understand and apply charts, graphs and diagrams. youth can gain these skills during the course of their college study, prior work experience, online self-education and any other valid learning route. We argue that we need to market these student skills explicitly to employers, because we now have thousands of studies showing these skills are a much better way, than degree title alone, to match individuals to jobs.12

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When there is No Degree he inability of degreed students to meaningfully convey their basic qualifications in an accelerating world of innovation and change is one challenge. Another challenge resides among those who have no degree. Nearly everyone who is college-bound will struggle with the Catch-22 of needing a job to get an education, but needing an education to get a job. These students, as well, need a different way of labeling themselves to employers, an ability to display current skills, albeit without a completed degree. Here, too, having assessments of fundamental skills can capture the current state of the student and relay that information to the employer.

In New Mexico, we’ve found that only 1% of unemployed 16-24 year-olds have a college degree. However, when tested, 33% display fundamental skills at the level of a college degree, acquired during high school, work or other venues. These students could be going to college. They could be hired in ‘college-degree-requiring’ jobs that don’t highly depend on specialized content knowledge. But, they have no way to attend college easily without a job, and no way to get a job without a degree.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and community colleges fill some gaps for students struggling to afford a degree with cheaper, more flexible learning pathways. And many corporations, such as Wal-Mart and Starbucks have launched corporate education & training programs.13 But these learning avenues do not always translate to academic credit or transfer to other job opportunities.

We need a non-degree-title-based, skills credentialing system to advertise to the world what students are capable of. This does not mean the elimination of degrees, but rather that we evaluate them equally well in terms of more fundamental components. This way, they become portable, transferable and updatable with each increment of learning achieved, however and wherever it is accomplished.

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The New World of Work: Competency & Skills-Based Hiring ome of the best minds in education reform seem to agree. Bill Gates, in a May 2013 Fast Company interview, said, “Another dream would be to revolutionize (student) self-assessment, so that in any area—math, psychology, economics, whatever—you could assess your skills and know what you may need to learn. The ideal there is creating a skills-based credential that is well trusted and well understood enough that employers view it as a true alternative to a degree. you could unbundle the idea of ‘Where did you get this knowledge?’ from ‘What knowledge do you have?’ That would unleash unbelievable open innovation.”14 While such a system may never be practical in the world of education, it is highly practical in the world of work. ACT has profiled more than 16,000 jobs and found that over 95% can be fairly accurately described via some combination of three to five fundamental skills and,

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as stated earlier, a combination of at least three skill scores predicts onthe-job performance five times better than a degree title.12 Obviously, such tests do not demonstrate content mastery and therefore cannot completely replace a degree. But, they clearly and convincingly show the employer something about the underlying capabilities, and allow individuals to demonstrate competency while awaiting a degree or when they have the “wrong” degree. As a bonus, employers who use the skills-based matching system for hiring typically experience significant financial advantages: 25-75% reduction in turnover, 50-70% reduction in time to hire, 70% reduction in cost to hire, 50% reduction in training time.12

“Another dream would be to revolutionize (student) self-assessment, so that in any area—math, psychology, economics, whatever—you could assess your skills and know what you may need to learn. The ideal there is creating a skills-based credential that is well trusted and well understood enough that employers view it as a true alternative to a degree.

You could unbundle the idea of ‘Where did you get this knowledge?’ from ‘What knowledge do you have?’ That would unleash unbelievable open innovation.”

—Bill Gates in Fast Company, May 2013 employers need a way to normalize and standardize all those different degrees, from all those different colleges and universities, as badly as students from all those different colleges, having all those different degrees, need jobs. We propose that the solution is not unlike what colleges themselves adopted when trying to rationalize admissions decisions for the millions of high school students from approximately 15,000 high schools: a standardized test. While workforce tests similar to the SAT and ACT are available, employers don’t commonly use the tests. In this case, standardized tests reflect the “common core” of work skills, which are different from (though partially overlapping with) the “common core” of school skills.

Thanks to our partnership with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s New Options Project, Innovate+educate is building a skills-based credentialing ecosystem approach in which employers hire by “skill score,” and students and non-students alike can apply for jobs by submitting their skill scores along with resumes. Innovate+educate trains Hr staff how to advertise job openings by skill score, and how to match applicants’ submitted skill scores to the jobs they have on hand.

For those without the necessary workplace skills for the jobs they seek, Innovate+educate is building an online curriculum of skill-up resources for individuals. In an exciting development, several colleges T H E I N N O VAT I O N I N TA K E

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and high schools are currently integrating this curriculum into existing coursework. Interestingly, the same curriculum also markedly improves student performance on academic standardized tests, an unforeseen benefit.

It should be noted that those who score highly on the workplace skills tests often turn out to be amazing employees, eager to begin their educational pathway anew once they can afford to do so. The most heartwarming stories we’ve received are from at-risk youth who previously could not qualify for a job for lack of a degree.

The New American Dream

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f we are to stop losing record numbers of students from school and start rebuilding our economic competitiveness, skills-based credentialing must be implemented on a national scale. We’re spending $600 BILLION a year on education in the U.S.14 with dismal results when it comes to work readiness. Imagine what could be possible if we took just a fraction of that money to provide alternative credentialing pathways – or even alternative credentialing as a waypoint within existing pathways – for individuals to demonstrate their ability to do the job. Imagine what could be possible if employers across the country used skills-based hiring and said: whatever you have learned, regardless of how it is labeled, has value, and we can put you to work.

When all the people who can’t afford a post-secondary degree and who can’t get a job without it, are able to demonstrate enough

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Cognitive skills assessments accurately map to over 95% of all jobs, predict on-the-job performance 5x better than a degree, and—best of all—allow those with the “wrong” degree to qualify for available jobs. skills to start working, earn a living, support their families and eventually, go back and obtain that degree, then, ‘The American Dream’ will be attainable, once again. n Jamai Blivin is the CEO of Innovate+Educate, an organization she founded in 2008. Since that time, Innovate+Educate has become a leading voice across States for industry alignment to advance college and career readiness. Jamai has consulted and worked extensively with State programs, IT Companies, Higher Ed Institutions, and K-12 Systems to industry’s role in the solutions. Jamai holds a BSBA and MBA in Finance from the University of Arkansas.

Merrilea Mayo, a materials scientist & engineer by training, played a founding role in two policy-oriented non-profits (ASTRA and UIDP), served as President of the Materials Research Society (2003), held Director-level positions at the National Academies and Kauffman Foundation (2001-2009) and now runs a consulting firm specializing in innovation, workforce, technology and the future of learning.

U.S. workers without jobs

50% of companies report difficulties filling open jobs

The G A P is

BIG To be continued . . .

The New World of Work References 1. Busteed, Brandon. The School Cliff: Students' enagement Drops Wth each School year. [Online] January 7, 2013. http://thegallupblog.gallup.com/ 2013/01/the-school-cliff-student-engagement.html.

2. Alliance for Excellent Education. About the Crisis. [Online] http://www.all4ed.org/about_the_crisis. *Note: Dropout rates are difficult to estimate accurately, we found another source that estimated 8,300 drop out per day across a 365-day year, not a 180-day school year. We chose the more conservative estimate; either way, the numbers are staggering.

3. Lumina Foundation. A Stronger Naton Through Higher education.

[Online] March 2012. http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/ A_Stronger_Nation-2012.pdf. *Note: The statistic says 90% of all jobs will require some level of post-secondary education. We used this to make our point, that given this, obtaining post-secondary education requires first obtaining either a high school diploma or GeD.

4. National Center for Education Statistics. remedial and Degree Completion (2011). [Online] http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_rmc.asp.

53% of recent college grads are unemployed or underemployed

6.5 million young adults (16–24) are not in school and not working

5. U.S. Census Bureau. New Analyses of Census Bureau Data examine Nation's 65 and Over Labor Force, Working Students and Changes in Selfemployment. [Online] January 24, 2013. http://www.census.gov/news room/releases/archives/american_community_survey_acs/cb13-15.html.

6. Mourshed, Mona, Farrell, Diana and Barton, Dominic. education to employment: Designing a System that Works. [Online] 2012. The McKinsey Center for Government. http://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/education/education-toemployment_FINAL.pdf 7. Wagner, Tony. The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need – and What We Can Do About It. New york Basic Books, 2008.

8. Associated Press. A Study based on analysis of data from Northeastern University with supplemental material from Paul Harrington of Drexel University and the economic Policy Institute. 2012.

9. Belfield, Clive R. and Levin, Henry M., and Rosen, Rachel. The economic value of Opportunity youth. [Online] January 2012. http://www.civicenter prises.net/MediaLibrary/Docs/econ_value_opportunity_youth.pdf.

10. Gantz, John and Reinsel, Davis. extracting value from Chaos. IDC view. [Online] http://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/idc-extractingvalue-from-chaos-ar.pdf.

11. Manpower Group. Talent Shortage Survey. [Online] 2011. http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/MAN/1262980731x0x469531/7f71c 882-c104-449b-9642-af56b66c1e6d/2011_Talent_.

12. Wikipedia. Skills-Based Hiring. [Online] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skills-Based_Hiring 13. Connell, Christopher. Starbucks, Wal-Mart offer classes – for college credit. [Online] April 2013. http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/15/pf/college/corporate-classes/index.html

Th e G A P is

OVERWHELMING

14. Kamenetz, Anya. We Can Make Massive Strides. Fast Company Magazine, May 2013.

To be continued . . .

C O RP OR ATE H I G H LI G H T

Korn/Ferry International

by Julie Staggs, Managing Principal, Global Education Practice

PERSONAL LEADERSHIP

TEAM

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP T IS A vUCA WOrLD today—one full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. As we work with business leaders around the world today, we see four major disruptors in the way many have seen the world of work. These disruptors have implications for those in the work world today and for how students are trained and developed through their education.

DYNAMICS

ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP

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1) Globalization and the “West to East” shift—

while the West has dominated economically in the past there is a shift to rapid economic growth coming from emerging economies in the east. This shift requires knowledge and leadership skills that are truly global. Leadership qualities that helped companies succeed in their domestic markets must be re-examined and expanded to help individuals and companies to be truly competitive in the global context.

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2) “Light-Speed” innovation cycles—accelerating technology cycles allow agile firms to bring new, disruptive products and services to market faster than ever before. In this environment it is critical for leaders to know how to effectively manage innovation. It has become not just a matter of gaining a competitive edge, but often it is a matter of survival.

3) Changing workforce demographics—genera-

tional shifts in the talent markets require employers to fundamentally rethink the qualities that today’s leaders need. Crosscultural, virtual, and globally diverse collaboration requires a different set of leadership

approaches and sensibilities.

Given the external market pressures on the workforce, often younger folks are asked to step up to fill roles for which they may not be ready. This quickening of the front end of the leadership and talent pipeline requires heightened cooperation between educational institutions and the workforce to prepare talent earlier and more effectively.

4) Increasing speed of everything—complexity and uncertainty increase as the speed of everything accelerates. Constant, rapid-cycle change is the “new normal”. In this intensifying environment success will be defined by leaders who are able to create “calm in the chaos” while embracing and leading change.

These attributes of today’s work world point toward a need for what can be articu-

CO RP ORATE HI GHLIGHT

lated in a word—agility, or perhaps more specifically, learning agility. Learning agility is the ability and willingness to learn from experience, and subsequently apply that learning to perform successfully under new or firsttime conditions (Swisher 2012). In other words, it is knowing what to do, when you don’t know what to do.

Understanding this vUCA environment and the need to develop leaders earlier, the Global education Practice at Korn/Ferry International Leadership and Talent Consulting partners with institutions to better prepare students in leadership skills. By helping students build self-awareness through assessments, develop individual development plans with coaches, and hone skills through experiential learning sessions integrated

with curriculum, Korn/Ferry brings first-hand knowledge of what leadership skills drive successin the workplace. Working to bridge the gap between education and the workplace, Korn/Ferry utilizes its over 30 years of research on leadership competencies to help institutions develop leaders who can make a difference, step up more quickly, and be more agile to help meet the demands of today’s vUCA environment.

Korn/Ferry believes that partnering with institutions to develop better and more agile leaders is the right thing to do, not only for the continued economic success of the global market, but for the fulfillment of the potential of each individual. n

Corporate Statement

K

orn/Ferry International is a premier global provider of talent management solutions.

From executive search to leadership development, we partner with organizations and in-

stitutions to ensure their ongoing success. We work with organizations globally to address their most complex talent challenges by helping them identify and measure research-based competencies; assess, select, develop, coach, motivate and retain top leaders; and scale key talent management processes to ensure ongoing organizational success.

All images courtesy of Korn/Ferry

Julie Staggs is a Managing Principal, Global Education Practice, for Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting, based in the Firm’s Atlanta office. Previously, she consulted for Fortune 100 companies in the areas of corporate training, innovation, and strategic planning. Ms. Staggs received her bachelor’s degree from Converse College in music theory and religion and her executive master’s of business administration degree, with a concentration in leadership, from University of Georgia. Currently, she is working on her doctorate of education in higher education management at the University of Georgia’s Institute for Higher Education.

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PO LICY

The Skills Gap Generation: A Youth Perspective on the Need for Reform

By Frank LaNasa, Organizing Fellow, Young Invincibles

ODAy’S yOUNG ADULTS have come of age in a technology-driven, global economy, where workers without postsecondary credentials have seen their employment rates and real wages decline for decades. So in our eyes, the value of the skills gained through higher education has never been a question – it’s a given. What we do question, however, is how a system whose goals are supported by politicians, educators, and employers alike can so often leave students without the skills they need to thrive in the 21st century economy. In many ways, we are the “Skills Gap” generation.

So what can we do about it? Students and young adults can lead the charge to implement the student-centered reforms we need to make higher education work for us.

First, students should advocate for a financial aid system focused on increasing access and educational attainment, not cutting key educational investments in the name of deficit reduction. Faced with skyrocketing tuition costs and an overly complex, underfunded financial aid system, too many students are forced to drop out of school or are dissuaded from pursuing postsecondary credentials at all. Last November, young Invincibles released The Student Perspective on Federal Financial Aid, in which we proposed student-centered reforms such as increasing investments in Pell grants, overhauling the student loan system with a single, simple federal loan, and automatic enrollment in Income Based repayment. My generation

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Young Invincibles Jobs Tour Round Table.

is making clear how the current financial aid system fails to tap the potential of many talented students.

Second, students should demand the information they need to make smart investments in their future. While many graduates are either unemployed or are forced to take jobs out of their field of study, many employers cite a skills shortage

when explaining their entry-level vacancies.

This suggests there is often a mismatch between the education students receive and what the labor market demands. At a recent student and business leader forum cohosted by young Invincibles and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there was a general consensus about the need for better data on the schools and programs that best

POLIC Y

prepare their graduates for the workforce. recently, the Obama Administration released its College Scorecard, which aims to make students smarter consumers by providing institution level information on net cost, graduation rates, and student loan debt default, but has yet to integrate data on the employment outcomes and wages of recent graduates. Students can provide feedback on such efforts, making clear the information that is most relevant to their decision-making processes. This doesn't mean that every student has to be a computer programmer, but given this information, we can evaluate their options and make the decision that makes the most sense for the future they envision for themselves.

Finally, students must use this information and demand programs that produce successful graduates, even if they are found outside of the traditional four-year college.

A recent report by the Georgetown Center for education and the Workforce projected that by 2020, about half of all jobs requiring postsecondary education will be “mid-

On the Road Again. Jobs Tour 2013. All images courtesy of the Young Invincibles.

dle skill,” requiring less than a bachelor’s degree. Such paths do not necessarily mean choosing a less lucrative career – about 30 percent of Americans with associate’s degrees currently out-earn those with bachelor’s degrees. Nor do they prohibit students from continuing their education. They are simply examples of the myriad opportunities available to students hoping to acquire the skills they need, often at an affordable cost. Students and employers need to keep an open mind and be willing to explore all avenues on the way to a fulfilling job that meets our financial needs.

With so much at stake, students and young adults can no longer be passive consumers of their postsecondary education.

Politicians, educators, and employers all have their own interests in mind when designing the higher education system. We need to make our voices heard to create a

higher education system that puts our generation in the best position to succeed in the 21st century economy.n Frank LaNasa is an Organizing Fellow at Young Invincibles. Frank was an organizer with President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, where he focused on youth outreach. He also worked as a Research Assistant with the American Institutes for Research.

Frank studied Sociology and Government at Harvard University. Follow the Young Invincibles Jobs Tour at: http://jobs.younginvincibles.org

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Y. M.I .- Y OUT H M O V E M E N T, I N C .

The Power of the Voice

By Ashleigh Kenny & Jabari Gray, Youth Radio

All images courtesy of

We are losing record numbers of young adults from education and careers, with the young adult unemployment rate more than double the national rate. It’s time for a national movement and this new section, Y.M.I. or Youth Movement, Inc., features those organizations leading the charge.

OUTH rADIO WOrKS with government, industry, foundations and community colleges to build a digital media employment pathway for young adults and help them find their career ‘voice’. youth radio is best known for its work as the nation’s leading youth media production company with major outlets like NPr and National Geographic that deliver youth perspectives to massive audiences. The foundation for youth radio stories is laid in youth radio’s youth employment and training program—the on-site “school” for our media production business.

Current and former youth radio participants often refer to the organization as a second home. They know they’re welcome here at any time, and they do come back, for different reasons. Some come on their breaks from college, some swing by if they happen to be in the neighborhood, to catch up and to see old friends. And, increasingly, they come back looking for work. youth radio has been providing youth

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training and employment for two decades.

High school students who enroll in the program undergo six months of intensive training in media and technology, and are then eligible to apply for paid internships and on-the-job training at youth radio. youth radio provides nearly 250 jobs a year through this internship program.

But even with this solid foundation of training and support, the tough economic and social environment still lets some young people “slip through the cracks.” Many young adults are unable to get traction as they try to connect to school or work, and end up in dead-end jobs, or without a job at all. These are the young people who return to youth radio one-by-one, looking for staff members they trust—looking for answers.

When youth radio moved to Oakland in 2007 to buy and build out its media and technology center, the dream was to create another ‘highway’ on the youth radio Pathway –linking students to the tech boom in

Youth Radio

the Bay Area. This vision demanded that youth radio take its digital media and tech training to the next level and pave a pathway to meaningful careers in the new digital economy.

The first supporter of this work was Congresswoman Barbara Lee who secured a grant from the Department of Labor for youth radio to develop the Digital Media and Tech Pathway, especially for those youth who did not ‘connect’ to higher ed or employment. During this time, youth radio tested many different models, and built up full service support systems. Students now receive case management, academic tutoring, professional skills training and holistic health support. Intensive professional skills workshops are what we believe will carry our participants to and through the placement phase—those are the key skills (showing up, showing up able to focus, communicate and problem solve) lacking in many job candidates.

With support from the James Irvine Foundation, youth radio’s senior staff spent 2012 planning the Digital Media and Tech Pathway, developing the program and partnerships, starting with higher ed. The Gap Foundation and the y&H Soda Foun-

Y.M.I .- Y OUTH M OVEME NT, IN C.

dation joined the effort, and the Office of Supervisor Keith Carson and Alameda County helped youth radio ensure support and identify the place for digital media in the county’s economic forecast. In the midst of this work, the Clinton Global Initiative America chose to feature youth radio’s commitment to create the Pathway—and digital media and tech jobs for low-income youth—at its annual convening.

This is the vision that animates youth radio’s Pathway: to be the connector between the incredible economic and social opportunity in the digital media and tech sector and the capable young talent growing up in the high-stress neighborhoods where youth grow up forced to struggle against racism, inferior educational opportunity, multi-generational poverty and violence.

This work is not without its challenges. youth radio began by conducting a sector scan to determine where the jobs are and what skills they require. We found that across industries, employers are seeking candidates with skills in digital media and marketing. Simultaneously, youth radio formed a partnership with Berkeley City College (BCC), who is now teaching a college course in multimedia arts onsite in a

new classroom youth radio developed for the Pathway. The on-site course is the first in a series of three that leads to a BCC Certificate in Multimedia. Students who successfully complete the program will also graduate with a youth radio Certificate that indicates their successful completion.

It is notable, that most of the youth now in the Pathway had previously avoided or left community college, but all 18 have stayed enrolled in the on-site BCC course.

As community colleges look for new solutions to combat their presently dismal graduation rate, delivering the class on-site at a ‘home’ youth program was attractive and key to the Pathway’s retention rate. youth radio is also working with Santa Monica Community College to develop a statewide model for workforce pathways in the digital media and entertainment industries.

This summer, the first youth radio cohort will begin their paid externships with employer partners across the Bay Area. The first positions will be with youth radio’s long-term content and community partners. Multiple systems have failed these youth, and we know this will be a multipronged approach with at least two segments of community college on-site and at

least two work placements before the youth radio Certificate will be awarded.

“The Pathway is informed by the premise that the economy needs talent –a young diverse workforce that learns quickly, and plays on the strengths of youth culture who are early adopters and savvy users of new media and technologies,” says richard raya, youth radio’s executive Director. “Likewise, for low-income communities to transition out of long-term poverty, their youth must be equipped with the skills and support to participate in the new digital economy.” n Ashleigh Kenny is Youth Radio’s Development Director. She has a background in fund development for progressive, non-profit media companies in Washington, DC. Ashleigh works with Youth Radio’s leadership to secure support for Youth Radio’s programs and services, including its new Workforce Pathway.

Jabari Gray leads Youth Radio’s Digital Media and Technology Pathway program. Gray brings with him a professional fundraising background with a focus on annual giving and corporate foundation relations, preceded by successful careers in experiential corporate marketing and environmental education, respectively. Learn more at: www.youthradio.org

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ED U C AT I ON A N D E C O N OM I C DE V E L OP MENT

Utah in the Future Economy

By Spencer Eccles, Executive Director, Utah Office of Economic Development

Utah has emerged from recession well ahead of the national curve, and the nation has taken notice.

He “PIPeLINe” figure of speech we now apply to the flow of students through their K-16 academic careers is very familiar. Increasingly, the focus of that metaphor is evolving from simple “flow” to how “prepared” our students are because of the performance demands on our continually evolving workforce in a globally competitive economy.

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In Utah, we have a number of key initiatives to enhance our pipeline. Some of Utah’s initiatives are familiar, such as a focus on Science, engineering, Technology and Math (STeM). Other efforts are more centric to Utah. For example, the Utah Cluster Acceleration Partnership (UCAP) and our 66% by 2020 initiative.

Utah’s legislature just allocated $10

million in a first phase STeM Action Center. The STeM focus in Utah is putting resources into identifying STeM “best practices” - from junior high math skills training to college math readiness in our high school students.

In order to keep America innovative and competitive, students entering the workforce for the first time must be

ED UCATIO N A ND ECO NO M IC DEVE LOPMENT STeM ready, and Utah is working hard to lead these efforts. Appropriately so: with the nation’s youngest population and youngest workforce, we have more students in schools per capita than any other state and if they are to be successful in the workforce they need to be highly skilled. receiving those students are initiatives at all levels of STeM education, like the Utah Science Technology and research initiative (USTAr) — called, “a national best practice” by the Brookings Institution — and the BioInnovations Gateway (BiG), a first-of-its-kind facility that combines biomedical education and a life science business incubator, focusing on workforce development of high school students and the launch of new technology businesses.

As the nation’s second or third fastest growing state, we have challenges, or opportunities, that reach well beyond education. For that reason, Governor Gary r.

Herbert identified “four cornerstones” for our continued economic success: education (which received its biggest funding increase in years), job growth, energy and self-determination. They are highly interrelated, with education and job growth being inextricable and mutually dependent efforts.

We are aligning our stakeholders to address industry need, and we are equally focused on growing and creating opportunity. UCAP aligns higher education training with industry, talent and innovation needs. Oversight of this partnership comes from Utah’s Department of Workforce Services, the Governor’s Office of economic Development (GOeD) and the Commissioner of Higher education. Deep

collaboration drives UCAP success.

The Governor’s “66 by 2020” is a call to action that 66% of Utahns achieve a post-secondary degree or advanced certification by 2020. Partnering and aligned with the Salt Lake Chamber’s Prosperity 2020 initiative, the state and the private sector set a common goal to improve our incumbent workforce. As one part of the initiative, the state is sending more than 20,000 of its best business people into our schools to give of their time, to motivate excellence and drive well-prepared students into our industries.

Additionally, GOeD’s Business Am-

“ . . . we have more students in schools per capita than any other state and if they are to be successful in the work-

ahead of the national curve, and the nation has taken notice. Our 4% job growth is more than twice the national rate, and as unemployment drops to around 5%, we can confidently say that sidelined workers returning to the active job search are finding job opportunities amidst broad optimism about Utah’s economic outlook.

Countless top accolades support that optimism, and they run the gamut from “Best State for Business” to a leader in “economic dynamism” to “best quality of life.”

This new, interconnected business world expects a lot of its workforce. Utah’s workforce is poised to deliver on those high expectations in every sense, because our own expectations are high. This is, as our state brand declares, “Utah Life elevated®” after all. n

force they need to be highly skilled.”

—Spencer Eccles bassadors program and the Governor’s economic Council are private-public partnerships comprised of some of our top business and community leaders to keep the eyes of the state fixed on the industries that will help define our future economy, and the ideas that will define our coming generations. equally important is GOeD’s ongoing recruitment effort, which showcases the State of Utah’s long-term stability and business friendliness to companies looking to expand or relocate now. recent notable successes include major new facilities built by Adobe, Boeing, eBay and Procter & Gamble, along with dozens of other well-known companies.

Utah has emerged from recession well

Spencer Eccles is the executive director of the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, which oversees all business, tourism and film development for the State, including international trade. Eccles received his MBA from BYU’s Marriott School of Management and his BA in history from the University of Utah.

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ON T H E S T REET S

From Tragedy to Triumph

By Jasen Jones, Executive Director, Southwest Missouri WIB

Missouri state governor, Jay Nixon, presents a proclamation to Jasen Jones & Jasper County as the first certified work ready community in the nation. March 8, 2013. Image courtesy of Jasen Jones.

OPLIN, MISSOUrI, a community of nearly 50,000, gained a national reputation for overcoming obstacles after one of the nation’s deadliest tornados took 161 lives and destroyed a third of city on May 22, 2011.

Homes, businesses, and schools are coming back stronger than ever. An aggressive master development plan is poised to make Joplin one of the most attractive communities in the nation for economic vitality and quality of life. Another achievement to add to the list is landing the county’s first Certified Work ready Community (CWrC) title within a

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new national framework by ACT. Momentum to grow the employer and job seeker base for the National Career readiness Certificate (NCrC) began in Southwest Missouri back in 2006. The tornado disrupted early efforts in the CWrC initiative. However, the pace quickly resumed as the Citizens Advisory recovery Team prioritized CWrC as a key economic development strategy for Joplin. The designations are based at the county level under the ACT framework. Jasper County, which comprises the majority of the City of Joplin,

officially earned the Work ready award on March 8, 2013. The remainder of Joplin and rest of Newton County anticipate earning CWrC honors by July of 2013.

Between the two-county Joplin metro, more than a hundred local employers now endorse the NCrC. More than 4,000 emerging, current, and transitioning workers earned the NCrC since 2006, commanding one of the highest concentrations of NCrCs throughout all of Missouri.

Local leaders credit the NCrC’s success in Joplin to strong integration of workforce and economic development systems and strong alliances with business and education stakeholders. Another key to success is the demand-driven approach of NCrC in the region. The Workforce Investment Board and local Chambers of Commerce recruited participation from employers through pilot launch projects of the NCrC. Those successes quickly resulted in more employers coming on board. As some of the region’s more attractive job openings prefer the NCrC, job seekers are eager to earn the NCrC through the local one-stop career center.

The region gained ground in recruiting students to earn the NCrC as well. On the eastern side of Jasper County, the Carthage Technical Center piloted the NCrC in 2007 for all technical school graduates and recently made the NCrC available to all high school students. The tornado hindered continued on page 22

The U.S. is facing a critical skills G A P problem – one that is detrimental to our economy, our competitiveness and our citizens

T he G A P ne e ds a

SOLUTION

To be continued . . .

O N T HE S T REE T S

continued from page 20

the launch for the Joplin school district as Franklin Technology Center and Joplin High School were among several school buildings destroyed. Operating out of a retrofitted warehouse, Franklin tested their 12th grade tech students in late 2012. Juniors and seniors in the rural school district of Sarcoxie also had opportunity to take the NCrC as part of the 2012 push for the emerging workers goal within CWrC. At the regional community college level, Crowder College implemented the NCrC as a pilot for short-term, specialized training

programs such as nursing, public safety, and manufacturing.

The payoff is big for regions like Southwest Missouri that embrace CWrC. Business prospects familiar with the NCrC in other states routinely inquire about investing in Joplin. The region is more competitive in landing new jobs with the ability to prove the quality and availability of the workforce. The CWrC framework also provides stakeholders in workforce, economic development, education, and business a conduit to sharpen the focus on the

Image of downtown Joplin with map overlay of the tornado’s path (large green swath).

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skills-based growth needed for employers to thrive in the region. More information on Southwest Missouri’s CWrC efforts may be found online at www.workready.info. n As Executive Director for the Southwest Missouri WIB, Jasen Jones is a Certified Professional Community Economic Developer. His award-winning work also includes chambers of commerce in Lamar and Carthage along with radio broadcasting. Jasen studied at University of Oklahoma, U.S. Chamber Institute at Colorado College, and Missouri Southern State University.

A summit to address the G A P between skills and jobs Are you ready to close it?

CL

O

SE Washington, DC November 5–7th 2013

ORG

THE G A P

I T.

CLOSING

More gathered Mor e than 1,500 leaders, visionaries, and decision-makers gather atherred in Dallas this past June to discuss solutions to the STEM crisis. In the months that followed, progress progress was made in across oss the nation. By bringing the best and the brightest minds together, together, communities acr will accelerate mindful action totoU.S. News STEM Solutions—The he National Conference Conference e wards ward ds the t goal of solving this challenging, vital issue.

With 2012’ss inaugural event, the encore encore in Austin this June With so much momentum generated at 2012’ is poised to be even bigger and broader conference— broader in scope. The theme of the 2013 conference— Teach.

Teach. Inspire.

Inspire e. Hire.—is Hire e.—is a call-to-action. Participants will leave better prepared prepared to initiate the action necessary to improve improve o STEM education and increase increase employment in STEM fields.

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