RISE: Advancing WIs Economy and Workers

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RISE Advancing WIs Economy and Workers

• Regional Industry Skills Education (RISE)
• Workforce Policy Forum
• Julie Strawn
• Center for Law and Social Policy
• jstrawn_at_clasp.org
• February 19, 2008

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RISE is part of Shifting Gears

• Shifting Gears is Joyce Foundations venture
  capital effort to improve state adult education
  and postsecondary policies
• SG is about systemic change. States can fund
  local innovations but only in support of policy
  change
• Five Midwest states received grants
• Implementation grants--Illinois, Indiana,
  Wisconsin
• Planning grants--Minnesota, Ohio
• Desired result a more skilled, more competitive,
  more prosperous workforce

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Widespread problem of low wage work

• 1 in 4 working families in our country is low
  income.
• Over 178,000 families in WI work year-round and
  yet still must rely on public programs to make
  ends meet.
• 1 in 5 WI workers earn wages too low to lift them
  out of poverty even when working year-round and
  full-time.
• Low wage workers move up very slowly despite
  years of work.
• For those working full-time with same employer,
  wages increase just 2 a year (1 if dont have
  high school diploma). E.g. if earn 8 an hour,
  16 cent annual increase.

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Leaky pipeline of skilled adult workers

• Four main leaks in ed/trg pipeline
• Adult basic ed./English language into job
  training or other postsecondary programs
• College remediation (developmental education)
  into for-credit college coursework
• Non-credit workforce education into for-credit
  certificate and degree programs
• Community college transfer to 4 year college
• Fixing pipeline requires close collaboration
  between workforce and education partners

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How will RISE help address these issues?

• Create a shared visionamong business,
  government, and individualsfor WIs economic
  future
• Set measurable goals for achieving that vision
  realign funding and policy to support progress
  toward goals.
• Track individual outcomes over time, across
  prgms., and into labor market, to identify gaps
  and document success.
• Use career pathways to help workforce/education
  partners connect strategically with
  employersfocus on regions, sectors, long-term
  career goals

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How will RISE help address these issues?

• Make pathways accessible to lower skilled
  workers through bridge programs that integrate
  basic ed./ESL or college remediation with job
  skills and soft skills
• Create more flexible pathway ed. and trg.
  programs to enable workers to participate, with
  wrap around services to support success
• Articulate noncredit and for-credit job training
• Break certificate/degree prgms. into manageable
  chunks
• Work with employers to deliver services at the
  worksite
• Adapt financial aid prgms to the needs of working
  adults
• Provide intensive career and academic counseling
• Address child care, transp. and other logistical
  issues

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RISE is part of a national movement

• US DOL gives WIRED grants to connect workforce
  dev. to eco. dev. within regions and transform
  systems to do this
• US DOL gives High Growth grants to meet workforce
  needs of high growth/high demand industries along
  career pathways
• US ED Perkins Career and Tech. Ed. law has long
  focused on career pathways from high school to
  postsecondary new Perkins law expands this to
  adults through programs of study which are
  essentially career pathways.
• US ED adult ed. Career Connections grants to
  create bridge programs from adult ed/ESL to
  workforce education.
• National Science Fdn. Advanced Manufacturing
  grants include programs using career pathways

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RISE is part of a national movement

• At least 6 states (AR, CA, KY, MA, OH, OR) have
  career pathway efforts
• Several states have state workforce bridge
  initiatives (IL, KY, OR, WA)
• Many states have region/sector initiatives that
  include pathways (IL, MI, PA, WA)
• RISE is about doing all 3 types of innovation at
  the same time

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Biggest challenges so far in career pathways

• Too reliant on one-time grants
• e.g. WIA discretionary funds (OR), state general
  revenue grants (PA, MA), federal grants,
  foundation grants (OH)
• Not accessible enough to individuals with lower
  skills/limited English
• Key partners missing from the initiative
• Financial aid rules often a poor fit for pathways
• Not everything is a pathwaycan look good on
  paper but are there really enough jobs higher up?

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State-local collaboration essential for RISE

• State role is to help different program silos
  work together to be more successful and to
  respond better to business and worker needs
• Set overall goals and track outcomes
• Provide tangible incentives and tools for
  connecting with business, integrating services at
  regional level
• Remove policy barriers

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State-local collaboration essential for RISE

• Workforce region role is to identify
  opportunities for economic growth and worker
  advancement and align local services with those
  opportunities
• Build relationships with business/industry and
  among key public sector partnersstrong
  leadership essential
• Restructure services to meet employer and worker
  needs
• Bottom line For Career Pathways and Bridge
  programs to go to scale and be sustainable, need
  to create business model that pools private and
  public resources and does not depend on one-time
  revenue

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KYs Career Pathways initiative

• At least 22 Pathways (to date)
• Allied Health (14)
• Advanced Manufacturing (3)
• Construction (2)
• Transportation (1)
• Business (2)
• KY WINS (Workforce Training Incentive Funds)
  commitment of 6.2M
• Projected project revenue of 2M
• Cash and in kind contributions of 10.7M

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KYs Synergy of Promising Practices

• New certificates and degrees
• New courses
• Remedial bridges
• Secondary alignment
• Articulation with 4 year

• Customized and short term training interventions
• Integrated work experience
• More career counseling
• Improved assessments
• Non-traditional delivery (time, place, technology)

Early outcome data Higher retention among
Career Pathways students (fall 2005 to fall
2006), 71 vs. 46 for other KCTCS students.
Source Shauna King-Simms, KCTCS
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Three New Certificates

Dr. Angie Taylor Gateway CTC
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Manufacturing Engineering Technology degree with
Associated Certificates

• Manufacturing
• Engineering Technology Core Requirements
• (10 courses and 2 labs)
• Electrical Circuits
• Statics and Strengths of Materials
• Intro to CAD
• Manufacturing Processes
• Intro to Business
• Co-op Education
• Production Mgt
• Manufacturing Capstone
• Intro to Quality Systems
• Statistics for Quality I

• Elective Courses (6 -8 credit hours for
  completion of degree)
• Electives can be chosen from a wide variety of
  disciplines
• OR
• Electives may be chosen is a particular
  sequence to earn an additional certificate
• Additional Certificates
• Earned within the AAS degree by taking elective
  courses
• Can also be earned independent of the AAS degree
• Electronics Tester
• 2 courses with 2 labs in
• Electrical circuits
• Robotics and Automation Helper
• 3 courses with 2 labs in
• Electrical circuits
• Fluid Power
• Exploratory Machining
• 2 courses in
• Machine Tool
• Quality Control
• 7 courses (2 electives) in

• General Education Requirements
• (10 courses)
• Intro to College
• Writing I II
• College Algebra
• Trigonometry
• Calculus I OR Elementary Calculus
• Basic Public Speaking OR Intro to Interpersonal
  Communications
• General Physics OR Applied Physics
• General Psychology
• Heritage / Humanities elective

EMBEDDED CERTIFICATES Are earned with the General
Education and Technical Core Courses within the
AAS degree Can also be earned independent of the
AAS degree

• Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Certificate
• (6 courses with 2 labs)
• Electrical Circuits
• Intro to CAD
• Manufacturing Processes
• College Algebra
• Trigonometry
• Statics and Strengths of Materials

• Manufacturing Operations Certificate
• (6 courses)
• Basic Public Speaking OR Intro to Interpersonal
  Communications
• Intro to Business
• Production Mgt
• Intro to Quality Systems
• College Algebra
• Statistics for Quality I

Dr. Angie Taylor Gateway CTC
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AR Delta Training and Education Consortium

• ADTEC Began in 2005, includes 3 WIBs and 5
  community colleges.
• Overall goal is to raise the skills and transform
  the economy of the region.
• Has received numerous federal grants (NSF, DOL
  WIRED) total of 30 million investment in career
  pathways in the region
• Began with pathways in IT and in Advanced Manuf.,
  expanding to Transp./Distrib./Logistics and
  Renewable Energy Technology.

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AR Delta Training and Education Consortium

• Can enter the pathways from WIA system, from
  TANF, from the workplace, from high school
• A key accomplishment has been to get colleges to
  push job content of occupational programs down
  into the earlier parts of the pathway.
• E.g. for IT pathway, teach broad spectrum of IT
  skills within the first two years with embedded
  certificates attached.
• Do general education core and more specialized IT
  skills further down the pathway for those who
  want to continue to degree.

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Lakeland, Ohio Career Pathways

• Aimed at helping low wage earners within the
  health care industry advance to better jobs
  pathway also open to adult ed. and One-Stop
  participants
• Partners include WIA One-Stop and Career Center,
  Adult Ed., community college, hospitals, county
  medical center, hospice
• Created evening/weekend nursing program, off-site
  for-credit courses, adult education services to
  help increase Work Keys scores to what was needed
  to enter training.
• CP Coordinator is single point of contact for
  students

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Lakeland Ohio Career Pathways

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Portland, OR Career Pathways

• Principle partners are Worksystems Inc. (Portland
  WIB), Regional WIB, and 2 community colleges
• More than 20 offerings, each with initial
  certificates that can be earned in 3-6 months,
  with wrap-around support services, and career and
  financial planning for longer-term goals
• Six ESL job training pathways
• WIBs new procurement framework for 2008 uses
  career pathways and worker advancement as guiding
  principles for all adult, dislocated and youth
  WIA servicesfocus on incumbent workers, longer
  goals

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Kate Dins, PCC, OR Guidelines for Chunking
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Green Bay Career Pathways plan

• Focused on 4 in-demand occupational areas
• Manufacturing (welding, machining, CNC,
  industrial painting, industrial maintenance)
• Transportation (truck driving, heavy equipment
  operation, highway technician)
• Customer Service (medical terminology/insurance,
  inside sales)
• Health Care (surgical technician, medical
  transcription, Spanish health care worker, LPN).
• FL Work Certified curriculum (workplace basic
  skills, soft skills, worksite visits and
  shadowing)
• Short-term job training (2 semesters or less)
  that leads to jobs of at least 13 an hour.
  Basic skills/ESL integrated as necessary,
  development of long-term training plan for
  further advancement
• Mentoring at worksite to see that trg. plan is
  carried out

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KYs Adult Ed./Dev. Ed. Career Pathways

• Builds on statewide Career Pathways initiative
  that began in 2003 and focuses on remediation
  piece of the pathway
• Local teams submit proposals each team must
  include at least 1 instructor each from dev. ed,
  adult ed., general ed., and career/tech. ed.
• Grants fund curricular redesign and integration
  of remediation, workforce dev., and academic
  transfer coursework. E.g. contextualization,
  chunking, flexible delivery, on-line learning,
  workplace learning.
• Funding covers professional development,
  technical assistance, and faculty stipendsall
  aimed at creating integrated remediation
  customized to specific occupational career
  pathway.

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Washington state and the tipping point

• For low wage workers, WA study found the tipping
  point for substantial earnings increase from
  college is at least one year of vocational
  credits plus a credential. These results are
  consistent with national research.
• 2,700 and 1,700 more per year (respectively)
  for workforce students entering with high school
  or GED
• Even larger increases for lower skilled students
  and those with limited English ESL students earn
  7,000 more per year and ABE students 8,500 more
  per year
• The tipping point represents the same mid-level
  skills and credentials that WA employers find in
  short supply

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Source Washington State Board for Community and
Technical Colleges, Workforce Education and
Training Coordinating Board, and Washington
Higher Education Coordinating Board.
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WA Aligning policies behind the tipping point

• Employer engagementSkills Panels and Centers of
  Excellence
• Fundamental change in content/goals of adult ed.
• Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training
  (I-BEST)
• New state need-based aid program for adults in
  high demand fields (as identified by regions)
• Opportunity Grants give aid to the student plus
  1,500 to the college to support the students
  success
• Creation of performance bonuses for helping
  students reach key momentum points

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Washington States I-BEST

• WA state goal Increase number of adult ed/ESL
  students who reach tipping point
• State offered colleges 1.75 FTE to expand I-BEST
  to take into account extra costs of two
  instructors, coordinating instruction, additional
  student support
• To do this have to rethink content/goals of adult
  ed/ESLnot GED, not entering dev. ed, but rather
  skills needed for job and next occupational prgm.
• All I-BEST programs must be part of 1-year
  certif. program or other occup. prgm. with proven
  ability to place grads. in higher wage jobs.
  Std. is wages gt 12 an hour (gt than 14 an hour
  in Seattle).

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Washington States I-BEST

• I-BEST pairs ABE/ESL instructors with prof./tech
  instructors in the classroom to provide
  integrated basic skills and job training.
• Goal is to earn a for-credit occupational
  certificate AND raise basic skills/English to
  level needed to take next career and educational
  step.
• Instructors co-teach 50 of the time, other half
  of the time teach the same students
  contextualized basic skills and job training
  separately. Pilot programs ranged from 1-3
  quarters.
• I-BEST students earned 5 times more college
  credits and 15 times more likely to complete job
  training than traditional ESL students.