{"id":48952,"date":"2018-09-14T11:48:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T16:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=48952"},"modified":"2024-10-25T09:23:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:23:25","slug":"business-leaders-need-to-know-how-are-we-training-workers-for-this-demanding-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2018\/09\/14\/business-leaders-need-to-know-how-are-we-training-workers-for-this-demanding-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Business leaders need to know: How are we training workers for this demanding economy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin Business Journal: Business leaders need to know: How are we training workers for this demanding economy?<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

By Kimberly Reeves<\/a><\/p>\n

The shift in how Austin-based hospital operator Ascension Seton thought about workforce development came with the opening of the Dell Seton Medical Center last year.<\/p>\n

Chief Advocacy Officer Geronimo Rodriguez<\/a> was out in the community, talking about the state-of-the-art $300 million teaching hospital. As Rodriguez remembered the conversation, members said the shiny new hospital \u2014 and all its charity care \u2014 was great. But they had some questions for Rodriguez: \u201cWhere are the jobs that I can have in order to afford to live here, and what kind of jobs can my kids have, that they can afford to live in a house like yours? How can they go to school like your kids and drive a car like you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

That struck a nerve, Rodriguez admitted. His job was to advocate for the health care system\u2019s mission, to protect the poor and vulnerable. And the people who needed the most help were financially drowning in a city that constantly touted its success.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we started looking internally, and we decided to essentially blow up our diversity department and really focus it on workforce development, with a singular vision of connecting the local community to both high-turnover, entry-level jobs and high-demand health care careers,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cWe wanted to look below nursing, to develop a workforce development pilot around surgical technicians, surgical technologists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ascension Seton is one of the Austin area\u2019s largest private employers<\/a>, so its efforts to train workers has major ramifications across the region. The same situation is playing out in San Antonio to the south at places like Alamo Colleges District and tech bootcamp Codeup<\/a>, as well as points in between. San Marcos, mostly known for its natural beauty, quaint downtown and Texas State University, now is also home to an Amazon.com<\/a> Inc. fulfillment with thousands of workers and dozens of automated robots ferrying packages across a warehouse larger than the Texas Longhorns football stadium.<\/p>\n

So the big dilemma is figuring out how to prepare workers for the jobs of the future, many of which don\u2019t even exist today. How private- and public-sector leaders interact to tackle those issues will be a deciding factor in whether the riches of the thriving Texas economy are equally distributed to the masses.<\/p>\n

Another piece of the puzzle for Ascension fell into place thanks to outside intervention. Garrett Groves<\/a>, Austin Community College\u2019s new vice president of business and industry partnerships, called on Rodriguez to talk about a new master community workforce plan in partnership with ACC, Workforce Solutions and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in year two of our surgical technicians pilot, and we\u2019re working with ACC and Garrett to see if we can find ways that our hospital can help break down barriers for our employees,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to break down barriers so that individuals who are, maybe, a year or a semester away from a new job, can accelerate in order to meet our high demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The master community workforce plan, unveiled in June 2017, focuses on three careers \u2014 health care, information technology and skilled trades \u2014 and four goals: awareness, training, placement and advancement. The goal is to place 10,000 Austinites living at or below 200 percent of the poverty line in middle-skills jobs by 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiddle-skill jobs are jobs that are family-supporting jobs,\u201d said Tamara Atkinson<\/a>, executive director of the Workforce Solutions Capital Area. \u201cThey\u2019re the fastest path to help some be able to support themselves and their families, and they require skills training that is beyond high school diploma but less than four years at UT.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Alamo Colleges District, the San Antonio-based community colleges network, has similar initiatives. It is currently searching for a vice chancellor for economic and workforce development. The network provides on-demand customized training, employee assessments and industry certifications. Workforce training includes construction, oil and gas and manufacturing, as well as leadership, IT and health care.<\/p>\n

Alamo Colleges recently announced plans to build a $23 million training center on the west side of San Antonio<\/a>, where it hopes to give community partners more room to host educational programs. In recent years Alamo Colleges has developed links to outside groups to maximize its workforce development efforts, like a partnership with Codeup on a $2 million federal gran<\/a>t to prepare IT workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an 18-week course that turns people into web developers,\u201d Codeup Vice President of Operations Phillip Hernandez said. \u201cIn our last cohort, 63 percent had offers in their hand before graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to getting the hard skills a web developer needs, Codeup takes great care to refine students with a more holistic approach that includes linking them up with networking opportunities, custom business cards and headshots, and even a polished resume and LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n

But what about those traditional middle-skill jobs? An electrician and a plumber are considered middle-skills jobs. So are dental hygienists, paralegals and police officers. In fact, 53 percent of job openings in 2015 were middle-skill jobs that require less than a four-year degree, according to the National Skills Coalition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that classroom-based training \u2014 the kind where you sit in a classroom and absorb the information and then you\u2019re expected to go out and be an asset in the workplace \u2014 simply doesn\u2019t happen anymore,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cIt probably hasn\u2019t happened in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

What manufacturers want<\/h3>\n

Groves was hired at ACC to take a deep dive into regional workforce needs and industry projections. ACC, led by President and CEO Richard Rhodes, has moved from working with one company at a time to working with hospital systems and regional boards, such as the workforce committee of the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association, or ARMA.<\/p>\n

A meeting between Groves and the workforce committee of ARMA focuses on skill challenges and training options, not a particular associate\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cManufacturers know they can\u2019t find entry-level workers with the production skills they need,\u201d Groves said. \u201cWe have students looking for jobs. We need to talk about certification. If we look at a particular one, does it meet their needs, and if it meets their needs, would they agree to give preferential hiring because of that certification?\u201d<\/p>\n

A survey of 100 Central Texas manufacturers completed last year indicated 88 percent found hiring and retaining talent to be a significant challenge. Businesses, especially smaller companies, reported challenges in balancing contract and permanent labor. And while certificates were great, the pool of candidates was not large enough to be selective.<\/p>\n

The region has low unemployment, but industry also has had trouble attracting qualified applicants for high-demand jobs, said ARMA Executive Director Ed Latson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not been a clear pathway for students. There\u2019s not been a coordinated campaign from industry to promote the careers. So there are a lot of places where things are breaking down,\u201d said Latson, who is working on programs to attract student interest. \u201cI do feel like things are changing, that a lot of forces are coming together to make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to ‘stack’ skills<\/h3>\n

Some terminology to know in the middle-skills arena: there are \u201cstackable credentials\u201d and \u201csub-degree programs\u201d that could lead to a full degree \u2014 but students may also choose not to get a full degree. The focus incorporates on-the-job training and paid internships, with the potential focus on advancing through a career path.<\/p>\n

Atkinson refers to it as applied learning, a more focused approach to job skills, one that starts with a baseline and then \u201cstacks\u201d skills on top.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe firmly that the future of workforce development is marrying work with learning. So what does that look like?\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to look like enough classroom training to the point where a person has enough theoretical and applied background to be confident in an industry area or occupation. We\u2019re going to see more applied learning on the job through paid internships, where a person can go and really see what it\u2019s like on the inside of a company. It means the business community and training providers have to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s especially important to Groves because ACC wants students to leave with the skills and competencies that have value in the labor market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for certificates that match our needs, but that\u2019s only about half of it,\u201d Groves said. \u201cWe can produce a lot of students who have certification, but if they don\u2019t know they\u2019re getting a leg up in the economy, then it\u2019s just as likely they\u2019re going to talk to each other and say, \u2018Forget it. You can get that job without a certification.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That means Groves does less talking and more facilitating when he meets with industry groups. What exactly do manufacturers need? More soft foundational skills, like people showing up to work on time? And if it\u2019s going to be skills, which skills will it be that could cross industries? The precision in purpose is important, given Austin\u2019s low unemployment numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re going through a recession, it\u2019s less of an urgent need because there are people looking for work, and you can find someone right away,\u201d Groves said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re below 3 percent [unemployment] … it really ratchets up the urgency, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re able to have a different conversation than what we might otherwise have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez said Ascension is committed not only to hiring candidates, but also progressing them to higher-paying jobs. Ascension has contracts with Goodwill and Skillpoint Alliance to train people in entry-level jobs, but the commitment is to the person, not just filling a job.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people who have a willingness to work hard and provide them with educational opportunities so they can have high-demand health care careers. We want them to be able to live here,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cThat, to me, is a vision consistent with our mission, that is worthy of spending all our political capital and our resources. After all, at the end of the day, we are called to serve the poor and the vulnerable. And this is just another way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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