Good afternoon everybody welcome to our webinar the sailor webinar on getting America back to work We are going to talk real briefly Give a brief overview And I'll do some a little bit of housekeeping of first. I'll introduce myself. My name is Jacqueline Arnold I'm the director of strategic relationships at Sailor Academy, and I'm going to be your moderator today Wanted to give just a brief overview The landscape and talk about why we are hosting this webinar So as many of you know the COVID epidemic has left Particularly in the US more than 30 million people out of work in order to help both businesses and employer employees Return to work safely Several changes are going to be need are going to need to be made in terms of hiring Training and how we look at keeping employees Some of you may be interested in why Sailor Academy is hosting a webinar on this topic for those of you who did not know us we are a Non-profit initiative and we are focused on Providing free courses that Both developed skills as well as higher education opportunities for learners around the world And I'll show you very quickly some of the topics that we developed these skills on So our skill development includes Communication leadership and teams so career-ready skills as well as the college credit courses that I mentioned before And some other gateway topics such as English as a second language So we are very interested in this conversation where we're talking about accessible training as well as skills-based hiring And we also the panel on I thought it was very important to talk about how the how offering access to training and Hiring can be an opportunity to address issues in Equality particularly as we're seeing these issues become more exacerbated with the pandemic It's very easy to see that in pretty much any Outcome area the pandemic has exacerbated issues of Economic inequality People of color particularly black people and last year next people Have been affected by layoffs at almost double the rate as that of white Americans or Asian Americans And then there are implications for that of course in terms of the opportunities that are available to them and Opportunities for higher education. So this is a good conversation and we do hope that this discussion and the Q&A discussion after will shed some light and Give us an opportunity to dive into these topics a little more deeply Before we go on with the screen share or before we go on with the presentation. I'd love to have the panel introduce themselves real quickly Jeff Davidson, would you like to start? Yeah, just really quickly. I'm Jeff Davidson executive director of sailor Academy I work with Jackie very closely and been lucky enough to interact with Jean and Steve a couple times over the course of my nine years with Sailor so very excited to have them both here and learn and listen and very excited to get some Q&A later with the attendees Excellent Jean, would you like to go next? Absolutely. I'm Jeannie Contardo. I'm the managing director of the capital co-lab at the greater Washington partnership The co-lab is a partnership between education leaders and business leaders in the greater Washington region focused on building a diverse digital tech ecosystem Excellent and Steve would you like to introduce yourself? Sure, I'm Steve Taylor and I'm the founder and CEO of Ed to Work and we're a strategy research consulting firm and We help to mobilize educators talent leaders and learner advocates All to equip working learners with the skills they need to succeed especially in this post COVID environment I also have the privilege of serving as a senior advisor of the capital co-lab at greater Washington partnership Excellent and so I will pull our slides back up and Steve I believe you are going to present some data and give a brief overview what's going on Yeah, and so I think it's really important and we would be remiss not to address and talk about the impacts of COVID-19 on the labor market What I would say is before COVID-19 hit There was a trend or a move towards skills based hiring Historically hiring managers were looking at a particular credential such as a degree really to serve as that quality indicator or a veil of quality for incoming applicants and What we saw pre-COVID was this shift by talent leaders by HR leaders to begin to look and Pregulate look at and privilege skills over credentials So skills based training skills based coursework or degrees and credentials that could very very Transparenly highlight skills or what somebody knows and can do And that's only exacerbated as a result of COVID and why that's important is we've now got more than 33 million Where it's actually closer to 40 million now Americans who have filed for unemployment as a result of COVID Of those Americans who have lost their job resulting from COVID Gallup and Strata education Network have done extensive surveys and consumer research On Americans and their intentions as a result of COVID Let's figure out what their plan is what they're going to do and about one third of American adults are now going to seek further Education in 2020 to keep their skills current again It's focused on skills not just go back to get a degree but get training that can help them attain certain skills that are Needed in the marketplace and can make them more marketable and competitive in the marketplace Of those one-third of Americans another 34% are specifically looking at new skills for a career change and this is again in response to COVID-19 If we think about some of the skills that people will need to acquire We're now operating in a more distributed workforce or a work place We've gone remote both in our learning and working environments and that means Employees and potential employees will need to establish new skill sets and they will need to acquire new skills like digital literacy in addition to a plethora of other employability skills, which we'll talk about later on in the presentation But on that note about digital literacy I want to kick it over to Jeannie to talk about some of the great work that capital co-lab is doing Right. Thanks, Steve and I want to highlight for you a little bit about what's happening across the nation So we already knew that our workforce was going to be challenged in the coming decade because of just the natural Change that's happening to our labor markets. So automation in particular. We were just very aware that this was going to be an issue As as we have an increasing amount of automation We know certain workers in particular are going to be influenced in certain occupations. This has been made worse by COVID-19 So many of those same people who are going to be at risk as a result of automation in their jobs are now at risk first and foremost Because of COVID-19. So what maybe they thought was a runway that was several years long in terms of allowing them to think about Earning new jobs or finding those skills that they need to move in any new directions That's no longer an option because they're out of work right this second. This is particularly true Unfortunately for underrepresented groups and women and so when we look at what's happening to people of color in the workforce when we look at What's happening to first-generation? Students who maybe were in college and who feel like they can't afford it anymore when we look Especially in digital tech at some of this variation. It's really deeply concerning And so I will say at the at the capital co-lab we really put an equity lens at at the center of what we do And so when we think about skills-based hiring This is a really important shift when you imagine what it can mean for a workforce where you don't necessarily have to have a Four-year degree or a graduate degree or a phd in order to be considered eligible for certain positions This movement toward skills-based hiring allows us to really have a much better sense of what your abilities are And can allow employers to get very very granular in terms of what they're looking for This is particularly important. I will say for the upskilling and reskilling workforce It's probably less important for the incumbent workforce that hasn't had a job before Because there is a general expectation in terms of baseline skills on what early career folks will have But especially as we look at this map and think about vulnerable jobs.  They have many of those employability or soft skills that we think about Um, these are going to be positions when we look at what's been lost because of covet 19 And what will be further lost because of automation These will be positions in office support fields in food services in customer service and sales and production work You know, who's not going to be affected as much are people in digital tech and in stem And the reason is because those skills are so in demand We have such huge talent gaps as we look at what we need both in the greater washington region across the united states And across the globe. I think what's really um, sort of a good news bad news of covet 19 is that We now have an ability because everyone's locked in their house You now have an ability to think about how you source your talent just a little differently And so where before we might have taken a very regional lens on our markets We have an ability to think a little creatively about where we get that talent from So this I love this slide because this really describes What is happening in terms of skills based demand in the labor market? So to be clear about what this is this is this is the greater washington region that we are that we are looking at right now So if you look at that and say that doesn't look like where I live It's because you're probably not living in the greater washington region Which we define as that space between baltimore and richmond So it includes washington dc and then the msa's that encompass baltimore enrichment as well And what you see on the left side i'm going to explain this to you because I I think this is a great chart But it does require a little bit of voiceover So on the left hand side, we have the top 100 in-demand skills By growth and demand in tech and tech adjacent occupations So these are occupations that are predominantly considered stem fields Or occupations that maybe use some of those tech fields, but they aren't necessarily based in a stem major So think about financial services people who need to use some kind of digital tech Ability but don't actually have to be stem majors. This can be the same with hr It can be the same with communications professionals who are using analytics to really understand How to assess usage on their websites. So that's what tech adjacent means in this context on the right hand side We have the growth for all other occupations. So everything that doesn't include digital tech And when you look at these skills, I think there's some pretty Interesting findings that we're seeing in terms of both changes and labor demand And also just the sheer number of position descriptions that we're seeing One is that a lot of those skills that have those biggest bubbles Are things that we don't necessarily consider hard skills. So you can see they're coded as what we call common skills These are employability skills scots off skills Essential learning outcomes. There's a lot of different names for these things But when you look at them, these aren't necessarily things that you would Always think about as a hard skill Then you have these very very hard skills around Cyber security cloud computing and then finally you have and and you look at that red dot that qualifications piece You definitely have so you have the bsn which is required if you want to be a nurse Right, but there's all these other jobs that actually aren't requiring necessarily that you have a hard degree And so as we think then about this movement and this opportunity in the future to move towards skills-based hiring I get very very excited because I think employers are really grappling with how do we do this effectively? How do we know when potential employees or current employees actually have a certain set of skills? And and I think that they are going to be increasingly committed to finding a workforce that has the very specific skills and not Not necessarily the degree qualifications That they're accustomed to looking for so i'm going to hand it back to you Steve because you've done so much work on thinking about these employability skills And I think they need to hear your voice over on that piece Sure, thank you. Yeah, I think just to to piggyback off of what you said genie the the marrying of digital literacy skills Or these digital tech skills both at the generalist level, but then in specialized fields like AI machine learning or cyber or cloud computing Along with these essential employability skills is going to be critical for people to be successful Not just in the workplace, but in this new distributed or remote environment So if we think about and this is just building off some recent work that I've done if we think about Really these two different populations that are sitting in the workforce right now We've got digital natives who are a younger population. They're comprised of Millennials gen z some gen x Gen xers and then we have what are called digital immigrants And these are our baby boomers and people who are at the early end of the gen x population digital natives come to the workforce With they're they're highly talented. They come with high digital literacy. They've grown up their entire lives You know working with multiple apps on multiple devices every day But they don't have the experience in the workforce to necessarily have acquired all of these essential employability skills living in that digital environment And then we think about these digital immigrants the older population who didn't grow up with technology But have been in the workforce for most of their life And they've had opportunities to acquire and demonstrate and practice these essential employability skills But are maybe learning some of the new technologies. So they're they're still acquiring some mastery or digital literacy As we think about Skills-based hiring and a skills-based environment There's a real opportunity here for both digital natives and digital immigrants To work alongside and learn alongside one another in this new remote environment Or distributed workplace so that our digital natives can take their digital literacy skills And they can sort of coach our digital immigrants or the The generation who's been in the workforce for quite a while But is new to the digital technologies coming out And at the same time those digital natives can also learn and sort of emulate Some of the essential employability skills that this Are sort of more mature workers Have been able to acquire or demonstrate and practice over time So I think it's it's going to be critical especially for talent leaders for learning and development professionals To really find cohesive strategies that marry the best of both worlds that take the strengths of your Your younger maybe new or emergent workers And marry those with the population of workers that you have Who can help them maybe take a step back Think about the digital technology they're using in the workplace But think about how to use that technology in a team-based learning environment and working environment Or take a step back and really critically think about what it means to use technology And think ahead to other problems That you don't just want to jump into to something and act right you want to take a step back reflect Taking that pause moment is what I like to tell my students like just take that pause moment Think for a minute before you act and sometimes it's okay to Wait 24 hours right or you're going to send that email and this is something that are our More mature generation that baby boomers and gen X I think that they do this really well. They're able to Take a little bit of time. They're able to think More critically about some of these decisions. Whereas I think our younger generation They're used to that just in time fast-paced digital environment where you want to just hit send on an email and Both can learn from one another and so I think Marrying these essential employability skills with digital literacy will be key for all generations in the workforce moving forward Excellent. Um, so now we're I'm going to stop our screen share and we're going to have a few moderated Discussion questions and then um, I will Open the webinar up for q and a from The audience so very excited. I think I've already seen Comments in the chat Which is great to see you all participating Um, so the first question will go to steve Steve your firm specializes in helping employers and educators Will new models that help people with complex lives keep learning so that they can move to better It's better jobs over time. What do you see happening in the labor market right now? Which jobs have gone away for good and what are the emerging jobs? Yeah, so in the labor market right now, uh, as I sort of mentioned earlier, there is the shift towards skills based hiring And employers, especially when we're thinking about talent development training and development and tuition assistance type benefits Employers are really wanting an immediate return on investment So I think it you're harder pressed now to find an employer who's saying we We need somebody to acquire a certain set of skills and we're going to send them back to school And in four to six years, they'll get a degree and they'll acquire the skills And then they'll bring them back into the workplace and success, right? No, we're seeing a shift now much more toward upskilling and re-skilling workers In in almost immediate Timeframes we're talking days and weeks not months and years And at a price point that reflects that short-term skills based type training So if we think about what employers are looking for and what employees should be looking for or incumbent or Dislocated workers for that matter should be looking for our low-cost very quick opportunities that are skills focused That can get them just what they need to get the job in the market Position them for success and and be competitive, but can also stack or build into further learning down the road Um, so I think you know skills based or skills focused training low cost short term Uh, that that's what I'm seeing the need for among workers But there's also that desire among talent leaders or learning and development professionals Thinking about the jobs that have changed in the labor market So jobs that are going away obviously are those that can be automated. It's more of the process oriented jobs It's things like, you know in a manufacturing line There are things that computers can do they can move widgets. They can do quality assurance A computer for example can detect a crack in a pipe much more than the human icon And so pushing quality assurance through maybe a more automated technology driven process rather than having a human look at every Widget or every pipe or every part that moves through a line. That's something that can be automated away We're looking at things that are more task oriented being automated like cashiers or dispatchers or drivers even uh, and so If we think about the the skills, especially those essential employability skills that are going to be in high demand moving forward It's critical thinking right. It's adaptability. It's innovation. It's reasoning and problem solving a Computer on a line may know what to do in terms of inspecting parts or moving parts through a line Detecting when there's a problem, but it may not be able to solve that problem So you're still going to need people who are upskilling Who previously may have worked on the manufacturing line? But now they need need new digital skills To run the machines to work on the machines that are doing the monotonous task oriented work And that's something that that's that's a job that will be Increasingly in demand as machines become more complex And they are computer driven you need people to operate and teach the machines what they need to be doing as well So I think again focusing really on these employability skills that I shared earlier Those are the things that machines and AI cannot necessarily solve for at least not all of them all the time So embedding those with the digital literacy and tech skills that are going to be needed As things are automated. There's still a role for digital tech and critical thinking or employability skills when married to lead that movement in automation and technology Excellent. Excellent. Next question is going to go to Jeannie. Jeannie, you spend a lot of your time working with major employers in the greater Washington DC area What do they do to close the skills gap with new or incumbent employees? So I think Steve is really right to Distinguish when we look at at this workforce it Distinguish between new versus incumbent. So when we look at new versus incumbent You really have very different needs in terms of preparing them for a future of work And the DC market is a particularly important one. So as we look at the greater Washington footprint It's a little unusual when you look at the composition of our employers And that's because we have such a strong federal government presence So the federal government has its own requirements for what it expects from a workforce And then it also has a number of defense contractors that it then sort of drags along behind them because it has Very specific requirements for what those government contractors can then hire as well So so what I will say is that I think that the dc region and the dc market is just a little bit different And I know that there's a number of people on this call from around the country and around the world So I do want to give that caveat Our employers at the capital collab are the largest in the region. So employers like amazon cap one T roe price mckinsey jp morgan chase e y So we have this really and though that's just that's just a handful, but I think it's important We have a really interesting cross section of employers Everywhere from financial services and defense contractors to consulting services and hospital systems And the question our employers came to when they first sat down And said what should we work on in the skills and talent space is what what is the Set of skills that we all need regardless of what our industry is Where do we know we need to double down in this region in order to be competitive? And it was very quickly decided that digital tech was that space And as steve is really capably described it's not just digital tech in terms of people who are hard coding Programs and working in software and working with database administration It's people who can engage with technology and use technology and their day to day efforts as well So for an incumbent workforce, I think we have the opportunity around upskilling and reskilling To make sure we're giving these quick bites of knowledge and expertise And that's really what these large employers are trying to figure out is how do we find the right providers Who can offer at the right price point in the right modalities, right? So is it during the day and you have to be there in person or is it asynchronous online? You can access your education whenever you need For the new workforce at the co-lab the way we get about this is a little bit different So for your average 22 year old who's just beginning to enter the workforce We actually work very closely with our employers and with our education partners and our education partners are everywhere from k12 Jurisdictions in our region to 19 research ones in the region So we have a whole gamut of employers and and then also of education partners and then also community colleges at the table And what we try to do with that body of work that really translates across all of our efforts Is make sure that we're addressing this complaint that we always hear from both employers and educators That say, I don't know what the other one wants And so we hear this all the time where employers will say i'm not getting what I need from education and educators will say Well employers aren't telling me what they need and so then you get this kind of thing happening, right? That actually doesn't solve anyone's purpose at all And and so what we try to do is nip that in the bud and we do that by asking our employers to sit around a table And in very painstaking fashion They get very very granular about what are all the learning outcomes that they need That they need to see in a workforce that is coming in whether it's a new workforce or an incumbent workforce What are the things that employees need to know? Then through the collab we provide those very long lists of skills back to educators and we say now it's on you Now you know, so we're removing those barriers to communication and oftentimes what's fascinating about this work And I know jeff knows this because he's living and breathing it is People are often saying really the same things. They're just using different vocabulary And so as we're trying to engage in this translational work making sure that Educators are educating in a way that employers recognize making sure that students are able to articulate the skills and abilities That they're actually learning and can then reflect them to employers and then employers are able to say why yes Of course i'm getting exactly what I need from this ecosystem. I just didn't realize that the language being used Was perhaps not what I was recognizing in the workforce And those pieces I think become really key as we do this work and allow our largest employers To both help define how we need to engage in a skills-based conversation But also then to more rapidly hire those people that have the skills that they need Excellent, so jean you you mentioned um working with some of the largest employers in the region What about the small and medium employers that might not necessarily have that direct access to educators? How are they? How are you observing that they are approaching the skills gap or at least the gap? and knowledge Of how skills are translated This this is the issue for any group that's trying to do regional workforce development And the reason is because we know that 80 percent of employers in the greater washington region are actual Actually small and medium-sized employers. It's not the biggest ones It's everyone else who's trying to find their talent that can fill their open positions And what we know is that the smaller companies tend to have a harder time finding that talent It takes them longer to fill open positions It takes them longer to find the most qualified candidates And that's because often they just don't have the same resources and the same hr mechanisms in place So what we see happening first and foremost the way we work at the capital collab Is we're trying to build a digital tech ecosystem that is diverse and at scale So we're not looking to just provide digital tech talent to the employers that are officially part of collab We're trying to change the way we think about digital tech talent in this region And that means everyone's going to benefit from it because our small and medium-sized employers are going to be able to access Those students who are graduating from our community colleges who are graduating from our four-year institutions Who are graduating not just from georgetown university But from bui state from virginia commonwealth from all of these institutions all around our region And they'll be able to then access the talent that they need. So that's really key. I think we also oftentimes We know that many of our students don't want to go work at the biggest employers So Does everyone want to go work at northrop grumman? Maybe maybe not I mean, maybe they actually are more interested in the startup culture And so we're really trying to one of the reasons for this work And why we do it is because we want to make sure That we're giving a shot in the arm to this entire digital tech ecosystem And that we're ensuring that the people who are living in our region are able to continue working in this region And have strong career paths that allow them to earn a livable wage What we and and what we call a family sustaining wage So what I get excited about when I see how small and medium-sized employers are pivoting in this space Is that I think employees are excited about them and that allows them often one to just Ride on the wave of enthusiasm that they're seeing But also they can sometimes be more agile as they think about accessing non-traditional education providers And so many of these small and medium-sized firms might be able to think and act and push the boundaries a little more aggressively Then some of our some of our other largest employers are really able to do Because of many of the historical legacies that they have in place for how they do HR systems Or maybe they're just very comfortable with their HR recruiting pipelines So there are certainly challenges for small and medium-sized employers And I don't want to minimize those because I I think that they are real But I think there's also real opportunity for small and medium-sized employers to engage in this conversation And to push the envelope and teach the rest of us how to do it really well Excellent excellent. So, uh, steve genie mentioned a variety of different, um, institutions, um Colleges that kind of range from I guess the big names to community colleges To a couple of hbc's that are in the area. How do you feel these institutions or do you feel that these institutions are addressing the skills gap? Yes, so this also pairs well with the question that we had in the q&a box just now about how are the skills measured and demonstrated or verified to employers Uh, so your your question jackie, you know colleges and universities Uh, this is something that I I've spent many years working in colleges and universities But also at the american council on education In the the center there representing colleges and universities and really focusing on teaching and learning innovation And one of the things I really focused on with colleagues who are in the faculty development and teaching and learning space recently is this focus on Uh discipline So faculty's discipline and how they can make disciplinary connections Not just to the discipline itself, but to these broader based employability skills more apparent Through the learning experience and more apparent to students So that students know what they're learning They know when and how they learned it and then can communicate that to employers So for example, if Uh, if you're a student in a statistics class and you're a statistics faculty You may not necessarily think about your your math discipline or your statistics discipline as something that you're teaching people broader based skills That can be used out in the workplace Or in the workforce But really when you're teaching statistics, you're helping somebody think critically to go out in the world and make sense of information That's presented to them this day and age. We live in a politically charged environment You hear a lot of numbers thrown at you. You see different statistics on tv every day depending on what channel you watch and within a statistics class a faculty member has a real opportunity to drill down to the skill level and say I'm not just teaching you problem solving. I'm teaching you how to make sense of the world make sense of information So next time you see a statistic Come back to what you're learning in the classroom Start to think about the information that's presented to you to still down and start to to really understand the world around you Call out information that doesn't appear, right? Seek further information Uh, and it all stems from teaching students more transparently and overtly what it is Uh, they're learning beyond just the disciplinary connection in the classroom. And that's where I think faculty. Yes colleges and universities. Yes They have a A role and an obligation to students to help them identify skills gaps and then close those skill gaps And not just within an academic setting It has to be translatable to a workplace or a life and career relevant setting Not just an academic classroom setting. And so that's where I say, you know, if you teach history You have an amazing opportunity right now to relate Current events to historical events and help people think very critically about their actions and the way that they're engaging with society now How that's impacted by and how that impacts Uh, what what happens now and in the future By drawing these very clear connections and I I think faculty are are well positioned to do that and to to carry the mantle in this regard Because research shows that faculty In that academic setting have the most significant influence on students outcomes and on student learning More so than any other campus support or any other academic structure or system That's in place So faculty have a role and an obligation in the classroom to make these very specific over connections outside of the classroom as well Excellent Jeff And in full disclosure to the audience Jeff and I both work for sailor academy, of course So Jeff, um, Steve was talking about how this is being addressed within Within higher education And certainly there's a growing market of providers That are helping individuals that may not have the time or money to invest in a traditional degree program or Or go back to or go into Higher education in order to be able to upskill Could you tell us a little bit more about the alternative providers this market of alternative providers? And what is sailor academy's unique? Value proposition in it. What other opportunities are available to learners? Great. Yeah, thank you so much. The great the good news is there's probably more Opportunities for upscaling digitally than any other time in human history, right? We didn't have the internet forever Now we have this plethora of people Of organizations that can offer you all kinds of skills from Very very discrete things to big picture things. So of course with all that Choice comes problems because who is who right and all those kind of important questions But I want to step back to both genie and steve mentioned These you know both kind of the sets of skills that kind of come together right the hard skills And the employable transferable Essential skills. I love that essential skills. A lot of people love them soft skills But you're right. They're they're hard in their own way And essential for sure But overall that you know on the people it's you know, a lot of people understand the hard skills It's a concept we're all familiar with and get hit with a lot You know coding c++ python all those sorts of things Lots of providers out there from of course sarah who of course partners and edX who partners with academic institutions To bring more focused short-term learning opportunities You've got code academies. You've got udacity very high-end stuff code academy for beginners and lots of things in between there's now academy's popping up and graphic graphic design And sales the radio industry has put together a sales program where if you don't have a background go get a sales training And you're qualified for interviews at a bunch of different radio stations It's just kind of an interesting niche thing that that is popping up across the country But in all these areas, you know the digital gap in particular in the dc area in other places We have a lot of needs and cyber security and data science And so people worried about who are these providers and how do we know if they're any good with the good news in some of these areas? like in cyber security You know CompTIA has been around for decades has been working with employers for decades and they have multiple short focused very relevant security credentials that can be obtained relatively affordable And relatively quickly And lots of different places out there Obviously you mentioned higher ed. They've got continuing ed programs community colleges that have great continuing ed programs of different areas as well So there's a great bunch of opportunity out there You can also if you're trying to figure out who's who you know what one big thing is to look at Well, who are these providers partnering with right? Of course, Sarah, you know, a lot of them have so if you take this And you'd ask me in particular take this series of courses and you get an interview with intel or whoever That's at the high level. But of course at the other level is who are the gatekeepers? So for example, we've partnered recently with a very large national union that's telling its employees who are Some some of them are excuse me is to tell us it's members some of who are out of work Some of who are in danger of being out of work You know, here's a place to go get So some some credentials your your local libraries now are doing a lot of this vetting as well, right? Libraries are partnering with Others for for skills So lots of opportunity out there to get hard skills Quickly and there's also roads to different things, right? Remember there are stackable Credentials and those are those can be seen in different ways. So for example, Steve mentioned the bsn and nursing Well, there's a for nurses at general nurses aides and certified nurses a CNA's gna's and certified medicine aides Those are critical jobs and shortage If you get the training quickly six a week, you could probably get a job pretty quickly in your own area And then now you're working with nurses every day And then you can start continuing to get your next credential after that So one the great thing about you know trying to reskill an upskill if you're not an incumbent If you're trying to get back in It's your first job or you're really mad re-envisioning yourself if you're Someone mentioned gen Xers and baby boomers. I'm a gen Xer myself Here in but but not quite a boomer But uh, you know, so luckily I've got a great job, but you never know you never know if you have to reskill quickly There are lots of opportunities So and tying in those hard skills, of course with the essential skills one thing we've done in particular Back in 2012 we made a A commitment with the Clinton global initiative to build out Related to those skills and if you could go back to Steve's slide for a moment There's a lot of these things have been important forever, but now they're really coming to the fore We're talking about critical thinking And all these different different really broad but important essential skills communication decision-making Problem-solving teamwork leadership. We actually have a core a digital We actually offer digital credentials in every one of these areas a couple of them are are are are built But almost all of these we have a specific digital credential for And we're finding university partners of course around the world For example in india. We've actually partnered with the national skills development corporation Which is a tremendous Love to see replicated here in the u.s We see a lot of regional things of course, which are important like colab and different things But india has done this national approach and it's a very big country So so it can be done in a big place with the national skills development course We're now a knowledge partner and we're offering certificates in all these areas So what's happening to where you might go in the old days you would go to old days of two years ago Or 20 even you would go to university and maybe get all your education there right and one of your four to six Whatever it is for your period Well now you might get You might be a code academy learning some basics while you're Getting something from edx, but also maybe take some certificates from us and others To to shore up some of these employability things you might have them They're probably in your resume if you pull out what you've been working on You can probably think about how you can demonstrate your teamwork and leadership and different things But also, uh, you know, we've got uh, genie mentioned learning outcomes We're very detailed and very focused on learning outcomes We get those both from the private sector and public sectors as well as of course academics and try to merge those two So we've we've really tried to hit the key learning outcomes in all these areas that we're mentioning here So you can get a variety put together a portfolio now of short digital credentials that add up to Show you a way to augment some of your experience if you've been in the workforce for a while Or to show that you are capable of of learning which is very important, right? Which a lot of these things lead to as steve was talking about the statistics example and others So there's this great opportunity to merge and bring these areas together Hard skills and the transferable skills. Yeah, for example, as said some of the universities in India now setting their students thus To get these digital credentials and they're they're popping up across The you know the u.s. Another international workforce For example skill soft has issued over three million digital credentials just in the last 12 months So they're proliferating and and these these types of things are getting out there HR, you know CEOs have known about this for a while. I've been pushing this But sometimes it takes a while as you mentioned a lot of places have really entrenched HR processes And and if the HR person went to college and the degree makes sense for a while it takes it takes some time to to get Some of these new potential in the mix, but now we're seeing it both out of You know both out of the trend, but as everybody's mentioned this now just fast-forward acceleration that kovat put on the gas of Of moving things in this direction So, you know again lots of people out there doing good stuff. You of course want to be careful If someone has a really high price, you really want to see what you're getting for it But there's a lot of people out there offering low pro low low cost quality stuff that you can kind of bundle together And put yourself, you know portfolio And speaking of portfolio one more thing to do too for those entering the workforce Let's think about the gig economy and freelancing just to go out and Higher get yourself, you know, we have a customer service certificate program You could learn some customer service skills. You probably already have them But now you can really really show you have them and you know, there are tons and tons of Small companies that can't afford a big customer service department that would hire people 10 20 hours a week to get those goals going And you could you could put together a portfolio of different types of skills and projects and endorsements That are public on some of these freelance sites that you can bring together With so your portfolio of work With your portfolio of credentials and take those into the workplace even when you are an incumbent who's trying to move up So i'll stop for there because I know there's kind of a big landscape to cover but Just lots of opportunity out there that that really kind of bode well for all the important issues that our panelists are raising Well g are you seeing larger employers utilize alternative providers and why or why not? That's a complicated question And and the reason is because what we see with our large employers is some of it is very very cultural and very very pragmatic So the question often comes comes down to them for them to do we build or do we buy? And so many of them The largest employers actually have very robust internal systems that allow them to actually build their own alternative training content And then there's others who say, you know what? We're agnostic as to building or buying and and we're just going to find the best content out there and figure out What makes the most sense and then you have this as we'll buy it. We don't need to build it We don't need to have that in-house capacity And so and so we're just going to go find those providers out there that do it So I think it really it really depends. It also depends on the industry that those largest employers are in A piece that came up though that I think is really key is this notion of stackable credentials And so what I will say and this is with my with my policy hat on and as we think about building a diverse ecosystem of talent is making sure that Students through a pipeline that allows them to stack these towards something else So skills-based learning and skills-based hiring. It sounds a little fatty right now. It sounds a little jargony It sounds a little like oh, it's the new wave of the future And so I happen to believe in it. I happen to believe that skills-based hiring is where we should be going I also am very sensitive as we think about equipping an entire workforce With both the skills they need and the credentials that are reflecting those skills because the credentials to jeff's point People in hr systems often went through college themselves and have an expectation for what those credentials are going to look like In the dc market the reality is in digital tech even though you hear this vernacular all the time Not everyone needs to go to college and you don't need to have a college degree to work in tech In the greater washington market. That is not the case That's just not the case the data do not support this story that you don't need to go to college in order to work in digital tech There are a small especially especially by the way if you want to earn a family sustaining wage and being in a demand field So if you want to actually have a career in digital in digital tech The data really shows that you do need to go to college And so what we know is that people don't go through In quite the same way anymore. It's a lot less likely that you're going to go through in four years It's much more likely. You know the traditional student is now Over the age of 22 as a part-time student Might be married might be taking care of elder parents might have children might have all of might be working full time Right has all of these other factors. So while we may expect that it's not a traditional pathway The reality is at the end of it We still want people to have some of those credentials, especially in digital tech because our employers want both That's the reality is they want those skills But but to give yourselves the security of knowing that you're going to be employable in the future I would always recommend that you also get those college degrees that go along with those skills So that no one can question. What is it? You know because I do think skills based hiring is the future But some some employers are not going down that route and and let's be honest The federal government can be slow to change and the federal government in the greater washington footprint is driving a lot of this Conversation around what you need in order to be employable in digital tech So Especially in our work as we think about inclusive growth and how to make sure that we're building A diverse digital tech ecosystem This piece becomes really key And so I just felt the need to get on my soapbox there for just a minute around stackable credentials and to And to really say we need to make sure that we are tying All of these skills work into pieces of of content and recognition of knowledge that makes sense to many of the systems that are already in place um The final piece that I do just want to highlight is this question that ties to this when you look at alternative providers, which is Which which comes first tech skills or employability skills? And it's this really fun conversation and like this question of do employers use alternative providers The answer on this question is also pretty nuanced because it depends if they are hardcore tech companies What we find is that even when it comes to upskilling they're looking at people who can do the tech They're looking at people who have STEM backgrounds who can document that they actually have those very hard skills In a lot of the other industries though We're seeing that especially for the upskilling and reskilling of their incumbent workforce They're looking for those people who can demonstrate that they're adaptable who can demonstrate that they're resilient Who if you put them into training programs, especially in digital tech are going to actually thrive And be successful So this is a really interesting shift that we're seeing and a great conversation that our employers are Engaging in very very actively And it really speaks to the need as we look at skills based hiring to have modules of content That on the one hand can offer some of those essential skills But on the other can also get to those digital tech skills So depending on where employers sit in their in their industry and where employees are in terms of where they want to go They can access either one Because I think this is this is really key that when it comes to an incumbent workforce, there's no one size fits all Can I add on to that real quick genie? Of course One thing is we also need employers at all levels to sort of Walk the talk right in In my experience talking with people who are sort of the talent leader level They'll say skills based hiring is definitely where we're going Then you talk to somebody who's a line manager or a hiring manager and they're still looking for that degree As the indicator of quality for a candidate now whether that degree is actually necessary to do the job Is irrelevant. They're looking at that as this veil Of quality that if I hire somebody with the degree in x There's a there's a certainty that I I almost have cover That if I hire them and they they don't quite perform. I can still say well, they had a degree. So I I had some assurance that they could do the job as opposed to the more Uncertain skills based hiring market where you say somebody's coming to me and they maybe have demonstrated on github that they can Code a certain thing and their peers have thumbs up did or plus one did whatever platform you're using and so They're validated skills without the credential That's that's a little more uncomfortable for employers or at least for hiring managers to get there So it sounds good as a corporate strategy to say skills based hiring is where we're going But that needs to align with the practice on the ground at the hiring manager level Otherwise, we're not going to move away from degree as a proxy for quality Or credential as a proxy for quality Can I jump in please Yeah, I wanted to attack on the both. I wrote both some really great points You know stackable credentials what we're seeing too on both sides Is we are seeing a little bit more of of the talk that gene gene was mentioned earlier happening between employers As you know, people are seeing that Universities are seeing that employers are recognizing for example as one example In cyber security comtia sysco and other types of certifications as legitimate proxies But now those universities and through steve's old employer American council education have now mapped those two degree requirements. So you so now some of your certifications are knocking out Credits to get that degree and what's interesting now in addition, you know, in addition to Alternative skills based providers. There is also alternative general General elective and general education and liberal arts education providers as well And so now you some of the most innovative Universities like southern new hampshire university and western governors that are Very large nonprofits. So keeping debt down Are allowing you to keep debt down even further by one recognizing certifications that can get you that maybe first job Get you moving up while you're going to school at night as as genie mentioned hardly any You know, the big trend is going getting your degree later And you know, maybe you're not even starting until 24 but finishing in 28 29 30 or even later And so these stackable credentials are happening in a lot of areas, you know The lpn you don't need a degree for but you get a get a job with an lpn And then then I take you into the bsn, right and and on up and so you see that in a bunch of different areas And then talking about the great thing that's happening too And but I do worry about a disconnect that's out there that's got potential to Exacerbate some of the inequitable stuff inequity that we talked about because of not just coveted because of the Structural and equity we have in our society But there are now a lot of assessments happening at the workplace. So when you show up You might say, oh, yeah, I was coding on github. Okay. Here's a c++ exam. Show me what you can do Well, that might be great for a lot of people and there's a bunch of those assessments happening across a number of areas Including some that are more Cognitive and psychological based, right But so what I worry about is just these exams being put out Without a clear roadmap on how I get the skills to prep for those exams that employers are using, right? So we want to as so as more employers are using these assessments to To test qualification sometimes they'll just they don't care if you've got the qualification if you can pass their assessment But hopefully those assessments are Covering the same things that degree programs and alternative other providers and educators are providing too otherwise you're going to have another Another disconnect that's going to perpetuate some of the problems we've seen Down the line, but but the stackable world gives me a lot of hope because of what we see in a couple of very specific areas You know, for example in the gc area I'm not no affiliation, but but we work with that. We just became allies with them not partners, but allies statistics.com as a robust data science program that you learn top level stuff in python and regression analysis and it's really interesting stuff That is also the whole program is is recognized by a ce so you can actually get a whole Years worth of high level stuff including your final some of your final year requirements That but also probably get a job just based on what you had They work, you know, they work with employers To be instructors as well. So you have that tie-in. So again, when you're looking at programs out there Who are these who are these? Providers affiliated with right for sale or we affiliated with a lot of universities around the country and some employers as well But you're seeing more of that to all those, you know, the stackable piece the assessment piece that Steve mentioned And the demonstrate the monster of peace the proxy piece All come together and what policy makers? The genie's working with and others and Steve's working with them too and people at chambers And different things have to do is when we look to new things whether they're assessments or Credentials or whatever are we now reimagining things in a way? that also reimagines things to Eliminate and minimize some of the inequities based on gender race poverty background, etc that we've had We've seen so exacerbated because of the low skill jobs are the ones I hate to say that word because all jobs are skilled, but but the low digital skilled jobs are a lot of the ones that are Being eliminated or have been shut down because of covet. So now these folks need to either upskill get new things So so let's let's find a way to get a lot of people a lot more people You know a cyber security job with a credential from a community college short of a degree could still be a $50,000 To $90,000 career pathway And then you have money to go purchase the degree After that and keep going. So the great thing again is there are You know healthcare Digital etc a lots of path a lot of lots of affordable entry points So the key is as you know, can can people like the great washington punisher brothers in the regions Focus some information for the workforce so they can find a place to learn What are my pathways that are legitimate? Affordable and and how quickly can I get there? So very you know very key topics both on the stackable and as well as the assessment piece and in the proxies I just wanted to piggyback on that jackie. What else you got? Well, hold on. I must I must jump in jeff. I must You must have been reading my mind and that is we are launching an employer signaling system For the greater washington region that does exactly what you're saying. So it's in beta right now We're working with our five k12 community college and post-secondary jurisdictions to refine it and we'll release it in the fall But what it does is in digital tech at least outlines very specifically What are the opportunities? What's the labor market shortage? and and What do you need to know in each of these various pathways in order to actually be competitive in that space So maybe we can come back for another webinar and do a little walkthrough in the fall when it's when it's public And and available for mass consumption. We'd love to share it Just to the audience when you see that going live or at least the beta is supposed to go live in the fall So it's in beta now So we can we could actually do a walkthrough at any time Because it's pretty good. It's really pretty good and we'll release it to all of our partners in the fall That's exciting. Great. Excellent. And so steve um in your previous In your previous career you were working with regionally accredited institutions, how do you see them fitting into This conversation would how do you see them working with alternative providers? Do you see them embracing the stackable of credentials? Do you see them getting involved with programs? such as The gwp the great washington partnerships and player signaling. Where do you see that acceptance? Yeah, and I'll try to keep this brief take off my faculty hat. So You know, I think the use of alternative Credentials and providers will grow simply because it's a matter of decreasing time to completion and decreasing the cost of a degree So as long as these alternative providers And credentials can stack into a degree I certainly think there'll be growth and that's going to be driven by Working learners who are more cost conscious consumers Of a set post-secondary education I think for institutions, especially as a result of coven and declining enrollments They will look to a new pipeline of potential learners to come to their institution And I think that those will be working learners Those will be learners who are bringing some experience or other types of credentials And they'll need to get credit for that and I think in institutions of higher ed We'll really need to embrace prior learning assessment and credit for prior learning To recognize the work-based learning that occurs and to recognize what one knows and can do when they come to the institution And what really matters for institutions and for policy makers right now is that we look at and establish common sense learners centered policies and practices that can help learners Especially working learners optimize the skills that they have and the abilities that they've demonstrated Excellent and and Jeff one more question for you given How this landscape is changing and um, you had mentioned that before that sailor academy had pivoted to More skills focused professional development offerings in 2012 How do you see uh sailors offerings changing? Where what other areas do you think sailor will go into? Yeah, great question. I think we you know, we got to follow the trends that our panelists have been talking about And being being a nimble organization where we can really focus on the learning and not have to We are going to continue to do a lot of short courses in key areas You know just introductions and some some and also something to go in depth So, you know look for things in cloud computing and and blockchain And those sorts of important things just so people at least get a flavor of so if they're working with someone else who's an expert in that When they go into a company they can have that conversation and being able to interact with them But also more detailed things. We in this fall will be having uh extended Courses coming out in data management data visualization And those sorts of hard areas, but it's also going to continue to break out In some of the some of the uh transferable employability skills. So by the end of the summer we should have courses on how to do presentations And also for those people who are trying to create something. We're also going to have a new course in And how to get a grant You know, and so we're how to apply for grants. So lots of different skills out there We worked with Thomas Edison State University a few years ago She actually mapped out the competencies in a In a liberal arts gen ed program, which is kind of Interesting right because a lot of flood when people think about competency-based education they think about Well, you know, you think about these harder skills, but they were they found a way to map The competencies in You know gen ed programs and so, you know, so that's where this some of these course names popping up from presentations And grant writing come from the program. We from the work we did. We actually matched up Open education resources got to do a plug there open education resources are really important because those resources can help providers Find ways to get some of the education and background For some of the competencies and skills when genie says what employees looking for I you know, the more Open ed open ed resources that we can build as a as a larger community public private partnerships the more Other trainers out there can latch onto them and use them So for example, you know, we had a company in Pakistan Adopt a whole series of our courses that required every employee to take them in their own mini academy inside their inside their Company and we see that now in other other places as well. So again following the trend of quicker shorter focused But also the fundamental thing, you know digital analytics You might not have to be the digital you might not have to be a digital scientist in 2021 and 2022 But you better be able to analyze and think about it as Steve mentioned and present it And say someone else might be doing the number crunching, but you need to understand and be able to explain it to somebody so All those types of things will continue to to focus on and and we're really excited to learn more About what's happening. You know, we were we were there at the co lab kickoff a year and a half ago And and so it's very exciting to see that data in place and and ed to work's involved in that and other things So lots of great things happening For people and so I know it's tough times But I think we want to close on Optimism because you got really smart people like these two out there working on stuff and and they're harnessing a bunch of other people That are talented as well. So people are trying to figure it out And so and a lot of it's coming online very quickly To get all of you know, genie mentioned that the the great wash partnership that A lot of people at the table and to get something from hey, let's here's an idea Let's get to the table now the beta in a pretty short time period that hopefully goes live this fall That is a great, uh, you know great success And we want to see more nimble things like that in the market and you know, we're happy to Work on open education resources with any kinds of programs like that that are out there that We don't you know, we don't even need to be involved but we can use them ourselves to to share Uh individual certificates as well because we offer our stuff to people around the world as you know But just lots of great opportunities. So times are tough times are really bad for a lot of people But uh, you know get out you know get out to your local workforce boards. They've got training centers, uh, your community colleges your You know lots of places that are of course come to sail or we got some information there but but lots of places for people to to uh come as as individuals but also lots of opportunity for The providers in in the space to work together and Steve's been at the forefront of that bringing Uh universities together with alternative providers with more academic settings But now we're seeing we're seeing boot camps come up on campus, right and now there's digital boot camps And so a lot of different things are happening Where we're seeing market players come together in a much better way We set a lot of siloed right as genie again mentioned earlier with the crosstalk Now we're starting to break down those silos bring people together And hopefully not just address this short run problem, but also again help Correct some of the digits some of the big inequities and access A lot a lot a lot of the big access was access to information, right? And so hopefully the news starts talking about community college programs and and and what That people like that's great to watch partnership or working on when actual work is working on so that people can learn about this stuff In a way that has a bit of gatekeeping around it In a way that they can get that quality signals and all that kind of stuff So I think we should be optimistic despite the tough times we're in lots of good stuff out there and hopefully more to come Excellent excellent. And so now I want to open uh open the webinar up for questions and answers So feel free to type your question into the q and a portion Or the chat portion This webinar Great question. Uh, it looks like genie already posted an answer, but genie if you don't mind I'd like to read it out. And if you'd like to give your um answer for feedback, that'd be great So many of the biggest employers have moved quickly toward algorithmic Automated resume screening to significantly narrow pools based on keywords, etc Would love to hear the panelists comment On this vis-a-vis the question of skills and certifications versus degrees And non-traditional versus traditional Providers all also comment on the impact on inclusion genie So yeah, I responded to this and said it is it is a real catch 22 We hear from our employers that they're receiving thousands of applications sometimes for each open position And these are our largest employers who in theory have the most resources Um, this makes it very difficult to do anything manually And so you kind of have to rely on these filters and these mechanisms to get talent to the top of the pile But it can have a really detrimental effect on inclusion And I think we need to be aware of that and actively fight that and combat that and build processes and systems into Into our reviews to make sure that we are we are recognizing that and being explicit about it um another piece I think is making sure that people who are applying for jobs are well equipped to position themselves and At the co-lab in addition to having our employers and other employers around the region Articulate what it is they need and having educators also Then provide um those skills embedded in their curriculum We build out work-based learning components. And so we really believe strongly that Along the course of an educational pathway folks need an opportunity to try out what they're learning Um, that's this is where we think they're going to learn a lot of those employability skills Is in these professional touches along the course of their educational pathway, whether it's when they're in high school or when they're in college So making sure that it's not just a one shot deal where if you apply for a job And you don't know how to talk about it like you'll never get a job But um and instead along along the course of your education you get better at it Through these work-based learning touches. I think is is really key, but I'd love to hear from my co-panelists about Their reactions to this because I think it's tricky I think it's a really and and for full transparency the person asking that question is the incoming CEO of the greater washington partnership JB holston who is no longer on the call, but um, I'd like to know what you all think about this So I can look really smart back at the office Um, yeah, so so I would say a you know when we think about automated, you know applicant tracking systems and Uh, you know machine readers for resumes To me what that signals if you're a candidate is you need to learn how to game the system So you learn how to hide key words in your resume You know in the header of the footer and and you learn to game the system and so short of we need a totally different way of hiring and and screening applicants which That's another story and another day, but um, I think what we can do And I say that we you know on the higher ed side We can help students help learners Know what they know and communicate it in a way that matters and resonates with employers One of the things that's phenomenal about the digital tech credential at greater washington partnership and co-lab Is that if a student earns a digital tech credential? whether it's through Learning the skills in a major or a minor or a certificate at any one of the co-lab partnering universities That student clearly can articulate the ksas the knowledge skills and abilities that they have Because it's been communicated to them what it is they're learning They know exactly what those demonstrations of learning look like and they can communicate in a way that resonates to employers What they have learned so they're not just saying I've learned cyber security They're saying these are the elements of cyber security. I've learned at this level and the level matters And in a way that employers have said this is how we understand when somebody talks about cyber security to us Because it's co-developed those ksas are co-developed now that's specific to digital tech I think this is where the onus also falls on faculty To help students make explicit connections between what they're learning in the classroom or in a traditional setting And how that relates to a non academic setting. So how do you relate? academic learning into life and career relevant skills so that when you communicate that out in the world What what is a learning outcome in an academic setting might be called a skill in the workplace? And there's some translation that needs to happen there and faculty can help students start to make that translation It also requires a little bit of work on faculty's part For them to learn some of the translational language as well Excellent. Excellent. I'm looking for Can I just jump in? Absolutely Yeah, because I think there's also a great point to kind of circle back to something that was mentioned earlier about employer stepping up And providers stepping up as well And so employers as as their panelists have hinted are doing a better job But more need to do better and really articulating What it is I need to know to get this job, right? And then and so that you can somebody can say, okay. Yeah, here's how I can I'm going to highlight that in my resume Hopefully not just by repeating it but by getting able to demonstrate where they got it And on the other side, you know for Providers as I mentioned, I think, you know, hopefully everyone's doing this, but we're very learning outcome focused, right? So so we when I try when I see a lot of people just doing on their own when I post arts and degrees on LinkedIn and add them to resumes um and our digital credentials also have these embedded with them, but You know, we're very learning outcomes. So okay, so I we're encouraging people not just to say you've got a c++ Um certification, which is great, but in ours, uh, you know, you also You know what, you know, you also learn to um Define and use function arrays unions and numerations iteration structures and all these very specific things that you've learned Put some of those in there as well Not just the high level lives. I have a customer service certificate or I have a degree in marketing What are the things you've learned and what can you highlight that you can legitimately back up in the interview, right? Because as Steve said, you can game it up with a bunch of key words But if you get picked, you better be able to say, you know, how I here's how I learned it and where I learned it And I can talk a little bit about it. So I just wanted to add that point because both very important points and um And it's great to see, you know, again other ways for these things to come together Yeah gaming the system Excellent. Well, I don't see any other questions in the in the chat, but what I uh would love to um, since we have We have a little bit of time, um left Is um if each of you will kind of talk about how you think how you think your work is going to um Contribute to solve resolving some of these issues of access And inequality that we are really seeing Uh really pointed out by the um particularly economically and um in higher ed and who's going to be able to Come back to campus even in the fall. There's there's a lot of um working Looked at uh regarding the Disparities between who may put off um going into school or into a training program or who Just simply won't have the resources to be able to come back to the campus that they were on um If each of you would talk a little bit about how you feel that your work fits into that and where Where you see um some opportunities for collaboration, that would be great. Steve, would you like to start? Sure So at ed to work since we're not a post-secondary institution We're more of an intermediary that can help organizations think through strategies and solutions Um, whether you're a work-based learning provider or an employer or an institution. We work with all uh What we what we really want to focus on is Identifying some of the things that are working well and raising or lifting up efforts that are working well that are uh inclusive and scalable and we're doing that through case studies and research focus groups But really what we want to do is identify some of the simplest Common sense practices that can be broadly applied across institution types or provider types That will lift up opportunities for more people to Return to work or return to school or if they can't return to school in the fall because they are a working learner And they're busy pulling down one or two or three jobs To try to keep a family unit together and pay their bills How do we make sure that they don't lose ground in that year or two? Because we know from research that if you leave school If you have to stop out for whatever reason You are less likely to go back It will it will dramatically reduce your chances of getting that degree And so we we try to harness the power of a network and ed to work. We are not the solution We are part of a a broader solution. We we are part of a network Like gwp like sailor like others And we say as a network, how do we support learners with High-quality learning with non-classroom and work-based supports with connections that maybe a learner or a worker themselves couldn't make But as intermediaries we can help make some of those connections and bridge opportunities for them So as part of this network, we're dedicated to helping working learners specifically Maximize their opportunities for workplace and learning success Excellent, and I noticed that I um, actually, I I would like the rest of the panelists to have an opportunity to respond gd Would you like to would you like to take on this question as well? Um, sure So I think the the key piece to this I was on a conversation with a number of our CEOs earlier in the week and we were we were talking in particular about About this challenge and reality of of trying to be not just diverse but also inclusive And and I think there's an important distinction between those two those two efforts And saw this really interesting statistic that that we tend to talk about diversity and inclusion all in the same breath But the reality is that about 80 of the work we do is On diversity and about 20 is on inclusion and those are actually two different things And and and you measure them in different ways And so as we think about building our workforce and using skills-based hiring One we have to take the long game We have to recognize that this is this is going to require that we stay focused on this Not just for like the next month or two, but for like the next decade or two And and I think that's I think that's really key What excites me about skills-based hiring when we look at the potential especially for underrepresented populations to engage more intentionally in the workforce Is is that it's a way to engage skills-based hiring is a way to neutralize Some of our hiring pathways So it's a way to get new voices in there and all the skills If you have c plus plus you have c plus plus right and that is just that is just a reality And so when I think about what the potential is of skills-based hiring to ensure that we have Not just a diverse but an inclusive population that's valuing what various various Stakeholders and groups can bring to to employment and to to our companies This is a real game changer. It's just a real game changer, but it's going to be really hard And and so that's the that's the final piece I think that I'd like to leave everyone with is that this work is really hard It is and like let's not pretend like we have all the answers because if we did we would have done it already It's really hard and the reason we haven't done it already is because one the world is changing all the time And two because it's complicated and there's lots of players involved And you have intermediaries like us and you have universities and community colleges and alternative providers And you have all these and then you have students who there is no one-size-fits-all Student right employee like everyone has these different characteristics, which is what makes them so amazing But is also what makes this work so challenging So I I do think it's very very hard work But it's very rewarding work because it has an opportunity to level The playing field and build an inclusive society That I think we all actually really want to live in and we just haven't had the tools That we needed in order to build it quite right and so I think we're getting closer every day And I just hope that with all of our all of our networks and all of our partners at the table That we can help people keep focused on what that angle is because it's not going to happen overnight But I actually think we can get there if we remember to hold each other accountable and to drive toward that angle that we're looking for Excellent. Excellent. Jeff, would you like to add anything? I think the these two have summed it up really well You know, I think that you know, we're doing our part by providing access through free courseware And some of that is game-changing for us people. We have people around the world learning English for the first time And that makes them more valuable it Rightly or wrongly, but it is and then you have the people here You know, for example, you know at all different levels We we have had at&t Send incumbent employees to us to take care take advantage of some of the prdv courses We just had a relationship being built out with a large Union with a lot of people who are facing layoffs And they're they're they've sort of curated a playlist of courses for them as well And we see near locally with central union mission people who are getting their lives back on track that were homeless Um, and a lot of those people come from a lot of different diverse backgrounds. Some of them had You know middle-class existences, right beforehand before getting into the homeless system They now are you know part of a wraparound Process down there using a lot of our certificates As part of their training that they're doing in person And we're seeing these things be put in place at a bunch of different levels and people at different levels of the And different entry points I should say into into the workforce whether it's reskill up skill incumbents, etc. So, you know, I think The the more we can do as a society to keep costs down the better and we rise everyone's not positioned to do free but We saw google come out with a very low-cost Digital certificate they are the position to do it for free But I think they're probably going with the assumption that you know having some skin in the game might drive completion especially in the college setting but we're saying though that now that The what can drive completion? Is really often related to the opportunity people connect to the other end of the of the Pipeline right and so the work that edge to work in greater Washington partnership Is doing to shine the light on the pipeline? But what's at the other end and how the players and networks come together to get people through And get out and say oh gosh if I do this and go to this pathway I can get an lpn and go to bsn and then eventually if I want to become a nurse practitioner Or I can go and become a Cyber security assistant, but then I'm a cyber security manager and then on up those pipelines lots of examples like that With you know, again, uh stackable digital portable credentials So we're doing our part to to try to Inject and create models for for free and open learning that others with more resources can replicate of course and and combine with So I just think you know, again, I'm very optimistic and just very excited I know it's tough out there for people, but lots of opportunity and lots of good people trying to figure it out Excellent excellent. Um, well, there are no more questions in the chat To all my panelists today. I thank you all for joining us and to everyone who registered and attended Thank you as well. I just wanted to let you know put in a very very brief Plug in for next month's event. So the plan is that we will do a webinar event every month We'll take place july 22nd and we're talking about degree completion So helping some of those students that have stopped out that steve was mentioning And several of our panelists had mentioned before get back Get back into school and and earn a meaningful credential, whether that's a degree or otherwise with the University of Memphis um, and that webinar is going to be presented by acro and we have Um registration information on our website Which you will receive as part of a follow-up email And also, please do reach out to us if you would like a copy of this Um recording as well. Um, and we will also post that on our site. Thank you all for joining us And have a fantastic day. Please do reach out to us if you have any questions Thanks everybody much appreciated both of you so much Thank you. Thank you


There was an island in the Euphrates River. The intel was that there was enemy on this island, and they were shooting mortars from this island.  That morning, my swimming partner was Corporal Jeffrey Green. We were probably maybe 15 feet from the island, and I told Corporal Green I was going to try to touch the bottom, and I couldn't touch, so we started swimming again. By the time I got from that 15 feet, you know, I swam that 15 feet, where I tried to touch, I ended up getting to the island, and I turned around and Corporal Green was gone. I always wondered, why me? Why didn't I get hurt? Why didn't I get shot? Why didn't I get killed?  And they remind me to get up and make the most of my day. Well, when he came home, he came home definitely changed. He was home, but he brought the war back with him, I think. And I didn't see the day-to-day thing, but I know later on he told us there was four or five times where he was thinking about suicide. And the hardest part is that we all loved him so much and we couldn't help him. I had a really hard time with the transition from military to civilian life. I had a hard time sleeping. If I wasn't blacked out drunk, I would have bad dreams. And, you know, that was my way of coping with the problem, was blacking out. So, I drank to try to solve my problems. The New Year's of 2007, I ended up meeting this girl named Lara. My name is Lara, and I've been dating Brandon for going on eight years on New Year's. The C8 appointment had come up, and I was unsure if I was going to go or not, but, you know, all I needed was, you know, that one person to tell me, yes, do it. And I went. I did encourage him to get help, but there's no way that I could tell him to get help and him actually do it and it be successful. It was something that had to come from within himself. I ended up going to the Minneapolis VA. I was diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety disorder. They have plenty of awesome doctors and all these programs. I used the Montgomery GI Bill. I went to school in Eau Claire, Wisconsin at Triple O Valley Technical College and got two associate degrees, one in business management and one in marketing. I think the GI Bill allowed Brandon. It prepared him for his entrepreneurship. He started his own P-Dub productions and looks to me like he's off to a roaring start. I graduated school and I started a production company and I traveled the United States and Canada recording Native American music. As an economist, I'd say we got a good return on our investment. A lot of the recordings that we do are live. So we, you know, we travel to from state to state, from province to province, going to these different powwows and then we actually set up the microphones around the drum the singers sing their songs. You know, I have a pretty easy job. I just hit record. Anything that you might have going on, that's what the VA is for. And there are plenty of people there to help you. So just, I think, ultimately supporting each other and loving each other come what may. I couldn't ask for anything more right now. I, you know, I'm really happy we're all about right now.