Posts Tagged ‘Jobs for the Future’

ECMCF Fellow Feature: Yolanda Flores

Friday, September 29th, 2023

In September 2022, Advance CTE and ECMC Foundation announced the second cohort of The Postsecondary State Career Technical Education (CTE) Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE—Sponsored by ECMC Foundation. The Advance CTE — ECMCF Fellows include representation across multiple demographic categories reflecting the Fellowship’s goal of intentionally building a postsecondary leadership pipeline for underserved populations in Career Technical Education (CTE) that closes racial representation gaps and removes equity barriers to postsecondary leadership advancement. 

This month, we’re excited to highlight two members of Advance CTE’s second cohort of Postsecondary State CTE Leaders Fellows. In our interview with ECMCF Fellow Yolanda Flores (FL), she talked about how she’s already leveraging what she learned in the Fellowship to create more cohesive and industry-aligned programs.

Tell me more about your journey to the Fellowship.

I discovered the Fellowship by accident. The Florida Association for Career and Technical Education included the call for applicants in an email, and as someone who is constantly searching for opportunities to grow my skills to serve my students, I was immediately interested. I met Dr. Kevin Johnson during the informational webinar, and I felt like the Fellowship’s focus and curriculum topics were aligned with my professional goals.

What skills or areas have you experienced the most growth in the program? 

The number one thing that I’ve learned is the value of mentorship and working with my coach. Advance CTE staff provided some suggestions for our monthly meetings, such as sharing updates on the real-world project and the workshop topics, but then my coach and I would also talk about things that are going on outside of the Fellowship and the work that my coach is doing. In a lot of ways, we were able to bounce ideas off each other and this thought partnership has been critical in my professional development. 

This relationship also allowed me to travel to Seattle for Jobs for the Future’s convening. All of the attendees and participating organizations were exploring different models of career pathways. I discovered an apprenticeship model that operates as a third-party entity, coordinating the various providers involved with implementing the program. This model was developed to be very flexible and prioritized accessibility for all students. I walked away feeling inspired with knowledge about how I can recreate and replicate these best practices for my students back in Collier County.  

How has your experience in the Fellowship helped you explore new spaces or positions in postsecondary state CTE leadership? 

The national focus of this Fellowship has been incredibly valuable. I’m learning an immense amount during workshops from leaders from across the nation and the perspectives of my colleagues in the Fellowship. I am eager to take this momentum and find additional opportunities to leverage my experience in a way that continues to make a meaningful impact for learners. Coming from the district level, this experience and knowledge are crucial because, without it, I’m worried that I would not be considered for more advanced roles.

I’ve set up my LLC, Workforce Wise Solutions, to take on additional consulting work to continue to develop my skills and build my portfolio of work. I am working closely with the Florida Institute for Professional Development for Adult Educators. This work is closely aligned with my real-world project topic, of increasing access to CTE for adult learners particularly those for whom English is not their first language.

The topic of my real-world project is about increasing access to high-wage, high-skill, in-demand CTE career pathways in manufacturing for adult education participants. Through my project, I’ve been able to engage more with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Perkins and Florida Blueprint 2030 and understand how adult education programs interact in these spaces. I’ve been able to review our Perkins data, which includes data on our underserved populations and English for Speakers of Other Languages population, and the progress that we’re making in supporting these learners as they transition from adult education to CTE programs. I coordinated a professional development group where staff from the CTE programs, adult education, and business partners came together to learn about how they could better align their programs. As a result of this process, I was able to write a grant proposal that identified the ways in which our local providers are prepared to work and design their programs in alignment with industry needs. My proposal for this Equitable Pipeline Grant would allow us to propose a manufacturing IET, integrated education and training program. This program will then help prepare our adult education learners with a foundation for understanding manufacturing concepts with the goal of eventually transitioning into one of our full-time programs or going into a position where they can be upskilled. I did receive the Equitable Pipeline Grant for $122,000 and another $60,000 to provide scholarships to adult education students enrolled in Nursing Assistant and ParaPro.

Another benefit of this Fellowship has been learning more about the wealth of organizations that exist in this space and the work they’re engaged in around CTE. I would love to learn more about best practices for communicating the findings from this work to local practitioners. How can we, as directors or program leaders, ensure that our programs are being developed with the knowledge of what has worked elsewhere. Building this awareness is a huge opportunity to lean in, and I believe the impact could be significant.

How has the Fellowship expanded your network? 

I have a great group of Fellows that are helpful for bouncing ideas off each other. Also, I’ve found that the assigned accountability buddies have given us permission to reach out and have conversations about our work and the challenges we might be experiencing. My buddy has been a source of encouragement, and I’m not sure we would have independently taken steps to make those connections. 

I’ve also enjoyed the relationship and support I’ve received from the Advance CTE staff. Dr. Stephanie Perkins’ feedback has been so helpful and available to meet as needed for additional support to complete my real-world project. 

The opportunities to engage with state leaders and national organizations have been great. I’m eager to take advantage of these platforms, such as the ECMCF Convening in Denver, to elevate my work. 

By Layla Alagic in Achieving Equitable and Inclusive CTE
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CTE Research Review: Demystifying Work-based Learning

Wednesday, June 10th, 2015

Jobs for the Future’s Pathways to Prosperity Network recently released a toolkit to help demystify work-based learning for employers. In the report, “Not as Hard as You Think: Engaging High School Students in Work-based Learning,” JFF acknowledges that addressing employers’ concerns about liability and labor law issues are critical to scaling up work-based learning (WBL) opportunities.

The brief’s primary goal is to alleviate employers’ concerns about perceived barriers to allowing high school students into the workplace, and also offers three case studies of employers in manufacturing and health care that have successfully launched such experiential opportunities.

First, the report offers the greatest benefits of WBL for employers:

To create these opportunities, most employers need “to make only minimal changes, if any, to existing workplace policies and procedures in order to ensure compliance with state and federal laws and policies,” according to the report. The greatest restriction for youth under 18 is the 17 hazardous occupations identified by the U.S. Department of Labor, but just one of these occupations – operating a forklift — is actually in use in most workplaces, the report states. Within the manufacturing industry, most federal restrictions apply only to 14- and 15-year-olds. Other restrictions regarding work hours, minimum wages, permits and required rest or meal periods are typically a matter of state law.

Employers’ insurance policies are a more likely source of barriers to the workplace than state or federal regulations. Yet, the report found that liability issues for paid student interns are often covered under existing workers’ compensation policies. Some employers have been able to work with their insurers to clarify and address WBL restrictions and others take additional steps to limit their liability by having students and families sign liability waivers and working with intermediary organizations.

The report offered three ways to encourage and support employers’ WBL efforts:

wbl

Credentials for All

The Southern Regional Education Board’s Commission on Career and Technical Education released its final report earlier this month, and described the bridge from high school to postsecondary and the workforce as broken and in desperate need of fixing.

To repair this bridge, the Commission offers eight actions that states can take to reach the goal of doubling the number of young people completing some form of a college credential by the age of 25. Be sure to check out the full report for all eight action steps.

Andrea Zimmermann, State Policy Associate

By admin in Research
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CTE Research Review

Thursday, July 3rd, 2014

Research Image_6.2013This week, Jobs for the Future and the Harvard Graduate School of Education released a two-year progress report on its Pathways to Prosperity Network. The network, which consists of 10 states, focuses on creating career pathways for students spanning high schools and community or technical colleges. Along with statewide and regional examples, the report provides lessons from the field and policy recommendations.

The network’s mission grew out of a 2011 report from the Harvard Graduate School of Education which argued the current U.S. education system focused too narrowly on preparing all students for a four-year college degree, and by doing so ignored other postsecondary options that could better suit many students. The project’s long-term objective is “to create statewide strategies that ensure that all middle and high school students are provided with systematic, sustained exposure to the world of work and careers, and that students in their upper high school years have access to educational options that integrate academic and technical skills and lead to a postsecondary credential with value in the labor market.”

While the report found “gold standard” work-based learning opportunities in some schools and a philosophical commitment to these practices in many instances, none of the models could be found across whole districts or even entire high schools. These opportunities are not more readily available because, “employers in the United States do not take the long view about the value of investing in talent early.” The report shared the burden, however, with schools, saying that even if employers were more inclined to collaborate, teachers and administrators “do not have the time or capacity to develop the number of internships needed while attending to their other responsibilities.” The authors also pointed to other factors such as already tight class schedules and a lack of government youth employment policies.

The authors called on state agencies to better coordinate resources to scale up Pathways programs; increase dual enrollment opportunities; further integrate CTE with academic programs, particularly those with a STEM focus; and develop policies to incentivize business involvement.

Be sure to check out examples of how Pathways states are increasing work-based learning opportunities, leveraging public funds, and a state-by-state report that looks at progress through a statewide and regional lens.

By admin in Research
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