National Council for Workforce Education » Workforce Development Reports

Environmental Scan: Allied Health Occupations in the Bay Area

darrahle — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:57:41 +0000

The San Francisco Bay and Greater Silicon Valley Centers of Excellence in collaboration with research and funding partners studied allied health occupations in the 11-county San Francisco Bay Area. The healthcare sector is one of the largest industries in the region, employing over 342,000 individuals in hundreds of occupations. This report provides an industry overview and reviews trends driving the growth of the healthcare sector such as population growth, an aging population and healthcare reform legislation.
A workforce survey was conducted with employers to better understand the projected demand for allied health occupations and the workforce needs of employers. The research objectives of this survey were to:

Estimate the current number and size of firms, as well as geographic concentration
Project future job growth and replacements of existing workers over the next 12 months for ten key occupations
Identify employer needs and challenges for hiring and training employees
Identify career ladders and lattices
Identify industry interest in accessing community college education and training programs

Center of Excellence: San Francisco Bay Area
♦View Report

A Sharper Focus on Technical Workers

darrahle — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:10:30 +0000

A new report released today by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), A Sharper Focus on Technical Workers: How to Educate and Train for a Global Economy, provides a model for how states can work collaboratively with industry, community colleges and each other to provide opportunities for workers to build their skills and ensure America’s future economic security and prosperity.

The report outlines actions governors can take to shape a new future for job training in a way that will nurture the largest and fastest-growing industries, including:

Champion the importance of technical education and technical work to economic competitiveness and worker prosperity;
Focus first on the industrial sectors with the greatest economic impact;
Use state spending to encourage community colleges to engage in collaboration and innovation;
Develop multi-state partnerships focused on providing consistent, high-quality, industry-valued training; and
Require comprehensive outcome data to assess students’ skills and credentials gained, hold educational institutions accountable and inform policymakers.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
♦View Report

Building Effective Green Energy Programs in Community Colleges

darrahle — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:55:51 +0000

Many green economy advocates believe that green jobs training can be part of career pathways that help move unemployed and disconnected individuals—who are often low-skilled—from entry-level positions into higher-skilled, higher-paying jobs. But amidst all the excitement and funding, even those colleges at the forefront of green energy education have been struggling to build green workforce development programs as a result of three factors: 1) the state of the U.S. economy,2) the emerging nature of the green sector economy, and 3) the focus placed by the federal government on educating low-income and low-skilled individuals for this emerging sector in its training grants.

Maureen R. Bozell, Senior Associate
Cynthia D. Liston, Senior Consultant
Workforce Strategy Center
♦View Report

Career and Technical Education Transfer Research Project – CA

darrahle — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:55:30 +0000

The Career and Technical Education (CTE) Transfer Research Project aims to assess the state of transfer between community colleges and four-year institutions for CTE students (2/4 CTE transfer) and document factors that complicate and support such transfer. Recent studies conducted by several organizations and initiatives including the Public Policy Institute of California present the urgent need to close the gap between the growing number of positions that demand baccalaureate-level preparation and the number of individuals available to fill them. Without an increase in transfer for CTE students from community colleges to four-year institutions, California is likely to face serious workforce shortages in high-growth, high-demand sectors such as engineering, health care, computer and information systems, biotechnology and environmental sciences.

♦View Report

Thriving in Challenging Times

darrahle — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:56:37 +0000

The publication’s title reflects an increasing awareness among American employers and business leaders of the critical role they must play in supporting successful education models in their local communities, particularly in challenging economic times.

Thriving in Challenging Times profiles 17 local and two statewide career pathways programs from across the U.S. by documenting the challenges, strategies, results, and business engagement each partnership has experienced. Featured industry sectors range from aerospace to healthcare to nuclear energy with business involvement ranging from small businesses to multinational corporations. Each program includes three essential elements for ensuring students are prepared for college and careers –secondary, postsecondary, and business/industry engagement components.

Produced by The Institute for a Competitive Workforce and
The National Careers Pathways Network
♦View Report

The Developmental Education Initiative

darrahle — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:14:14 +0000

State policy can play a critical role in supporting the improvement of outcomes for underprepared students. States can create policy conditions that encourage the identification, dissemination, and implementation of strategies that improve outcomes for students who test into developmental education. They can provide incentives for institutions to test and refine bold new delivery and instructional models—and to scale up what works.

The Developmental Education Initiative builds on the foundation of Achieving the Dream, adapting it to the particular challenges associated with helping students in need of developmental education move efficiently and effectively toward their postsecondary credential goals. The framework specifies the levers that state policymakers have at their disposal to support more effective ways of changing the organization and delivery of developmental education—and public expectations of individual and institutional success.

Produced by Jobs for the Future and Achieving the Dream
♦View Report

The Bridge To A New Economy: Worker Training Fills The Gap

darrahle — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:55:56 +0000

As the economy recovers and begins generating jobs again, it is vital that workers have the skills they need to maximize opportunities. Many newly created jobs will be “middle skill” jobs such as nurses, welders, and database managers. These occupations require significant education and training beyond the high school level but not a four-year degree. Educating people to plug the gap and fill these middle-skill jobs is critical, especially for low-skill workers to take advantage of emerging job opportunities, and for
businesses to grow with the skilled workforce they need.

Armand Biroonak and Kermit Kaleba
The National Skills Coalition and Institute for America’s Future
♦View Report

Counting the Hidden Assets

darrahle — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:49:59 +0000

In this age of accountability, community colleges need to demonstrate that they are meeting or exceeding performance goals using measures that allow accurate, apples-to-apples evaluation of programs based on nationally recognized standards. Currently, however, there is no standard national measurement of the direct educational and economic benefits of noncredit courses to their communities, so they are not systematically evaluated. The lack of relevant and appropriate measures leaves vast holes in policymakers’ understanding of the scope, impact and effectiveness of the work of community colleges.

Simply stated, the underlying issue is that existing data collection systems are not designed to capture the most basic information about noncredit activities delivered by community colleges. As an urgently needed first step, this paper makes the case for the training hour as the basic unit of measurement and proposes a taxonomy to classify and describe the range of noncredit activities delivered by community colleges.

The Business Roundtable, The Community College Research Center, Macomb Community College, LaGuardia Community College
♦View Report

The Labor Market Then and Now: Changing Realities for the 21st Century

darrahle — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:16:43 +0000

The labor market, workforce, and education are undergoing significant changes in the first decade of the 21st Century. While it is widely known that the unemployment rate skyrocketed during the Great Recession, other features of work in America have also undergone profound, but less visible changes. This research brief provides insights and clarity about the mega-trends of work in America by assembling key indicators from the most authoritative sources available.

Carl Van Horn and Nicole Corre
John J Heldrich Center for Workforce Development
♦ View Article

Mapping Green Career Pathways: Job Training and Infrastructure Opportunities in Michigan

darrahle — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:22:11 +0000

This paper identifies training opportunities in Michigan that prepare workers for green-collar jobs in the construction
and manufacturing sectors, and that represent key elements of an integrated green workforce development system. It highlights existing programs that are beginning to tie these elements together, and provides policy recommendations on how to begin the challenging, but critical, work of building
and strengthening green career pathways.
♦View Report