Workforce Development Strategic Plan

The purpose of the Workforce Development Strategic Plan is to guide the transformation of workforce development education to meet the needs of current and emerging business demands and prepare students to compete in the global 21st century workforce. The plan establishes the most important priorities and goals as a continuing guide to our future actions and decisions about the allocation of resources.

The plan will provide a focus on the internal processes, structures, and resources needed to build a strong and coordinated workforce development effort. It will be aligned with and amplify many priorities from the college-wide Strategic Plan. The plan will help solidify a new infrastructure and programming resulting in a significant increase in career and technical course enrollment. In addition, the plan will focus our efforts towards quality continuing education curriculum and creating and coordinating programming more effectively, while fostering sustainability of programs and services. Other key elements will be strengthening the planning of federal and state grants and initiatives, improving data-driven decision making for program development, and improved alignment with non-credit to credit pathways. Specifically, the plan will provide a road map to develop and maintain programs that are responsive to and developed with our industry partners; use quantitative and qualitative data for continuous improvement; and promote success for all students.

Part of the plan will be devoted to developing a strong approach to measurement. We want to better understand if the programs and services are delivering skilled employees for business and industry while equipping learners with the skills, knowledge, abilities and opportunities they need. The plan will help identify the measures to track and the processes to collect and report. However, the literature heeds a warning that many workforce development programs are plagued with significant challenges collecting robust data on employment. For example, most colleges do not have access to state wage record data. A further challenge is linking educational records to employment outcomes. We realize the reality, but will move forward, even if modestly, as data on outcomes could help make the case for additional resources and support. In addition, data can show impact and is an opportunity to demonstrate the workforce development story.

Another reason to develop a plan for workforce development measures is to prepare for the likelihood of a new organizational format that many are expecting will come into higher education. Dr. Anthony Carnevale, Director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW), says structural changes are inevitable in the public higher education system because of benchmarking. Such education reform allows for an expansion in higher education transparency, and achievement of efficiencies. An example of this comes from California. In 2016, California legislature authorized the Strong Workforce Program, which implemented a set of rigorous metrics through which community colleges were accountable to deliver specific outcomes.

Dr. Carnevale states, "we will almost surely end up with more transparency and accountability on completion, employment, and earnings for all postsecondary programs." These outcomes, while allowing for strategic collaboration among college programs and ultimately creating a positive learning experience for students, will also likely impact funding decisions. At the very least, we're in the midst of a very robust debate about policy changes as legislative demand grows for transparency and accountability in postsecondary education and training at both the institutional level and program level. As such, we must ready ourselves with a strong viable workforce development program and be prepared for benchmarking standards created by government policy.

CAPE seeks to convene a Steering Committee including some members of the group focused on Strategic Initiative 2: Strengthen our Region's Economic Future: Teach and Train for a Brighter Tomorrow of the College's Strategic Plan 2020-2025, as well as key external partners. Data will be collected through IPAR; labor market resources; and student, industry and faculty surveys and reports. A list of priorities will be identified and discussed including: What non‐credit to credit pathways are available for students, including connections with Pathways and Strong Start to Finish initiatives? How will the college ensure students are aware of and connect students directly to a broad array of support services both on and off campus? An exploration of the tenets will help guide choices in the direction of workforce development for the College. For example, connecting the community to economic mobility and non-credit to credit pathways. The committee must be committed to creating the ideal conditions to ensure the college provides the optimal environment for all workforce development students to learn and succeed and for the community to thrive.

Real-Time Labor Market Information Subscription Pilot

In addition to traditional strategies to strengthen a labor market responsive community college such as advisory boards and employer partnerships, utilizing real-time labor market information (LMI) can show what employers need now and in the very near future. Traditional labor market information from the US Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on activities that have already occurred. Whereas, real-time LMI can aggregate and analyze up-to-date intelligence to identify occupation and skill demands. This best practice is used by community colleges nationwide as a key asset to help determine demand for industry-specific jobs and skills; identify opportunities to train jobless workers for difficult-to-fill jobs; and adjust curriculum to name a few.

Emsi and Burning Glass provide subscriptions that pull data from multiple sources: traditional labor market information (LMI); job posting analytics (JPA); individual profile data; compensation data; global data; and skills. The College already uses Emsi Career Coach which is great in matching the College's academic programs with occupational information. This service promotes the College's programs and helps drive enrollment by allowing students to find careers that match their strengths and discover programs at SUNY Orange that will prepare them for success.

The Emsi Analyst product has one of the most comprehensive data sets of labor market data available. The benefits of Emsi include: analyze our region’s top industries and how they relate to the broader labor market; find top jobs and evaluate the long-term occupational outlook of careers; see real-time trends based on the kind of workers that employers are looking for; adjust curricula based on the market's most in-demand skills and certifications; develop and review programs with relevant data on employer demand and the competitive landscape; and focus marketing efforts with data on population, race/ethnicity, and gender. It's important to note that early in summer 2021 Emsi and Burning Glass announced they will be merging, likely making a greater array of resources available.

Please note, the "Funding Source" chosen for this PIP entry is "Grant Possibility" because of available State workforce development grants. However, the subscription cost would likely only be covered for one year. Leveraging this funding to support a pilot project, we can evaluate the value of the service to determine whether to build upon it for future use.

The combination of the implementation of the Workforce Development Strategic Plan and Emsi Analyst will significantly propel the College's workforce development efforts in strengthening the labor market responsiveness of SUNY Orange.