Education Week - March 25, 2015 - 12

Nonprofits Link Businesses
To Career-Tech Programs
By Caralee J. Adams
When it comes to collaborating to shape
career and technical education programs in
schools, educators and businesses don't always
speak the same language. To fill that
need, a growing number of third-party entities
have formed to bridge such communication
gaps in their own communities.
In Philadelphia, for example, the nonprofit
Academies Inc. enlists local businesses to
help implement the career-academy model
in schools, said Constance Majka, the organization's
director of innovation and learning.
"Good intentions don't always translate into
an effective outcome," she said. Having Academies
Inc. as a single point of contact for employers
helps them form lasting partnerships
with schools and avoid repeating mistakes,
she added.
By providing orientation for both sides,
businesses learn they shouldn't show a
50-slide PowerPoint presentation to children,
and teachers learn how to support
business partners in the classroom, said Ms.
Majka. The structure also keeps teachers
from relying on the same businesses or business
partners over and over again for classroom
collaboration.
"Educators are probably the worst communicators
to business, trying to explain to [businesses]
what we are doing and what we want
to do," said David M. Kipphut, the deputy of career
and technical education for the Philadelphia
school district. Trainers from Academies
Inc. have taught Mr. Kipphut to understand
the mindset of businesses, and to be more focused
and clear.
Since expectations can differ, there can be
trust issues initially in forming partnerships.
"When we connect students with a job opportunity,
we want the student to learn and be
productive," he said. For example, a student
in a health program working in a hospital
should not be shredding paper in a records office.
Developing a learning plan that outlines
the competencies a student is expected to
gain-and that is signed by the employer-
can help avoid that pitfall, he said.
Staying Committed
Academies Inc. matched Nelson J. Shaffer,
an official with a local engineering company,
with Abraham Lincoln High School in North
Philadelphia, where he provides executive
coaching for the principal and mentoring to
students. Mr. Shaffer, the executive vice president
of the Pennoni Associates engineering
firm, puts in about 10 hours a month at the
school and said he is committed to volunteering
for the long haul.
"The business community needs to be involved
in the education system," he said. "It's
one thing to contribute money, but money isn't
going to cure the disconnect."
Sometimes employers are asked for their expertise,
but when plans and priorities change,
the projects never get off the ground, according
to Academies Inc. For example, a few years ago
an automotive advisory committee in Philadelphia
met for months making recommendations
for a new diesel mechanics program only
to have the school reform commission grant
control of the school to a charter management
company and not adopt the program, according
to Albert J. McLaverty, the organization's
associate director of industry organizing.
Staff members at Academies Inc. tried to
assure committee members that their work
was appreciated and steered them to another
project. Mr. McLaverty said the long-term nature
of the volunteer commitments allows the
agency to encourage continued participation
despite setbacks.
Through Academies Inc., Frank C. Fesnak
has arranged for local business owners
to come into the Roxsborough High School
classroom in North Philadelphia, where he
teaches a business and technology course.
"It's fascinating to [students] to have somebody
real explain what it's like to run a business
every day," he said. His students practice
networking with employers, giving their "elevator
speeches" and handing out personally
designed business cards. "It forces students
to think about themselves and the skills they
bring to the market," he said.
The COLLEGE BOUND blog tracks
news and trends on this issue.
www.edweek.org/go/collegebound
Employers'
Roles Grow
In New CTE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
those programs.
Such efforts also come as the Common
Core State Standards have made
"college and career readiness" the
touchstone for K-12 education.
Last year, 46 states and the District
of Columbia took action to boost career
technical education with nearly
150 new policies to provide more
funding, expand innovative employer
partnerships, and strengthen programs
that provide college-level credit
in high school. And the call for greater
employer engagement in schools'
career and technical education programs
has been sounded in recent
reports from the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, the Council of Chief State
School Officers, and the National Association
of State Directors of Career
Technical Education Consortium.
"Education can't do it alone anymore,"
said Kimberly A. Green, the
executive director of the Silver Spring,
Md.-based cte directors consortium.
As students in the new economy
need a different skills set, employer
feedback is paramount-and not just
through the old model of an advisory
committee that meets once or twice
a year. "It requires more interaction,
more regular connection, more guidance
to stay abreast of workforce
change," she said.
Cultural Divide
Facing shortages of skilled workers,
many businesses are eager for
schools to produce more highly educated
graduates.
"The education system always lags
behind the labor economy in terms
of the jobs created," said Edward E.
Gordon, the author of Future Jobs:
Solving the Employment and Skills
Crisis, published in 2013 by Praeger
Publishing. "The problem now
is that the changes are occurring so
fast that the school system is being
left behind in the dust."
But it can be a challenge for businesses
to know how to connect with
schools.
Part of the difficulty is that educators
and employers operate in different
cultures. Business people are
often used to moving quickly and efficiently,
while educators live within
the constraints of bureaucracy and
12 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 25, 2015 | www.edweek.org
regulations. The divergent cultures
can clash, according to those who
manage such partnerships.
To bridge the divide, some districts
are enlisting third parties to coordinate
collaboration and funnel job
information from the business community
to schools. (See related article,
this page.)
One such model, known as a Regional
Talent Innovation Network,
or retain, brings together businesses
from various sectors through an
economic-development association or
chamber of commerce to work with
schools as they develop career-training
programs.
Begun in the 1990s, the retain
movement is gradually gaining momentum,
according to Mr. Gordon.
Although there is no formal retain
organization to track the model, the
Purdue University Center for Regional
Development lists 1,400 such
networks and similar public-private
partnerships in its database.
Businesses, once reluctant to share
job projections for proprietary reasons,
are increasingly open to collaboration
and sharing, and employment
outlooks are also available on
websites, such as Career Outlook in
the U.S., which uses U.S. Department
of Labor data.
Schools also have their own set of
challenges in retooling programs and
doing it with business involvement.
"Educators have many different
types of requirements they have to
meet these days from the federal government,
the state government, and
the local government. That's part of
the challenge to try to get everything
in," said Stephen DeWitt, the deputy
executive director of the Association
for Career and Technical Education,
in Alexandria, Va. While some members
know how to reach out effectively
to employers, others do not, and the
problem grows as large numbers of
cte teachers leave the field, he added.
Every January, employers in Vermilion
County in eastern Illinois are
asked to complete a jobs-projection
survey, administered by Vermilion
Advantage, a member-based organization
that focuses on workforcedevelopment
needs. Core employers
identify their needs two years out for
both new and replacement positions.
Acting on Data
Using the data, skills training in
the schools can be adapted to plug
the gaps, said Vicki L. Haugen, the
president and chief executive officer
of Vermilion Advantage. As a
result, the organization has pushed
for more training and career-aware"
Education
can't do
it alone anymore. ...
It requires more
interaction, more
regular connection,
more guidance
to stay abreast of
workforce change."
KIMBERLY A. GREEN
National Association of State
Directors of Career Technical
Education Consortium
Photos by Charles Mostoller for Education Week
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Education Week - March 25, 2015

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