Video Transcript
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Good morning, everyone. It is 9:00 o'clock, so we're going to go ahead and get started. My name is Danielle Stelricht and of course it's calling. I'll be doing your presentation today and I will be moderating for your presenters. There was a slight change in moderators, so I'm going to do my best and hopefully not jumble everything up, but I appreciate you all for coming today.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: So welcome today to Train Local Grow Global Webinar Series today for shaping the skills for tomorrow through collaboration. In honor of Dallas College Graduation Week, we would like to recognize the class of 2023. We hope that this presentation will inspire you to collaborate with your local educational institutions to help the skills of your future workforce. Today, we're going to highlight success stories and public private partnership models to showcase the impact.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Of collaboration that advances economic opportunities by building marketable skills for students and creating resilient workforce pipeline, starting with our K through 12 partners. And before we get started with introducing the presenters today, if you would, if you have any questions, there is a chat option here. And if you post your questions in the chat, we'll be doing a Q&A at the very end. And if all of you can make sure that your mics are muted, that'll be great. So we can.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Avoid any, any disruptions. OK, So begin with your speakers today. The first one we have today is Chantel Jones, and Chantel currently serves as a Director of Opportunity Pipeline with the Dallas College Employer Resource Center, where she oversees employer engagement activities for the School of Education and collaborates with our dual credit ISD partners to connect employers to students for early career opportunities.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Prior to Dallas College, Chantel spent over 15 years working to advance education and economic outcomes for underserved communities with the nonprofit and private sector. Chantel holds a bachelor's degree in business management from the Western Michigan University and a master's degree in adult education and training from Argosy University. Next up for your presenters, we have Greg Talk to Greg Morris and he has 20 years of extensive higher education experience.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: He currently serves as a Senior Vice Provost for Academic Services at Dallas College and Overseas Learning Commons, which is our libraries Tutoring, Academic Testing and Instructional Computing, the Offices of Academic Scheduling, Articulation, Transfer, Academic Compliance, and Catalog and Curriculum Operations supporting both faculty and industry. Greg's portfolio also includes supporting Your Center for Excellence and Technology Learning
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Great. Thank you, guys. All right. And we hope you get that pickle bar. All right. And let me go back to this programs. Let's start this sentence over. So Greg's portfolio also includes supporting the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The institution's faculty development office and the academic incubator for innovative solutions are tested in support of industry needs and the Office of Special Academic Programs.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: To support programs like Honors, Fife de Kappa, Service Learning and The Common Experience, prior to coming to Dallas College, Greg served as the Vice chancellor with the West Virginia Community and Technical College System and the Chief Undergraduate Enrollment Officer at the University of Texas at Dallas and led the University of Hawaii's Military and Pearl Harbor Naval Apprenticeship Programs at Honolulu Community College. Dr. Morris holds an undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture from West Virginia University and a doctorate education from The George Washington University.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: And also was a 2018 Aspen Presidential Fellow with the Aspen Institute. Lastly, but not least, we have our guest speaker from Dallas ISD, Sibu McNeil. Sibu was an accomplished educator with over 15 years of experience of program development and implementation. As a Director of Workplace Learning for the Dallas ISD P Tech and Early College High School program, Sibu was responsible for developing and implementing systems.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: That facilitate engagement between campuses across the district, industry partners and Higher education partners being proud to have been the very first P Tech Workplace Learning Coordinator in the State of Texas. At Seagoville High School, she led innovative workplace learning curriculum that provided meaningful experiences and skill development through paid internships for at risk first generation college students. Sibu's passionate about creating equitable opportunities for all students and has a proven track record of success in the area. Overall Sibu's experience.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Has given her a unique skill set and expertise that has prepared her to excel in the world of education. She believes that the world is your Playground is committed to supporting programs that will have a positive impact on the lives of students locally and globally. And if for everyone, The contact information for all your presenters will be at the end of our slide, so we will get to that. So Chantel, please take it away.
[Chantel Jones]: OK. Good morning, everyone. Happy Monday. I hope that you are just as excited as I am. Although we are virtual, we hope that this feels like we're just in a big room together hanging out. So I have my tea. Whatever your beverage is for the morning, I hope that it serves you well and you take care of yourself and enjoy this conversation. All right, so let's dive into it.
[Chantel Jones]: Our agenda for the morning, first, we are going to talk about the preparation for the actual skills of tomorrow. We'll also go into a deeper dive about what collaboration looks like for us to close the skills gap. Then of course, we'll have our special guest talk about our K12 perspective on the impact of industry partnerships.
[Chantel Jones]: And then we'll wrap up with what it looks like to connect to actually hire our students. So we realize some of you, you may be employers or you may actually be internal team members. If you wouldn't mind put in the chat where you're coming from, who you are, who you're supporting and showing up for today. And I do see a good morning. Thank you, Maria, for that. Good morning and for the panel.
[Chantel Jones]: Okay, if you also like what you're hearing today and something resonates with you. We can't hear you snapping your fingers, but you can give us an emoji. So give us a thumbs up or a heart. That's how you talk back to us today. Okay. Everybody ready to get started? Give me a thumbs up. Something clap. I see some some energy. There we go. Good deal. Hold on, guys.
[Chantel Jones]: Okay, preparing for the future of work. There are so many skills, but there are three that we really want to hone in today. And we received this data from our labor market and intelligence center. So you guys have probably heard when we talk about the future of work, artificial intelligence and where technology is showing up and all of those good things.
[Chantel Jones]: But there are three core skills that will continue to be important for today and tomorrow, whether it is for yourself, but also for our students that we are preparing to ensure that they are competent and confident of displaying within their career goals. OK, so the first skill, and I want you to write this down. Systems thinking. All right, next we have communication. You're probably always going to hear communication. That is just one that we cannot get rid of.
[Chantel Jones]: And lastly, we're gonna hone in on data literacy. Okay. So let's do a deeper dive of what this looks like. And thank you guys for putting in the chat. I see some familiar names, so this is great.
[Chantel Jones]: Can I go back one, Danielle? There we go. Systems thinking. You guys have probably seen the iceberg theory before, so this means thinking below the surface what is actually going on. A lot of times I think we just get into the habit of doing what we're doing and not necessarily understanding the big picture of why. What is the process? What happens if something gets interrupted? How do we actually improve this So it does help us to focus deeper into the processes in which we're.
[Chantel Jones]: Going about about our work some other important parts is just understanding from a holistic perspective of the unique human trait that's just not replica by technology. So even if you are working on a machine and this is the a big thing that we want our students to understand, technology can only do so much. So again, what is the purpose of the machine? If something was to happen, what do you do and how can we always apply continuous improvement mindset?
[Chantel Jones]: Again, communication. Communication is also a big part of collaboration. That cannot happen if we are not displaying these skills. So a few and just kind of give me an emoji. If you've heard of these before, presentation skill always going to be important. Compassion, trust, cultural awareness, Technology cannot do that. I'm seeing some thumbs up, yes, and you know how important this is when you come across team members that do.
[Chantel Jones]: Not have it right. So it's it's one of those things where you feel like it has to be. It may not be taught it has to be an 8 but again we we have to make sure that we can display these skills in our everyday living and and work OK Written communication is also very important and we need this in more ways than others to make sure that all of our platforms also could communicate to each other. So communication between individuals and then we also have to ensure that this processing is in place for our.
[Chantel Jones]: Platforms as well too. And as you guys have seen, we've been through a rough few years. Give me something if you guys can can relate to that. And just our shift from being in person to being digital to coming back and trying to be as hybrid as we possibly can. Communication, communication, communication is very important. So the ability to adapt and pivot and still hone in on these skills is imperative okay.
[Chantel Jones]: All right, I think there's a little flag here. Give me just a second. It's not changing. Okay. All right, here we go. Lastly, is data literacy. Is this familiar to anyone? Data literacy. Give me a yes. Give me a thumbs up.
[Chantel Jones]: This is where we try to be as data-driven as possible. OK, So we are not operating on our feelings, what we think as far as our workforce processes and our strategic vision. The first question that we're always going to ask ourselves is what data do we have to guide our decisions and our practices? And this is a huge skill that we want to make sure all of our students and even our our community colleagues have All right, three other parts of data literacy, reading data.
[Chantel Jones]: The ability to understand the theory and the analysis of the data. A next big piece is learning how to communicate the data. How do you report it? How do you present it? I don't know if anyone is like me, but I have seen lots of data and sometimes I'm like, what in the world is it saying, right? So I need someone to also be able to share it in a in a digestible way. We see the value of that. And lastly, a huge part of data literacy is learning how to work with the data, the collection.
[Chantel Jones]: The management What tools do you need to be able to make all of these things work together? Okay. So give me a thumbs up or something, is to just share that you understand the importance of data literacy, right? Got it. You guys are good to go. Okay. Now I'm going to pass over to my colleague Dr. Greg Morris, and he will talk more about what it looks like for us to collaborate here at Dallas College.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Good morning, everybody. Thanks, Chantel. Yeah, really excited to be here and actually talk about this topic, train local, grow global. And you know Santo, you really kind of set us up in this discussion about some of these key elements that I think have to be kind of the driving force every time we meet and with colleagues with we when we meet with multiple stakeholders.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: When we meet with business and industry, that has to be front of mind as we go into solving problems because at the end of the day, these concepts are just theoretical until we put them into practice. And so when we were putting together, when we first talked about maybe doing this joint effort, one of the things that was important to me was to give some real tactical and practical examples of how we've kind of put that.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Into action. And so today I have the opportunity to be able to walk you through a couple key projects that we've led on the academic side and let me see real quick to see if my presentation got the control here.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: You have control, Greg. You should be able to just click your down button and in your keyboard it should give you. There we go.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: There we go. So you know, we talk a lot about and we hear in high red a lot about this idea of closing the skills gap. And one of the one of the things I think is most prevalent in our space is I think particularly in high red, we do a good job of solving one of a student's problems, but a lot of times fail when we really talk about solving their problems globally. What do I mean by that?
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Well, let me give you an example. You know, and I'm gonna use some examples across various aspects of our organization. You know, on our CE side, a lot of times we're really good at doing those very customized short end training that gets a student into an immediate employment. One thing that a lot of times that doesn't lead to is a pathway to if they seek higher credentials, whether that's an associate degree.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Or even going on the baccalaureate studies, a lot of times they have to pretty much start over. So while we're solving this problem for the immediate employment, we're not addressing some of those longer term aspects. We're just as guilty on the academic side, you know, we really strive to help students to see that future goal, whether that's an associate degree or a bachelor's degree. But a lot of times you're talking for many of our students who are part time.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: So we're talking four or five years out before they're going to get see any type of benefit on the back end with regard to higher wages and really kind of making an entry into the workforce. Daniel, I may just have you, if you don't mind, take over this slide and I'll just walk if you because I don't think it's moving forward.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: So on this next slide, this kind of gives us a graphic example of of kind of what we're talking about, how students find themselves in various entry level points, but also aspects of this kind of whole holistic career pathway. And so at the core of what all of our work is focused on is how do we make that pathway available to students, but at the same time helping them to be able to quickly go out into industry and get.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: High wage employment, next slide. So one of the ways we're doing that at Dallas College is through the academic incubator. When we reorg in Dallas College, we stood up this entity called the academic Incubator with the the explicit focus to really take more of an entrepreneurial approach to curriculum solutions.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: But also try to solve that problem I mentioned in the other slide, how do we get students into immediate employment, high wage employment, but also give them a pathway link all this together for them so that they could pursue advanced education, advanced opportunities. And so that has been kind of the full focus of the academic incubator. This slide gives you a few examples of some of the projects, but I want to talk about two specifically.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: That we've developed one with our K through 12 partners and then the other with a national corporate entity that you all be familiar with is Google. So let me let me take a step back really quick and tell you a little bit of historic piece around what led us to developing this concept called Gen. tech design or Gen. tech model.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: As many of you know, we are deeply invested and committed to our partners in many ISD's specifically Dallas ISD, but across the DFW and Metroplex and many of you are also probably familiar with this idea of called P Tech, which really focuses on kind of getting students. It's it's a partnership between the ISD, the, an industry partner and also the higher education partner.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Well, early on in some of this development we partnered with American Airlines and this was explicitly at Adamson High School. We originally started a P Tech model that was a career and technical pathway. And what I mean by career and technical, it led to an Associate of Applied science. And at the time we focused on more of like an IT like a system support, a low level kind of a PC support type role for that college.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Two years into the program, American, the key folks who are involved in this program in American began to kind of question whether or not we had these students on the right pathway. And this is what they were experiencing. They were experiencing these students coming to them who were highly capable, high levels of aptitude and when they found that in many cases.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: These students on this a AS pathway wouldn't directly be transferable to a baccalaureate experience. We begin to kind of revisit on what would it look like for us to redesign a program for American that would help students do both one get a a relevant industry credential but at the same time.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Be on a more liberal arts or traditional transfer pathway that if the student decided to go on tobacco right study or greater study that they would be well equipped to do that without losing any ground. And out of that work came this concept of Gen. tech. Well Gen. tech is pretty straightforward if you think about a 60 credit hour associate degree.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: What we did is we kind of blocked out. Typically in the state requires us to deliver in a in a typical associative science or associative arts degree the student has to do 42 hours of general education for. And those are typical liberal arts courses that we're all familiar and probably have taken in our own career at the Englishes, the humanities, the social sciences, things of that sort, and then the remaining.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Parts of their credential or 18 hours, they typically fill in with electives. So the Gen. tech really took this degree pathway and it says what do we need to do to kind of give the student not only the 42 hours of four, but let's actually marry that with an industry credential. So we took the remaining 18 credit hours of the associative science or associative arts and we were able to marry that with an industry credential. And so when the student walks out of that program.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: They not only have their high school diploma, they have a college degree that is transferable to a local university or regional university, but they also can get immediate employment because they have this, this relevant industry certification that they've also gained. And so this just shows you an example of kind of how we're trying to solve all the pieces of this puzzle. Next slide.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: This is just an visual example of how this program works together. You'll notice at the top, like the student has their high school courses, the middle box there is where they're getting the 42 credit hours of transferable credit and that's that's the kind of set them up to be baccalaureate successful. But then at the bottom you'll notice the 18 remaining 18 elective hours that make up that degree are explicit with a specific industry serve.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: The other beauty about this program is you can drop any industry cert in there. So let's say the student wants to become certified in a plus plus. Well then they can do a certification that leads to that and those remaining credentials, let's say they want to become Adobe certified, then we can drop an Adobe certification into those remaining credentials. So it not only provides a lot of flexibility for the student, again, it kind of maximizes their time with us. Next slide.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: So now let me just share you one additional in addition to the Gen. tech model that we did in partnership with our Isds about in 2/20/18, Google approached us through Jobs for the Future to look at expanding the ways in which we could embed Google certifications into our curriculum. At the time Google launched one IT, one IT related certification, it was in IT support.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: And so again, what we begin to look at is not as a standalone certification, that's great, but where does that get the student? They may get them some immediate employment, but if they want to go back to school, how does that benefit in them in the long run? Well, one of the things we decide to focus on with Google is let's figure out a way to embed these certifications into existing courses and existing programs.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: So that the student could at the same time pursue A credential at the college and at the same time check that box of getting an industry certification. So we started this program and Daniel, if you could hit the next, the next bar, I wanted to share kind of some of the elements of success we had with this. So initially we had one IT certification and we embedded that into one certificate program at the college.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: We found a willing group of students who were already on that degree pathway at the college and we said, hey, we're going to take this one course you have for this, for this degree and we're going to drop in this Google content. So you're going to walk out of this course not only getting the college credit, but at the same time getting this amazing industry certification.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Well, the program really took off and um to to give you a a sense of kind of how impactful this can be when you get the right industry players, the right faculty on board and the right UM partners, you can really UM.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Do some amazing things. So since 2018 we started of course we've now expanded to all five and you can see on the right hand side at list of the five Google certifications that we now offer. We now are working toward embedding those certifications into existing college level credentials that we have at Dallas College so that students whether they're on maybe an IT pathway to to get to get a credential in IT.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Or they may be in a business pathway. Well, now we're dropping in these certifications into their credential pathway so that at the time they graduate, they'll also have these relevant and employable industry certifications. Next slide. And so at this point, I think I'm going to turn it back to Chantel and Sibu, our guests with us today and tell a little bit more about.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Some of the amazing partnership in we had in our K through 12 space.
[Chantel Jones]: Awesome. Thank you, Danielle. If you wouldn't mind just continuing to drive, is that OK?
[Chantel Jones]: Perfect. OK, Well, let's give Doctor Greg some applause, some good energy, something because he did an amazing job presenting there that was a lot to share. So much work is happening on his hot side and the fact that he just shared all of that in in a few minutes, I'm impressed. So, Doctor Greg, I hope that you, you feel all the love that's in the chat there. OK, Sibu, hello. I'm always glad to see your face.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: So excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
[Chantel Jones]: Absolutely. For everyone who does not know, Sibu is amazing and she is about to share how and why she is. She is an amazing partner. We could not do this collaboration without her and the work of her team. So Sibu, before we really dive in, would you mind just sharing what your world of work looks like and how you are currently serving our students?
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Sure. Um. And again, I I wish I could take credit for all of those great things that you just said, but I really can't. The team that we have doing this work is UM is it's, it's impeccable. So I'll share a little bit of the work UM. I always like to share um, this work, Um and by giving some data points because a lot of times when you think about a P Tech student, UM, not many people understand the magnitude of the type of student that we work with, right, so.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: And just a couple of data points that I'll throw out there. Over 80% of our students are at risk students, meaning they are low socioeconomic, maybe they have failed the grade level, maybe they haven't passed the STAR test, but they fall within that category of being at risk. 75% of those students are also first generation college going students.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: In 2022, we had over 874 students actually graduate with 60 plus credit hours or an associate's degree. So that's very impactful when we talk about the type of student in the caliber of student that we are working with that we are still. And I'll get into the impact in just a second. I know you asked me about the world of work, but I wanted to just kind of throw some data points out there a couple of other pieces in 2016.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: P Tech students and ECS students have earned since 2016, we've earned over 300,000 college credit hours. Since 2019. We've earned over $2,000,000 of internship earnings by the P Tech students. Last summer alone, we had over 220 students that actually completed their summer internship. So the impact there is, you know, the the work is work is working. It'll work if you work it. And so I'll I'll pause there and then I'll kind of go.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: To the next question, but that's just a summary of of kind of what we do and the impact that has been made thus far.
[Chantel Jones]: Sibu, that is amazing. Y'all better clap or do something for that. I mean just the numbers alone and the impact of credential completions and work based learning opportunities, that's the work is working. That's a mantra in and of itself. So I absolutely love that.
[Chantel Jones]: Sibu, if you wouldn't mind, I would love to hear more of your thoughts around what has the impact look like from industry partnerships as far as how they are also serving our students.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Yeah, so you, you have Accenture and American Airlines on the screen and I'll kind of dive into into just a second. But when we look at the impact, we really can't talk about the impact without talking about there's this.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Excuse me, this formula that we have for success and I always like to say it's a really simple formula to execute. It is not as simple but the the the formula is simple. It's opportunity plus preparation.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Right. And so the preparation side of things is super important and our industry partners as well as our I, I, H E's Dallas College, you guys have been significant taking a significant role in that impact as well in terms of the preparation of our students. So I'll start with that formula, Success equals opportunity plus preparation. And so in order to to to really achieve these things, there are three pieces of that, it's exposure.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Experiences and then access. And so through the exposure piece, the students don't know what they don't know. So now that students are being exposed to our Fortune 500 companies, we see the Accentures, we see the American Airlines, we see the Texas Instruments and the AT and T's and things like that. Once they are exposed to it, now they have, they're more Privy to now ask questions about things that that they want to know more about. So just a quick example.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: We talked about, I mentioned AT&T and so we took a group of students to AT&T and they had an opportunity to actually sit in a class as if they were new employees. And so these are this is a building that students would pass by on a daily basis and not even know that it exists. So to be able to put students in a space that they now have access to they can speak to executives, they can speak to people that you know these Fortune 500 companies the the exposure is is.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: It's super important also experiences so they learn how to make what they're learning in school come alive through these workplace experiences. So we have something called a scoping sequence through our Dallas ISD.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Through the district level and we have a pacing guide and so it really breaks down what these workplace learning experiences should be by grade level. So each grade they have, they maybe they have a guest speaker, there are workplace tours, their workplace challenges, mock interviews, internships. I mentioned that and I'm going to jump into Accenture in just a second. But these internships all make the their learning come to life.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: And it provides them with access. So just to dig into the internship piece, Accenture, they are a significant partner because they were the really the first company to say yes to us and and offer an internship opportunity. We started with one in 2018, we had our first internship opportunity and now it has expanded to throughout the United States where they have over 300 internship programs all because of that one student and that goes back to.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Really the the formula that I mentioned before, success equals preparation plus opportunity. So had the student not been prepared properly, maybe those other opportunities would not present themselves. So as a result of of the student being prepared and as a result of the partnership, other opportunities became available for additional students so.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Accenture And then of course American Airlines, who really took that and and thank you Greg, for talking about American Airlines because their impact has been very significant as well. They took it to another level. So American Airlines has been able to not only take the internship opportunities through the summer, but they have created a pipeline that has allowed students to go from just an intern to now a fulltime employee. So every year American Airline hires between 5:00 to 10:00.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: One of our students as full time employees where they have full benefits including the free flights. So our students are really experiencing things on a level and they now have access really to to our industry partners on a level that they would not have had prior to the P Tech experience.
[Chantel Jones]: That was good Sibu. That was really good. And I had no idea about the the flight perks.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Yes, they have all of those benefits.
[Chantel Jones]: Oh my goodness. I wish. If anybody, just I wish I had that in high school. I mean, how amazing what a rich experience that is. I love this so much. Is there anything else that you want to add before I I jump into just how we even got here about collaboration?
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: I mean, if I could just maybe share a one more story. I have 1000 stories, but I there's so many stories that I feel like it makes this makes what I'm saying really come alive. Accenture. For example, we had a I had a chance to take some students to Germany and Switzerland in 2019.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: I know it was a crazy idea but twelve students. We took 1212 students and one of those students was interning at the time with Accenture so we landed in. By the way, I need to also mention that this was the a lot of the students that went their first time even getting on an airplane. So let letting their first time be being on an airplane going to Germany was just was crazy but any. Anyway we landed in in Berlin and when we got off of the plane the very first sign that we saw was.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: They had a sign up, a marketing sign up and the student was like, Oh my God, is this the same Accenture that I'm interning with right now. And so I I reassured her, yeah, it's the same Accenture. They also have an office in Berlin. So she said, so you mean if I work at Accenture, is it possible that I can move to Germany? And and so it it, it almost opened a portal in in their brain right where before.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: They weren't even exposed. They did not have the experience, but now they have access to the world at large. And so that's really where the passion for me especially lies, when you can see the light bulb go off and you can see that man, the things that I'm doing.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Even in my classes, right on the academic side, here is how it translates in the world of work. Here is how it translates in the world in general. So that story it it always stays with me because I could see like levels of the light bulbs coming on as students were were being exposed and gaining access to the world.
[Chantel Jones]: Sibu, I just got chills. Anybody else that is amazing just seeing that light bulb go off. And I love also that you mentioned this because that's the essence of what we're trying to do here, right. And what this whole webinar series is about. It's about training those who are local and growing global talent, right. We want our, our kids and our community members to be able to compete locally and in the global marketplace. So I love that you said that and.
[Chantel Jones]: That can't happen without that, that exposure and access. And So what I'm also hearing you say is this is equity in action, and we need more of this. You also gave 2 examples today. But we know that we have a huge workforce gap challenge. We're not going to close it with two partnerships. And so a huge part of also why we are doing this is to be evangelists, especially here at the Employer Resource Center, because we need more partners.
[Chantel Jones]: Right. We need to make sure that every student has access to a quality opportunity to find that special thing for them, whether it's American Airlines or Accenture or whatever, to make sure they're connected to that. And as you see on this slide, there's more examples of what those amazing partnerships look like, Okay, Sibu. I also think it's really important because we don't talk a lot about the back story of how partnerships happen.
[Chantel Jones]: Right, this these things just just don't come about. So I I want to highlight for anyone that is looking to model collaboration either internally with your teams or externally within the within the community. A powerful question that I've really shown to to be valuable for us is I remember coming to see Boo saying hey girl I got all these plans and the exciting things I want to do with employer Resource Center to bring more industry partnerships to you. But before I get started.
[Chantel Jones]: What is it that you need? What do you want? What does success look like for you? Right. And I also mentioned to see, but can we just get back in a room so for everyone to meet each other. So I think a lot of times we just, you know, get into our own bubbles of work and we're all doing our own thing, but.
[Chantel Jones]: Amazing things happen. We come together and collaborate, right? Another magical question. I'm gonna ask you this again just so everyone can hear Sibu as I asked you the question and building out our collaboration model. If you had a magic wand, what problem would you solve, right? And I think that's that's something, everyone. I would love to invite you to also think about that, especially our employers. What problem would you like to solve? But, Sibu, again, what would your magic wand be?
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: I would have to say because one of the my other “Siebuisms” right is all roads lead to jobs and internships and so if it's not leading to the preparation or the opportunity, then why are we doing it? So I think if I had a magic wand I would I would say let's see how can I, how can I word it?
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: I would embed workplace learning throughout everything throughout the math class, throughout the science class, throughout history class. I would find a way to interweave right and and thread in workplace learning throughout everything that students are doing the the pulse, the culture, the everything that they're doing on, whether it's on the high school campus or the college campus as well.
[Chantel Jones]: I like that. Do y'all like that. Give give some something, some some hard snaps thumbs up. I like that a lot. Doctor Greg, I want to ask you the same question. If you had a magic wand and in your world of work, what problem would you solve?
[Dr. Greg Morris]: So the work we're doing is not easy. It's hard. It's hard because we work in a. A educational system that is designed for effectiveness 200 years ago and for a very small percentage of the population. This is different work. We're involved now, you know and just as Sibu mentioned about we need more industry to come to the table and it's it's more than about throwing money at this money is, you know, we've been fortunate here at Dallas College to be able to have a lot of funds to be able to do things.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: But this is a lot of work. This is about thinking differently, about closing the opportunity divide that many of are in many in our community just don't have access. They don't have access to agency with these you know they don't have a parent who works at one of these major corporations. And so sitting at the table and and for me the magic wand would be my big thing is.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Corporate entities reevaluating their minimum credentials for employment, the the days of when just putting the minimum out there of a baccalaureate and XYZ, we're doing something different here. We need, we need HR departments in industry to begin to really dig deep and press push back.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: On old antiquated ideas about what does the minimum credentials we really need for effective employees in these jobs. That's my big wand I would like to wave
[Chantel Jones]: and and I can't help but just just say a big yes, yes, yes, yes yes. I love all of that and and if I can answer my own question, a magic wand for myself that there would be no such thing as a barrier between our students.
[Chantel Jones]: And the opportunity. So I love that our chancellor has charged us with being barrier Busters and we have all adopted that model and we have to have that same mantra and agenda and and Sibu you display that to to remove as many barriers as possible and same Doctor Greg for for your team as well. So no barriers between opportunity. All right. I think we have another slide just to kind of tie this all together.
[Chantel Jones]: Danielle, would you mind Okay. So let's talk about now we have all of these opportunities. How do we connect students to them, right. Gone are the days to where I think you mentioned the aspect of of social capital. Dr. Greg.
[Chantel Jones]: Of there shouldn't just be a time where a student only hears about an amazing opportunity because they just had a good teacher, right? Um, so now this is where we are utilizing technology for good.
[Chantel Jones]: To ensure that that equitable access is there, one of the tools that we are using here at Dallas College is called Handshake and this is a national platform we got on board a little over a year or so ago, but this is where opportunities are matched between employers, industry and our students. OK. So for those whether you are an employer, we invite for you to get onto this platform if you have opportunities whether they are.
[Chantel Jones]: Internships. Full or parttime positions? Or maybe you were just looking to hold engagement opportunities to share more about your company and what you were doing. We invite you to be here. And again, if you are an advocate for students in any way, please invite your students to join. They just have to be a Dallas college student and our P Tech students are indeed eligible to to be on handshake as well, too, OK?
[Chantel Jones]: Another thing for for handshake, again, we just can't emphasize enough that there's only going to be so many people to share these opportunities with students. So we are hoping to make sure the students know how to fish and find their own opportunities. So this is where with Employer Resource Center, we have employers knocking down our doors every day saying we have this opportunity, we have that and students who are also saying I'm looking for this opportunity, I'm looking for that.
[Chantel Jones]: And this is the space to where it all comes together and students can also display their skills. What I also love about Handshake is that it changes the game for recruiting, right? As a former corporate recruiter, I used to have to wait for talent to come to me, but now you can actually go to talent on this platform. You can actually source and see what talent is in Dallas college, what skills.
[Chantel Jones]: Do they have and how can I actually reach out to them to say I have this position, Let's let's talk more Okay. So if you guys have any questions regarding handshake, please let us know in the chat. And we'll also share our e-mail address with employer Resource Center to make sure that you're connected. If you know of an employer that is interested or needing to to connect to someone again, reach back out and we'll make sure that you guys get on Okay. I think at this time it's the favorite part of the hour.
[Chantel Jones]: Some questions. Danielle, am I right?
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Yes, ma'am. So if anybody has any questions, you can post them there in the chat and we'll get to those. Also on the screen now is, as promised, contact information for all your presenters. If you don't catch one of them or if you have other questions you want to go through, you can e-mail our business engagement at dallascollege.edu and we will route you to the right person.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: And if you haven't registered for any of the upcoming sessions, those are online as well. So while we're waiting for anybody to post their questions in the chat, I also have a question that I wanted to ask to y'all. What occupations do you find our gaps like? Are we heavy in some types of occupations? And short and other occupations like where do you see things that you would love to get a foothold in where you don't have a strong, strong occupation alignment yet for those programs?
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: Yeah, I'll, I'll jump in there. In terms of a strong need, the alignment is is kind of there, but the need is really great in criminal justice and education. Of course we probably all could have anticipated that, but that's what we find right now. We have the strongest need in criminal justice and education fields.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Okay. Perfect.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Anything from Chantel or from Greg
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Yeah Danielle, like emerging technologies, you know in the broad IT space things are changing at such rapid pace. And then with the with these new concepts of generative AI there is a need for additional ways in which we wrap our head around that and you know in addition to combining.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Programs for students who in the basic programming, but then in this AI component that gets into like really concepts, very complex concepts of critical thinking, question asking probing questions that really is going to drive this kind of new AI economy. But that's a big area we've just not been able to tackle yet.
[Chantel Jones]: Daniel. I don't think there's any pathway or industry pathway that we aren't.
[Chantel Jones]: Trying to tackle, but I definitely just want to emphasize the importance of growing our own across every sector and every industry. Things are changing so quickly. So I think it's just about our ability to be able to adapt to what new credentials need to be provided to make sure that we we just stay up to date and with equipment as well too. To make sure that in the classroom students have that hands on ready to learn tools to stay ready, stay future ready.
[Chantel Jones]: Very good question.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Great, great. Just got another question here from Stefan Chandler. Does this program align student with mentors?
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: So we do have mentorship embedded within our scope and sequence. It looks different at each grade level. So for example, the 9th and 10th grade level, our students are exposed to mentors more on a large group scale and then as they get to their junior year, it's more small group and then senior year we want them to have that one-on-one mentorship. So yes, it does embed mentorship throughout and it it is kind of scaffolded from the 9th grade to the 12th grade.
[Chantel Jones]: And I'll also add to that part of our experiential learning team, they oversee also all of our work based learning opportunities, just not for our dual credit students, but for any student here at Dallas College.
[Chantel Jones]: And a key part of that partnership when employer says hey we need an intern, we want to partner with you, can you help to ensure that we have a talent pipeline? One of our ask is yes we can do this, but you have to make sure that this person has access to a mentor whether that is a supervisor or a colleague in any way. Just to make sure that yes they have the experience but they are also growing and having some development processes well in place. So mentorship is also part of our work based learning.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Great question. You've got another question here from Jacob Klein. What is the process for a company to offer an industry credential or certification through Dallas College?
[Chantel Jones]: That is a really good Dr. Greg. Do you want to take that one?
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Yeah, that that is, you know, and you ask a really hard probing question because so many times there's a misalignment between what we do here at the college and what industry needs.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: And we try to solve that through, particularly in a lot of our career and technical areas through industry advisory boards, which their sole purpose is to really help inform the direction of curriculum changes or new programs that we need to be launching. So a lot of it takes place in that space, but I will say a lot of it just happens more not I wouldn't say accidentally, but being out there, it's so you know.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Danielle happens to work for a unit workforce and advancement that their whole goal is just to be out there engaged with industry to be at the table when these types of things are being discussed. So that should an opportunity arise where we need either new program, we have the capacity but also the resources to be able to kind of turn quickly.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: On that and develop something that really meets their needs. One of the one of the reasons that the Chancellor was so interested in standing up this unit called the Academic incubator is I think because he saw it as a mechanism for us to be able to to rapidly be able to respond to industry. Not only on the non credit side but on the credit side which has traditionally been considered more of a slow moving, slow moving in the development of new curriculum and new concepts.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: All right, great. Thanks for that, Greg. Got another question here. Where did I see this one Dolce Maldonado Munoz is asking, Are you seeing industry partners pay it for the tuition reimbursement for higher education attainment?
[Chantel Jones]: Absolutely. And and we also have collaborations as far as funding for that as well too. And so part of our workforce and advancement team, they work with industry employers to make sure that we can balance that out. But yes, absolutely we're seeing employer saying we'll we'll provide the cost whatever we have to do. We just need the education and the training.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: We had one more question here I think.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Okay, I got it. Oh, here it is. Rachel Royal. We often hear about business and industry needs of the workforce. How are we as a college aligning or our courses or trainings to align with those needs?
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Hey Rachel, that's a great question.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: One is keeping faculty current and one of the things we've really been striving to do, both in the incubator, which we've got resources tied to keeping faculty relevant in their own industry credentials or their own qualifications. We also do that through the Center for Excellence and Teaching and Learning, where occasionally there will be opportunities to kind of upskill our own faculty.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: One of the things we're exploring right now in the incubator is we have we have two programs of faculty in residence and also a corporate fellows program. And and the goal is with the faculty in residence for a faculty member to be able to be embedded in a corporate setting to kind of become immersed in kind of what the most current technology is or what's the what are some of the pressing issues and then come back and help inform not only their colleagues but also potentially the curriculum as well.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: But that just scratches the surface of that I I think you ask an incredibly important question of how does the college stay relevant in this ever changing space? And I don't think we've solved it yet, Something we need to really hone in on.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Got another question here. This is from Stefan Chandler. So this is an awesome program. How does the workforce community learn more about the successes of the programs and the students? Are you posting the successes on the Dallas college social media sites?
[Chantel Jones]: I want to say that.
[Chantel Jones]: This is an area of improvement for us. We we need to be able to tell these stories more, Stefan. So I'm glad that you mentioned that. We've just launched a social media page on Facebook and Instagram to share more of that connection between what it looks like for the success of students and their career pathway. So I invite also all of you to follow on Instagram. It is Dallas College career Pathways and that's where we'll also share more of those stories and successes.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: All right. And let's think I've got a few other questions here in Q&A section, let's see many of the technicians we need to manage our services in cities are baby boomers. What are we doing to form? What are technicians, waste managers, park management, etc.
[Chantel Jones]: Repeat that last part, what are we doing to inform who?
[Danielle Stellrecht]: To form water technicians, waste managers, park management etcetera. So basically the baby boomers that are leaving the city positions a civic positions for managing cities. How are we repairing that talent pipeline?
[Chantel Jones]: Yes, so definitely within our K12 systems.
[Chantel Jones]: There are programs in line to be able to support that. So again it it really does start early and it starts often of getting that exposure and internships. Even here at Dallas College, we have launched the Workforce Scholars program, which is where we hire our own talent to model grow your own. So over the past year we hired Dallas ISD students to participate and internship experiences within the facilities area. That also kind of speaks to those positions that you just mentioned. Danielle again to make sure that.
[Chantel Jones]: Student has equitable access to exposure, hands-on training. So that's part of the talent pipeline development as well.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Take another one here. What's been the biggest challenge when working through barrier busting?
[Chantel Jones]: Oh, that is a good question. Do we have another hour? That is a webinar of itself. That's a good one. I would.
[Chantel Jones]: And Doctor Greg, I would love to hear yours, but for me, I think it's just getting everyone aligned to are we on the same mission, right. Is is our mission of of removing barriers, your same mission and making sure that we have an aligned vision on how to go about doing that. So speaking back to the essential skills for being future ready, communication is one. Teams talking together, teams understanding that we cannot do this in silos and in.
[Chantel Jones]: Isolation. We have to work together and have a shared goal and mission. So I think that's the first challenge. It's just getting that alignment there.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: Yeah, I agree. We all have competing priorities even internally and that sometimes gets in our own way of getting on board with what we know is the great idea. That's something to move forward and we just have to continually to work on that because.
[Dr. Greg Morris]: It it can kind of sometimes get in the way of us really solving big problems. And so I think that's kind of some of the some of the biggest things we've got to improve on just internally.
[Chantel Jones]: Agreed and Dr. Piper Wilkins always tells us to, to keep our eye on the ball, right. Just keep our eye on the ball on the vision of what we're trying to do. So I need to have that hung up on my wall, a surface back to that often.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: Got another question here, I think this is a good one. Social industries might be interested in this one. Have companies that participate in the P Tech partnership seeing improvements in turnover rates
[Chantel Jones]: is Sibu still on the she still on Sibu, do you wanna add anything to that one
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: So and I guess I'm I guess I'm wanting to understand you when you say turnover rates are you talking about for their employers on?
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: The corporate employers?
[Danielle Stellrecht]: yes. Or the employer said yeah, yeah.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: So it and I wish I could give more data to that, but but because we're so early in the program, our first graduates happened in 2023. So we haven't really tracked that type of data in terms of turnover for you know the corporates in the corporate space. But that is an area probably that I would say that we could grow in as well to be able to track that after they graduate.
[Sibusisiwe M Mcneal]: That's something that we're currently working on.
[Chantel Jones]: Yep. And I can't say even on the workforce side we and this is part of just being data-driven. We have seen that collaboration and even models for work based learning. It's good for business.
[Chantel Jones]: Right. That helps with the retention and and lack of turnover, but just also the the culture we all want to work somewhere or we feel joy right where we know that we're making a greater good. So those components together also say definitely has showed up in the data of creating good teams.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: All right. Well, there's a few questions I think we won't have time to get to today, but we will send them out to everybody. So when we respond with your e-mail of your slides and your link and all that, we'll have responses in there for you so we can be mindful of everybody's time. And I just want to thank everybody's presenters today. So much, Chantel, wonderful energy, especially this early in the morning getting everything going and.
[Danielle Stellrecht]: And keep this on track. So just thank you everybody for coming as well. We hope this is giving you some insight into, you know, thinking about how can I work with Dallas College, how can I, you know, shape the workers that are going to be coming to work for me later and meet your own needs. So thank you all so much. Everybody's here and our presenters and all the work y'all put into to put this together. So we hope to see y'all at our next train local grow global session on June 29th. Awesome. Thank you guys. Yep. Take care.