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Employer Engagement and CHAMP

January 2014

January 27, 2014

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CAEL Quick Facts

Council for Adult and Experiential Learning

A 501(c)(3) non-profit national leader in adult learning for 40 years

Headquartered in Chicago; Colorado and Philadelphia offices since 1990

30 years working with employers to create learning strategies for the entry and mid-level workforce

Membership of more than 3,000 colleges, organizations, and individuals

Meaningful learning, credentials, and work for every adult

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Employer Engagement: What does it mean?

The GoalEmployers and colleges view EACH OTHER as strategic partners

It’s organization-wide It’s mutual It’s ongoing

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Employer Engagement: Why?

External reasons With an eye to jobs, employment, workforce boards, and economic development, funders require this collaborative approach.

Increasing pressure on all fronts for college-prepared students to be ready to work

Internal reason It’s the mission of the community college AND it doesn’t make sense to work in a vacuum.

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Let’s Check Perceptions

72% of educational leaders think newly educated workers are ready for work

BUT42% of employers think these same workers are ready for work

Source: A Bersin study reported in CLO Magazine 3.22.13

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The Employer Engagement Pie

Curriculum

Governance

DonorsContinuing Ed

Marketing

Other?

The Engagement Pie

Curriculum

Governance

Donors

Continuing Ed

Marketing

Other?

What does it look like at your school?

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Continuum of Curriculum Engagement

Access to employees

Targeted curriculu

m

Customized

curriculum

Co-developed curriculu

m

Tuition discount

Tuition revenue

share

Joint ownership

of curriculu

m

No single “right’ way

Many models = lots of opportunity and flexibility

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Employer Advisors – Employer Partners

Employers as Advisors Employers as PartnersAttend business advisory meeting

Deep involvement in:• Identifying critical competencies• Curriculum assessment and design• Work-based learning• Internships• Providing adjunct faculty, equipment, teaching materials

Respond to surveys and placement data

Help design and implement surveys & interpret data

Work individually with units in the school to get customized training needs met

Work with colleges OVER TIME to address workforce needs

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Employer Advisors – Employer Partners

Employers as Advisors Employers as PartnersDiscuss the importance of higher skills and advise on curriculum

Work with colleges and their partners to provide detailed direction about requisite competencies, both current and future

Participate on “as needed” when asked by college or program staff

Continual involvement in program design and refinement

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Success Factors

Remember

It’s organization-wide, for both employers and schools

And

It’s ongoing

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Let’s Take a MomentThis isn’t easy!

College side• We bring employers to our campus and

they’re polite, but that’s about it.• We don’t have time, dedicated

personnel, and

• What colleges don’t say

Employer side• Colleges take too long to decide• It’s all “academic speak”

and • What employers don’t say

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1. Is your school a strategic source in your employers’ pipeline?

Here’s what the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce reported:

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More Success Factors

2. Is your partnership employer driven? How can you find out?

3. Is there diverse and regular college-employer contact? Where is it happening? At what levels of both organizations? How often? What are the outcomes?

4. Are college curriculum goals set by the industry?

5. Measure! Form a framework of co-defined metrics

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Wrap Up

1. Examples of CAEL’s work with other colleges

2. Comments?

3. What’s next?

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Susan KannelAssociate VP for Employer ServicesCouncil for Adult and Experiential Learningskannel@cael.org

Contact Information

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Creative Commons Attribution

Workforce Solutions by Colorado Helps Advanced Manufacturing Program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of

this license may be available at www.cccs.edu.