Workforce Developments

Great reentry resources

Emory University's Office of University-Community Partnerships works to integrate research and teaching in a way to benefit the greater Atlanta community.  They recently released a report, "Prisoner Reentry in Atlanta: Understanding the Challenges of Transition from Prison to Community."  Both the full report and a press release are available.

The very comprehensive report analyzes data showing where people go in metro-Atlanta when they get out of prison, what support services are available (including job training, mental health and substance abuse counseling), and the availability of affordable housing and jobs.

This study is part of the Urban Institute's national Reentry Mapping Network, which covers a dozen metropolitan areas around the country.

The study found that the formerly incarcerated face many challenges in finding employment. In addition to low levels of education and work experience, and the reluctance of employers to hire someone who has served time in prison, they also lacked the personal networks to help them identify and secure jobs. Those findings echo the experiences of government and community-based reentry service providers. 

Housing, however, was identified as the most immediate and pressing need for those who have been released.

These reports are great resources that all communities need, but most reentry programs don't have the resources to undertake on their own - check them out!

Racy Ming is manager of the Marin Employment Connection, the one-stop in Marin County, CA. She is also chair of the board for the California Re-Entry Program at San Quentin.

Can job training work without job creation?

Yesterday's New York Times had an article that, on the face of it, might have looked like bad coverage for the workforce development field. The title captured the tone: Job retraining may fall short of high hopes. 

The reporter talked to several laid off workers who've had less than stellar success after job retraining programs. Some have retrained only to find no jobs in their new field. Some have retrained for new careers, only to be laid off from that one. Some find themselves working for significantly less earnings than in their previous jobs, or less than what they thought their new career would pay.

The article cites a recent study from DOL's Employment and Training Administration that looked at 160,000 participants who entered WIA programs in 12 states between mid-2003 to 2005. The study concludes, among other things, that "The marginal benefits of training may exceed $400 in earnings each quarter." 

For any of us working in the field, this isn't news at all. Older workers who've been laid off often find themselves slipping down closer to the bottom of any new career ladder they train for. What's more, good jobs with family wages and benefits have been disappearing from the American landscape in recent years. How many defined-benefit pension plans are still left out there?

Job training can't work without job creation. And it can't just be any jobs, but jobs that replace earnings in a meaningful way. This study and the light being shone on it by the NYT is an opportunity for us to ask some important questions:

• We're doing what we can to train people for new careers, but are the jobs out there?
• Whose responsibility is to to create those jobs?
• Do those jobs pay enough in earnings and benefits to live on? To support a family? 
• If they don't, should we train people for those jobs?

ARRA (aka Obama's stimulus plan) is designed to begin to create new jobs and save the ones we have, but it's a short-term measure. What long-term policies and investments are needed to create good jobs that will last?

Job training image source: Housing Works

Resources to help you make sense of the health care policy debates

As the national debate on health care policy picks up steam, we're going to be inundated with a lot more noise and flashing lights. To make good decisions and have well-informed opinions, we need to get past the sound and fury to find good information.

Here are a few resources I've found helpful. I hope you will too.

Health Reform page at the Kaiser Family Foundation, with multimedia content, polls and more in-depth research.

Health Issues page at Rand Corporation, offering briefs, fact sheets and other short reports to members of Congress.

Health page at the National Conference of State Legislatures, with updates on how states are tackling the problem of rising health costs and rising uninsurance rates.

Health Reform Resource Center at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute's PolicyWorks site, which looks at the issues from the point of view of health care workers. The workforce development angle!

Whenever legislation is finally introduced, you'll be able to follow it on OpenCongress.org, most likely on the Health page.

Readers, if you know of other resources with good data and information to help inform the health care policy debate, please share them!

Workforce development gets some well deserved media coverage

Always nice to see workforce development get some attention from the mainstream media.

In this clip, Bryan Rogers, Director of the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network in Long Beach, California, talks to CNN local. He discusses unemployment, ARRA, youth programs, and offers an overview of services provided by One-Stops and workforce boards to help people find jobs.

If you can't see the embedded video above, click here to watch.

How to use GoToMeeting to create a job fair

What is a "virtual" job/career fair? 

There are many different ways to organize a virtual career fair. They could be run during an actual brick-and-mortar career fair. They could be simply a live presentation of what employers are looking for. A career fair could be a chat room where employers interview and ask questions of potential candidates. Allow your staff to be creative and try new ideas.

 

Who is using virtual career/job fairs?

There are a few organizations that use web technology to host career fairs. Companies such as Directmagazine, California Job Journal, CareersRN, and UNISFAIR. UNISFAIR uses a very creative implementation of an online environment based on Second Life. Some organizations simply use a job board and call it a virtual job fair, however, if you want to be more sophisticated there are other resources available.

 

What resources would someone need to have a virtual career fair?

One popular tool is GoToMeeting or GoToWebinar (paid services). In this article I'm going to show you a very brief overview of how to set up a GoToMeeting virtual job fair and give you some links to follow for a more detailed tutorial. Other companies offering similar tools are WebX and ZohoMeeting.

 

A quick note on verbage
Many people prefer to use the term "Career Fair" over "Job Fair." This is a personal preference but know that for marketing purposes, the term "job fair" is searched for 9 times more often. So when you market on the internet, know that if people are typing in a specific term you want them to find your website.

 

A quick tutorial on seting up GoToMeeting as your career fair venue 

Set up your GoToMeeting space and invite employers to register. As in any brick-and-morter job fair, you have to pre-register your employers and make sure that they understand the venue that you are promoting.

You'll need to decide in advance how long each employer will get to present their company and the jobs they want to fill. Let's say you have 12 employers from one industry and you give them 10 minutes each to describe the company and the positions they want to fill. This gives you a two hour industry-specific career fair in this example.

Attendees can either view this presentation on their computers, or to call in to a special phone number that GoToMeeting will give you to listen to the presentation. After the virtual career fair is completed, attendees will be able to view the entire presentation again as a streaming broadcast on their media player. Each employer presentation should include contact and application information.

The employers can use any programs on their computer including the internet as part of their presentations. By setting each employer as "organizer" during his or her allotted time, everyone who is watching from a computer can view the desktop of the organizer along with the presentation they are giving.

Here's a basic rundown of the process you'll need to set up your virtual career fair:

1. Visit GoToMeeting and sign up.
2. Setup your meeting space.
3. Invite employers to register for the event.
4. Advertise your career fair allowing attendees to pre-register.
5. Send invitations to career fair attendees.
6. Have your job seekers download the GoToMeeting software.
7. Host your virtual fair on GoToMeeting.
8. Post the link to download/view the career fair on your website.

Check out some of these links for more detailed tutorials and ideas for virtual job fairs. I especially recommend the ebook from Ramesh Sambasivan.

• Watch this video playlist on how to use GoToMeeting.
• See the citrix quickrefs at the NTAP website for helpful resources.
• View this really informative 27 page ebook on designing virtual career fairs by Ramesh Sambasivan 

Contributor Bryan Lundeen works for the Solano County Workforce Investment Board

Welcome new contributor Bryan Lundeen to WorkforceDevelopments.com

Tomorrow your favorite workforce development blog will launch a new monthly column on technology in the field, from Bryan Lundeen.

Bryan has more than ten years experience supporting executive management in the workforce investment field and currently works for the Solano Workforce Investment Board. He focuses on using technology to improve document flow, organization, and productivity, and he's a big believer in "getting things done."

Bryan holds a Microsoft Office 2003 Expert Certification and uses his skills in the workforce investment industry to prepare professional documents, proposals, grant submittals, bids and contracts. Bryan manages a small number of Search Engine Marketing campaigns, writes a personal blog, and is currently finishing a bachelor's degree in the "hot" industry of Healthcare Administration at the University of Phoenix.

He joins contributor Racy Ming who writes monthly in this space about prisoner re-entry, as well as earlier guest bloggers from the National Network of Sector Partners, the Aspen Institute and Worksystems Inc. If you're interested in writing for the WorkforceDevelopments blog, please drop me a line.

To contact Bryan directly, please send him an email at blundeen [at] solanowib [dot] org, or visit his personal blog, World of Big Bry.

Growing food and skilled workers

Windy City Harvest is a project of the Chicago Botanic Garden that teaches organic gardening and entrepreneurial skills to residents. Trainees learn how to grow healthy food that is then sold in local markets. In addition to learning sustainable urban agriculture techniques, participants learn the business side: planning, pricing, sales and marketing. 

The program combines six months of instruction that includes credits at City Colleges of Chicago with a three month paid internship. 

Windy City Harvest was highlighted at a recent Urban Agriculture conference in Chicago (more info here) where one of the topics was What Funding Streams Can Support Urban Agriculture, Green Jobs, And Workforce Development?

I wonder what the answer was. 

To learn more about the program, watch this video:

Click here if you can't see the embedded video.

Readers: if you know of other innovative programs that combine job training with urban agriculture, please tell me about them.

Social media rocks the Iranian vote

If you're a regular Workforce Developments reader, you know I don't often go off topic. Around here, it's all workforce development, employment and jobs, all the time. Today I'm making an exception.

What's happening in Iran right now is too important to ignore. Whenever people anywhere in the world take great personal risk to stand up for their rights, we must pay attention.

Some of the best reporting of what's happening there has taken place on blogs, Twitter and other social media sites. Yes, it's messy and confusing, but it's also live, real-time and personal. The Iranian government has tried to stop the story from getting out by shutting down Facebook, text and cell phones; by slowing internet access, ordering foreign reporters to leave and denial-of-service attacks on websites that are getting the story out. They know how powerful these tools are.

Social media and web 2.0 tools have made it impossible for the government to stop coverage of the protests and crackdown. By sharing this story, those of us outside the country can help keep it alive.

For more up-to-the-minute reporting on the uprising in Iran, here are some good sources:

--Tehran Bureau (back up after being mysteriously shut down for several hours)

--Liveblogging from Huffington Post contributor Nico Pitney

--Live updates from the National Iranian American Council blog

--Twitter feeds from Iran and around the world on Twazzup

--Many more links on Mashable's guide on how to track the Iranian election on social media

You can also read mainstream media coverage here, as well as an analysis of CNN's failure to effectively cover the election protests, known in the Twittersphere as the #cnnfail.

Photo source 

Ex-offenders help build the green economy

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is pouring lots of money into "greening" the US economy, including $500 million which will be available as competitive grants through the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration.  This large scale investment should lead to new jobs in weatherization, energy efficiency, alternative energy, and other industries. 

How will workforce development professionals help to link ex-offenders to these green-collar jobs?  There are a few interesting programs already doing this work.  Previously I blogged about the RichmondBUILD program, a pre-apprenticeship construction skills and solar installation training program. RichmondBUILD started as a violence reduction strategy, and has a 90% placement rate.  According to Sal Vaca, the Director of the Richmond (CA) Workforce Investment Board, 35-40% of their participants are ex-offenders. 

Someone recently sent me an interesting article about a New Jersey Tree Foundation program which employs ex-offenders in planting trees.  And the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, CA has a Green Collars Job Campaign which is working to ensure that the new green economy helps to lift people out of poverty. 

Readers, what other programs are linking ex-offenders to the green economy? We'd like to highlight them here on Workforce Developments.

National Council of La Raza annual conference this year in Chicago

This year the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is taking its annual conference to Chicago from July 25-28. NCLR is the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., and if you haven't been to an NCLR conference before, this might be the year to be there. Between the Sotomayor nomination to the Supreme Court and being in Obama's hometown, you can expect plenty of buzz.

That's on top of the Economic Policy and Workforce Development track of workshops at the conference. I was part of an NCLR conference panel a few years back, so I can report they make smart selections.

The workforce development track will feature workshops on topics such as youth employment, green jobs, sector initiatives, public workforce system and corporate diversity. There will also be a Townhall on Economy, followed by a reception for workforce development professionals.

If you're an Illinois resident, special pricing is available. 

For questions about the conference or about NCLR's workforce development initiatives, contact Surabhi Jain or call 312-523-2047. 

From the Work Station to Graduation on Twitter

I'm live-Twittering the From the Work Station to Graduation forum today.

Click here to read the proceedings as they happen.

The forum is sponsored by the Seattle King County Workforce Education Collaborative and Port Jobs.

Community colleges + community-based organizations = graduation

President Obama has called on our nation's already-overloaded community colleges to play a key role in preparing America's workforce for the coming economic recovery. To make that happen, community colleges must do more to help a larger number of students successfully complete the certificate and degree programs they enter.

Right now, too many working adults who enter a community college program drop out before they earn a credential. That wastes time and resources for students and colleges. We have to learn how to do better.

But our community colleges - along with public educational institutions across the country - are facing deep budget cuts due to the economic downturn.

Can community colleges do more with less?

With budgets that were tight before the downturn hit, it's unlikely. But colleges can seek out ways to bring in new resources to support their students. They can find low-cost ways to restructure their offerings to make them more accessible to working adults, who make up the largest share of their students and whose retraining will be crucial to the economic recovery.

Here's one simple example. Many working adult students have young children. Without reliable childcare, they often can't finish their studies. Some community colleges offer low-cost childcare while students are in class. If a college doesn't have the budget to provide that childcare, it could seek out a partnership with a community-based organization (CBO) that can.

Take that a step further: If the CBO is housed in a building or center convenient for a community with high needs for education and training, the college could explore offering courses at the CBO's location.

Community colleges also can look to CBOs to provide counseling, case management or mentoring to help students stick with their studies when times get tough. They can help connect students to other resources in the community to help meet specific needs.

Let's not leave employers out of the partnership equation. Imagine earning a professional credential in college courses provided at your work site in the evenings, on weekends or even during paid work hours. Several employers located in the same geographic area with similar skilled labor needs could partner with a college to make that training available. After all, as employers cut back on the number of employees, it's likely that they will keep those who have a wider range of skills.

You get the idea: this isn't rocket science. Perhaps you're already thinking of your own ideas for innovative partnerships that can make community college more accessible and complete-able for working adults.

Airport University, which was founded by Port Jobs, is one example. It brings together two community colleges (South Seattle Community College and Highline Community College), employers at Sea-Tac Airport, the Port of Seattle and several community-based organizations.

Airport University offers onsite college classes to the 20,000 workers who work for the 100+ companies located at Sea-Tac International Airport. Through this partnership, airport employees can take credit-bearing classes at their worksite - the airport. This model has been adapted at Denver International Airport and at Baltimore- Washington International Airport.

We think that other local communities could easily adapt this model at airports, shopping malls, business parks, and other worksites where large numbers of companies and employees are located.

If you know of other good examples of community partnerships connected with local community colleges, please let me know in the comments below.

These are difficult economic times, but the difficulties create opportunities for colleges, CBOs, workforce development agencies, foundations and employers to re-think how we work together to maintain a vibrant, skilled labor force. As funding and budgets are cut, we should be very careful about how we deploy the resources we do have, and make sure we're getting the very best outcomes for the work we do. That may mean working with partners with whom we've never worked before, and taking on responsibilities we've never considered tackling.

No question, it will be a challenge. But these tough times demand it.

Guest blogger Susan Crane is Executive Director of Port Jobs a Seattle, WA-based action tank. Click below to read her previous posts:

Tuesday: Making community college work for working adults
Wednesday: The role of community colleges in the coming economic recovery 
Thursday: Community college priorities in tough economic times