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| SkillWorks News: March 2012 |
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State House Update: Skills Training, Job Creation, and Post-secondary Education in the Spotlight
Skills training, job creation and post secondary education are among the hottest topics at the State House this winter.
- The MA Economic Development Planning Council developed a strategic plan to increase the state's competitiveness and called for improving education and workforce development for middle-skill jobs.
- Governor Patrick has called for greater alignment between employer needs for skilled workers and community college curricula, highlighted by a $10 million fund to support such efforts.
- The Jobs Creation Commission is hosting hearings around the state to hear from workers, employers and workforce development programs about how the state can better support job creation and retention in the commonwealth. The commission is coming to Boston on May 4.
- Speaker Robert DeLeo designated $40 million in licensing fees through the gaming bill to support community colleges and is actively considering a 2012 Jobs Bill.
- Senator Ken Donnelly is championing the Middle-Skills Solutions Act (SB921/HB2713) and supporting practical policy solutions to increase completion and credential rates.
How can we maximize this focus on skills, jobs and education to ensure that we achieve the best results for low and moderate income workers?
- Meet with your state Senator and Representative; let them know that skills training works!
- Be familiar with the state budget line items and the programs you care about. Review the Workforce Solutions Group's summary of budget priorities.
- Read our action alerts so you can participate when we need timely action
- Engage local employers and training participants in your advocacy
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The Middle-Skills Solutions Act (SB921/HB2713) was reported out favorably by the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development last week. This good news caps months of hard work and advocacy by many partners in the Skills2Compete MA coalition and leadership by our bill's sponsors and co-sponsors.
In particular, we wish to thank Sen. Ken Donnelly and Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera for their leadership, as well as Sen. Dan Wolf, Senate Chair of the Labor and Workforce Development Committee.
The bill was reported out largely as written, though there were some technical edits made. Read the bill as reported out.
If passed, the bill will create middle-skill training opportunities for hundreds of Massachusetts residents and will develop more efficient pathways to middle-skill credentials that employers are looking for.
The chief component of the Middle-Skills Solutions Act is to support regional training partnerships by refunding the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund (WCTF), which has successfully created 31 regional training partnerships with employers, unions, training providers, voc tech schools and community colleges since 2006. These partnerships trained over 7,000 people and achieved job placements, promotions or wage increases for over 5,500 while leveraging $16 million in matching funds. Download a WCTF Fact Sheet and Outcomes Summary.
The WCTF has had no new appropriations for the last two years and is now completely without funding.
Governor Patrick proposed refunding the WCTF in his budget by targeting $10 million from any consolidated budget surplus to the WCTF. His proposed 'Regional Centers of Excellence' are akin to the Regional Skills Academies/Partnerships proposed in the Middle-Skills legislation.
We need everyone's help to pass the Middle-Skills Solutions Act, which invests in proven strategies to create training pipelines leading directly to jobs. |
Funder Spotlight: State Street Foundation
The State Street Foundation has been a SkillWorks investor since 2003. We spent a few moments catching up with Amanda Northrop, VP of the Foundation, to discuss their partnership with SkillWorks:
Why did the State Street Foundation decide to invest in SkillWorks? Amanda: Fundamentally, there's an alignment between SkillWorks and the State Street Foundation's goal of promoting economic self-sufficiency among disadvantaged populations. As one of the world's leading investment services providers, we understand the need to attract and retain skilled and talented employees to remain competitive in today's global, knowledge-based economy. We believe that investing in education and workforce development is the best strategy to promote economic progress and better futures in the communities where we operate.
The State Street Foundation invests in SkillWorks because the initiative has increased the capacity and impact of individual workforce partnerships and the broader workforce development system.
The Foundation has also seen how SkillWorks' public policy and advocacy efforts have resulted in greater support for an investment in workforce training both by employers and the State.
What has the Foundation learned from its participation in SkillWorks? We've benefited tremendously from participating in the SkillWorks funders group. The lessons we've learned have informed our grant making strategy. For example, we now are very interested in supporting workforce initiatives that have a post-secondary strategy as a direct result of our participation.
We've learned how difficult this work is, and it's really hit home that career advancement takes long-term investment. SkillWorks' investment in college navigation has also opened our eyes to how the type of support adult students need to be successful at attaining a credential or degree.
What do you think has been the most surprising, gratifying, or interesting outcome so far? Like many funders, we joined SkillWorks at first because of our interest in supporting workforce development programs, but we've been gratified by the value of the collective impact of the funder collaborative. The power of the funders group has been tremendous in terms of shared learning and helping to build formal and informal collaboration, even outside of the SkillWorks initiative.
We've likewise been particularly impressed with the way SkillWorks has been able to raise the visibility of workforce development issues through its leadership of the Skills2Compete MA campaign. The campaign has transformed the conversation about the middle-skills gap in MA. No one in MA was really talking about middle-skill jobs and training before. Since the campaign launched in July 2010, we've definitely noticed that middle-skill jobs have become part of the lexicon of business leaders and policymakers, and the general public is now aware of the skills gap. |
SkillWorks Welcomes YouthBuild Boston
SkillWorks recently awarded YouthBuild Boston a $50,000 grant to support its Green Construction program and formally integrate green building techniques into their curriculum. Our investment will support training and employment opportunities for 45 young people. The next training cohort will begin in May.
Please contact YouthBuild Boston for more information. |
Workforce Development Funding Opportunities
Subscribe to our blog for weekly updates on funding opportunities & more! |
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Weekly Workforce Roundup
Did you know that SkillWorks, through our Skills2Compete MA blog, does a weekly round-up of workforce news, funding opportunities, research and resources?
Here are some of the recent items we have highlighted:
Sign-up to receive weekly updates from the blog! |
What we're reading...
Looking for spring break reading? Here are a few reading suggestions, in the spirit of life-long learning!
City of Ideas: Reinventing Boston's Innovation Economy (The Boston Foundation, March 2012)
The Boston Indicators Project's 6th bienniel report on major indicators of education, housing, the economy, health and more.
A Stronger Nation through Higher Education (Lumina Foundation, March 2012)
Third in a series of reports from the foundation on higher education attainment rates across the country and policy recommendations for increasing higher ed attainment to 60 percent by 2025.
A new report on the value of community colleges in terms of preparing the state's workforce, with recommendations for aligning higher education and workforce needs. |
2012 Commonwealth Workforce Coalition Conference
Register now for the 2012 Commonwealth Workforce Coalition Sharing Skills~Building Connections Conference, which SkillWorks is helping to sponsor. Get a special early bird discount if you register by April 13. This year, SkillWorks' college navigator Zeida Santos will be presenting a workshop along with Bunker Hill Community College a two of our partnerships, Year Up and the Healthcare Training Institute. |
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Loh-Sze Leung, Alysia Ordway, and Sylvia Beville, part of the MA delegation to the National Skills Coalition's 2012 Summit
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Director's Remarks
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Spring is here! The first quarter of 2012 has flown by. Over the last three months, we've had the opportunity to celebrate and share the SkillWorks story in quite a few places.
We've been encouraged by student successes and dedicated employer partners at the Hotel Training Center, Partnership for Automotive Career Education, and Year Up graduations.
We presented on our employer engagement work at the National Skills Coalition Skills Summit in Washington, DC and at the GreenWays to Good Jobs peer learning conference in Milwaukee, WI.
We shared our public policy successes at the National Fund for Workforce Solutions directors meeting in New Orleans.
And our excellent college navigator, Zeida Santos, shared strategies for helping adult students complete college credentials at the MCAE Network 2012 conference right here in MA.
Thanks for all you do to make this work possible. And happy spring!
Loh-Sze Leung
Director
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Marie St. Jean, Year Up Graduate and State Street employee, is interviewed by 90.9 WBUR
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Skills in the News
New Report Challenges Boston to Reinvent the "Innovation Economy"
90.9 WBUR, March 14, 2012Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Winter 2012 OpEd in BusinessWest, Larry Meier, Peerless Precision, Jan. 31, 2012
OpEd in Lynnfield Patch/ Boston.com, Sen. Katherine Clark, Jan. 30, 2012 |
SkillWorks Funders
The Barr Foundation BNY Mellon The Boston Foundation Chorus Foundation The City of Boston's Neighborhood Jobs Trust The Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Garfield Foundation The Hyams Foundation The Clowes Fund, Inc Mabel Louise Riley Foundation Microsoft Corporation National Fund for Workforce Solutions Nellie Mae Education Foundation Perpetual Trust for Charitable Giving, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee State Street Foundation Surdna Foundation United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley U.S. Department of Labor, through Jobs for the Future SkillWorks would like to thank the State Street Foundation, the City of Boston's Neighborhood Jobs Trust, and the Garfield Foundation for renewing their funding commitments in the last quarter! |
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Hotel Training Center graduates 14 from its room attendant training program in March 2012
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SkillWorks Partnerships
Chinatown Green Collar Career
Pathways Initiative
Emergency Medical Careers
Partnership
Energy Efficiency Technician
Apprenticeship Program
GreenSTREAM: Sustainable Training Resources for Environmentally Advanced Manufacturing Healthcare Training Institute
Hotel Training Center
Partnership for Automotive
Career Education
Workforce Solutions Group
Year Up Financial Services
Partnership
YouthBuild Boston Green
Construction Program |
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About SkillWorks: Partners for a Productive Workforce
SkillWorks is an ambitious effort on the part of philanthropy, government, community organizations, unions, and employers to respond to Massachusetts' workforce crisis. SkillWorks' goal is to create a workforce development system that helps low-skill, low-to-moderate income residents move to family-sustaining jobs and helps employers find and retain skilled employees. It is the largest public/private investment in workforce development in Boston's history.
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Middle-Skills Solutions Act Reported Out Favorably
