August 2016

Welcome to the first issue of TakeNote, written to help CTE faculty and counselors take full advantage of funding opportunities and bring forth their voice in campus discussions. California needs a more skilled workforce, and you make that happen for our students. It's an exciting time to be in career and technical education.

- Lynn Shaw, Team Lead, Strong Workforce Implementation

In this edition:

CTE Faculty - A Necessary Voice in Strong Workforce Program Implementation
Voices from the Strong Workforce Task Force
Statewide Academic Senate Fall Plenary, Nov. 3-5
Attend an Academic Senate Area Meeting
Want to Include Entrepreneurship in Your Classes?
Here's Your Chance!
Wanted: CTE Faculty to Subscribe

CTE Faculty - A Necessary Voice in Strong Workforce Program Implementation

In July 2016, the California Legislature/Governor committed $200M to develop more and better CTE in the California Community Colleges. The goals of the Strong Workforce Program are geared toward improving the quality of our CTE programs and increasing the quantity of CTE students.

As required by this legislation's trailer bill, the funding is allocated to according to three criteria: unemployment rate, proportion of CTE FTE students, and projected job openings.

You can find your district's 2016-2017 corresponding allocation here
Read overview of how Local Shares of the $200M flow to your district.
Read requirements for use of Regional Shares.

The point of sharing this information is this: CTE faculty -- the professionals on the front line of education -- you are an important voice in the use of this funding. Remember that there are two types of funding: local share and regional share. Please make sure the CTE faculty on your campus are aware of this information and know how to share their opinions. If you have questions, contact your CTE Dean, Academic Senate President, Academic Senate CTE Liaison or the Chief Instructional Officer on your campus.

Voices from the Strong Workforce Task Force

The Strong Workforce Program is the product of a task force created at the request of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. Here, four members of the task force - Mollie Smith, Nicole Rice, John Brauer, and Lynn Shaw - share their perspectives on the importance of the program and how the Academic Senate is helping make it a reality.

Mollie Smith
CTE Dean of Long Beach City College

"Curriculum portability, the ability to start a program at one college and finish at another, is of tremendous importance to the success of our CTE students. The Academic Senate is working on developing model curricula for CTE programs across the state to help make this a reality."

Nicole Rice
Policy Director of Government Relations for California Manufacturers & Technology Association

"CTE students have a critical need to connect closely to the business, industry and labor community of the 21st century. The ever-increasing rate of change in the workplace requires stronger relationships with our industry partners. It is imperative that the community college system have the very best experts in the field teaching in our classrooms. The Academic Senate is engaging in dialogue with faculty and our partners to look for ways integrate industry experts into our classrooms."

Lynn Shaw
Visiting CTE Faculty in the California Community College Chancellor's Office

"Business, industry, labor, faculty and administrators all agree on the need to improve the success of our CTE students. Research proves the need: A student who earns an associate's degree in a CTE program earns, on average, $66,000 just five years after graduation. This breaks living wage. Faculty are at the center of CTE students' success."

John Brauer
Workforce & Economic Development Program Director, California Labor Federation

"The Strong Workforce Program creates an outstanding platform for dialogue and streamlining of processes to expand connections between industry, unions, business, and CTE faculty. The Academic Senate is an essential part of the conversation."

Let Your Voice be Heard at the
Statewide Academic Senate Fall Plenary, Nov. 3-5

The voice of CTE faculty is needed at the Academic Senate Fall 2016 Plenary. This important meeting is where resolutions are discussed and voted on in order to guide the work of the statewide Academic Senate. The Fall 2016 Plenary is held at the Westin South Coast Plaza on November 3-5. Click here for more information.

If you need assistance with formulating your idea into a resolution, please email Lynn Shaw at lshaw@cccco.edu.

Attend an Academic Senate Area Meeting

The Academic Senate Area Meetings are where college faculty in the surrounding geographic area meet, discuss and write resolutions on issues that directly impact local faculty for the upcoming plenary session. Others items discussed include statewide senate issues, upcoming institutes, and committee reports. The voice of CTE faculty is critically needed. Please attend one of these meetings:

Area A: Folsom Lake College, October 14, 2016 10am-3pm

Area B: Solano College, October 14, 2016 10am-3pm

Area C: Pasadena City College, October 15, 2016 10am-3pm

Area D: San Diego Continuing Education, October 15, 2016 10am-3pm

Check the Academic Senate Events and Meetings page for more information.

Want to Include Entrepreneurship in Your Classes? Here's Your Chance!

The Doing What MATTERS for Jobs and the Economy's Small Business Sector is offering ten mini-grants for Faculty Entrepreneurship Champion projects. Applications are due by 5pm on October 5, 2016. Each mini-grant will be granted up to $7,500 (no matching funds are required). Faculty Entrepreneurship Champion mini-grant projects should be focused on one or more of the following activities:

Embedding and/or infusing small business/entrepreneurship curriculum into existing Career Technical Education (CTE) classes and programs.
Creation of credit, non-credit and not-for-credit small business/entrepreneurship courses and programs. This can include adopting existing third-party small business and entrepreneurship curricula and shepherding it through the curriculum approval process.
Creation of stackable certificates/badges related to the small business sector.
Creation of low-unit certificates, certificates of achievement or AA/AS/AA-T/AS-T degrees in entrepreneurship tied to CTE programs on campus.
Creation of entrepreneurship pathways from middle school, high school, community college and four-year universities and development of articulation agreements associated with these pathways.
Small business- and entrepreneurship-related experiential learning opportunities such as establishing campus student-run businesses, entrepreneurship centers, business incubators, accelerators, makerspaces, internship programs and class projects working with businesses.
The organization and execution of regional business model, plan or pitch competitions.

Click here to download a copy of the Request for Applications (RFA).For more information, contact Charles Eason, Small Business Sector Navigator, at 707-863-7846 or charles.eason@solano.edu.

Wanted: CTE Faculty to Subscribe

Do you know any CTE faculty who should be receiving TakeNote? Please contact Lynn Shaw at lshaw@cccco.edu to be added to the list. Please send name, email, college, discipline and phone number.