Calbright’s participation at the California Workforce Association’s Meeting of the Minds conference illustrated our commitment to advancing the state’s economy by partnering with workforce development agencies and preparing graduates with durable skills that span multiple sectors
The panels Calbright’s researchers and executives spoke on were about initiatives we’re leading and supporting, where thought leadership meets action.
Calbright’s President and CEO Ajita Talwalker Menon spoke in a panel called “A Statewide Hub for Public Sector Apprenticeship” in which panelists representing organizations that are actually collaborating on creating such a hub in California got down to the nuts and bolts of why supporting apprenticeships matter and what such a hub needs to accomplish.
Apprenticeships “aren’t just a nice to have, they’re a need to have” for many people trying to access better careers, Menon said. “The goals we have as a state actually require us to collaborate differently. It requires us to push the boundaries of what’s possible with different kinds of models and it requires us to have a common voice and advocacy posture in terms of what we need to see changed in the environment to be able to evolve apprenticeship-based learning opportunities.”
Similarly, Calbright’s Vice President of Workforce, Strategy, and Innovation Michael Younger and Calbright’s Director of Partnership Development Billy Coleman participated in a discussion about “Transforming Education to Employment: The California Workforce Accelerator Program,” not just because they’re experts on the subject, but because Calbright is a partner agency creating a workforce accelerator program in California.
The workforce accelerator will help bridge the gap between education and employment by offering applied learning and real-world work experience to Californians who want to move into high demand careers. It will help translate industry training needs into classroom curricula and expand internship opportunities statewide.
Binh Do, Calbright’s Director of Research, Data Strategy and Effectiveness, held court in a panel specifically about Calbright’s research on the California public sector labor market.
The panel focused on research published in May, in a report called “The Road to Optimizing California’s Public Sector Labor Market.” The research found that California’s public sector is experiencing labor shortages in high-demand occupations. Calbright College, in collaboration with Lightcast, conducted an in-depth examination of California’s current hiring landscape, including data-driven recommendations for creating a resilient, future-ready workforce, and developed a number of recommendations that can help workers access these promising careers and improve the economy across California.
These are great ideas, but even the best ideas need to be implemented well to succeed – and tested to make sure they achieve their intended goals. That was the focus of a session with Boglárka Kiss, Calbright’s director of economic and business development: “Applied Human-Centered Design: How to Prototype & Test Your Ideas for Implementation.” It focused on some of her past work as a human-centered designer in the workforce system. This is very similar to Calbright’s “student-centered design” principles that put the student and their needs at the center of every process.
“I hope to incorporate elements of this approach into the economic development work at Calbright,” Kiss said. “That means harnessing the wisdom of adult learners, staff, and external stakeholders in order to create inclusive and effective services.”
