Insights and Perspectives

Paving The Way For Reemployment

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 14:33:52 GMT

Did you know that the employment rates in many of Connecticut’s industries are higher now than they were before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic? According to Patrick Flaherty, Director of the Office of Research at the Connecticut Department of Labor, job growth has been consistent in 2022 and the unemployment rate is down to its early 2019 level.

This upswing in job growth can be partly attributed to the state’s Jobs First Employment Services Program, or JFES. Each year since 2018, thousands of participants are referred to American Job Centers in cities throughout the region.

The JFES program’s goal is to provide employment services to families receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and help parents gain skills to obtain employment. The program gauges success on several elements, including:

Freedom from cash assistance within the 21-month program time limit
Continuous employment and independent from assistance
Increase in basic and occupational skills, job coaching, and work experience

To be eligible for JFES, an individual must be receiving Temporary Family Assistance (TFA). Weekly participation of approximately 20 hours of employment activities is required for any person with children under the age of six, while persons with children over the age of six must participate in 30 hours.

Thanks to added flexibility in participation requirements, if participants perform at least 50% of their required hours, their TFA benefits will not be taken away. CTDOL partners with the Connecticut Council of Family Service Agencies (CCFSA) to aid JFES clients who struggle meeting their participation requirements through intervention and removal services.

“The CTDOL partners with other state agencies and community partners to deliver the JFES program,” said Acting Director of WIOA Administration, Erica Tew during a recent Pathways to Employment webinar. “The Connecticut Department of Social Services (CTDSS) is the agency that administers the benefits, and [partners with] the five workforce development boards that oversee the Employment and Training and case management programs.”

Operating in Covid Times

During the pandemic, the program was suspended, but virtual services were offered to customers. According to Tew, “on average, nearly half of our caseload continued to participate during this time.” In July 2021, the program was reopened and CTDSS referrals were accepted again, but with dramatic changes to the foundational rules of the program.

“We have made many changes to the JFES program over the course of the past 13 months to make it easier for clients to participate,” said JFES Unit Director, Mike Bartley. “About 33% of JFES participants performed work and have overcome significant barriers to employment.

How Do Participants Arrive at the JFES program?

The CTDOL partners with state agencies and communities to deliver the JFES program. Unlike other workforce programs, participants can’t join the program simply by walking into an American Job Center. Those taking part in the program must be referred by a state agency and receiving TFA.

“It’s similar to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training where persons receiving a particular benefit have to participate in some type of employment and training activity for a certain number of hours per week,” said Tew.

The most common referral path happens when a participant applies for benefits through the DSS. Case managers assess each applicant and refer them to their region’s JFES program orientation.

Program Innovations

Over the last few years, the JFES program has relied on several innovations to succeed.

Family Centered Coaching: This is an approach that helps case managers engage with the whole family, rather than just the individual participants. It takes into account that one approach does not fit all families, considering that families may address challenges in different ways. It helps to create customized solutions for each family.
Financial Literacy: The second innovation was established with the Connecticut Association for human services, or CAHS, which provides financial literacy education classes. These sessions are provided to the public by a network of volunteers who have worked in the financial services industry. And these workshops denote the first introduction to the concept of saving and budgeting for many clients.
Refugee Resettlement: In addition, a pilot program was launched that partners with Workforce Alliance and the Refugee Resettlement Agency. JFES case managers are embedded within families to address some of the historical issues that refugees have had in connecting to our jobs first program. Originally, multiple organizations helped the refugee and there tended to be miscommunication between them all. Placing a JFES case manager at the refugee resettlement agency has helped to cut out miscommunication and make the clients feel safe and comfortable while trying to transition into getting employment support and services.

Inspiring success stories

Geographic Solutions supports the efforts of the Connecticut Department of Labor as they provide employment services to people. Their work encourages skills gain in the name of employment, lays the groundwork financial independence. See inspirational JFES success stories by clicking here.

The Benefits Of The Alison Career Guide

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 18:57:00 GMT

By the Alison Editorial Team

When it comes to helping career seekers on the path to finding fulfilling and gainful employment, it can be challenging to map out exactly how upskilling in specific areas will result in a career. Job seekers often struggle to stay motivated if they can't see how a course in, say, supply chains, will translate into a warehouse manager job. Central to a workforce agency's role in upskilling individuals is helping them map out a practical journey towards their desired career.

Alison's Career Guide is a dynamic and multifaceted tool that does exactly that. The guide allows workforce agencies to help job seekers chart their journey towards successfully qualifying for, and attaining, their career of choice. A one-stop resource, it lays out hundreds of career paths along with the skills and qualifications required to achieve them.

The Career Guide helps take the guesswork out of upskilling by providing clear instructions on how to pursue a particular job. The Projected Career Map feature is as helpful for agencies as it is for job-seekers because it allows them to show their clients that there is a roadmap to success that they can follow. The Guide also provides a curated list of courses that will help them upskill appropriately. This offers goal-orientated learning for job-seekers and encourages engagement and commitment.

The holistic nature of the Career Guide, offering career information as well as training and education, is a game-changer in the world of online education as it provides job-seekers with a complete roadmap to achieving their professional ambitions.

The Career Guide can be used by workforce agencies in multiple ways, depending on their clients. For job seekers who know what career they want, but don't know how to get it, the guide offers everything they need to know about their chosen career. From courses related to their chosen career to courses teaching required skills, from Recommended Qualifications to suggested work experience, job seekers will find a trove of information that will help advance their prospects.

For job seekers who are unsure of what career they'd like to pursue, or even what sector they'd like to work in, the Career Guide can function as an open-ended encyclopedia with which they can explore a wide range of diverse career opportunities. Before upskilling in a specific field, a job-seeker needs to know what type of job they're pursuing. While many resources provide plenty of information on specific careers, locating a single resource that provides in-depth information on many career paths can be difficult.

The Alison Career Guide covers 16 diverse sectors, such as Information Technology and Health Sciences, and each career is outlined through a series of concise subsections. Users can learn about a career's typical job responsibilities, the standard work environment and what kind of salary they can expect. Particularly helpful for undecided job-seekers is the Similar Careers section, which shows users jobs similar to the one they're researching but to which they might be better suited.

The Career Guide is an intuitive resource designed to be navigated by both job-seekers and workforce agencies alike. Each career is assigned its appropriate Holland Codes and, like all other Alison tools and resources, can be leveraged as part of Alison Groups, which allows agencies to oversee and monitor the engagement and progress of their clients.

Alison.Com’s Self-Publishing Tool Brings New Opportunities For Upskilling And Reskilling

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 15:12:00 GMT

Discover a unique feature of Alison.com that provides a means for career continuity as well as an opportunity for a new path.

By the Alison.com Editorial Board

Knowledge Sharing Empowers Yourself And Others

Online courses are a universally accessible resource for jobseekers and life-long learners. Learning online is an alternate way to introduce people in need of reskilling to education and helps build the confidence of those who may not have formal learning experience. Equally, for those who have gone through the traditional education system and gained qualifications, once they find themselves back in the job market, online learning is one of the best tools out there for gaining new, in-demand skills or aiding a change in career direction.

However, taking online courses isn't the only way for jobseekers to benefit from online learning platforms. Some e-learning sites allow knowledge experts to freely publish their expertise. Alison’s Publishing Tool is free to use for all learners, opening up two possible career paths. By directing jobseekers towards not just taking online courses but making online courses, workforce agencies can send their clients down a unique career pathway that is interesting, rewarding, and lucrative.

Monetizing Your Knowledge

By using the Alison Publishing Tool to create courses based on their own experience and expertise, jobseekers are continuing to work in the sector in which they are already skilled. They can transform the knowledge they have garnered throughout their work-life into courses that will help others. For example, an accountant who can't find a job can teach online accounting courses, rather than retrain in an entirely new sector.

Self-publishing also allows jobseekers to monetize their existing knowledge and skillsets, while upskilling important technical and teaching skills—both of which are highly transferable. Creating online courses can also be a gratifying career, as publishers are partaking in the democratization of education by sharing knowledge with a global audience, many of whom are in emerging educational markets.

To become a self-publisher on Alison, learners must complete a series of courses to train them in the technical requirements and bring them up to speed on the best pedagogical practices. To learn more about what it is like to self-publish with Alison, you can read this interview with S. M. Waqas, an industrial engineer who has become one of Alison’s most successful self-publishers.

A Career As A Freelance Course Creator

Even if a jobseeker doesn't already have a body of professional knowledge and experience to draw on, a career in course publishing is still a possibility. Freelance Course Creators build courses on behalf of subject matter experts that are interested in sharing their expertise.

The opportunity to work from home (or from anywhere in the world) along with the freedom and flexibility to determine your own working hours has become an attractive perk for Course Creators. It's a freelance position that offers plenty of fantastic opportunities for advancement and promotion. Alison’s Course Creator program has seen many freelancers go onto full-time management roles within the Publishing Department. Read the success stories of Simon Furnivall and Abasido Umoh who have taken this career path on the Alison Blog.

Becoming a freelance Course Creator on Alison also offers the opportunity to work directly with subject-matter experts and provides access to some of the sharpest minds across a variety of fields. It is a position that facilitates continuous development through exposure to a wide range of subjects and offers constant opportunities to learn.

All Course Creators are guided through the Course Creator Training Program by Alison’s supervisors, who work with them to publish their first course. After undergoing the necessary training, Course Creators work closely with publishers and the Alison team to ensure courses are of the highest quality. Alison also hosts regular webinars presented by in-house experts. These sessions ensure that all self-publishers and Course Creators have access to the most cutting-edge theory and methodology behind producing top-quality courses, allowing them to maximize their earning potential.

Self-Publishing For Workforce Agencies

Alison's Publishing Tool also offers workforce agencies the opportunity to create personalized training courses that cater to their client’s specific needs. Agencies know their clients better than anyone, but sometimes it can be difficult to point them in the right direction for training if the resources simply aren't there. By utilizing the Publishing Tool, agencies can create the perfect upskilling material, specifically designed with the needs of their clients in mind.

The Publishing Tool produces courses that adhere to Alison's tried and tested learning format, designed by our pedagogical experts. These are easy to follow and encourage quality learning and engagement. With Alison.com, workforce agencies will never be stuck for training resources again. If the training resource isn’t available, they will help create it!

About Alison

Alison believes that free education, more than anything has the power to break through boundaries and transform lives. Alison is one of the world’s largest free learning platforms for education and skills training – and is dedicated to making it possible for anyone, to study anything, anywhere, at any time, for free online, at any subject level. Today, Alison offers over 3,000 free online courses across a broad range of topics, produced by various publishers, ranging from major educational institutions to individual subject matter experts sharing expertise gained from decades of industry experience. Today, with more than 20 million learners in 195 countries, Alison is changing how the world learns and up-skills.

Apprenticeship Programs: Creating Wage-Earning Opportunities And Sustainable Careers

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:57:00 GMT

Celebrating National Apprentice Week and the Benefits to Our Workforce

National Apprenticeship Week is a week-long celebration that brings together business leaders, career seekers, labor, educational institutions, and other critical partners to demonstrate their support for apprenticeship. Apprenticeship sponsors are also given an opportunity to highlight the programs, facilities, and apprenticeships offered in their community.

The renewed focus on apprenticeships as a career pathway is indeed cause for celebration. Apprenticeships are the very definition of win-win as they benefit employers, individuals, and the community. As employers face dwindling numbers of appropriately skilled workers, they have the opportunity to create the workforce they need by connecting education with the modern workplace. Employees gained through these programs have a 94% retention rate.

For individuals, apprenticeship programs allow them to enter the workforce, earn wages, and obtain specialized knowledge and training that provide a pathway to a long-term career with growth potential. On average, apprenticeship graduates have a beginning salary around $70,000 annually and are able to earn as much as $300,000 more over the span of their career than non-apprentices.

Ultimately, apprenticeship programs benefit communities by creating wage-earning opportunities and sustainable careers for the community members, and by helping businesses thrive.

Building Skills and Expanding Opportunity

In December 2019, Geographic Solutions created an apprenticeship program as a means to prepare local students for the future and build a pipeline of workers. The program rotated apprentices through three departments within the company, giving them well-rounded exposure to core areas of software development.

“Investing in apprentices provides invaluable opportunities for those who are willing to learn,” said Geographic Solutions’ HR Training Coordinator, Jenna Silva. “We can recruit an apprentice and train them to suit roles that we will need filled in the future. Success is defined by placing the apprentices once the program has ended; if we only hire one apprentice post program, it is still a success.”

Kyleigh Ross, one of the inaugural participants, praises the program because it gave her an opportunity to earn a livable wage while receiving hands-on training, establishing a work history, and making valuable industry connections. As Ross reflects on her time in the program, she had this to say about what she’s learned:

“I have obtained two certifications: Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) and Microsoft Technology Associate SQL Fundamentals. I also learned how to test software; working within the Agile framework; how to write Agile Requirement Documents (ARD); and other aspects of development including how to move code.”

Ross went on to say her experience completing the apprenticeship during a global pandemic was one of the most positive experiences she’s had. “All of my mentors at Geographic Solutions have gone above and beyond to ensure that I still got the most out of my experience.”

Geographic Solutions looks forward to welcoming the next wave of apprentices, and we value the time spent with our inaugural participants. Recently Geographic Solutions has partnered with Tampa Bay Tech as well as 15 other local tech companies to form a new apprenticeship network, which is set to launch on January 1, 2025. This initiative aims to cultivate local talent, bridge the skill gap, and ultimately build a stronger tech community within the Tampa Bay area.

Curious about the opportunities we offer? Send an email to Human Resources.

Integrating the Value of Apprenticeships into Virtual OneStop®

Prior to the USDOL apprenticeship initiative, Geographic Solutions proactively developed an Apprenticeship Module to monitor and track Registered Apprenticeships (RA), Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAP), and other programs that incorporate on-the-job training and instruction. The module, offered as part of Virtual OneStop, serves as a case management conduit between individuals, providers, and agency staff.

A standalone or integrated module — this solution captures necessary data regarding programs and participants and compiles the data for federal reporting. Reports can ascertain the extent to which states' goals have been achieved and identify areas for improvement.

The module is currently in use in numerous states including Alabama, Maryland, Missouri, and more. Check out our Pathways to Employment: Trends in Apprenticeship webinar that featured a panel discussion with industry experts from Tennessee, Missouri, and Maryland, who discussed the evolving landscape of apprenticeships, valuable insights on current trends in apprenticeships, career pathway growth, state and federal statistics, and the utilization of expansion grants. For more information on Geographic Solutions’ Apprenticeship Module, contact us for a demo or quote.

Tampa Bay Software CEO Council Gift To Think Big For Kids Aligns Donation With Mission

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 15:17:00 GMT

This article was originally published on http://www.stpetecatalyst.com/.

Tampa Bay Software CEO Council donated more than $10,000 to Think Big for Kids, a nonprofit founded in 2016 by Tony DiBenedetto, tech executive and entrepreneur.

Think Big for Kids provides career exploration, mentorship and skills development for underprivileged youth from 6th grade to 12th grade. Think Big for Kids partners with Boys & Girls Clubs and similar organizations to reduce systemic poverty and prepare young people to excel in high-demand professions.

Those goals resonated with the members of the Tampa Bay Software CEO Council, which has a mission to make the area a magnet for tech talent.

“This donation comes at a critical time, when a majority of the kids we serve have recently experienced tremendous personal and educational upheaval. We have a unique opportunity to extend our reach and impact, thanks to this group who understands the importance of giving back and developing our next generation of talent,” DiBenedetto said.

In addition to Accusoft, other Software CEO Council member companies include A-LIGN, AgileThought, Bond-Pro, Geographic Solutions, Haneke Design, MercuryWorks, Sourcetoad, Spirion and SunView Software. The CEO Council is part of Tampa Bay Tech, a nonprofit technology council.

Paint By Cluster: How Career Clusters Became More Visually Appealing, And Their Role In Education’s Future

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 14:52:00 GMT

Did you know that there are 16 career clusters and 79 career pathways that help students of all ages navigate their way to success in their college and career journeys?

Following the unified concepts of the National Career Clusters Framework, an organizing tool that began as part of an initiative to create a curricular framework and prepare students for educational transitions, each grouping contains occupations in the same field of work that require similar skills. Students, parents, and educators can use the clusters to focus on the knowledge, competencies, and training necessary for success in a particular pathway.

Source: air.org

Finding a comprehensive list of clusters and pathways online is as simple as visiting the Occupational Information Network’s website, which is perhaps better known by its acronym, O*NET. The online application provides the general public with broad access to the national database of occupational information.

But, text-based information can only go so far, especially with the next generation of learners more inclined to watch a video, or similar graphic interpretation. Visually seeing what a job’s day-to-day responsibilities entail is much more invigorating than simply reading about it.

Over the last few years, CareerOneStop.com, overhauled their entire library of career pathways videos. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, the site is a trusted source of employment information and inspiration, and offers tools for job seekers, students, businesses, and career professionals.

The Spark That Started It All

The movement around career clusters began in 1996 as the Building Linkages Initiative, a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Education, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), the National School-to-Work Office (NSTWO), and the National Skill Standards Board (NSSB).

The purpose of the initiative was to establish linkages among state educational agencies, secondary and post-secondary educational institutions, employers, industry groups, other stakeholders, and federal agencies. The goal was to create curricular frameworks in broad career clusters, designed to prepare students to transition successfully from high school to post-secondary education and employment within a career pathway.

Source: blogs.uis.edu

What’s in Store for the Future of Education?

Education’s future will continue to retain its BUILD Initiative and career cluster structure, while taking notes from digital transformation.

Based on the results from a recent survey conducted by Ellucian, the future of education will embrace new student values perhaps not considered in the traditional education model, such as personalized pathways, technology-driven advisor relationships, and a friction-free approach to career path selection.

Through 2020, technology will influence several industries, and the education industry is on the cusp of these changes. Although often considered cliché, advancing trends in technology such as voice assistance, predictive analytics, and chatbots will assist in further opening the door to equitable access.

Forbes.com recently wrote that new apps and software will ease learning barriers for students of all learning types. Most notably, video conferencing will play a significant role in accessibility, giving specialized support to even the most remote students.

Enter Virtual Career Center

Geographic Solutions is committed to playing an evolutionary role in education’s advancing future. Virtual Career Center (VCC), our web-based career services portal, is making strides in giving students a personalized career development experience.

CareerOneStop.com’s recent move to visually enhance career pathways has been reflected in VCC. Now, students who are using VCC to map out their school-to-work journey can view all occupational videos within the Occupation Finder.

Source: Virtual Career Center

Meant to give students the opportunity to discover professions that fit their needs, VCC’s Occupation Finder presents results filtering by career path, outlook and demand, wage, education and experience. The occupational profile provides valuable exploration information like top skills, tools and technology, and other competencies required to be successful on the job.

To lessen any doubt about a given profession’s monetary outlook, VCC offers regional labor market information to gauge occupational supply and demand. Students can further explore colleges, programs and current employment opportunities to begin planning their prosperity pathway.

With self-assessments and exploration tools that help learners make key educational decisions, relationship-first technology that drives one-to-one advisor communications, and employer-centric collaboration tools designed to assist in finding reliable, local talent, Virtual Career Center stands at the forefront of the next educational revolution.

Find out if Virtual Career Center is right for your region, state, school, or business by contacting Business Development Executive, Chuck Johnson.

Filling In The Gaps: How Workforce Agencies Are Using Alison To Fundamentally Change Skills-Based Training

Tue, 04 Jun 2019 16:54:00 GMT

By Dr. Tim Potenz

With more than 13 million users worldwide enrolled in thousands of free online courses, Alison.com has transformed into an industry-leading provider of online education and job skills training. On a global scale, their educational impact has earned them numerous awards from organizations and initiatives such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Economic Forum, and the World Innovation Summit for Education.

In 2007, Alison was launched by founder Mike Feerick, an early pioneer of the Massive Open Online Courseware (MOOC) movement. His vision is responsible for the success of more than 2 million graduates worldwide, with 175 thousand new learners signing up every month.

An Educational Cornerstone

In the United States, hundreds of workforce agency administrators have used Alison.com to develop suites of freely-accessible online courses, forming educational cornerstones key to federally-funded government programs.

When parents or guardians face periods of transition, sometimes due to job loss, programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), SNAP Employment and Training (SNAP E&T;) and the Florida-centric Welfare Transition Program (WTP) offer needed assistance to qualified participants. This form of help can include time-limited financial assistance for basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing, but also includes transitional services to help families become independent. A significant part of these transitory services include GED prep courses, job training and interview practice, vocational training, classes in basic English, and job retention services.

“In terms of workforce advantages, Alison.com is building inroads in several distinct areas,” says Dan Fitzgerald, a Corporate Workforce Trainer at Geographic Solutions. “It fills the training-related gaps for programs like SNAP E&T; and TANF, offering low-cost alternatives for program participants.

Impacting Training Completion Rates

For CareerSource, Florida’s statewide network of workforce development boards and career centers, program managers have been integrating Alison’s free learning resources into their workforce programs since 2009. Because Alison’s courses are self-paced and time flexible, registered learners can level up their skills anywhere, and at any time. This helps workforce agency administrators spend less resources on scheduling, structuring, and monitoring, and more time on their actual training. Devoting more attention to these critical areas has made a significant impact on training completion rates. And, with Alison’s data-rich user statistics, admins can immediately see how much time a job seeker has spent on training.

A newer feature in Alison’s arsenal is the Career Guide, which ushers job seekers towards the right courses, catered towards specific career paths. These courses are laid out on different skill levels, and learners are guided through each course appropriately. The time needed to structure training is therefore taken on by experts, which allows more job seekers to get the most out of their activity, helping them stick with the program.

Expanding Job Ready Initiatives

Looking towards 2020 and beyond, Alison plans to expand their Job-Ready initiatives to workforce-industry professionals striving to create their own suite of free online courses and certifications. You can hear more about essential free learning at the 2019 Workforce Technology Conference.

About the Author: Dr. Tim Potenz is the Editor at Alison.com, where he's responsible for the Careers section of the platform.

Skills-Based Workforce Development: Building Career Pathways To Real-World Jobs

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 15:53:00 GMT

By Christine Peng

In education and workforce development, the consensus is that there is a shift happening. States are reexamining their requirements for graduation and the associated coursework. Schools are now being tasked with equipping students with essential workplace skills, or soft skills, to boost their future employment prospects. With low unemployment, employers are looking to hire but can’t find skilled candidates. This is where skills-based training and career pathways models can help.

The Skills Economy

With the changing landscape of education and workforce, an emphasis on skills competency has emerged as a model for the future. How can you take today’s job seekers and quickly train them with the skills employers need? Skills-based training. How can you ensure that students today are prepared for the jobs of the future? Stackable credentials and transferable skills.

This forms the basis of career pathways training and education. Career pathways break down industries and occupations into knowledge and skills competencies. At the center of this are foundation skills, such as academic, personal, and workplace. From there, it branches out into industry and occupation-specific skills.

Why have skills competencies and stackable credentials become the currency of training? For workforce and human resources professionals, this is no surprise. Employers are challenged with finding skilled workers to fulfill the seven million job openings across the United States today. Some skills may be specialized, while others may apply to different pathways. But the quickest way to fill positions is to validate an applicant’s exact skills through stackable credentials such as digital badges and industry-recognized certifications.

Short-Term Training Solutions as the New Norm

Employers are looking for trainable workers, people who have core skills that can adapt to their needs. Micro-credentialing programs are attractive to employers because of time and solid proof of skills. Programs in IT, such as coding and development, have delivered quick results to employers through boot camps both in-person and online. Skills-based training models can be applied to any industry in the same way.

Written up in the Wall Street Journal, the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board (EWIB) has perfected their training model for manufacturing through their “Eastern CT Manufacturing Pipeline” program. Funded by the US Department of Labor Workforce Innovation Fund in partnership with the CT Department of Labor, EWIB works directly with Electric Boat, a division of General Dynamics, to source 5,000 applicants over the next few years for entry-level positions.

The program is designed for job seekers with no experience to take short-term classroom training and online training to get hired within 12 weeks. Job seekers are screened with assessments evaluating their core knowledge (basic math and reasoning, safety skills). If needed, remedial training is offered to bring their skills up to par. For those passing the assessments, they attend a custom 5-10 week hands-on program at Three Rivers Community College, Quinebaug Valley Community College, or Community College of Rhode Island. In addition to hands-on training, participants also have access to Metrix Learning where they can brush up through online courses. Over the past year, more than a thousand participants have been hired by Electric Boat and other local manufacturers.

The success of the "Eastern CT Manufacturing Pipeline" program hinges on job seekers gaining the exact skills the employer needed. The workforce board sat down with their local employers and outlined the immediate needs, developed a quick solution, and implemented it for stellar results. Where there were skill gaps, hands-on and online training filled it in. The flexibility of online and short-term training helps benefit the employer, the community, and the economy. The new hires will then gain work experience and continue building their skills directly through the employer. This skills-based model can be replicated with other industries as well. The program has been so successful that EWIB is developing their health care pipeline program next.

Developing Your Own Career Pathways

You can follow EWIB's example to develop career pathways for your own community. Take the reins and invite employers to speak with you on their hiring needs. Sit down with industry groups or individual employers to find out what's relevant to your city. Attend community meetings to find out what's happening on the ground. Look at labor market data and employment trends to identify needs. Think about your current job seekers and barriers they may face. Consider how to address these challenges and create new opportunities.

To build your own workforce pipeline program, consider these steps:

You can focus on pre-existing partnership and develop new connections to form your local pathways. Consider what assets exist today (trade schools, community colleges, etc.) and how to bridge any gaps in your training pipeline. Are there opportunities to fill in gaps?

Looking for advice on developing your career pathways? Need fresh ideas on skills-based training programs? Join Metrix Learning at the 2019 Workforce Technology Conference to find out more.

About the Author: Christine Peng is a Metrix Learning workforce solutions consultant working closely with clients from 15 states to customize and implement workforce development and training portals. Her experience includes in-depth career pathways analysis and learning management system design.

Students Get New Tools For Education Planning, Career Exploration

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 14:43:00 GMT

Geographic Solutions, in partnership with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, recently launched Career Solutions, a redesigned website that features a fresh new look and enhanced customization options for students.

Career Solutions is an online education solution that provides New Mexico’s youth and educators with a comprehensive set of interactive tools meant to help students plan for their future careers. The popular website includes self-assessments, guided career exploration, education and experience planning, and a powerful job search engine.

The website delivers personalized service by factoring self-assessments and labor market information into career exploration results, allowing students to identify careers that are not only suited for them, but are also in-demand and pay a living wage.

“The Career Solutions website is considered among the best career exploration tools in the country for the breadth of the information available and the user-friendly, interactive and engaging nature of the system,” said Erin Thompson, New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions’ acting secretary. “These enhancements and increased capabilities will serve to provide an even greater and more meaningful user experience.”

Echoing Thompson’s sentiments, survey feedback from student users at career fairs throughout New Mexico have emphasized the impact Career Solutions is having on the career exploration experience, with many of them noting the website’s ease of use and abundance of career information. Other student commenters appreciated the ability to compare and explore occupations by family or cluster, which can help them discover new opportunities.

Rich in guidance, Career Solutions also provides education and training resources for students to utilize based on their chosen career path, including an intelligent scholarship search and college preparation checklists. For those seeking a job at any step in their educational journey, the website incorporates everything a student needs to land a job, including the ability to save and apply to jobs, create résumés, build cover letters, and practice for job interviews. Users also have the option to create a secure, personal account where they can save interests and personal progress.

Geographic Solutions, Inc., has been working with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions for more than 16 years. The Career Solutions website has become a primary destination for students, educators, and job seekers throughout New Mexico since it first launched in 2016. To access the New Mexico Career Solutions website, visit www.nmcareersolutions.com.