LadderzUP: a strategic partnership with MCC for regional workforce development.

CONTEXT: THE VOCATIONAL SKILLS CHALLENGE

“In an era in which education has never been more important to economic success, the U.S. has fallen behind many other nations in educational attainment and achievement. Within the U.S. economy, there is also growing evidence of a “skills gap” in which many young adults lack the skills and work ethic needed for many jobs that pay a middle-class wage.”

—Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century, Harvard Graduate School of Education, February 2011

Though now almost a decade old, the Harvard Graduate School of Education report authored by Ferguson, Schwartz & Symonds (2011) highlighted the increasing need for technical and middle-skilled workers in the national labor market and the challenge posed from an educational system favoring a four-year degree over career technical programs. Like many community colleges, MCC’s leadership were aware of this growing “middle-skills” gap in the Upstate Region and the need to upskill low skilled and semi-skilled workers that lacked the particular skills, competencies and credentials to succeed in the local middle-skilled economy. Middle skill jobs are those which require a high school diploma and supplemental training, but not a four-year college degree, and they make up approximately half of America’s labor market (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010). MCC sought a way to alleviate this middle-skills gap. Monroe County was at one time home of “the Big Three”: Eastman Kodak Company, Xerox Corporation, and Bausch & Lomb. But residents could no longer rely on stable career-long positions as these older corporations downsized or moved to other regions. However, smaller, more nimble companies—many that were formed by former employees of the Big Three — continued in the advanced manufacturing sector, finding the region hospitable, despite their need to have access to a strong supply of skilled technicians.

Influenced by the Pathways to Prosperity report, as well as examples of historic public-public models like the Boston Compact, MCC approached Monroe County with a proposal for a joint program, funded partly with fluid county resources, to provide educational programming tailored specifically to the workforce needs of mid-sized and smaller businesses. The collaboration between the county and the college was intended to produce measurable outcomes that could not be achieved independently. With a focus on the needs of the adult learner, the alternative funding model of this public-public workforce partnership allows for more potential job seekers, as well as those wishing to advance in their careers, to be trained for skills and technically-based occupations and their associated career pathways. By placing a premium on non-credit short cycle and accelerated academic programs, LadderzUP has trained more than 800 participants, across 41 companies, since its inception in September 2017.

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