MEGHAN MCBRIDE: Thank you, Holly. Hello, everyone, out there who's joining us now and to those of you who might be watching the recording. My name is Meghan McBride, Director of Adult Education Projects at WestEd. I'm joined by my colleague Debi Pezzuto, whose title is far too long for me to say, and my colleague John Brauer, who is Director of Workforce Development at Adult Ed. So this webinar is part of our series of webinars on employer engagement in our CAEP professional development contract with the Chancellor's Office. Increasingly, we're seeing a-- oh, there we all are, along with Debi's long title. I'm not sure what the next slide is, but let me see. Can I see the next slide, John? Oh, OK. Never mind. Go back. I thought we had something about our contract. I'm going to explain the contract to y'all real quick before I hand it over to John. So our contract for professional development and technical assistance with the Chancellor's Office this year is largely focused on aligning adult education programs with the labor market, because policy makers want to see a better return on investment, as quantified by outcomes for participants in terms of their labor market participation and their earnings. So a central theme of our professional development contract this year is aligning with the labor market and measuring the effectiveness of programs. And we're doing that in a couple of different ways. First of all, we're going to create a dashboard for you guys that compares the targets that you sent in your three-year and annual plans with the outcomes as the data become available. We're also going to be doing an inventory of all noncredit CTE programs across the state of California and comparing them to your regional labor markets to help you all conduct gap analyses of your supply and demand, in hopes that your noncredit CTE programs are aligned with employer demand. And finally, we have a series of employer engagement webinars where, John, we already did the first one. You can catch the recording on the CAEP website. I'm sure Holly will drop the link for you at some point today. This is the second in that series. And we're hoping that from these webinars, you'll learn strategies that you can use to engage employers for more than just an end user of your programs, but also to help design curriculum or create more work-based learning opportunities for your students in hopes that they will be able to improve their economic and career mobility after they leave your programs. So with that introduction, I'm going to hand it over to my colleague, John Brauer, who will lead this webinar. JOHN BRAUER: All right, thanks, Meghan. Good morning, everybody. My name is John Brauer. I'm a workforce and economic development project director at WestEd. I've been there for about three years. But about the last 25 before that, I worked in a variety of sector strategies and partnerships and initiatives. I ran a community-based organization in Oakland that partnered with Oakland Adult Ed and in the College of Alameda and industry partners and even some other CBOs in a couple of different sectors. One was in construction in the East Bay, primarily around the Port of Oakland, that was doing a lot of construction and other public projects that were taking place. And then the second was around trade and logistics that we did a similar partnership. And again, that was with trucking, warehousing, maritime-related, airport activities, all of those kinds of things. And then I had a job for 11 years at the California Labor Federation, where we put together sector partnerships with employers, industry associations, other unions. And then those included colleges, adult ed programs, CBOs, and just about every sector, so in hospitality, food and grocery related, different pieces of transportation, a lot of different sectors. And the biggest one-- and I'll share it at the end-- is I was really part of a big, successful sector initiative that's still going on and still growing. That's being facilitated by an entity called California Transit Works. And it involves a number of transit agencies, transit unions, and then a number of community colleges, including San Joaquin, Santa Rosa, Mission College, and San Jose. They're even partnering with a high school in the East Bay, James Logan, for folks, a variety of local educational institutions. And they've created a number of apprenticeship, preapprenticeship, and other certificate and training pathways, including with Mission where folks are getting college credit and built into that equation. So let's get started here, if you will. I'm kind of putting this in, in a nutshell so we're all operating off of the same understanding. But essentially, a sector strategy, a partnership of multiple employers within a critical industry that bring together education and economic development, workforce systems, and community organizations to identify and collaborate around the workforce needs of that industry within a local or regional labor market. So think of this as not just being a one employer engagement strategy. Who holds this and what it looks like as a partnership, we'll be talking about. But the fact is, the really big strategy of this is you're not thinking about this from the supply end, but from the industry end, and trying to have a multiple set of employers that are involved in it. And so like I said a minute ago, sector strategies, they differ that they're not place based. So they're not, from that end, starting with your program or where students or workers are coming into school or whatever. Rather, it's starting with the supply of those workers to meet the demand side. So understanding the specific industries that need the skilled talent and then building that pipeline accordingly. And again, it's not with just one employer or none. And you're kind of guessing that it really does involve for them, their involvement in it. I did want to share with this. Everybody's all over the-- I'm looking at all of you over my slides. I'm moving you around here. There's some basic pillars that you really need to be thinking about in this equation as you set up your sector strategies. And they're kind of really built on-- so leadership, vision, and alignment. So every sector partnership requires an intermediary or a backbone. And in this equation, it might be you, the adult ed or community college entity. You may want to find your local workforce board or a community-based organization or even the industry association or an employer itself. But somebody will be that backbone, and that that entity's primary role will be holding each other together, holding each other accountable, helping maintain that shared vision, if you will, as you move forward and engaging in the feedback. So what we've got down there on the last piece is that continuous improvement, if you will. And strong intermediary leadership is really critical in the success of sustained partners. And then the industry engagement piece of this is really engaging industry as a partner, not just as a customer. So they're partnering you in designing the training programs, providing feedback that you ultimately do, helping you and working with them on, what are the career pathways? They may not even be thinking about that, frankly, but making sure that that takes place, and then helping to understand what the hiring practices are and how those are effective and will work. Sometimes there's a presumption that you said all this stuff up, and you haven't figured out those hiring practices. So I don't know how many of you know about-- remember power pathways and in the initial partnership between some of the school LEAs and PG&E. They work with PG&E on setting up the training requirements and all of that. They hadn't talked to PG&E's HR, so we had some initial issues around folks actually getting hired by PG&E afterwards. Sector-based service delivery-- so that the training and support services are directly tied to specific skills, credentials, and competencies valued within that targeted sector. So your industry that you pick, whether that's health care or manufacturing, for instance, they have their own individual certs and credentials and degrees that may be required or of value to them and working with them to really identify those and then deliver them. That can also include, frankly, soft skills and professional development skills for folks' career readiness skills. When I did a trade and logistics program with the College of Alameda and Adult Ed and the employers, we did simple stuff. We had, frankly, a time clock that folks had to punch in and out of so that they learned time management. We did things around vocabulary so folks understood that. We also taught teamwork, exercises, and communication exercises and other things that the employers helped us to contextualize and design in that aspect. The partnerships do require some dedicated, diversified funding streams and some organizational capacity. Again, the real piece of this is both in terms of career and support services, but also maintaining it, seeing who may have the access to helping to braid and blend those kind of things, whether that's from the CAEP area or workforce boards or foundations or other sectors in that piece or other funders in that piece. And then continuous improvement-- your data systems and outcome tracking and structured learning cycles are all really important. And I'll talk about some of these as we move forward in the equation here. Are there any questions at this point? I can't see the chat, Debi. So I don't know if anybody's got anything. DEBI PEZZUTO: No questions in the chat yet. But if anyone does have questions or comments or just wants to share their experience, please put it in the chat, and I'll call it out. JOHN BRAUER: OK, thank you. So they really just have sectors, in addition to the pillars in the description, I just-- and frame the obvious here. But there's three components. There's the engaged partnership itself that folks are moving from just simple transactional. You're having a contract to do continuing ed or run a program and hope folks get hired or whatever, to really having some transformational collaboration. You're using, as a second part of it, data and industry-informed decision making about what you include in training and education and the curriculum and all that. You're starting with labor market data. You're thinking about the participant outcome data that you all have to report. And then you're getting employer input on using that data to design or adjust or continuously improve the programs and the partnership activities. So you may find that people need a particular cert that they haven't been getting, and you make a change. Or people need to have the program offered in the evening, or there's a technology change that industry is facing that they want to include or add to the training that you're doing. So it really is a cyclical iterative process, if you will. And the other piece of it is that the pathways and the job quality, that all of the stakeholders-- and I would argue that this could also include your students and workers-- have a meaningful voice in the sector strategy, design. And the jobs are targeted to offer genuine quality, whether that's fair wages or scheduling benefits, advancement opportunities, all of those kinds of things. So those are the three elements, if you will, around it. Partnerships-- I think this is true for all partnerships, including sector partnerships. So I really just wanted some thoughts to keep in mind as you're moving stuff forward. And what you're really trying to build out of this and the benefit of the sector strategy when it works is you have really good understanding. You have very good trust, but you have to build that over time. Folks may come to each other and say, hey, we want to do a sector partnership. And that doesn't always-- there at the beginning. You're building it over time. It's like a relationship or your marriage, I should say. And there's commitment from everybody. And so to do that, I have some friends-- Balance.point Strategic Services, who are part of that California Transit Works and who have done a lot of partnership work. And these are the stuff that I've taken from them and shared with them, but making things simple and clear. Particularly for your employer partners, they're really going to want to know, how does the partnership operate? What are the guidelines lines? They've got limited time and investment. So really important. Be consistent in what you say and do. Again, any partnership or relationship, a lot of this is kind of matter of fact. But I just thought it's worth-- your actions determine not only what happens in the partnership but the evolution of its character. And again, this goes to the trust and commitment aspects of the partnership. Following through with what you say-- so for all of the stakeholders, whether that's the educational institution or the consortia or the employers or community-based organization, that folks, before they commit to something, that they're ready to follow through and meet it. And the biggest aspect of this for me in the partnership is really understanding what each other's point of view is. And the piece of this, like anything else is really about compromise. What are you all putting in and changes that you're willing to make to make the partnership go? And the real strength of the partnership overall is how you nurture it. And build that understanding, build that trust, and build the commitment and the energy behind it. Folks, again, some of the things that I just referenced are really some of the success factors for starting a partnership. So there's a clear foundation and going through a process where you're talking about and developing common values and principles and goals that each party shares with each other, particularly why they would be in a partnership so that everybody needs to understand why would employers want to be there, what are they trying to get out of it, and really asking them and being clear about that. And likewise for them to understand what you're facing and needing in terms of your consortia and what you need to get out of it for your students and/or the folks above you, if the adult ed principal or the community college president or whomever is asking, why are we doing this? Another is clear communication channels, that you have written down what that's going to look like, how it's going to be carried out. Those kinds of things are really important so they'll know that it's happening through email chains or in person. You're meeting once a month for a meeting or every other month or every quarter or whatever, who's got access to what's getting produced in terms of data or information sharing, those kinds of things. That you have a clear vision, again, about what you're trying to accomplish. And Rome wasn't built in a day, so the idea of taking small, positive steps to create something. I'm working on a partnership now around health care, and we had started around trying to do a whole regional pipeline. And we've kind of gone backwards to-- We've identified phlebotomy courses that make sense for a number of different kinds of workers to work with a number of different colleges on delivering for those pathways. And so we went back to some of the small steps. The other big piece of the real success and, I think, a value of sector partnerships is you really start to have a clear idea of the workplace. What's going on in terms of the conditions and issues, the skills, work, processes needed, all of that? To me, this is one that I often don't think educational institutions really understand is really helpful and beneficial too. I can't tell you the number of-- I get a real thrill out of going to workplaces and watching people in action, whether it's not just training, but even just working and understanding what they're trying to do in that equation around it. Clear action plans and common metrics are also really important. So figuring out and laying out to each other, again, it lays out the clear vision and the communication channels. What's the scope of your initial trainings? What are the longer-term expected outcomes? And how will you measure those outcomes? So in the transit agency, some of our initial outcomes for our training partnership were born out of health and wellness issues. So it wasn't necessarily the skills and abilities piece, but it was things like absenteeism or injury on the job that are in addition to things like making a change in your bus mechanics or skills in driving a bus or those kinds of things. So it's whatever you determine as part of the partnership for everybody with each other, the outcomes that you want. And then also, a real-- both initial and ongoing is, what does success look like? And building in some discussions, both initially and then maybe later after you've really started to implement that equation so that everybody has an idea of what each other's understanding-- and hopefully, you get to a common understanding of what success may look like. For an employer, that they've addressed incorporation of a new technology, and you've got X number of students that you're trying to have graduate or enroll in the equation, or they're trying to diversify their workforce. Or you're trying to, frankly, deliver a new piece of education that will help you in your consortia, make you more valuable to industry down the line. Some basic pieces around just food for thought on partnership structure and governance. Designate a backbone intermediary. And it may be one of you in the consortia as an LEA. Again, it could be the employers. It could be the workforce boards or another nonprofit that's part of your sector partnership, those kind of things. And build partnerships that are meaningful in terms of cross-sector so that you have a wide range of stakeholders in your sector partnership. They all bring something. And as we know, nobody's got enough resources to do it alone or go it alone. So in addition to the employers, really, look at other stakeholders who you can do. I put in here establish formal governance structures. Initially, you have to have some big document that gets created maybe over time. Start with simple rules and communication, and then build out shared accountability mechanisms. Work on defining partner roles over time and getting into a cadence for joint decision making around it. I do suggest, though, obviously, prioritizing that relationships with employers that maybe have demonstrated openness to equity practices. Those are probably some of the folks who make the best partners, too, in addition to advancing what you're trying to do in terms of diversity or equity or other thing. They often make some of the best employers. And like I said earlier, developing that trust incrementally. You're not going to get it-- you're starting with a first date. You're not getting married immediately. So building that, their confidence by demonstrating that value that you're incorporating them, making them feel like they've had some input into design and collaborating. And then also, frankly, over time, trying to get them to put some skin in the game. One way I really measure this-- and that may be simple as them showing up at a classroom or a job fair, maybe helping, putting up resources, financial or otherwise, all the way to hiring folks that are recruitments around it. I just wanted to share this. I couldn't get it to work exactly as a slide, but I did want to share it, which is when we did our Transit Works piece, we would actually look at all the stakeholders, and we would take a snapshot, frankly, of those folks who were coming to the partnership. And over time, we also did this once a year, whatever, to measure what level of champion we thought that they were in the equation, so whether that was the labor union, the employers, the community colleges, the local workforce, board of the nonprofit. So were they making a strong commitment? Was this a priority for them, all the way down to they were very skeptical or even antagonistic? We even measured things very informally around trust. And did they trust the sector partnership, the program structure, and what they thought about it and what the partnership was bringing? So a number of different ways you could create something like this for yourself. And I would just suggest doing it occasionally. It's a good way to look at the partners in relationship to the overall sector partnership and see that whether it's working, or you need to do more cultivation or getting additional partners or alternative ones or whatever in that equation. Again, just treating the employer as primary customer and moving to them as partners in it. And some things to remind-- I think I said this at the last webinar as well-- is you're maintaining an ongoing relationship with them between the cohorts or the semesters or whatever, not just during hiring periods. Per Scholas-- I guess I should have talked about that more-- but they worked with their employers to identify good job matches and vouching for the participants in between as a way to maintain a strong relationship. And then again, as I said a minute ago, identifying and cultivating those employer champions who may advocate for equity and other things. And then the last thing, as well as offering it not just during the day, but if you have to, figure out flexible, modular upskilling and reskilling options that may allow incumbent workers who are good prospective students, frankly, for your consortia to advance within the sector. So that's what we're doing. For instance, in the phlebotomy stuff, we're working with the colleges to offer some noncredit classes in the evening to get started in that way around it. As I said earlier, that middle component around industry and labor market analysis. And the idea is you start with the LMI and then go to build off of that. It's not just how you pick your sector and then just completely jump in. But the LMI will help you identify initially, along with employers and those occupations and roles that are high demand within your regional labor market. And do that before you select a target. You can also use that in addition to LMI employer surveys, industry projections to assess current and future talent gaps that may be out there. And again, thinking about it in terms of assessing industry growth trajectory, so targeting both with current demand and strong future outlook. And then from there, you can use your LMI and those other data sources to map the regional ecosystem of employers, training providers, and other entities who may help you start to build that sector partnership, so using LMI and other data sources to do that. Some of the things that you may want to do as part of having an initial assessment and things to start to think about is the work environment, so building trades, for instance, up northern part of the US, or here in the rainy season, less work takes place. And so you understand the cyclical nature of the industry, looking at the job trends through your LMI that you'll get, types of equipment, work operations. How's the work organized? Are folks actually salaried? Are they paid by the hour? Are they independent contractors? Those kinds of things. Labor management relationships-- folks jump into sectors, oftentimes not paying attention to the fact that there may be a collective bargaining agreement and a relationship with employers and labor in that equation. Things to keep in mind and do some assessments over time are the training. What's the type of training being delivered? Is it in person? Is it online? Is it hybrid? How accessible is it for workers and trainees? You can have something set up that folks aren't able to access, even though it's kind of offered. Who's doing the training? Is it the entity? Are they hiring outside folks? And maybe you can do a better job and more effective and less cost, frankly, than, say, a private entity. And the effectiveness of it-- is it really meeting the needs of some of the employers in your sector partnership? One of the bigger issues that folks talked about in success and assessing is just really making sure that you've got local training and workforce development is what our big issues for employers. So being able to address that as your capacity and incorporating them into building it out. And again, it speaks to one of their top three wishes, which is they want it to have happen. You can also assess for-- asking them what else they would like to hear about in that assessment or what the partnership wants to in that equation. And one of the ways that I really like to do this in building off is creating a real needs assessment, industry needs assessment. And this, I would suggest, is not just a document, but think about it as, frankly, a process and a way to build that trust and engagement with industry. It's a way to say, hey, we're going beyond the data. We really want to get down to what you, as industry and individual and group of employers, are really needing and thinking about and what's happening for you in the equation. And so it's a good confidence, trust-building exercise, in addition to giving you a good snapshot of the workplace. And so asking them and creating a tool or an assessment that has current and projected job openings that they're looking at by specific titles and by employers, not just the sector overall. What are the career pathways that may or may not exist? So in the transit agencies that we worked with, for instance, Santa Clara Valley Transit agency, we talked to them. And what was clear was they didn't really have pathways within the transit agency. So we worked with them much farther down the line to both understand how folks moved from entry level into journey or higher intermediate skilled jobs. And then ultimately, they could go into supervisorial jobs at the transit agency and what that looked like. Having those discussions to understand the skills and competency requirements for target jobs. So I've worked with, for instance, the plumbers in different sector partnerships as part of construction partnerships. During the 2008 recession, their members, who had a particular gas certification to work in hospitals, were the folks who kept working because they had a particular added on. You will find that in different kinds of occupations and sectors as well. What are those cross-occupational skills that may have you build a sector partnership that has a wider variety of employers in that? And then understanding their barriers for them, fulfilling demand. Is there hiring process friction going on? Are there training pipeline gaps or scheduling incompatibilities or cost barriers for workers to get in? They've got to get equipment or uniforms or other things or get a particular piece of training. Are there gaps in gender or race or geographic underrepresentation? Oftentimes, particularly in California, employers have almost a mandate with diversifying themselves. And so that's also an opportunity because they're going to want to partner with you as you move forward in there. Debi, any questions? Are we still-- DEBI PEZZUTO: No, we're doing good. This is really interesting, John. JOHN BRAUER: [LAUGHS] OK, good. [LAUGHS] And then some food for thought in getting to the back end is really thinking about centering the direct occupational skills in the training is really important, particularly for employers in this equation and, again, them as partners in designing it and working with you on delivering it. Integrating career readiness components-- again, what we often hear in workforce development is employers are like, this is the issue that is a big thing for them, understanding that people are able to not come in-- not just the skills and abilities, but general work habits, communication, things like problem solving, teamwork, basic numeracy, and literacy skills, those kinds of things are as important as the higher technical skills that folks may need as they move forward. And then again, aligning your curriculum with specific employer-validated skills and credentials. And I know folks do this. But to the extent that you're saying to them, we have these third-party-verified credentials in our program will really have some validity for you that I'll make my pitch using IET, particularly as you build this out as a training model in that end. And I know some of you are doing that, both in Washington and elsewhere in the country really proven to be best practices. And then over time, building clear, structured pathways so that your learners and workers as well as the other partners in your partnership have a real idea of what those pathways are. And they're not often self-evident. I mean, to be honest, oftentimes the industry hasn't even really thought about it, frankly. Sometimes the HR department's only real interest is filling up an employment hole, that they've got something they need to hire somebody. And in that moment, they're thinking about filling that particular hole. But how does that progress for folks who have an interest? And I think that this is also really important for younger people. As somebody who has six kids who are now in their late 20s and early 30s, I think they understand the opportunities better and are more willing to engage if they think there is an actual long-term pathway. It's not just the immediate job opportunity anymore. So I think that that's also a benefit of the sector partnership is you can clarify what those are or design them or even get industry at times to make changes in that. Another piece that I think is probably something you all already know as well is the importance of wraparound and postplacement support. And whoever that backbone organization is really needs to play a role in making sure that this is there. Providing supports that address barriers beyond the training-- that could be childcare, transportation, other financial assistance, mental health services, and finding resources. Again, the sector partnership may be a way to attract additional resources to do this. Developing postplacement advancement strategy-- so people keep coming back to you, to the partnership and you as an LEA for additional career growth or other things. And build job retention and advancement component. So the backbone organization, or you may have a mentoring program. Or you may have job developers whose job it is, is to show up if there's a problem in the workplace with graduates or students, who can work with employers on addressing whatever those issues are rather than losing somebody. And then again, tracking and reporting outcomes beyond the initial placement. Now, WIOA has first quarter, two quarters, fourth quarters. You may want to figure out a cadence as well around how often earnings take place, credential attainment, and then advancement within the sector. These are just sample outcomes that you may want to track, if you will. And again, I think the other is building the evidence and sharing the data. In the transit piece, we have spent a lot of time. And there's actually a website where I have a link where folks are, both institutionally and then as a sector partnership, really being able to tell the story, that you're building the evidence and sharing the data and doing those kinds of things, that you want to set what those outcomes are near the outset and align them both their outcomes for the industry and the sector, but also for you as educational institutions in the community, if you will. And using that data, frankly, in real time, looking at low enrollment or poor completion or replacement. You're trying to make program design and making changes that will address that, if you will. And then understanding the cost-benefit analysis for you as the educational institution, your employers to be partners in this, for students and learners to make that investment in what you're creating, if you will and then, again, using it for program design. And frankly, if you can, sharing data across partnership members. So everybody's looking at the same thing. And particularly, if it's an iterative process, that you're then able to hold each other accountable and that they're shared learning. So doing that at your quarterly, annual meeting, however you do that, and building in some time for conversation and reflection. And that is just really important. How are we doing on time here? I think we can do this. I just wanted to talk to you a minute about one good example. And I hope this will inspire you a little bit. The video I'm going to share is a little bit old, but it's still continuing. So California Transit Works started out as a sector partnership between Santa Clara Valley Transit and their local Amalgamated Transit Union and Mission College. And it frankly started as a health and wellness issue. There were a lot of bus drivers who had real issues around diabetes and obesity, mental health issues around the stress of the job. If you drive a bus today, believe it or not, if you take public transit, there are programs that the transit agencies are running where they are changing the routes as they go during the course of the day based on the number of people on the existing bus and who they think is going to be down the line. If you can imagine, in some urban settings, having 20 high school kids get on your bus, a couple of them who aren't paying, you've got obviously-- because of ADA and others, they are a significant means of transit for folks who are disabled, being able to use that and getting those folks to where they need to go. You are a public entity. You're also the face of a public agency. So there's a lot there that bus drivers and mechanics and others in transit are facing. There was also a big issue for Santa Clara-- and this is true for transit agencies up and down the state and in the country-- where they had 50% of their bus coach operators and mechanics were eligible to retire on any given day. They were deathly afraid that everybody was just going to call it quits, and they were basically spending money. They are spending money to keep those drivers driving and the mechanics in place. So they were spending additional monies to incentivize those folks not to retire around it. Further, they had a big technology change, which is the state legislature passed a requirement that by 2040, all buses in California for transit agencies have to be zero-emission buses. And that is really significant. It means that-- the way I explain it for bus mechanics, buses went from diesel buses that were highly polluting to, about 15, 20 years ago, compressed natural gas buses. And if you were a mechanic at a transit agency, it's like going from you know Spanish, and you have to learn Portuguese. You can get there. They're close enough Latin languages that you get there. To go from compressed natural gas to a high-voltage electric bus, where you, frankly, could be electrocuted standing about three feet away, it's like going from Portuguese to Mandarin, even if you are a journey-level mechanic on a compressed natural gas bus. So they are having to make significant changes in how they train their folks. It is also possible for a bus coach operator-- it has also very significant application because the way the buses recharge and the battery life is significantly affected by how the bus is operated. And in this case, we ended up with a training program. And one of the things we found-- and it's not in the video-- that I think is really interesting, I had a guy, a bus driver, who turned it into a game. So he knew every day how far he got on his charge. And so he used regenerative braking and other techniques, and he added 100 miles per bus route of charge by doing it. And then we were able to use the training. And again, this is part of the worker voice and student inclusion to train other folks in that equation. So you learn a lot from a sector partnership from all of the partners and meet a number of different needs in the equation. Mission College has gone on to establish a transportation department. They have worked with the other sector partners to create not only apprenticeships in bus coach operator and in the mechanic side, but also to create certificates of achievement within those. So they've created a mentor program that they've replicated. So the partnership then saw the success, and they took it elsewhere. So they're working with Golden Gate Transit in College of Marin and, I believe, in adult school there. Sacramento Regional Transit District is working with Santa Rosa College. San Joaquin Delta College and Adult Ed, I believe, are working there. AC Transit works with both high schools and a little bit with Laney and their pieces. LA Metro, which is a huge transit agency, Foothill, which is right next door. Riverside, Transit District, and then Omni, which is the San Bernardino one. And they've also been trying to set one up in San Diego. So part of it was we took the successes and lessons learned. And then you're able to get the stakeholders elsewhere. They all have their own regional sector partnerships. So it's actually kind of more of a consortium, if you will, at this point. So this video is about five minutes long. Debi and Meghan, is it OK if I try and make this work? And we need some help here on this one. Let me see if I can get this to go here. So let me stop the share for a second. Let me see if I can make this work. Come on, guys. It's not letting me go back. Here we go. MEGHAN MCBRIDE: Make sure when you share, you click Share Sound on the right. JOHN BRAUER: Yeah. I got to get out of the-- I got to get back to the Share. Where's my Share? OK, let's-- [INDISTINCT SPEECH] And the Share Sound-- MEGHAN MCBRIDE: When you clicked Share to share this, there was an option on-- stop the share, just to be sure. JOHN BRAUER: OK. MEGHAN MCBRIDE: Now click Share again. And then when you click it on the right, there'll be a button that you can click, Share Sound. JOHN BRAUER: Yes. MEGHAN MCBRIDE: And that'll-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] JOHN BRAUER: All right, I apologize. I thought I had this working. I didn't realize. So are you seeing where it says Mission-- Transit! there? Is that-- MEGHAN MCBRIDE: Yep, Yep. JOHN BRAUER: OK. [VIDEO PLAYBACK] [MUSIC PLAYING] - On behalf of the West Valley Mission College Board of Trustees, on behalf of all of the faculty, staff, and administrators here at Mission College, it is my privilege to extend a warm welcome to each and every one of you. I would like to also recognize the leadership and support of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, of VTA, and the collaborative partnership between Mission College and them, which has led to this JWI partnership. It is truly innovative. [APPLAUSE] - So I'm Armando. I'm Dad. And I am a second-generation VTA. And my daughter Burgundy, she's third-generation VTA. And my mother, who was inside, she's first-generation VTA. - OK, so what I'm going to do is show you techniques to driving the bus. The college made a decision that it really wanted to weigh in more with career opportunities that affected its community. But we also wanted to do things that led to careers for our students. - My service runs from the North Bay counties, north of San Francisco. We are a vital piece of how people move, and certainly, through the North Bay and through the Bay Area. It's important that if we're going to do it, we do it right. - If we're going to create something, the best way to create workforce development and training programs anywhere is to have them meet industry demand, to be worker focused, and basically benefit the community. - A lot of people are not aware that a recently passed law, every single transit bus in California has to be zero emission, meaning either battery or hydrogen fuel cell, by 2040. That's nearly 10,000 buses that need to be replaced and thousands of mechanics and operators that need to be trained. - I did start out as an operator. And a mechanic told me that, hey, there's a program that you can do, and you can become a mechanic. So I took a mechanic helper course. And that's a year-long course. You got one week in a classroom, three weeks in a shop. - There's four battery packs, and you can see that there's four. 1, 2, 3, 4. It's not like it used to be with our technicians. The grease monkey aspect of it is gone. It's all about technology, and it's all about technical. And one of the things that they'll have to do is understand and using a laptop computer for diagnostics. This is professional education where we're at now. We want you to be the finest techs in the country. In order to do that, you got to keep learning. - One thing I like about the program is I don't know who is in charge of connecting us with the mentors. But whoever, they did a really good job, and they always do a good job with connecting the new employees with really good mentors that fit our personalities. - Men and women who are in this room have trained at our VTA facilities. But to be able to have this recognition, this certificate handed to them in an institution as prestigious as Mission College, which has been in partnership with us, they were the first community college to say, yes, of course, let's have this conversation. - The California Community College system supported this program both financially and through assistance with getting the programs through theirs so that they count. No matter where you go in California, you have college credits now. - So the objectives for your team members-- - I think one of the main things that other agencies could do and why CTW, in this kind of approach, could be so helpful because it would help eliminate some of the major problems that I think transit agencies are facing. And they would produce professional transit operators who are respected and honored. - I walk with my head a little bit higher. I'm proud of what I do. My badge number goes on each engine I build, so people know who built it. So I put my pride and soul in everything I do here. So thank you all. They say it takes a village to raise a child. I was a child when I started here. So thank you all for being part of that village. - When I came in as an operator, this is what I wanted to do. So being able to actually achieve that and do it, it feels good because basically, yeah, I feel accomplished. - [SPEAKING SPANISH] - And it's an important graduation for you because you've completed the program. But it's a really important graduation for Mission College and VTA and the transit industry in general, because for many of you, this is the first time a group of people have ever completed an apprenticeship and graduated with college credit in transit. The first not only here, but the first in the nation. So congratulations to all of you. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [END PLAYBACK] So let me get to my slides here. We're back. So I just wanted to share that because it has-- I hope folks can hear me. I can't see folks. So-- DEBI PEZZUTO: You're good. We can hear you, John. That was a great video. JOHN BRAUER: So it just had a lot of the aspects of what I was talking about. It involved a number of stakeholders with, clearly, the LEA playing an important role. They've done quite a bit in the last six years since you saw that video. But I thought, one, it had the full breadth of it. The ability to create career pathways for learners and workers was really important and moved beyond and helped them meet their aspirations. It addresses specific needs that the industry has. And I think you heard that in there. A number of folks, whether there was Rich Hibbs, who is a manager, some of the folks came out of the union who became faculty members, other folks who became part of the sector partnership itself, even after they left the institution, that they were contributing all of it towards. So it really is a good example. There are a number of these other sector partnerships in different sectors that I'm happy to put folks in touch with or to learn from as well, if you're thinking about something and something else, whether that's hospitality or health care or whatever, in the equation around it. And so I think that's it for me, unless there are questions. DEBI PEZZUTO: It doesn't look like we have any questions in the chat. And we're just about to wrap up. But we want to thank you all for joining us. That was a great video, John. Really appreciate it. And as Holly said at the beginning of the webinar, once the recording is remediated and the slides are remediated, they'll be available to you. So you can share it with all of your friends. And we will see you again next week on the 19th for our third webinar in the series, Data-Driven Collaboration-- Leveraging Data Systems to Strengthen Partnerships and Outcomes. It will be from 1:00 to 2:00 PM on that day. So then it'll be the afternoon, Holly. If you haven't registered for it yet, please do share it with your friends. And I'll turn it back to Holly if she's got any closing remarks. HOLLY CLARK: No, I think that pretty much wraps it up. I'm just going to drop the evaluation link one more time. We do value your feedback. I know that we do send that to WestEd. They enjoy reading it. We also send it up to the state. The state reads all of the evaluations in our monthly progress report. So they read every word you guys send back in your evaluations. So please do take a moment and complete your evaluation for this event. We look forward to seeing your registration for the event on the 19th. We'll see you guys at 1:00 at that WestEd. John, thank you for your time today for this session. We will get that posted to the website just probably in about two weeks. You'll get an email when it is available on the site. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. And we look forward to seeing you on the 19th. Thank you. Bye-bye.