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Mandilee Gonzales appears on a video call at the top right-hand corner of a slideshow. Title slide, Designing and Implementing Evidence-Based Accelerated Learning: Training Models to Align to Local Population and Workforce Needs. April 4, 2024. 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.. California Adult Education Program. Cal adult ed dot org.

Lisa Le Fevre.

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LISA LEFEVRE: Thank you so much, Mandilee. And welcome again, everyone. We're happy that you're here with us this morning at our webinar, "Designing and Implementing Evidence-based Accelerated Learning: Training Models that Align to Local Population and Workforce Needs".

Again, this is part one of a webinar series that focuses on accelerated learning approaches. Each webinar will present some brief contextual information. And then we'll feature programs engaged in delivering accelerated learning programs.

We hope that during each of these webinars, you will also share your knowledge and expertise, as we intend to build a community and knowledge through shared learning.

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Slide, West Ed CAEP Team & Today's Presenters. Pictures, names, and titles of Lisa and another presenter. Text, l l e f e v r at west ed dot org. b w t 1 2 1 at gmail.com.

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A little bit about us, as we do some introductions. I'm Lisa LeFevre, senior program associate at WestEd.

WestEd is an educational research development and technical assistance agency. I'm joined by my colleague, Dr. Toso, who I'll let introduce herself. And then I'll continue on.

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Blaire Toso.

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BLAIRE WILLSON TOSO: Hi, thank you, Lisa. Delighted to be here. I am currently working as a WestEd consultant and helping to put these webinars together. My background is in adult education. Started out as an ESL teacher and worked through the system.

And had a long-- have had a long trajectory in the field. And have done everything from research and evaluation to professional and development and technical assistance. And a lot of work and career pathways, particularly looking at accelerated learning strategies and approaches. So delighted to be here. Handing it back to Lisa.

LISA LEFEVRE: Thank you, Blaire. So we'd also like to take this moment to recognize the chancellor office cave team, Mayra Diaz and Cora Rainey and the CDE team, Dr. Carolyn Zachry and Neil Kelly, who support this type of work to ensure quality adult education. Mayra, Dr. Zachry, I don't know if you're on the line. But if you are, would you like to take a moment to say hello?

MAYRA DIAZ: I'm here. Thank you. Welcome, everyone. Looking forward to part one of these three series webinars. Thank you, Lisa.

LISA LEFEVRE: Great. Thank you, Mayra. And then additionally, we want to make sure we thank the Skytap team who have helped to make today's event possible. They are always flawless in their support in organizing and all the big and small details. They make it smooth. So thank you so much for doing that. Dr. Toso, I'm going to pass it back to you to introduce our panelists today.

BLAIRE WILLSON TOSO: All right, thank you. And I apologize, I'm a little slow on the game. Please feel free to introduce yourself in the chat, as we continue through this our presentation. So today, each one of these webinars will feature voices from the field.

And today, I'm delighted to introduce our three panelists who represent two innovative accelerated learning approaches that provide adult learners with integrated opportunities to more quickly achieve their educational and life goals. We have Lorilee Niesen assistant superintendent of adult and career education from Sutter County Adult Education. And her colleague, Jacob Holmes, who's the director of career and adult education at Sutter County Adult Ed as well. So they are providing multiple, accelerated--- oh, wow, accelerated learning opportunities, such as pre-apprenticeships through their relationship with their local One Stop.

Sutter County Adult Education will be with us across the three webinars. They will be providing us with a staggered look at their really complex and fabulous programming that will provide-- that provides different opportunities for adult learners. We also have Dr. Alexandria Wright. She's a senior research associate at WestED.

But she's also leading the Good Jobs Northern Nevada project that embeds IET development in a broader collaboration between employers, One Stop's adult education and community colleges. Later in this webinar, we'll get to how-- we'll have an opportunity to learn from their work as well. So for now, I just want to thank them all for their time and for their willingness to share information with us.

Their time is valuable. And they're sharing it with all of us, so we really appreciate that. Next slide, please.

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Slide, Voices from the Field: Presenters. A list of three names and titles. Text, l o r i l e e n at sutter dot k 12 dot c a dot u s.. a w r i g h t at west ed dot org. jacob h at sutter dot k 12 dot c a dot u s.. New slide, Agenda. A numbered list.

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Oh next slide, sorry, I forgot about that. So there's our welcome.

We're going to start out doing a little bit of an overview of accelerated learning approaches, the what and the why and some of the evidence that undergirds it, so that we understand that we're not-- that people don't just say dual learning and accelerated learning approach, but really, there is some research behind that. Then we'll turn it over to our panelists, as we just introduced them. Then we'll move into a discussion. And then we'll go into the closing.

So the bulk of this will be focused on presentations from our colleagues in the field. Next slide, please.

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Slide, Goals. A bullet point list.

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The goals are as such. We're going to talk about models and approaches, some of the research and promising practices.

Then we're going to look really briefly at key strategies and maybe some of the key stakeholders to engage while you're doing this and then learn from others. The upfront piece will be very brief, as we're trying to really focus on our panelists and learn from experiences from those who are doing the work in the field. So there will be opportunities at the end to follow up with us and schedule some time, if you would like to have more information.

Next slide, please.

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Slide, pictures of people working and studying, and a statement.

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So why accelerated learning approaches? As you can see, it's a broad term for programming that provides adult learners with the opportunity to multi-task their learning. In other words, it's a process of combining educational and language experiences alongside training, career planning, civics, community integration, digital literacy, and other experiences in a way that propels them to achieving their goals more quickly.

Next slide.

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Slide, Why Accelerated Approaches. A diagram consisting of four textboxes stacked vertically, each containing a term, with an upward-facing arrow to the right of the boxes, labeled Adult Learner. Text in the boxes, from the bottom up, Adult Education, Workforce Preparation, Training, Job.

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Here, you see the traditional line approach, which can stall learners due to the length of time or their perceived irrelevance of what's going on in the learning process. And it can take way more time than adult who quickly needs to get a job oftentimes. And therefore will exit and not necessarily come back into workforce preparation stage because they do not have the time or see how that will encourage them to do their work. Next slide, please.

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Slide, Why Accelerated Approaches. A bullet point list, and a diagram consisting of a double pointed arrow at the top, labeled Integrated & Contextualized & Concurrent, a line underneath labeled Adult Learner, then three circular textboxes and a line containing the same terms from the previous diagram.

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So in contrast, the accelerated approaches allow learners to engage in training, adult education, and workforce preparation at the same time. So some of these experiences will also include work experience that you can see that it follows them throughout at the bottom up there. There are other reasons why you want to use those.

But I'll just point out that accelerated approaches meet adult learner needs as well by drawing on the principles of andragogy. Adult learners need to see the purpose and applicability to their own context in the immediate in order to feel the purpose of an educational enterprise. It is not necessarily a space that they are constrained to. Adult learners have choice.

And all of you who are working in the field know this. I can see from this that we have really experienced adult educators in the chat. Next slide, please.

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Slide, Examples of Accelerated Approaches. A bullet point list.

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So there's no one single approach for an accelerated learning program. On the screen, you can see some of the more common approaches.

And you'll see how they often have dual purposes in their title. Integrated education and training, an IELCE, integrated adult basic education and English language training and workforce preparation, and civics in the case of IELCE. Dual enrollment allows learners to experience higher education alongside adult education and earn credit. And thereby speeding their educational trajectory.

Similarly, coenrollment with partners can support additional job skill development and faster engagement with employers, as does pre-apprenticeships and work-based learning. And then contextualized bridge programs are thoughtful programs that help prepare learners into other integrated programs that support an accelerated entry to a career pathway, as opposed to necessarily a particular training or other educational trajectory. So what I would like to note that if there's an-- they aren't necessarily as strict as this.

You'll hear from some of our presenters how they are integrating, say, coenrollment with real partners and integrated education and training or an IT and a partnership with a One Stop and pre-apprenticeship. So while they're delineated here, then people that-- in this way, they are not that formal necessarily. And programs need to contextualize and you'll hear how programs have done that to suit their purposes and their learners purposes and their stakeholders purposes.

And someone I see put credentialing. Yes, that is a really nice way to give learners a sense of movement and application to their training or their field or their educational space. Thank you. Next slide, please.

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Slide, Evidence: I.E.T. slash I.E.L.C.E.. A bullet point list.

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So let's look at some of the evidence.

You'll see as I run through these slides that there are some through lines on them about how they coalesce. And they do the same thing. I want to be sure that we point out some of the differences between them.

But for IET and IECLE, research is showing that there are higher levels of transition to additional courses. There are higher levels of success in their training programs, stronger literacy and educational outcomes, higher levels of credential attainment, especially those short-term workforce awards, which we know are really, really important in order to seek employment or to gain an advancement in the job you're already in. And then also, they're showing for learners that there's a better alignment between goals and preparation for in-demand occupations.

There's a little bit of a reality check sometimes. Next slide.

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Slide, Evidence: Dual Enrollment. A bullet point list.

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There for dual enrollment, it increases high school completion. And that goes for the adult secondary education diploma as well or the GED.

It increases-- again, see that academic achievement. Increases college access and enrollment. Of course, greater rates of credit accumulation, which like the microcredentialing, as soon as you see that you can do it, then you become begin to understand that. Also, college degree attainment, so people are retaining within their programs.

And that benefit to the learner is it oftentimes allows students to take college courses at no cost. Next slide, please.

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Slide, Evidence: Pre-Apprenticeship. A bullet point list.

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So for pre-apprenticeship, this is interesting because for the benefits for both the programs who are working on outcomes and the learners, there's a high demand for those completers. And strong transitions to apprenticeships that are good jobs. They provide those living wage, health care benefits.

I think that on some of these later ones, it's interesting to see that there are higher levels of other characteristics that we don't necessarily associate, typically, with training programs. But there's a higher level of social integration and participation in the community. And then also, the retention is there.

Transitions from unskilled to skilled jobs, so even if they start in one job, that transition up that career pathway is faster. Also, stronger self-soft skills, the motivation and self-confidence appears to increase on that. And there's a really strong ROI for the community from a previous apprenticeships.

And then there's also the idea about the pre-apprenticeship is that they have the opportunity to explore a career before committing. It also lowers costs for students similar to others. Next slide, please.

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Slide, Evidence: Work Based Learning. A bullet point list and a note.

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Work-based learning, there is not as much literature.

But there is, similar to the pre-apprenticeship, higher level of earnings when entering the workforce. They are prepared for transitions to additional post-secondary programs. And this was really interesting that the benefits for the companies are that they are receiving a well-trained individual, also for the context of civic participation.

So I think that that's-- you're beginning to see a much broader view of what we typically think of as outcomes for training programs. Next slide.

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Slide, First Steps: Developing an Accelerated Learning Program. A bullet point list of questions.

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So briefly, what happens when we're thinking about developing an accelerated learning program? You think about, as we talk about, many-- we've done these in other trainings.

And I think others of you have mentioned these. But what does your community need? Really looking at those labor market information, the economic training, trends, the occupational data, talking with your employers, and your other partners to ensure that you're working on the ground.

Who is your target population? I know that we talk about this all the time. We talk about it in terms of census data and educational data and demographic data. However, we also really highly suggest when you're creating these programs, that you can talk to some of the local trusted informants who are familiar with the community that you would like to serve in your program.

And then also serving current past and prospective students. And I've heard of really great programs set up. And because they haven't really done the research with the people, with their students on the ground or with prospective learners, that there's a mismatch. And they aren't able to get the enrollment that they need, even though it matches with the labor force needs, as well as what would presumably be a living wage job for students.

And that's exactly the next point. Does the data align with reality on the ground or partner and learner needs? There have been times when-- just because you have chosen a high priority occupation, if the employers are not hiring out of your pool or those aren't the employers that are willing to work with your program, there is, again, that mismatch there.

And then really looking at who are your partners. We talk a lot about partnerships, but there is a value to looking at who's actually going to participate with you. We all know how people can join in name only.

So finding out, what are they willing to contribute to the programming? Will they commit and be a genuine stakeholder? So can they provide social services? Are they willing to offer employment opportunities or experiences during or post your program?

Will your workforce partners provide employability training or connections to employers, so that you don't have to do all that work? And then the education and training. We always talk about expertise but also space and equipment when we're doing those lab-based programs. And then who's willing to support you with your transitions?

Really important about these accelerated learning program, you can accelerate people. But if you don't have them prepared to make that transition or somewhere for them to go, it is oftentimes a gap that they cannot surmount. And then lastly, instead of building everything from anew, we've had some really interesting conversations about how particular consortium are trying to work across programs.

Trying to identify what exists and what can you build upon. Is there a gap that you can meet? Or is there a need that really-- a niche need that really needs to be identified and filled? Next slide, please.

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Slide, Building Your Accelerated Learning Program: Best Practices. A bullet point list.

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So these things, I think, are very common for all of you already considering and building your programs is those supports, those comprehensive and personalized student support services.

I really like to highlight in here the career guidance. Any of you who know me, I'm always talking about career navigators, people who will support your learners across those bridges. And then planning for ensured support during transitions and beyond we think our program ends. I've heard of many of your programs also do a beyond.

And that's really helpful for employers to build that reputation or for their academic transitions as well just to check in and let them know that you're there. And then the career counselors. I see I can-- can you tell? I think it's really important I have it in there twice. So on the skills, you all know that there's a host of other skills.

But I really like to keep an eye on the fact that, regardless of what your adult learner goals are, your program should be structured to plan for further education and training. An adult Ed program should not just be the stop. It is, where does it lead to? Especially as we know, when we're working with adult learners, many of them may enter a entry level job.

And then we'll have to come back to your program or to another program. Knowing how to do that without your guidance is quite important. Integrate and contextualize, that's just a basic principle that I'm sure all of you are already employing.

Thinking about these personal pieces that get integrated in as are being shown to be more important, like supporting that autonomy and self-directed learning. As we said, they transition out making sure that they know how to do that. We're finding that creating opportunities to build social networks and civic engagement is really important.

It's particularly those social networks. We find our jobs that way. We build our relationships that way. So looking at building ties to people who those adult learners may not necessarily interact with.

And then providing mentors. We've been doing a little bit of research in the field. And mentors are very important for people to understand the context into which they're going, whether it's an academic context or whether it's a work context.

And then future looking, always looking, again, down that pathway. Credentials are certificates needed for both the target occupations and for transitions. That career development, really building that into your program so that they can understand the pathway and what's next.

And then the career transition planning should be an intentional part of the programming. We know that programs do a lot of career planning up front. But on a weekly basis, they should be revisiting their career plans so that they can tweak them, understand what they're doing, and create their own plan.

Next slide.

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Slide, Voices from the Field.

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All right, that was a rapid overview. Any questions? Does anybody have anything they would like to add? All right, then. I know, let's get to what you all are really here to hear about.

So the voices from the field. So each person will be presenting. And then we'll have an opportunity for questions and discussion after the programs are presented. I think because time is short and they have a lot to say, which is really intriguing, I'm going to ask you to pop questions in the chat, as they occur to you.

And then we'll be able to have a record of them. And we'll be sure to bring them up in the question and answer. Or if the presenter sees a question that they think is particularly relevant or needs clarification, then they will bring that up during their presentation time, all right. So let's move to Lorilee and Jacob from the Stter County Adult education.

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Lorilee Niesen. Slide, Partnering with your One Stop. Two names and titles.

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LORILEE NIESEN: Thank you, Blaire. Thank you. We appreciate the opportunity to be here. As Blaire said, Lorilee Nielsen, I'm the assistant supe here at Sutter County. We, as Sutter County also serve as the lead of the North Central adult education consortia. We serve Sutter, Yuba, Colusa, Yolo, and Lake counties.

So we have that under our purview here at Sutter County. And with that, I'll let Jake introduce himself. And then talk about the programs that we have here, Jake.

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Jacob Holmes.

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JACOB HOLMES: Thank you, Lorilee. Good morning. Jacob Holmes, director of career and adult education here at Sutter County Superintendent of Schools. So I'll give you a brief overview of our programs and how we coexist with our Sutter County One Stop.

So here at Sutter County Superintendent of Schools, we offer a high school diploma classes, English as a second language, technology classes, and the HISET. And those are all free. And I'm on the program side, so I deal directly with those programs and work with One Stop.

So if students need services, we're able to push them over. And I'll explain how we coexist with them. We also offer fee-based courses, licensed vocational nursing, certified nursing assistant, dental assistant, medical assistant.

We're in the process of trying to create some new programs as well, which I'll talk about in a little bit. We work directly with our One Stop daily. We're able to refer students over there because the One Stop is under the purview of the County office.

And from what I understand, that is an anomaly. I don't know any different because working in an adult Ed, I've always been at Sutter County Superintendent of Schools. But from what I understand, every County is a little bit different.

So the services that are provided directly to our students from our One Stop, they do workforce readiness, resume building. We do cover letter workshops. And they also do mock interviews with our students.

So our students that are in any of those programs can go right across the street to our One Stop, we're not very far from them, and receive those trainings real time. The other side of that, that is great for us is if a student or a potential client walks into the One Stop, they can be referred to us right then and there. Within five minutes, they can be in our office.

So it's a very seamless transition for One Stop clients or for adult Ed students. We here at Sutter County Superintendent schools on the adult Ed side, we actually fund four members that are at the One Stop directly. Two of them are BWS's business workforce specialists. And the other two are administrators.

They, being the One Stop, they'll recruit for some of our programs. And they will screen for some of our programs. So we work hand in hand. So our LVN or licensed vocational nursing program, they actually do all the recruiting for us.

But we myself and Lorilee and Bob Eckert who's another director here, we are the ones that actually go in and do all the evaluations for the instructors. So there are a lot of ways that we work together. We also have an ELL grant currently. So this is another way that we're able to partner with the One Stop.

They're running one side of it, which is the CNA and the culinary side. And we're running the medical assisting and the dental side. But we work together throughout all of this. So it's a very unique relationship.

We meet weekly, the managers do, to make sure that we're all on the same page. We have a course catalog. And our course catalog that is on our website gives all of our programs on the adult Ed side and all the services from the One Stop. So we are very intertwined.

LORILEE NIESEN: OK, thanks-- thanks, Jake. So as Jake mentioned, we do have a unique situation. I had the opportunity to be at another County office of education prior to coming to Sutter County.

And this relationship is way different than the previous relationship in my other County office. As for how this model was developed, it goes back to the 80s. Jake wasn't even born yet, OK. I don't want to reveal my age, but I was in high school.

And so how this model was developed was Sutter County was a huge player in the ROP programs. And since Sutter County offered a lot of adult programs or classes through ROP, it made sense for Sutter County to submit a request to host the One Stop here at Sutter County Superintendent of Schools. And so it's been that way for multiple, multiple, multiple years.

We understand that that's not the same setup for many people in the state. We know that the One Stops are governed through the workforce development board. And we have our North Central counties workforce development board in which I sit on the board as the AG literacy person to provide guidance in regards to adult education programs. So we know, as Jake said, we are an anomaly.

The nice thing is our One Stop completes an RFP each year. And the RFP, the request funding proposal lasts for four years. And so they are able to maintain their funding. And then they have to go back to the workforce development board.

To our knowledge, only one time did anyone else within our community try to apply to serve as the One Stop. And that was not successful. So what's even more important is how the One Stop adult education, the consortia, all work to make sure that we meet the three goals, I guess, or three priorities at Sutter County Superintendent of Schools.

And if you go to our website, if you ask anybody that works here, our priorities are always doing what's in the best interest of students, providing quality support to our school districts and maintaining a productive and visible relationship within our community. So offering adult Ed, having the One Stop under the purview allows us to meet those three priorities. And so now, Jake, I know, is going to talk a little bit about how we-- what the data sharing is and how we work with the One Stop. So I'll pass it to you, Jake.

So we get to share our student information system. I found out over the last couple of weeks that, that is not a common practice for other counties. It becomes very difficult at times. So we are fortunate to be able to have the same student information system.

So if we send a student over, our BWS's have access to that student's file right away, what their needs are, what their goals are, whatever our navigator has put in place to try and help this student move forward in attaining a job or in attaining whatever type of training they're looking for. So that's one data piece that we have. We reach out to community members.

Both Lorilee and our director for Sutter County One Stop, Rinky Basi, who will be with us in the second webinar, they both sit on multiple boards. And they're able to take the input from the community members to then decide. And that drives our decision-making of what programs we want to offer.

So the two programs that we are looking to expand into are advanced EMT currently and then a registered dental assistant program. The RDA program is hopefully going to be submitted by this summer. And we're working with One Stop every day to do that.

So we also meet with advisory committee meetings. We have advisory committee meetings, I'm sorry, with industry partners and culinary and medical assisting. Anything that we offer, we bring our industry partners to the table. And both Lorilee and Rinky and our superintendent Mr. Russ are huge in getting our community to the table, which then drives our decisions.

And all of these were put in place well before I got here. But Sutter County has done a great job in using our workforce development groups to help make our decisions here on the program side. So it makes it pretty easy for me.

LORILEE NIESEN: Thanks, Jake. So many times, people ask the why. The how was how it happened, but the why. We can only speculate, Jake and I, because we weren't here for those initial conversations. But the why, we believe, is to create that seamless transition for our adult education students to receive the training and employment services from the One Stop, but to be provided high school diploma, HISET experiences, et cetera from adult education.

I want to quote our director at the One Stop. And she said, Lorilee, she said, I think the reason it was created was because so students didn't get lost. And we know that our students get lost sometimes in transition trying to navigate services, as well as the adult education program.

So we also know that the hardest thing for students to do is to walk through that door and ask for support or service. So having both of these programs under the purview of the Sutter County Superintendent of Schools, if they walk in the door at the One Stop, which is literally across the street, the One Stop guides them over to adult Ed. If they walk into adult Ed, we walk them over to One Stop because we know the difficulty and the barriers that adults face in order to come into our programs.

The other thing that's unique is our adult Ed navigator that we have here, that serves Yuba college, Marysville, and unified school district and Sutter County, she was an employee at the One Stop. So she has that background of those services. And so when she does intake after orientation with our students, she can help provide support to students and provide guidance.

And so we're super blessed to have that person on our staff. The other thing that I wanted to share is where we're headed. Because of superintendent Russ' priorities, we have just got board approval. And we have opened bids and secured bids.

We are building a very large career training center that will house all of our training services and all of our programs, as well as our One Stop. So it will literally be a One Stop shop. It will be the Sutter County career training center.

We will be breaking ground in December of 2025. And we're hoping that really eliminates any barriers for adult students, as they walk through the door. There will be two receptionists there to greet them, that will direct those students. So that's how we're moving forward.

And so with that, I think we are pretty close to time. So we'll-- if there's any questions, we'll take questions. If not, we'll pass it back to Blaire or Lisa.

BLAIRE WILLSON TOSO: Hi, thank you. Thank you very much. Boy, that whole integration of where it seems like a seamless-- being able to work out those relationships, so it's a seamless transition where an adult learner does not necessarily know where one thing starts and the other stops in service providers is really the way that makes it paves that path. And it eliminates those barriers or wondering, what do I do next or am I part of this program or Am I part of that program.

So it's a really unique strategy that we're seeing in a few other places. Like, Chicago has that as well, as well as some other places. So kudos, that's really-- it's a lot of work. Even if you're under the same umbrella, I think to highlight how partnerships work is really important in that give and take.

And so I'm going to-- I don't see any immediate questions. So we'll go ahead and hand it over to Dr. Alexandria. And thank you very much. Looking forward to hearing about the Nevada good jobs project.

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Alexandria Wright.

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ALEXANDRIA WRIGHT: Of course, thank you, Dr. Toso. And what a fascinating experience that you're having there in Sutter County. I really, really appreciate that. And for as much-- and I know you might feel that you're alone on this endeavor of co-enrollment and true relationship building with the One Stop partners. I can tell you that there's a lot of little startups happening nationwide.

And so well done, I love that example there. Co-enrollment, according to the GAO report in late 2022, only 67% of co-enrollment is accurately tracked in the WIOA system.

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Slide, Leveraging Partnerships for I.E.T.'s. Good Jobs Northern Nevada. A graphic consisting of circular textboxes arranged in an oval, each containing a word or phrase. Text, K 12, Adult Education, Community College, University, Workforce Development Board, One-Stop slash A.J.C., Employers, Industry Associations, Native Nations & Special Populations, Community-based organizations, and Social Services slash WIOA.

(SPEECH)
When we talk about things like data-informed practice and understanding the data, understanding those who were serving, and how they're moving through our programs and transitioning. Be it leveraging One Stop services and then moving on to the ETPLS and getting subsidized training that way or moving directly into the partner community college, which is within your region.

That kind of information is quintessential to help us understand what is working and what is not working, what is effective and what is not And so again, I really applaud you folks in Sutter County. That was a really, really nice example of true partnership.

I actually had a question for you folks, that I thought some people might want to dig into. And then I promise I'll start into my presentation right now. But you spoke about being able to fund a couple of staff positions at the One Stop.

So as we know, in adult education, funding is quintessential. We don't have a lot of extra funding around here. So may I ask, what was your creative thought to how to fund those two staffers?

Because clearly, they're now leveraging the services that are in the One Stop, the job prep, the assessment. And they're also referring folks to you, which is so important. So yeah, what was your thought behind funding those two folks?

LORILEE NIESEN: So the funding that we use to fund what we call our BWS's, our business workforce specialists is we use our CAEP funds. They receive-- One Stop receives the WIOA one funds. WIOA two are pretty strict funds. And so we just use that for instruction.

And so we use our CAEP funds. And then I have to shout out to Sutter County. We receive a lot of County contribution to run our adult education programs here. And so we just see the importance of the interrelated work that our BWS's do with our adult learners and those referrals and transitions.

Also, the opportunity of sharing a student information system. And so we feel that, that allows us to fund them out of CAEP. So if anybody's on this call and it's wrong, then I'll take full responsibility.

ALEXANDRIA WRIGHT: No, that's awesome. Honestly, Lorilee, that was the first thing in my head. I said, they're using consortium funds. And that is such a brilliant idea.

The whole intent of those consortia funds are, yeah, let's divvy out a little to each school, but let's find a consensus-driven goal that we can really invest in. And this is such a brilliant one, I love it. And it feeds right into our presentation here.

And so what we're doing here with Good Jobs Northern Nevada, I understand this is not California-centric. However, we're right next door. We share a couple of tribal communities. And we share a gigantic mountain, the Sierra Nevadas there.

And so there are some things that are similar, which is the One Stop system and that coordination with the One Stop system because that is absolutely federally controlled. And a lot of what we see in adult education when we're working on things like equity and building pathways and braiding-- we always hear that terminology, braiding funding-- is we can't quite figure out the best way. Like, I started this with talking about co-enrollment.

The situation isn't quite there data wise to motivate folks, to do that in co-enrollment, and to produce that kind of tracking. And WIOA can be-- let's just be honest, WIOA can be very compliance-oriented. It is compliance-oriented. I'm just going to say it.

And so what does that mean for us in adult Ed? What does that mean for equity? What does that mean for braiding services in the workforce system, in the WIOA system? It means we have to find a way to motivate the One Stop systems, both the job seeker services and the business services team to make sure that they are inclusive of title II and adult education.

Because oftentimes, especially in rural areas for those of you who are way out there in rural areas, your workforce board directors, your One Stop operators, they're single factor oriented. They're going compliant, OK. I've got to make my performance measures.

And that means that when there is that more complex learner, they may not attend to them as they should. Which is what this whole discussion is about. How do we shift from compliance-oriented to consumer-oriented?

These learner workers of ours, they're clients, they're taxpayers. These are their dollars. And so how do we start to shift that? And so I start with a little image like that, looking at what you're seeing here on the screen, which is, what are the partnerships?

And I'm a huge proponent of IET way back in the day, and I'll date myself a little bit, when IBest was going on. How many people here remember IBest? Give me a thumbs up, if you remember IBest and you're on this call. I see a couple, all right.

Thank you, Dr. Lefever. I'm not seeing too many other thumbs up here. But IBest was our original model. Oh, there we go. Thank you. Thank you, Renam. I'm seeing some other, and Jenee, all right, good, good, good.

That was our original model to say, hey, wait a minute, it's not just about technical training, these folks need supportive services. Not just supportive services, but they need basic skills in order to be successful in that classroom. And then we evolved into this integrated education and training, integrated English language learning, civics education, plus training for those English language learners.

And it's a model that I've always really cherished. Particularly working, I specialize in rural communities, rural and tribal communities. And I have found particularly in these situations that, that basic skills refresher is just so important.

So what we did in Good Jobs Northern Nevada, this is actually a Good Jobs challenge award, for those of you who are familiar with that big federal funding award. Which I'm going to let you in on a little secret that I found out in DC last year. The federal legislature that Congress approved, again, the DOL approved for another round of Good Jobs challenge.

And so we were one of 509 applicants. About 32 were approved. And we were one of them. And so there's going to be another round of this. And this is coming out of US Department of Commerce. I shouldn't have said Department of Labor, my apologies. It's coming out of Department of Commerce EDA.

And I'll let you in on this too. Department of Commerce EDA is now in the game of workforce development. ARPA and Good Jobs challenge was the first time we had ever seen that. They typically focus on infrastructure. They are now in the game.

Because at the federal level, we're seeing the integration of economic and workforce development. And so in this project here, one of the reasons why they-- really, we were actually one of the higher scorers. And I think this is important to relate to folks.

The reason why they liked our application so much is because it came out of the workforce board. That's who the prime applicant was. But the subawardees were not just the three community colleges across a 70,000 square mile rural territory with 22 tribes in Northern Arizona, it was the adult schools hosted by each one of the colleges.

And we not just put aside funding for tuition and training and industry credentials through traditional credit bearing, we put aside a pocket of funds, $400,000 for each adult school because we recognized that AFLA is only funding you to keep rolling. There's no funding for new creative programming. This is why you in California are so very fortunate to have that big funding because you can use it to design these new programs, so that you don't have the money.

And people don't typically have this money. So that really was the crux of this project. We said, you know what, we're going to use title two adult education as the onboarding, as the bridge for equity to get these folks from these tribal nations, from these remote rural areas of persistent poverty into the game. Make sure that they're successful.

And so we did it through that. And then we also engaged our library system. Much like you want to engage the One Stop system, we want to engage your local libraries. That's where your literacy volunteers are.

And thus, both of those areas are big recruiters for adult education to get them in. And so we started again. This partnership is similar to what was described in the previous panel speakers, whereby you have the relationship between the One Stop system and the adult education systems. And they're working symbiotically.

While we are not funding anybody in job seeker services, they know we're here. And we're holding sector committee meetings in their building. We're inviting them to all the sector committee meetings.

We're inviting the business-- so the business services staff. So what you might not realize is a while back, we always said, hey, wait a minute, this isn't just one customer at a time. This is about the larger community. So you have now have job seeker services and business support services.

The job seeker services, those are your recruiters. Those are the people who can funnel folks into your programs. Business services, that's how you get them placed on the other end. Once they get through their education and training, place them into those WEX programs.

$4,800 just for some work experience. Every employer who agrees can get in on that kind of funding. But more so in terms of what you're doing here, I also want to mention that when you start to design IET, IELCE plus training, you can actually go non-credit or credit, so depending on where your adult school is situated, if you have a close partnership with your community college, if you're being hosted by your community college.

We have seen programming. For example, in Good Jobs Northern Nevada, we have seen a IET, it's a credit bearing IET. So they're moving through a non-credit, a pre-apprenticeship in adult education for health care in general from which they can move into CNA, MA, phlebotomy tech, community health worker.

We're actually thinking-- I'll save that for a second. But the CNA is actually a credit-- still remains a credit bearing class, but they're now partnering with adult education. So it's what we see in California with the ASC, like Dr. Toso was talking about earlier, where somebody is in the programs, they're in a credit bearing program, yet they're also over here in ASC as well.

But it's all about how you package it. We got to remember that these are consumers. We can't tell them all the intricate language of adult Ed in non-credit and credit. We have to package it so that they understand what the ROI is going to be for them.

One of the things we're working on right now for this as well is a Doula community health worker pre-apprenticeship and IET program. If you think about it, Doulas and community health workers have very transferable skills. They're both there to help people maneuver and navigate their way through their health circumstances.

And so it's a great-- both of these are well-paying jobs. They're not by any means as low as CNA quite honestly. And so this is a really interesting. And again, particularly for the rural areas, you see a higher demand for community health workers in rural areas. And again, really good wages.

But I also want to mention buddying up with singular classes in credit bearing. Some of the stuff, non-credit or credit. So for example, one of the colleges, they've determined that they are moving through credit bearing with IET.

So they hired an adult Ed specialist to help them create basically the IET, where it's dual teachers in the classroom right at the same time. And we're just-- what I do is I help them pluck off-- the colleges always want to get the certificates in there. Tell them, no way, Jose, one or two classes. That's actually all you need.

So we actually have a couple production tech classes that are just singular classes. Another one has two that they're using. And again, it's an IET one. And they're now qualified for electrical production tech or mechanical production tech.

And then let's see here. So there's options out there for you when it comes to this accelerated learning. And again, I didn't want to forget to mention it. You heard me mention it, pre-apprenticeships. They don't-- I used to think that they were the IET. And now, I'm seeing the breakup of it.

So we're actually functioning with a pre-apprenticeship in manufacturing through adult Ed and health care. And so we're funneling folks that are getting referred through the One Stop system. Funneling folks that are getting referred through the career navigators. That's the one thing. And we don't have time to talk about it. But happy to talk about that at a different time.

Is we actually implemented regional career navigators instead of sector-based career navigators. And we have the first tribal navigator. And we have a lot of good practices that are coming out of that. We have had great, great success with that.

But you're funneling these folks. Particularly again, with these special populations, these underserved populations, they have so many barriers. Be it justice involved or health care situations or whatever it is, they really need-- adult Ed is almost that soft landing.

Adult Ed is beautiful. Everybody's lovely. Everybody's nice and supportive. It's not this very sterile community college environment, where you're like you make it or you don't. And so that's the onboarding that I think is really important.

And it contributes to the success of that learner as they move upward and onward and the success of transitions, which is our goal here. Transitions onward and upward through education and into good jobs. And so like I said, I'll leave it at that. I won't talk too much about those career navigators.

But man, they're quintessential in what we do here. And we realize that this is an area where-- remember, One Stop job seeker services or social service worker birds that are supporting wraparound services, they're not necessarily experts in labor market information, employers, or career trajectories. That's what your navigators got to do.

And that's what's going to support this system of truly braided funding across WIOA, across adult education, and then into those good jobs and career trajectories. So I will hand it back over to Dr. Toso now. Unless anybody has any questions?

BLAIRE WILLSON TOSO: Thanks, Dr. Wright. I appreciate that both of you have offered ideas about how these really complex systems can work through partnerships. And both of you have talked a lot about the One Stops or the American job communities. So it's really interesting to listen to the threads that pull these through, which are-- and I promise I didn't pay Dr. Wright to mention career navigators or people who sit at the front of the One Stop when someone comes in and can help them navigate that system.

But I was really-- but they make me happy to hear them because they really underscore the crucial part of them. But also, I think both of you have talked about how the programs don't necessarily look the same. An IET is not an IET is not a pre-apprenticeship is not. So that there's a lot of flexibility.

But I would like to open it up. If we could move to the next slide.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Discussion. Questions. Ideas to share.

(SPEECH)
And I'd like to-- we have a few minutes left for discussion, for questions, and also, for you all who I'm sure all have experience doing this work on the ground, for any ideas to share that link in or add to the conversation here. So I will practice my ASL wait time and see what was up. OK, Molly, yes, just go ahead and come off mute. Thank you so much.

(DESCRIPTION)
Molly Stimpel.

(SPEECH)
MOLLY STIMPEL: Hi, I'm wondering if anybody has any experience with credit for prior learning or competency-based education in this world, if that has been a player or there's work to make that a player?

ALEXANDRIA WRIGHT: Sure, absolutely. And Dr. Toso, I know you're giggling inside because that was the one. That was the one accelerated learning technique that I added there. So Molly, that's a great question.

Competency-based prior learning assessment, I'm a huge, huge fan of. Started, actually, a program at Coconino community college when I was at the colleges there doing that. I used to run economic and workforce development under which adult Ed was there and community Ed. What you see mostly to start with is military PLA because it's the easiest.

There's a lot of structures there coming out of the military that's an easy translation. But I would also encourage you to think about non-military because that PLA, particularly when we're talking about adult learners coming out of, say, service sector, coming out of those underemployed jobs, those low wage jobs, if you're looking to begin-- let me ask you this. Are you looking to start a PLA program or do you have one?

MOLLY STIMPEL: No, we don't have one. On the college side, they're working. So we have a veterans center that does help veterans navigate through that with the college courses and with faculty for credit. And then the same with our degrees or degrees for transfer or ECE is an area where they're working on CPL.

I'm just thinking about in the adult education space area, is there something to check out, to look at, to see where that's happening now? I would love it, if our adults-- I think our adults have-- I think adults, period, have a lot of great experiences that can be harnessed and into skills that they have. It's a matter of organizing that information and figuring that out, which is huge. It's not simple. But that's what I'm thinking about. To help get a little leg up and a boost going, so it's not so overwhelming for them.

BLAIRE WILLSON TOSO: Yeah, I believe Wisconsin technical colleges who host really strong adult education programs, that they have been working on competency-based education programs. And in part, it's about assessing when they come in. But it's also the way they are having students assessed as they move through, so that they are not necessarily delineated as a set time. But adult learners can move through at more or less quickly.

So if they aren't assessed upfront, they have that opportunity to move through a unit or a skill or a knowledge space more quickly because they can demonstrate that competence. So it isn't necessarily for prior experience. And then as far as the prior learning, oftentimes, I come to that through the work with English language learners, with the internationally trained professionals who come over with degrees and high levels of work experience.

And really, I don't have a great many things to say, like resources, but just that other through the traditional relicensing or the verification processes, which is long. But there is a lot of work and attention on that. And I'll try and pull through some resources that we have gleaned from some research we've been doing in the field across the US with this. And see if I can pull it together and get something to you. And I'll find that Wisconsin resource as well.

MOLLY STIMPEL: Thank you so much, Blaire, appreciate that.

ALEXANDRIA WRIGHT: If I can add to that, though, Molly. What I always thought was going to be really interesting is so what we did with our PLA is we did portfolio style. And we ran it through non-credit for a semester.

And so while an adult learner is moving through whatever they're moving through, as they're moving into that new career pathway, I think one of the most quintessential things you can do is start aligning the transferable skills from those underemployed service sector occupations, that you already know of and start taking a good look at where they are transferable into whatever credit bearing classes would be in the pathways that you are going to be offering coming out of adult education. And then that way, as Blaire was saying, this isn't time based. You're not testing out.

This is something where they can move through it over a four month period and could conceivably really get them excited and motivated to say, for a lot of people that are underemployed, they have customer service skills. They have the relationship skills that can easily qualify for something, like I don't know, business comm 101, whatever it is in the pathway. And that's helpful in any pathway, be it healthcare, be it manufacturing, whatever sector you're in.

So Molly, I'll put my email in the chat. Happy to spend some more time with you, if you wanted to percolate on some ideas and working through, especially after Dr. Toso gets us some of that research. But again, I'm always one for building from the ground up because I've always worked at rural colleges. And we just don't have a lot of money, so we got to be creative.

MOLLY STIMPEL: Thank you, Alexandria.

BLAIRE WILLSON TOSO: Any last burning questions? We're up at about two minutes, all right. Are there any quantitative-based studies that discuss how different metrics are? Bruno, offhand, I know that Alexandria mentioned the IBIS. That the quantitative studies that I have seen are mainly based around those that talk about the gains that adult learners have made.

So I can grab some of those and we'll put together a resource list. There are also-- I believe there are also some, if you look up-- when you get the slides, the IETs have a mention of the citations. And so you can also pull from that as well.

But most of those are around the Washington's IBest programming that has really had some very successful outcomes, quant outcomes, the quantitative data outcomes for those programs. And I just want to mention that next webinar will focus on program and curriculum design. And we will be featuring Sutter County adult education. Yay!

And then we'll also be featuring programs a program from Kirkwood in Cedar Rapids Community college adult education, focusing on their programs, a pre-apprenticeship and work-based learning, as well as a program out of Pennsylvania, which focuses on IETs on Northampton Community College. And we're bringing in other programs from around the country because I think that we can see what other people are doing. Maybe the structure is a little bit different, but I think idea generation needs to live beyond. And not everybody gets to travel to national conferences. So this is one way of doing this.

LISA LEFEVRE: Thank you. And Thank you, Blaire, to our panelists, and to everybody here. We wanted to also just note that there is a survey that has appeared in your chat. It's from Skytap. So please fill it out so we can learn about your other needs that you might have and also your experience today.

Also, please do join us for the next two, part two and part three webinars that Blaire mentioned. And feel free to continue with your questions to seek us out for support. We're here. Feel free to email us. Until then, we thank you. And we're looking forward to seeing you next.

MANDILEE GONZALES: Thank you, WestEd team and panelists. I'll give everyone just a moment to make sure they save the chat. I know there was some valuable information in there, primarily email addresses. So go ahead and grab those.

And we hope to see you all on Monday for the part two of this series. If you haven't registered already, there's still time. So please make sure you register.

And like Lisa said, take a few moments to please fill out that evaluation. It not only informs us, but it also informs our panelists. So thank you. And we'll see you all next time.