All In: Student Pathways Forward

In this episode host Marc Goldberg interviews Treasure Valley Community College student Jessica Schooley, Treasure Valley Community College president Dr. Dana Young, and the head of design programs at Education Design Lab, Dr. Leslie Daugherty.

Jessica talks about the value  of stackable credentials in her Natural Resources program along with the holistic supports provided by college staff and faculty and partner agencies like Worksource Oregon. She also describes the work-based learning internship that has led to a great employment opportunity in her field.

President Young shares her reflections from Jessica’s interview and emphasizes the importance of employer partnerships for the college, especially in a rural community to provide upskilling and reskilling training for residents, and how they support overall economic vitality of the region.

Leslie describes Education Design Lab’s work collaborating with colleges across the country focused on new majority learners, non-degree credentials of value and rural colleges grounded in their human centered design approach that generates new solutions for learners, employers and communities.

The All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network and supported by the Lumina Foundation.

This episode features interviews with Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) graduate Kwame Presley, GRCC President Dr. Charles Lepper and Melissa Goldberg, the Director of Competencies and Credentials at Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, a national non-profit  development organization that partners with government, business, education and community leaders to connect workers with education and good jobs. 

Kwame shares his experience as a parenting student in an accelerated quality non-degree credential program in the IT sector that has led to a fantastic career opportunity with a local employer. He provides important recommendations to college leaders and students towards student success. 

President Lepper offers his reflections from Kwame’s interview and describes how GRCC has developed responsive non-degree credential programs in strong partnership with regional employers and workforce organizations. 

Melissa shares more on the work Corporation for a Skilled Workforce leads on quality non-degree credential programs across the country including the ACE-UP grant that Grand Rapids is a part of focused on strategies colleges can employ to help their industry partners create more inclusive workplace environments.

The All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network and supported by the Lumina Foundation.

In this introductory episode for season three, host Marc Goldberg interviews Dr. Michelle Van Noy, the Director of the Education and Employment Research Center (EERC) at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. As a leading scholar in the world of quality non-degree credentials, Dr. Van Noy provides important context on this topic to ground us in this season’s podcast theme. She shares research she has led at EERC on the quality non-degree credentials ecosystem and growing interest and investments by states and institutions. This includes the recent publication Making Sense of Quality in the Non-Degree Credential (NDC) Marketplace- Implications for Policymakers and Practitioners. 

Dr. Van Noy elaborates on the elements of quality non-degree credentials, highlights additional research and resources on this topic, including states that are leading the way and offers insights on questions to explore with upcoming guests - students, college leaders and policymakers on non-degree credentials of value. 

The All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network.

In this season finale episode, host Marc Goldberg moderates a panel discussion with four key workforce development and higher education leaders in Oregon discussing the topics of job quality, college and industry partnerships and the Future Ready Oregon legislation– the most significant state investment in workforce training in the state’s history. The panelists include Oregon State Senator Michael Dembrow, Chemeketa Community College President, Dr. Jessica Howard, Advanced Economic Solutions, Inc. Owner, Marin Arreola III, and the Director of the Oregon Workforce Talent & Development Board, Todd Nell. 

The panelists offer great insights on how Future Ready Oregon came together with support from multiple stakeholder groups and how these investments have centered equity and encouraged and incentivized partnerships to increase Oregonian’s access to skills training that results in careers with economic mobility. They also share examples of how the Future Ready funds have prioritized equity and integrated holistic supports. This all ties in with our conversation on the topics of job quality and college and industry partnerships. 

The All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network.

In this episode, host Marc Goldberg interviews Tillamook Bay Community College graduate and current college Success Coach and adjunct welding faculty Jude Schlotzhauer, college President Dr. Ross Tomlin and Laura Dresser, associate diirector at COWS, a research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Jude discusses how transformative her college experience was as a student and how she is now able to reciprocate the same culture of care with other students in her roles as a success coach and faculty member. She describes how her work at the college is the best quality job she’s had before and offers really interesting ideas on how employers and colleges can listen to students and workers in authentic ways. 

President Tomlin elaborates further on how the college supports job quality for its employees with different strategies connecting it all back to student success. He also shares the importance of external partnerships for the college with employers and economic development organizations to support economic equity and vitality in their region of the state.  

Laura offers insights on the COWS definition of high road employers with good job quality and how colleges can collaborate with employers to promote job quality and employee retention through benchmarking effective strategies from these high road employers. She emphasizes the critical role community and technical college career pathways programs play in creating access and support for students and workers towards careers with economic mobility. 

The All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network.

In this episode, host Marc Goldberg interviews Clatsop Community College student Taylor Falconer, Astoria Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director David Reid and Clatsop Community College President Chris Breitmeyer.

Taylor is a working student who participated in the college’s Clatsop Works internship program last summer gaining invaluable experience towards her Business degree. She offers great insights on her own definition of job quality having worked in the restaurant industry for many years and discusses the impact of her education and training at the College.

David shares more on the key role the Chamber of Commerce plays in regional economic and workforce development and highlights the important partnership with Clatsop Community College including the Clatsop Works program.

President Breitmeyer reflects on the interview with Taylor emphasizing the critical role faculty and staff play at the College in supporting students holistically to achieve their academic and career goals. He elaborates further on the Clatsop Works program which creates more access and opportunity to quality jobs for students while supporting regional employers in developing a future workforce.

The All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network.

This special episode features an interview with Steve Jurch, Director of Center for Policy and Practice at the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and continues the dialogue with workforce development leaders aiming to transform policies and practice to improve job quality, equity and college and industry partnerships.

Steve highlights a number of initiatives ACCT has in place under the Center for Policy and Practice providing technical assistance to ACCT college members including a Non-credit/Credit Alignment Lab project, another assisting rural colleges and state systems in becoming SNAP E & T third-party providers to support students in completing college, and a skills based hiring initiative. 

Steve elaborates on ways ACCT supports job quality with its member institutions as well as how the organization integrates student voice into their policy work. He provides additional insights from his experience as a workforce development practitioner at Community College of Baltimore County prior to joining ACCT. 

The All In: Student Pathways Forwardpodcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network.

This special episode features an engaging and thought-provoking discussion with Clair Minson, a leading voice and expert on workforce system transformation and the Founder and Principal consultant at Sandra Grace LLC, a change management firm that provides training, consulting and thought partnership to organizations seeking to embed racial equity into their practice and policy work. 

Clair highlights the intersectionality of job quality, racial equity and systems change work required across the community college and workforce development ecosystem to provide equitable pathways for careers with economic mobility. She shares valuable insights on how critical it is to truly center student, worker and learner voices, and how practitioners need to recognize the expertise that comes through student and worker lived experience and navigating systems that were not designed by or for them. Clair talks about the importance of breaking down silos across the workforce and higher ed ecosystem that maintain white supremacy and structural racism impacting Black and non-Black learners and workers of color.

The discussion moves to how colleges can integrate racial equity into their partnership work with employers aligning with the company’s talent development priorities.  

This special episode along with the next are a chance to go deeper with workforce development policy and practice experts on the topic of job quality.

The All In: Student Pathways Forwardpodcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network.

In this episode, host Marc Goldberg interviews Blue Mountain Community College (BMCC) graduate and current CHI-St. Anthony Hospital employee, Sheri Warnock, St Anthony Hospital Chief Executive Officer Harry Geller and Blue Mountain Community College President Dr. Mark Browning.

Sheri shares her impactful experience as an adult returning student at BMCC and the incredible amount of support she received from faculty and staff throughout her educational journey. She offers her views on how both of her current jobs in the healthcare industry are quality jobs.

Harry elaborates on the various ways St. Anthony Hospital promotes job quality for their employees. He emphasizes the important role Blue Mountain Community College plays in Eastern Oregon in providing a future talent pool and shares how the hospital is partnering creatively with the College to address the nursing instructor shortage.

Dr. Browning reflects on the interview with Sheri and describes innovative ways the College is developing responsive programming for residents to meet regional workforce needs in collaboration with regional employers.

The All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network.

This special episode was recorded live at the 2022 Oregon Adult Basic Skills Conference in Salem, Oregon on October 24 organized by the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission. Podcast host Marc Goldberg moderates a panel discussion with Rogue Community College (RCC) student and past GED graduate Lynne Hamblin and Columbia Gorge Community College president Dr. Marta Yera Cronin.

Lynne shares her own journey through the adult education programs at RCC and what supports have been most helpful to her in continuing her education towards a college certificate and degree. Dr. Cronin speaks to the importance of adult education students and programs as core to the mission of community colleges and describes her past work leading and championing adult education programs. Both panelists answer questions from the live audience of over 200 adult education faculty, staff and administrators from the seventeen Oregon community colleges. 

The All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network.