Building a Workforce System Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

In April, the CBIA Foundation released the Connecticut Workforce and Education Strategy Blueprint.

The report, produced with the support of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, was commissioned to determine how well the state connects high school students to careers.

After it was published, we wanted to put our findings back in front of the people who do this work every day to get their feedback.

The foundation partnered with CBIA affiliate ReadyCT to convene four regional roundtables with employers, educators, and workforce development professionals, so we could hear directly from practitioners and confirm we were on the right path. 

On the central question, the conversations were reassuring. Much of the blueprint’s recommendations were reflected in the responses from attendees.

Participants kept returning to the value of sharing programs across district lines, the need for better data, improving coordination between state and local agencies, and streamlining employer engagement, all key recommendations contained in the report. 

They also sharpened the picture.

District-Level Challenges

Some of what surfaced echoed the report directly, such as the challenges that scheduling can present to districts looking to share programs.

Other problems came through louder in the conversations than they had on the page.

Issues like transportation costs, budgeting around cross-district enrollment and tuition transfers between districts, and local political pressure were all cited as important hurdles that the report could have brought to the fore. 

The budgeting problem shows how the system can sometimes work against its own goals.

That budgeting problem is worth dwelling on, because it shows how the system can sometimes work against its own goals.

Even in regions where there are adequate spaces in programs, districts can be unwilling to share those programs due to issues around sharing costs.

It is also often difficult to easily know when nearby schools may have available slots in programs.

Education Pressures

Local education leaders also face pressure from residents to provide as wide of a program selection as possible rather than drilling in to provide high quality programs in a narrower set of subjects. 

The way the state measures schools makes providing CTE difficult as well.

Indicator 10 tracks how many graduates continue to post-secondary education, so a student who goes straight into a strong job can count against a school.

Local education leaders also face pressure from residents.

One educator told me about six of his students who went directly into well-paying jobs at General Dynamics Electric Boat.

His school graduates only about a hundred students a year, so those six good outcomes pulled its numbers down.

This was an issue brought to light during the creation of the foundation’s Opportunity Connecticut report, and remains unaddressed. 

Lack of Available Instruction 

Even a district willing to share runs into a limit on labor.

Connecticut does not have enough qualified instructors with current industry credentials, and that bench of instructors is difficult to deepen locally.

Connecticut does not have enough qualified instructors with current industry credentials.

Certifying a teacher for a specific course is expensive, and once a school makes that investment, it may choose to offer whatever its existing staff can teach rather than what students or employers need now.

Bringing in industry professionals is the obvious fix, but it runs up against the reality that adjunct pay often falls below below what those professionals earn on the job.

A lack of a clear pathway to certification was also reported to dissuade individuals from entering education. 

Realizing Change 

Much of the conversations across the four roundtables focused on solutions, not just problems.

The most recent state budget approved workforce navigators, and participants expressed that these could be useful if used well, and in a way that widens the capabilities of teachers rather than runs in parallel to our current system. 

Two lower-cost moves brought up during the sessions would help as well.

One thought is a clearinghouse for open program seats that would let students cross district lines without each enrollment becoming a negotiation.

That means making smarter decisions with our workforce dollars.

Better workforce data, organized around the questions pathway decisions actually turn on, would let those decisions rest on real hiring demand, and provide educators the information they need to make informed curriculum decisions. 

A blueprint can name a problem, but what matters now is whether the changes that follow are substantive.

That means making smarter decisions with our workforce dollars, changing the rules that penalize cross-district enrollment, and fixing the scorecard so a graduate hired to a great career counts as the success it is.

It is only more fitting that the Connecticut Career Pathways Commission begins this work this week, and I know many are waiting with anticipation to hear their recommendations.

Connecticut already has the programs and the funding. The roundtables confirmed it also has professionals ready to make changes that count. 

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About the author: Dustin Nord is the director of the CBIA Foundation for Economic Growth & Opportunity.