Overview: Itasca Workforce Alignment Pilot efforts

1
Overview Itasca Workforce Alignment Pilot efforts
May, 2014
CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY Any use of this
material without specific permission of McKinsey
Company or the Itasca Project is strictly
prohibited
2
In 2012, the Itasca Project launched a Minnesota
Higher Education Task Force to investigate this
issue and several others
Todays focus
Who is the Itasca Project
The Itasca Project An employer-led civic alliance
made up of private sector CEOs, the Governor,
the Mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, County
Commissioners, Chair of the Met Council, the
leaders of the Higher Education institutions, and
the leaders of major foundations and the United
Way
Itasca Project goals
Generate high quality job growth
Improve our regions education system
Advance a comprehensive and aligned
transportation system
Itasca general priorities
Itasca MN Higher Education Strategy
Align academic offerings with workforce needs
Foster an ecosystem of research and innovation
Form new collaborations across higher ed. to
optimize system-wide intellectual assets and
efficiency
Graduate more students
MN Higher Ed priorities
Itasca Workforce Alignment Team
Todays focus
Source Itasca workforce alignment team -
Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
3
The Workforce Alignment Team is made of leaders
from the employer, higher education, foundation,
government, nonprofit sectors
Name
Organization
Role
Chairs
Education
Business
Govern-ment Community
4
Progress to date has been informed and shaped by
leaders from the employer, higher education,
foundation, government, nonprofit sectors
Source Itasca workforce alignment team -
Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
5
600 stakeholders provided valuable insights
about challenges employers, academic leaders and
career counselors face in addressing workforce
alignment
Working through career counselors and academic
advisors is a great way to help a large of
students job seekers know what skills jobs
are in demand
Knowing the top employers and skills in each
industry and occupation in real time will make a
HUGE difference
Accessing real time data will help, but our
counselors are completely under-resourced and
spend most of their time dealing with
non-counseling activities
Career counselors
Source Itasca workforce alignment team -
Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
6
We used stakeholder feedback to define success
for Workforce Alignment in the state of Minnesota
Goal We have the right number of graduates and
job seekers with the right capabilities needed to
meet Minnesotas future workforce needs
From
To
7
To address this opportunity, the Workforce
Alignment team is piloting tools to bring
information and enablers to improve decision
making and transparency between stakeholders

• Goal
• We have the right number of graduates and job
  seekers with the right capabilities needed to
  meet Minnesotas future workforce needs

Higher Education, career counseling and
workforce training
Better decisions
Better decisions
Information
Tools
Enablers
8
We launched a set of pilots in January that
involve hundreds of academic, employer and career
counseling stakeholders across the state

• 20 Higher Education institutions
• University of Minnesota
• 16 MnSCU colleges
• 3 MnSCU universities
• Augsburg College
• Globe/ MN School of Business
• 5 Workforce Centers including adults and youths/
  high schools
• Employer Advisory Boards for the following
  programs
• Strommen Center for Meaningful Work
• First line supervisors of production
• workers
• Mobile application development
• Business Analyst
• Operations Management
• Automotive technician
• Numerous manufacturing programs (CNC, welding,
  mechatronics, others)
• Health informatics
• Many other advisory boards at pilot schools!

Private, includes for-profit

9
The pilots are testing the impact of new data
tools and employer engagement approaches
Pilots are testing
Example
Pilot
impact of new data tools and approaches on new
program decisions
Healthcare programs planning at Winona
Academic planning process pilot
impact of real time job data cloud-based
employer feedback tools on curriculum alignment
decisions
Automotive technician program with the
Transportation Center
Curriculum alignment process pilot
impact of new data tools and engagement
approaches on employer advisory boards and
decisions
Manufacturing programs advisory groups at South
Central
Employer advisory process pilot
Student success day at MCTC
impact of real time job data and career/ed data
on student job seeker decisions
Career planning process pilot
10
Initial feedback has been encouraging from pilot
participants
SOURCE Improve Group Pilot kick off surveys
11
Pilot participants are using the tools and data
as we intended to inform decision-making

• Pilot participants told us they are using the
  tools to achieve four primary goals
• Increase high level understanding of the labor
  market
• Support course or program-related decisions
• Improve engagement with employer community
• Help students and job seekers find the careers
  they want

SOURCE Improve Group Mid point surveys
12
Students, job seekers and employers are also
seeing value in the new data sources to their
decision-making processes
Employers found that the new data and information
improved the quality of the employer advisory
meetings, discussions and guidance they were able
to deliver to the academic institution
Students and job seekers are finding the data on
which skills are in demand by employers to be
very valuable in their job search and career
planning process
SOURCE Improve Group student, job seeker and
employer surveys
13
We are also getting insights into potential
barriers and approaches to scaling the pilots
efforts

• Challenges to roll-out
• Stake holder resistance tendency to trust
  personal experiences and opinions over new data
  sources, aversion to focusing on the needs of
  employers
• Tool-specific frustrations difficulty to find
  the information needed, general complexity
• Lack of time or resources competing priorities

• Approaches to scale
• Develop strong change management approach strong
  leadership support at every site, arm
  participants with a change story, target the
  influencers first, more communications
• Provide more high quality training increase
  frequency of trainings, bring more real-life
  examples to the trainings
• Create a strong support network centralized
  swat team of data tool experts
• Create reinforcers to shift behavior Require
  data and analysis from the tools in existing
  processes, celebrate and reward users

SOURCE Improve Group Mid point check ins
14
Next steps for our team
Learn from the pilots Wrapping up today!

• Identify which tools and processes have the
  greatest impact on improving information,
  engagement and decisions
• Identify barriers to change, key enablers for
  success and capture case studies to build
  momentum
• Codify and share pilot results and third party
  evaluation in Q22014

Make the effort sustainable

• Develop approach to ensure ongoing employer
  higher ed engagement
• Scale most effective tools approaches
• Transition work to long-term owner to ensure
  momentum and sustainability

15

• What are your reactions to the progress to date?
• Where do you see opportunities to incorporate new
  information sources into academic planning?
• How would you roll-out any future tools/
  information sources? What would be needed to
  ensure the tools are used at a campus level?

16
Appendix

• Pilot participants
• Additional detail on pilot approach

17
The pilots involve hundreds of academic, employer
and career counseling stakeholders across the
state

• Four year colleges universities
• Augsburg College
• Globe / MN School of Business
• MSU-Mankato
• MSU-Moorhead
• University of Minnesota
• Winona State University
• Collaborative efforts with several colleges
• Transportation Center (4 colleges)
• 360 Center for Manufacturing (13 colleges)

• Two year colleges
• Alexandria Technical Community College
• Minneapolis Community Technical College
• Riverland Community College
• Rochester Community Technical College
• Saint Paul College
• South Central College

Higher Education

• Career counselors from five workforce centers
  working with adults and youth on training/
  education plans
• Anoka County
• Minneapolis
• NE Office of Job/ Training (includes high
• Schools in Career EdVenture)
• Academic/ career counselors at colleges
  participating in pilots

Students job seekers

• Stearns/ Benton counties
• SE MN Workforce Development Inc. (6 locations)

• Advisory Boards for the following programs
• Strommen Center for Meaningful Work
• First line supervisors of production
• workers
• Mobile application development
• Business Analyst
• Operations Management

Employers

• Automotive technician
• Numerous manufacturing programs (CNC, welding,
  mechatronics, others)
• Health informatics
• Many other advisory boards at pilot schools!

18
Overview of pilots
Pilot
Challenge
Approach
Impact
Academic planning process pilot
Academic leaders need better information
feedback in order to more quickly meet student
and employer needs
Test impact of new data tools and approaches on
new program decisions
Programs launched faster to meet needs of
students potential employers
Curriculum alignment process pilot
Employers academic leaders need faster, more
scalable ways to work together to align curriculum
Test impact of real time job data cloud-based
employer feedback tools on curriculum alignment
decisions
Aligned curriculum better prepared graduates
Employer advisory process pilot
Employers academic leaders want employer
advisory meetings to be more data-driven
strategic w/ more engagement between mtgs.
Test impact of new data tools, surveys, and
collaboration tools on curriculum advisory
decisions
Higher impact employer advisory meetings leading
to aligned programs prepared graduates
Career planning process pilot
Career counselors need better tools for helping
their clients understand the labor market their
career/ed options
Test impact of real time job data and career/ed
data on student job seeker decisions
More students job seekers pursuing high demand
jobs
SOURCE Source
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Situation 1Youve been asked to join the
employer advisory committee of a local technical
college to help them improve the quality of their
manufacturing-related programsThe day before
the meeting they tell you theyd like you to tell
them what production-related manufacturing jobs
are in demandYou can either share your opinion
based on what youve heard from HR from your
peers or
Source Itasca workforce alignment team -
Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
20
you could discuss data listing the top 20
production-related jobs with the most job
postings over the last 4 months their growth
rate vs. last year
Top 20 manufacturing production-related jobs w/
most postings over the last 4 months Number of
unique online job postings per occupation between
6/17/2013 and 10/15/2013 in Minnesota
change in of job postings change vs same 4
months last year
Occupations
First-Line Supervisors of Production Operating Workers
Machinists
Helpers--Production Workers
Printing Press Operators
Computer-Controlled Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
Welders, Cutters, and Welder Fitters
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers
Team Assemblers
Cutting, Punching, Press Machine Setters, Operators, Tenders
Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
Assemblers and Fabricators, All Other
Molding, Coremaking, Casting Machine Setters, Operators, Tenders
Sewing Machine Operators
Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters
Production Workers, All Other
Tool and Die Makers
Print Binding and Finishing Workers
Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Postings
807
190
172
109
93
77
71
63
59
40
35
33
32
25
22
19
19
18
17
14
Source Help Wanted Online (HWOL) Part of
Wanted Analytics, Itasca workforce alignment team
- Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
21
Situation 2When you show up at the meeting,
they ask you what skills they should focus on
developing in their graduates if they want to
target skills that will be useful in a wide
variety of production roles. They also want to
know what certifications are most valuableYou
know your answers to these questions, but the
institution generates the following report to
show that you are not the only one looking for
these skills and certifications
Source Itasca workforce alignment team -
Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
22
Although some production-related roles require
certifications, most job postings focus on
specific hard soft skills
Top 20 skills for production-related roles in
Minnesota of times skill mentioned in job
posting
Top 20 certifications for production-related
roles in Minnesota of times skill mentioned in
job posting
Hard Soft Skills
Operations planning
Detail oriented
Oral and written communication skills
Problem solving
Troubleshooting
Self-starting / Self-motivated
Lean Manufacturing
Quality control
Blueprints
Work independently
Good Manufacturing Practice
Quality Systems
Microsoft Office
Process Improvement
Dependability
Team-oriented, teamwork
Preventative maintenance inspections
Medical devices
Strong leadership skills
Organizational skills
Mentions
452
436
404
331
243
213
200
186
181
165
164
158
150
129
128
120
108
106
102
89
Certifications
Food safety programs
Occupational Safety Health Admin Certification
High Capacity Fossil Fuel Fired Plant (Boiler) Operator
Material Handling Equipment
Forklift certification
First Aid certification
Science of Baking course
Certified Plant Supervisor
Six Sigma Green Belt
American Production and Inventory Control Society
Design for Manufacturability and Assembly
National Career Readiness Certificate
Six Sigma certification
Mining Safety Health Administration Certification
Medical Device Directive Certification
Mechanical Inspector
Certified Welder
Technical Supervisor
Automated External Defibrillator
Contact Quality Assessment
Mentions
156
130
37
33
27
19
13
12
10
9
7
7
7
5
4
4
4
4
3
3
Source Help Wanted Online (HWOL) Part of
Wanted Analytics, Itasca workforce alignment team
- Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
23
Situation 3During the meeting, they are
really interested in the first line supervisor
role since theres so much demand, however, they
want to make sure this years demand isnt an
anomalyLuckily, since youre part of an Itasca
pilot, you have access this information to add to
the discussion
Source Itasca workforce alignment team -
Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
24
The number of job postings for first line
supervisors in Minnesota has grown by 40 per
year for the last four years
Total monthly postings for first-line
supervisors Number of unique online job postings
between 6/17/2013 and 10/15/2013
40 CAGR
Source Help Wanted Online (HWOL) Part of
Wanted Analytics, Itasca workforce alignment team
- Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
25
Situation 4Now the school is working to align
the curriculum for first-line supervisors with
the needs of employers in the region. You (and
the other employers on the advisory group)
connected some of the school faculty to your best
first line supervisors and their managers, who
logged into to web-based system to quickly update
a list of detailed work activities to help the
professors know exactly what first line
supervisor students needed to learn how to
do.The faculty then uploaded the learning
objectives from their existing classes to see how
well their courses were aligned with your needs.
When you showed up to meet with the professors,
they showed you this report
Source Itasca workforce alignment team -
Confidential and preliminary not for
distribution
26
The goodness of fit report highlights some
areas to address to make sure our content is
focused on the highest value, most relevant topics
Sample Degree Program match of learning
objectives to skill requirements
for first line supervisors of production workers
in MN (SOC 51-1011, 11-3051)