Strategies for Building Sustainable Business Partnerships

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Strategies for Building Sustainable Business
Partnerships

• Lisa J. Nutter, President
• Philadelphia Academies, Inc.

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What is a partnership?

• Both parties gain from the experience
• Both parties share knowledge
• Strong communication back and forth
• Both parties are honest and problem solve as
  challenges arise
• Both parties need to be flexible and willing to
  move forward

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Give and Get

• Self-interest vs. charity
• Individual vs. corporate needs
• Capitalizing on workforce needs and regional
  industry growth
• Making the business case

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A Case Study

• Putting the work in a broader economic and
  community context
• Applying basic community organizing approaches to
  build industry and labor support
• Creating a structure and vehicle for ongoing
  involvement
• Finding the right messages

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Preparing Youth for the 21st Century

• An Investment Approach for the Corporate Sector

Presented by Philadelphia Academies, Inc. and
Philadelphia Youth Network
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Purpose Corporate Partnerships to Build a 21st
Century Workforce

• Firmly establish the role of the business
  community in defining 21st Century skills
• Leverage existing efforts
• Invest in enhancements
• Close gaps in programming and support

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Background

• The state of youth and workforce preparedness in
  Philadelphia is not good
• Low rates of high school and college graduates
  compared to our competitor cities (e.g., New
  York, Boston and Chicago)
• About 50 of our 9th graders do not graduate and
  we lose around 21 of the high school population
  annually
• 25 of the youth population are not in school or
  working
• The 2004 market attachment rate for 16-19 year
  olds was 36, a record low

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Our Agenda What PYN and PAI are doing about the
problem

• Integration of work ready competencies in the
  core high school curriculum
• Development of a career-focused education
  continuum
• Professional development and technical assistance
• Business organizing and advocacy

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Heres what you can do to make a difference

• Current opportunities include
• Work with us to make high school curriculum
  relevant
• Provide strategic investments that support
  industry content and delivery
• Provide a support network mentorship
• Provide work-based experiences
• Advocate with us for secondary education reform
  focused on 21st Century skills

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Why You Should Invest The triple bottom line

• Social Return
• Improved economic competitiveness
• Decrease in poverty
• Decrease in crime and violence
• Improved quality of life

• Product
• A secondary education system that is meeting the
  demands of industry developing 21st Century
  skills
• 18 year olds ready for work, college and life

• Return on Investment
• Locally grown, prepared workforce of 50,000 high
  school graduates annually
• Increased number of businesses locating in the
  region
• Significantly decreased employment recruitment
  and training costs

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The Ask The commitments we need from you

• Continue our dialogue
• Create a formal forum to educate peers
• Make multi-year resource commitments
• Advocate with us for the development of 21st
  century skills in youth

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Next Steps

• Following-up over the next two weeks
• Present to the CEO Council on Growth
• A report on the financial and opportunity costs
  of not delivering 21st Century skills

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Lisa J. Nutter lnutter_at_academiesinc.org www.acad
emiesinc.org