Author: admin

You had me at SOC Code!

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Powerminds has partnered with the California Community Colleges central region to launch an innovative pilot project focused on bridging the gap between education and workforce needs in the Central Valley. Utilizing advanced data analytics, Powerminds has identified all credentials associated with over 400 occupations in the region to provide better alignment with high demand jobs.

The new Platform as a Service (PAAS), Credential Wallet ™ is designed to inform educators, students and employers which credentials are offered and aligned in education programs pathwayed to jobs. Credential Wallet ™ delivers the first ever variable-rich environment including real-time salaries by geographic location, and all related quality measures in the world of credentials.

The Credential Wallet ™ features a live map of credential training and testing locations developed for college administrators and faculty to align teaching with industry needs. In addition, Powerminds will hold a regional workshop event on research findings, as well as a summit with all credential participants to further define solution-oriented applications to address worker shortages by industry sector within the region.

Powerminds is an official partner of Credential Engine, a non-profit that created the Credential Registry, a centralized cloud-based library that houses up-to-date information about all credentials, a common description language to enable credential comparability, and a platform to support customized applications to search and retrieve information about credentials. Working closely with the 15 community colleges and industry partners throughout the Central Valley, Powerminds will publish academic programs and their credentials, as well as industry aligned certifications and their quality measures to the Credential Registry.

Ultimately, by increasing transparency and access to credential information, students and their families easily make more informed decisions about what credentials have demand in the workforce, service members find out what programs fit with their military training, and businesses gain a better understanding of what credentials address the competencies they need their workers to have and where they can acquire them.

Powerminds looks forward to expanding these partnerships in the future to further reveal the credential marketplace, dismantle data silos, and empower everyone with the credential data they need to succeed. To learn more visit https://power-minds.com/.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Credential Engine Partners with BrightHive Inc., Ellucian, Credly, DXtera, Powerminds, Inc., and Credential Commons to Advance Credential Transparency

For Immediate Release

March 27, 2019 (Washington, D.C.)—Credential Engine today announced the launch of its Credential Transparency Partner Program, including leading education data organizations BrightHive Inc., Ellucian, Credly, DXtera Institute, Powerminds, Inc., and Credential Commons which will focus on publishing credential data and improving communication across data systems to empower learners, workers, employers, educators, and others with the data they need to make informed decisions about credentials.

Many credential providers, including higher education institutions, have long since faced the challenge of organizing and cataloging data about their programs to meet various reporting requirements, as well as providing sufficient details to current and prospective students looking to pursue credential pathways. Credential Engine is dedicated to ensuring that all relevant data about credentials—their content, competencies, quality indicators, connections, pathways, and outcomes—are made openly available to the public.

This initial group of partners will work with Credential Engine to support individual credential providers, higher education systems, states, and others looking to publish their credentials to the Credential Registry, a cloud-based library that collects, maintains, and connects information on all types of credentials, from diplomas to apprenticeships and from licenses to PhDs. Partners will help these providers by translating the information using the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL)—the first and only common language that describes credential data. This groundbreaking work will empower credential providers with the ability to provide more comprehensive data on their program offerings in formats that will allow, for the first time, the ability to search, discover, and compare all credentials regardless of the type (e.g., diploma, badge, certificate, license, certification, degree), or provider (e.g., school district, boot camp, apprenticeship, licensing body, industry or professional association, college or university).

All of the partner organizations see unique benefits of this new program.

“Through this partnership, Credential Engine looks forward to making it easier for more organizations to make public essential information about the credentials they offer, and to unlock key data that may be challenging to access,” said Scott Cheney, Executive Director of Credential Engine. “By making data searchable and comparable through a common language, we will bring data transparency not only to credential providers, but also to the students, counselors, employers, and other users who need clear data to make critical education and career decisions.”

“Credly’s commitment to the creation and adoption of open standards has been central to our work since our founding. As more learning providers, associations, and employers have embraced the movement to recognize indemand skills and certifications in a portable and digital manner, the appreciation for the value of credential transparency in the labor market has grown,” said Jonathan Finkelstein, CEO of Credly. “Our partnership with Credential Engine will help increase the connection between digital credentials and the professional pathways and opportunities they unlock.”

“DXtera Institute was founded on the ideal that we can advance student success and career success through collaborative partnerships focused on better access to data and information,” said Dale Allen, Ph.D., President and Co-Founder of DXtera Institute. “We’re humbled and excited to bring the full support of our consortium to this project and to partner with many more like-minded innovators, like Credential Engine, who are advancing important data issues in the education space.”

“At BrightHive, we believe that when organizations securely and ethically link their data with each other to achieve collective goals, everyone in their network benefits. We’re excited to partner with Credential Engine in the development of the Credential Transparency Partner Program, which we believe will empower educators, students, employers and workers to make better decisions by having greater access to the credentials provided by higher education institutions,” said Matthew Gee, BrightHive CEO.

“Powerminds believes that through transparent credential data, specifically data around competencies, we can help open up a world of applications that uses competency mapping to connect potential employees and industry,” said Renah Wolzinger, Chief Technology Officer for Powerminds, Inc.

“At Credential Commons, we enthusiastically support the Credential Engine mission and ecosystem as a nonprofit community. We work with educators and employers to publish with the Credential Registry, provide open-source Credential Engine professional development, and to promote the credentialing movement,” said Kelly Cooper, Credential Commons, 501(c)(3) CEO.

This year, these initial partners will work together to update their products and services so that their customers can easily publish credential data to Credential Engine’s Registry. Credential Engine looks forward to expanding these partnerships and adding new partners to the program in the future to further reveal the credential marketplace, dismantle data silos, and empower everyone with the credential data they need to succeed.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Bridging the Gap

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]The information age is creating new bonds between education and industry. Employers are looking for qualified workers with a set of competencies that many times are difficult to find. Potential employees have a difficult time finding the right match based on their education and experience. Credentials are bridging the gap and technology is allowing everyone to share information to make information flow to those who need it. It is an exciting time for creation, communication, and problem solving in the credential arena![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Credential Engine Coming To L.A.

On March 22, 2019 the Credential Engine team will be launching a new initiative funded by the ECMC Foundation. The team will work with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and partners in industry, education and credential providers to bring credential transparency to the region.

This is an extremely exciting project that we are excited to be an important part of. As Los Angeles rolls out transparencies in key sectors, we hope to help scale that effort and increase the value of credentials in the marketplace.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

There’s not a nursing crisis: There’s a nursing faculty crisis

The nursing crisis has been part of the healthcare employment environment for decades and, if recent statistics are any indication, it is getting worse. As we age, the need for nurses at all levels – LVNs, RNs, ADNs, BSN’s and specialty nurses – will continue to grow and the crisis will worsen. The challenges are clear; what is less clear are the solutions.

And one reason for this is; assuming there is a nursing crisis when, in fact, it is a nursing faculty crisis at the root of this critical dilema.

The demand for nurses has increased yet the supply of nurses has remained stagnant or even declined. There are many reasons for this: nursing programs at colleges and universities are impacted, often with long waiting lists; the number of units (and time) needed to complete degrees have increased; colleges and universities are reluctant to invest in nursing programs which are high cost; clinical placements are harder and harder to secure.

Yet, beneath these is one wicked challenge: how to recruit and prepare experienced nurses to become faculty. The clearest available stats support this:

According to AACN’s report on 2016-2017 Enrollment U.S. nursing schools turned away 64,067 qualified applicants from nursing programs in 2016 because of an insufficient number of faculty. Most nursing schools responding to the survey pointed to faculty shortages as a reason for not accepting all qualified applicants.
1,567 faculty vacancies were identified in a survey of 821 nursing schools with baccalaureate and/or graduate programs across the country.
Efforts to expand the nurse educator population are frustrated by the fact that thousands of qualified applicants to graduate nursing programs are turned away each year. In 2016, AACN found that 11,859 qualified applicants were turned away [from various programs]. The primary reasons for not accepting all qualified students were a shortage of faculty and clinical education sites.

Why is it so difficult to solve the nursing faculty shortage? The salary of an active nurse exceeds that of a typical faculty member. There are no clear entry points for a nurse to become faculty, or processes for onboarding them if they decide to make the switch. There needs to be additional data and information to help both individuals and organizations – such as healthcare partners – deciding that the transfer from care provider to teacher is both possible and positive.

Powerminds Inc. is working to bridge educators to employers to fill the Capacity Gap behind the Nursing Faculty Crisis.

By building intentional coalitions and collaboratives for innovative programs across multiple higher education agencies and multiple healthcare organizations, we are part of the solution to the nursing faculty shortage. Our proprietary ProSearch (™) predictive research modeling uses untapped data to inform future decisions implementable today.

The Powerminds equation — Convening + Predicting = Solving Wicked Challenges — is now addressing the Nursing Faculty Crisis headon.

1. www.aacnnursing.org/news-information/research-data ; Special Survey on Vacant Faculty Positions released by AACN in October 2016 2. 2016-17 BRN Annual School Report[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Margo Turner named to National Small Business Assn. Leadership Council

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Margo Turner, president and CEO of Powerminds Inc., has been named to the National Small Business Association (NSBA) Leadership Council. NSBA is the nation’s oldest small-business advocacy organization, and operates on a nonpartisan basis.

Turner, a recognized leader in the small-business community, joins the NSBA Leadership Council alongside other small-business advocates from across the country as they work to promote the interests of small business to policymakers in Washington, D.C.

Turner is a serial entrepreneur, having launched and sold multiple successful enterprises, the largest employing 450 people in Southern California. She is a passionate advocate for positive change by creating solution environments. She credits her numerous teams for delivering on customer promises and raising their collective to shared success.

Turner joined the NSBA Leadership Council as part of his efforts to tackle the many critical issues facing small business, including tax reform, regulatory restraint, health care costs and how the Affordable Care Act will impact small business. The NSBA Leadership Council is focused on providing valuable networking between small-business advocates from across the country while ensuring small business a seat at the table as Congress and regulators take up key small-business proposals.

http://www.sandiegometro.com/2018/08/daily-business-report-aug-30-2018/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Workforce Development: More Then Teaching People to Fish

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: MORE THAN TEACHING PEOPLE TO FISH

The point is not to just to teach a person to fish, but also to teach him or her as many ways as possible to get food to survive. The same is true with developing today’s workforce. The goal for agencies, industries, and educators must center on teaching students as many ways as possible to get a good job and stay in it.

Walter Dario Di Mantova, Vice President and Partner, Powerminds

We’ve all heard it dozens of times, on office wall after office wall and as part of untold numbers of PowerPoint presentations. It’s been attributed to a Chinese sage, Maimonides, Lao-Tzu, Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, an Italian poet, a Native American, Mao Zedong, and even The Bible.

Give a man a fish, feed for a day.

Teach him how to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

Right?

Wrong. Teaching a man to fish is just a more efficient way of starving.

The fact is knowing a particular skill, while important, will only get someone a job today. To ensure a lifelong ability to work, the person must understand how to adapt to the ever-changing employment landscape.

Take the fisherman example. If that person is only trained to catch bounty in one particular lake or creek bed, what happens if the population dwindles? What’s more, how does the fisherman recover from a line or rod breaking? What if the fish are bony and inedible?

A Case in Point

Here’s a good illustration. Many believe manufacturing in the U.S. is hampered by cheaper labor overseas or that jobs have taken away by automation. The reality is quite different. In fact, there has never been a time when America has produced more goods, to the point that several hundred thousand manufacturing job opportunities are going unfulfilled. Growing our manufacturing base here at home is limited more by the lack of qualified talent than anything else.

For sure, some folks who spent a lifetime in the industry are no longer employable, but that has more to do with the fact that required skills sets have evolved. Yesterday’s jobs are no more. In their place stand advanced manufacturing employment opportunities that might look nothing like those opportunities 10 years ago.

The average manufacturing worker might have to know how to use computers to design and program complex Computer Numeric Control machinery, operate lasers, manage quality control, weld at an advanced level, and work in high-performance teams to solve complicated problems. These positions require sought-after skills from a wide range of providers of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and, more and more, third-party, nationally recognized credentials. For someone to continue a well-paying career in manufacturing, he or she will need to truly stay a lifelong learner.

Needing new skills to capture job opportunities isn’t limited to positions in construction and manufacturing. The same is the case in nearly every other industry. High demand exists in practically all sectors, including finance, hospitality, logistics, and health.

Maintaining a competitive workforce requires the right balance of training for jobs today, plus giving employees the tools they need to critically think about how to leverage them—as well as build upon them—to remain employable. The future is all about flexibility and continued learning.

The problem is complex but solvable. Any significant change will require strong commitment from all stakeholders—government, education, and businesses—who collaborate and recognize that it’s all about creating a shared future. And, of course, a building a workforce with the skills to adapt to succeed.

Full article[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Why We Can’t Define The Workforce As Blue Or White Anymore

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”2029″ img_size=”full” qode_css_animation=””][vc_column_text]Reposted from California CEO
Full article[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#dbdbdb” thickness=”1px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Workforce and Economic Development professionals have long assumed that each one of these terms is practically self-explanatory. They are part of our shared language, words upon which we can all agree.

The reality is, in fact, much more complicated than that.

Words matter. We have known for a long time that the language we use shapes the world in which we see and act. How we speak impacts how we think and what we do, and that includes professionally. Words are not only tools: they are also barriers to new thinking.

I many ways, the future of workforce development will depend on challenging the words we are most comfortable with, and one of these is “collar.”

Technological complexity and change, economic and political disintegration have all shattered the notion of a singular workforce divided into collars.

The most familiar:

WHITE: The professional and administrative: 20 million of these in US in 2016

BLUE: The industrial and manufacturing workers: 19.6 million, or about the same

But what about:

GREEN: Those employed in clean energy and environmentally positive industries: 8 million in 2016

PINK: Primarily women in “service industry jobs”—which include occupations ranging from teacher to nurse to maid. It is hard to determine the number of jobs that are “pink collar” since they clumped into a single anachronistic and sexist category. Low estimate: 1 million

GOLD: Higher-end professionals like doctors and lawyers: about 1 million physicians and about 1.3 million attorneys

GREY: Police officers (750,000) and salespeople (!) with over 8.3 million employees

ORANGE: One of the fastest growing worker groups in the US: Prison labor, currently incarcerated people. They are over 1 million prison workers in the US right now

NO COLLAR: The entrepreneurs in the gig economy: about 1 million

And the NEW COLLAR: Jobs in industries we cannot even imagine.

The numbers speak for themselves: more people are employed in these “other collars” than either white or blue-collar job.

We can go — but these growing labels indicate the ever-clearer reality that no unitary “workforce” exists. In its places is an increasingly complex and dynamic mix of employees, occupations, and employers. That translates to a future jobs eco-system that requires an even more sophisticated understanding by workforce and economic developers.

Time is of the essence. Rethinking how we create a workforce – beyond the misleading
collars” — that meets the evolving needs of both learners and employers will depend on a new multi-disciplinary problem-solving approach. This approach must leverage end-to-end planning through implementation, build unprecedented Innovation Networks and use labor market information and best practices for data research. Part of the solutions can include change management, apprenticeships, regional brand development, the creation of employee engagement communications and accelerated outreach to employers and unions and educational agencies.

The challenge is to prepare for — and shape – the future without relying on yesterday’s information alone – or outmoded, inaccurate and constraining definitions. Changing the future requires tracing the trajectory of these trends to identify the impacts and insights that apply and then develop customized programs for industry sectors, occupational clusters, programs and community colleges. It’s a wicked problem to be sure, but one challenge that will require our best thinking and strongest actions, including dropping the concepts we might be most comfortable with.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]About The Author: Walter Dario Di Mantova is the Vice President and Partner of Powerminds, a tribe of strategic and creative minds invested in transforming education, workforce and economic development that spans every discipline and every kind of partner. He can be reached at walter@power-minds.com. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Powerminds will work with your college to bring home the Guided Pathways funding

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Powerminds will work with your college to bring home the Guided Pathways funding.

Facilitate & Listen
Synthesize & Organize
Assess using Guided Pathways Self-Assessment Tool
Submit application on the college’s behalf

All before the deadline, for $6,000[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Powerminds Selected By Saddleback College To Promote Value of Innovation Center To Prospective Students and Industries

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Powerminds Selected By Saddleback College To Promote Value of Innovation Center To Prospective Students and Industries

– Company to showcase college as shining example of workforce development with renewed focus on innovation and entrepreneurship –

San Diego, CA – September 7, 2017 – Orange County-based Saddleback College announced today that Powerminds, an action tribe committed to solving wicked challenges in education, will collaborate on the development and expansion of the school’s regional Innovation and Entrepreneur Center.

The company will target prospective students to partake in the centers’ resources as well as to employers needing to develop skilled talent for their businesses.

“Saddleback College is a shining example of how community colleges can be the driving force behind bridging the job skills gap for both individuals and industries,” said Margo Turner, CEO of Powerminds. “We’re excited to employ our combined 90 years of experience in transforming education, workforce and economic development to this mission!”

Saddleback College has been the first choice for higher education and training in South Orange County since 1968. More than 500,000 alumni have gone through its academic and career training programs that enable students to successfully achieve their educational, professional and personal goals. Admission is open to anyone who is a high school graduate, has a high school equivalency certificate or is 18 years of age and shows evidence of being able to benefit from instruction.

Saddleback College has over 25,000 students and more than 1,000 faculty.

About Powerminds

Powerminds, Inc. is a unique action tribe, brought together by a shared philosophy and commitment to solving wicked challenges in education. Its tribe has a collective 90 years of transforming education, workforce and economic development spanning every discipline and with every kind of partner to see new ways of doing things. Powerminds’ approach is to assess the challenge quickly, deploy its vast tribe experience in agile teams and create solutions while seeing them through implementation to measured success in open collaboration with clients. For more information, visit www.power-minds.com.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]