S04E15 - Workforce Development in Washington State | Marina Parr & Stephanie Davidsmeyer | REPLAY - Build Momentum for Education - K-12 Superintendent Series

Episode Transcript
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Sarah Williamson (00:05):
Hello and welcome to Build Momentum, a
Podcast where we explore thoughtleadership and education. I'm
Sarah Williamson, the founder ofSW PR group.

Chad Bolser (00:13):
And I'm Chad Bolser, Chancellor Ivy Tech
Community College in Richmond,Indiana. This season, we will
launch a series exploring globalworkforce development and K 12
school districts and the leaderswho are bringing this work to
light.

We hear from CTE directors, superintendents
and thought leaders on the topicof workforce development, how it
shifted throughout the lastseveral years, who is employing
strategies that are making animpact and how they're sharing
those stories with the broadereducation community. We explore
how to leverage key partners,your constituents and the media
to authentically impact yourorganization and the leaders who

(00:51):
champion them. We can't wait toget started. So let's dive in.
On today's episode, we'rethrilled to have two leaders
from the state of Washingtonwith us Stephanie Davidsmeyer,
the Director of Communicationsfor the Washington State Board
of Education, and Marina Parr,the Director of Workforce System
Advancement at Washington'sWorkforce Board, which brings
together business, labor andgovernment agencies delivering

(01:14):
direct Workforce Services. Well,these are two people, we
definitely want to talk to youfor our series on workforce
development. It's such apleasure to have you both on our
show today. Welcome. (inaudible)

So Marina, our first question for you is, would
you share more about your workat the state level, to elevate
workforce development,particularly in and supporting
our K 12 students? And have youseen a shift on how districts
are prioritizing workforcedevelopment? And have you seen a
shift in how districts areprioritizing workforce

(01:46):
development now, more than inrecent years?

Marina Parr (01:49):
It's a great question, Chad. So I think a
really good example of that is abill that actually passed in
2023, that basically allows highschool students to use workforce
experience to graduate is bycompleting what's called a
performance based learningexperience. And that could be
professional skill building, orinternships, or even community

(02:11):
service. And it's reallyacknowledging that students have
multiple pathways and workingtoward their high school
diploma, and that schools andemployers are valuing work
experience more than ever, thisnew law will eventually turn
workforce experience into agraduation pathway, which is a
really big deal. And I want tosay that, it's not that there

(02:31):
aren't questions that come fromthis new push for workforce
experience, you know, maybe thestudent is working at a pizza
place, by the way, my son doeswork at a pizza place. So
there's a little bit of biasthere. But you know, how does
that relate to traditionalsubjects are students learning
communication skills, they'relearning how to measure how much
cheese how much meat. So so muchof workforce learning actually

(02:52):
does translate to what we thinkof as traditional subjects like
English and Math. But you dohave to get your mind around it.
And I think educators as well asparents of students, not to
mention employers are seeingthis connection more clearly,
especially as our labor marketundergoes significant
challenges. And we're seeing forthe first time in a while they
think stuffing might echo this,too, that, you know, more high

(03:15):
school students are workingafter school. And during the
summer, for example, that wasnot the case just previously,
sort of the millennials duringthe high school experience. They
were not working after school,that was a big thing. Gen Z has
flipped it, they are actuallyworking at jobs and teen
unemployment reached a 14 yearhigh last year. And some of that

(03:35):
has to do with higher wages, nodoubt that employers are still
facing hiring challenges. Andteens are picking up some of the
slack. And they're getting paidwell. But some of it is a
cultural shift, I think towardsrecognizing the value of work,
even when a student is still inhigh school. And that last stat
here is that the US Departmentof Labor recently reported that
37% of students between 16 and19 are looking for part time

(04:00):
jobs. And that's the highestpercentage since 2009.

Thank God, Marina, I've been wondering

I look forward to that.
Where Have All the workers gone?
I think a lot of people arewondering that. So hopefully,
this is a good sign. And thathopefully will come when we go
to our pizza place in our coffeeshop. We'll be starting to get
service. That'll be great.

That is promising. Okay, Stephanie, I'd
love to hear from acommunications perspective. How
have you seen workforcedevelopment and advancement
increase? And are you seeingdistricts share those stories
and the impact the work ishappening with their broader
communities across the state ofWashington in particular?

Stephanie Davidsmeyer (04:34):
Yeah, well shout out to Marina for
bringing up House Bill 1308, thePerformance Based Pathway that's
big for the seaboard. We'reworking on that right now. We
actually just had a webinaryesterday. We welcome 350
counselors from all over thestate. They're all chomping at
the bit to get this performancebased graduation pathway option

(04:54):
in place for their studentsbecause people are really seeing
the value as Marina sayingthere's kind of this shame Okay,
so I think there is thisrecognition of like CTE, the
performance based pathway, theCTE is another graduation
pathway all on its own. And on abroad scale we're seeing that we
just released also, it's kind ofbeen a bigger week, we just

(05:16):
released our Basic Educationreport where we talk to every
single school district in ourstate, and we get the lowdown on
what they are offering studentsand 93% of all of our districts
are offering just a CTEgraduation pathway option.
That's great. We want to seeoptions like that for students.
And then now that thisperformance based graduation

(05:37):
pathway option will beavailable, there's even more
ability for students to showwhat they know, in ways that are
different than a multiple choicetest or assessment. So I think
you've asked aboutcommunication, which I love. And
I think on like a specificlevel, I see a lot of success
stories. One that sticks in mymind is from a little school

(05:59):
district called Shelton SchoolDistricts not far from Olympia,
actually, where the boardmembers and I visited last year,
and we got to talk with astudent named John, who was
going to graduate high school,basically with his associate's
degree and a job lined up inwelding in Seattle, at a big
welding company. And he hadchosen this pathway

(06:20):
specifically, with the supportof his administration, support
of his educators to really findout what is John passionate
about what does he want to doafter school? And how can we get
with professionals in our statethat can help him get to that
place. And I think our boardmembers were blown away by John

(06:42):
and it wasn't because he went toa four year university, it
wasn't because he was going tobe a doctor or brain surgeon, is
because he knew what he wantedto do. And he was ready. And so
that was really inspiring forus. And I think seeing more of
these stories would be evenbetter. I think a specific one
that comes to mind also is partof high school levels of high
school in Des Moines,Washington, kind of between

(07:04):
Tacoma and Seattle, calledMaritime High School. And they
are actually one of theseaboards grantees for a program
called mastery based learning,which is all about project based
experiences that these studentsare having. So these students
who are interested in maritimecareers are going to a school
where they might, Marina used apizza making example. But I've

(07:25):
talked to students that aremaking canoes, and then they are
talking with advisors andbuilding reports about how much
it would cost to open their ownbusiness in boat making. And
they have all this math and allthese figures that go into it.
And these kids will just blowyou away. So I feel like stories

(07:45):
like that are really inspiring.
And to get them out there onlike a mass level. It takes a
lot these days to get into likethe broad news cycle. So I think
I've spoken with my colleaguesat other state agencies, and
they've told me that all oftheir successes in
communications, started onsocial media were picked up by
media outlets, and then sharedby influencers to get to a

(08:08):
broader audience. So it's kindof like all these kind of
magical things have to happen intandem. And I feel like stories
like the ones that maritime andthe ones with John, it's
possible. I think we'vemaritime, they've done a bunch
of high level media stories,mostly because they've worked
with lawmakers that are alsointerested in hearing those
stories. So it'd be the medialawmakers and a government
agency like ours, kind of doingthose visits and building those

(08:30):
stories up. I feel like I'vetalked for a long time have I
answered that?

You did?
Thanks. Yes. There was a PRexpert on the call. And then we
could talk about that.

Just gonna say this is why it's so critical that you
listen to Build Momentum on aregular share with all your
brands, right?

Yes.

One on the ground way to tell the stories. Yeah. I
love the idea about the when youtalk when you hit about the
associate's degree and careeralignment, things that we need
to be doing. And you mesh thatwith the House Bill, how the
states are really saying, andyou hear this all over the

(09:09):
country, we need to honor work,we've got to figure out a way to
honor what we're doing here. AndI think that that's this is good
news. And so I think, totransition into that, how, and
we'll hear from both of you onthis, if you seen an increase in
public private partnership, wecan't do this alone, right? It
can't just be one side or theother. Have you seen an increase

(09:32):
of those partnerships when itcomes to the workforce
development in Washington? Andhow do you think this will
continue to be a priority? Isthis a flash in the pan? Is this
something that will come and go?
How do we prioritize this? Andwe can hear from both of you on
that?

Thanks. I just want to add one more thing to
Stephanie's comments to aboutthat. You mentioned the super
valuing these differentpathways. I believe that in high
schools here in Washington statethey have a thing called Signing
Day. Oh, I got into Stanford. Iwant to see I got into this
apprenticeship program, I'mgoing to become a plumber and
make $200,000 a year, I'd liketo see some banners for that at

(10:09):
the high school level, becausethat's where the value is shown
to the students. I mean, I justas a parent of a high school
students, so much of it isbetween themselves, they are the
ones that are kind of populatingwhat's what's good or bad. So I
don't know, maybe other states,maybe I think you're in Indiana,
right, Chad, maybe Indiana'sdoing this already. But I'd love
to see that more in Washington.

There are several places in Indiana that are doing
those sorts of things to talkabout career readiness, they're
acknowledging the careerreadiness, the career pathway,
there are in those work basedlearning environments to
recognize that I don't thinkwe've gotten to the point of
banners and sort of the samerecognition as the four year
institutions. However, I dothink these sorts of things,

(10:53):
this conversation about how wedevelop talent will encourage us
to recognize it in a way that issimilar to all the other
academic, and all the otherachievements that come through
the high school experience. So Ithink you're spot on there.

I'll create that they enter, that'll be the next
thing. But anyway, yeah. Sogetting to public partnerships.
I'll try to answer a little bitabout that, you know, from a
workforce perspective. And Iknow, Stephanie, they'll have
other thoughts from more of theK12 perspective. But we know
that businesses are busy, that'sprobably the biggest challenge
in workforce development isgetting business to the table,
because they're really trying torun their business. So you need

(11:30):
to make effective use of theirtime. I know, they're very
interested, though, in educationand getting the training that
the young people need. Our statehas had something called
industry skill panels, andthat's bringing together similar
businesses, so they can discusscommon skill gaps, hiring
challenges, you know,difficulties that their
employees face, and findinghousing, other support. And the

(11:51):
interesting thing is that thesebusinesses, and these employers
are typically competitors,right. So they're in the same
space. And that's why they'refacing the same challenges. But
they feel like there's enoughthere that they should come
together, they can advocate moreeffectively for common goals
through these industry skillpanels. A few years ago, the
Workforce Board where I worked,we launched at what's called the

(12:11):
upskill backfill initiative. Andit's a demonstration project
that started with $2 million infederal funds that our governor,
Governor Inslee invested, it wasto test drive new ways to build
these stronger partnershipsbetween the public and private
sectors. And it really worked. Imean, this was just a smaller
demonstration project we did inin quite a few rural areas, too,
that were less connected to, youknow, resources, such as higher

(12:34):
education. And one case, I know,community college that was
located in Vancouver,Washington, which is right
across from Portland and bigmetro area, they actually drove
their instructors out to a ruralcommunity to deliver the
instruction at the workplace sothat they could advance their
skills. And so that's kind ofone of those innovative things
where the private sectoremployer, how am I get my

(12:56):
employees trained up? And it'sthrough those partnerships. And
then the other thing I thinkthat we can mention, I'm sure we
can amplify more, it's justabout how CTE does that career
technical education, if they domeet with employers, local
employers on a regular basis,they get to see, you know, what
should be in the classroom? Whatam I teaching? What am I not
teaching? What are my studentsgoing to need to know? And I

(13:17):
think one of the biggestchallenges and we're gonna see a
whole other podcast probably isjust about rapid changes in
technology. technology'schanging so quickly, that that
conversation, it's almost goingto be on speed drive, because
you're just going to continuallytry to figure out like, what are
the skills that these folks needto have? How are we going to get
that into the classroom, asparticularly with CTE, how to

(13:39):
get that hands on experience, sothat students are excited about
it as well, I actually, again,because I am the parent of a
high school, senior, my son'sfriend is really involved with
robotics, for example, it's areally great CTE pathway. And
they do get a lot of props,right, because robotics is super
cool. But it has so many skillshas so many applications to the
real world. And again, they'vegot great, I think, employer

(14:02):
connections to that program. SoI see that I guess the follow up
question, which is do we seethis happening more? Yes, I
think it's just going tocontinue. And I do think we're
in a great spot, becauseemployers really need that
workforce, they are hiring, theycan't get the skilled workers
they need. They're much moreopen now to hiring folks that

(14:22):
they wouldn't have looked atbefore people that might have
been previously incarcerated,for example, people that come
with language barriers. And sowe're in a really great moment
for workforce development, aswell as in the K 12 sector to
kind of get folks that wereunderrepresented into these jobs
in these work experiences. Sothat's the exciting part. From
our perspective.

That's excellent. Marina. I love all of
those ideas. Chad, did you havecomments on that? No, that was
fantastic. One of the things Ilove here's your next campaign
Stephanie, a signing day forapprenticeship program program.

I actually do I really do. I
There you go.
reminds me of something that isnot the same as Not totally the
same as what you're talkingabout Marina, but Boeing in
Washington, DC huge company,they have something called stem
signing day. And I think it hasa lot to do with the internships
that they offer. But it's not onthe grand scale that I think
we're talking about, like withsome of the other. And even with

(15:15):
some of the sports, I mean, thesports. Yeah, I think to add to
what Marina was saying, terms oflike, public private
partnerships in Washington, likeI mentioned, Boeing, Microsoft
is invested in the educationhappening in our state. So we
have a lot of like, districtsusing Microsoft certifications
for their students. And I wasthinking about poor plus
aerospace as well, that's forstudents, they interested in

(15:38):
aerospace, obviously. And I justthink having the businesses do
have a care, especially in ourstate, and a lot of our
businesses are global, becausewe're such a big deal in
Washington State. No, justkidding. But we do work with
them quite a bit. And in termsof public private partnership as
a phrase that really brought tomind how our state is handling
financial education, becausethat agency is a public

(16:00):
partnership. And it's grown. Imean, the past few years, it was
one person when I startedworking at our Office of
Superintendent PublicInstruction and and they have a
big staff now. So people want towant that financial education
for their kids and thebusinesses. I mean, it's in
their best interest. Want it forthe students as well. I think
that's probably one of the maincomments that we get at the

(16:22):
board is out of rage parents, mykids don't know how to do their
taxes, and even from students. Idon't know how to do my taxes.

I don't know how to do my taxes,They have a
right to be angry.

I know they have a right to be angry,
(inaudible) to study inhighschool, and I didn't and I
graduated in 2000. So great.

Yeah, for sure. Shout out, by the way to
Boeing, we just did a factorytour on Sunday. My son is a
plane junkie. So he really lovesairplanes. And we just did the
factory tour. So impressive. Itotally agree. Okay, I'm
curious, how is the ESSER Cliffimpacting the districts in
Washington, State of Washingtonand workforce development in

(17:00):
particular? And do you think thenew Biden Administration
initiatives are going to be doyou think they'll tap into any
Workforce Development Support?
Or is chronic absenteeism,student support to student after
school support? And then highdosage tutoring the three
initiatives under the newprogram? Do you think that's
going to touch anything you'redoing in Washington? And do you
think you can tap into any ofthat support?

I'll let Stephanie answer the ESSAR question, but I
will add a quick aside whileshe's thinking of her answer,
that my nephew is at AviationHigh School, he got into ABS so
your son would be super jealousof cod, (inaudible) Who lives in
Burien. Washington, becausethat's the high school devoted
to aerospace.

I did not know this. Well, he will have to look
into that. Yeah, he's super intoit.

I'm jealous. I'm jealous. Go to that type of high
school, I think, you know, Ithink that's super cool.

Yeah, he's loving it. He's a ninth grader since
his first year there. And I'lladd one more thing about
workplace learning, because healso just participated in what
we have is a legislative pageprogram in the state, I'm
looking at the state capitol formy office, and students get to
spend a week with a legislator,running errands, delivering
packages being on the floor,they learned to write their own

(18:17):
legislation. And it's just aweek long experience. And it
gives her a front row seat tohow our democratic process works
here in the state. So that'sanother example of that really,
that big focus on WorkplaceLearning. Awesome. Yeah. Anyway,
Stephanie, go on with us sosorry.

Yes, that's a good question. I think
in our state, it seems like,along with the attention paid to
the effectiveness of CTE andperformance space pathway, like
we were talking about before,there's this increase in the
significance of community basedorganizations and nonprofits and

(18:56):
things like that. So I know ourstate has done a big push on,
like, using NSF funds for thosekinds of things, which leads me
to believe that this is what thestudents need. I know, I have
two student interns who aregraduating this year, they're
seniors, they said they they'restill kind of feeling the
impacts from the pandemic andhow that impacted them mentally

(19:19):
and socially, as we werespeaking to before. And I just
think it's so important to havethose dollars going to the
things that students need,because they absolutely cannot
learn if they're not supportedin those ways. But I know that a
lot of rules and a lot ofconsiderations go into the
distribution of these funds andour partners at the Office of

(19:39):
Superintendent of PublicInstruction. They're very
transparent about these dollars,and they have really informative
website content, if you'recurious about that. But yeah,
I'm not sure. Marina, did youhave anything you wanted to add

No, enough about it. We used to have someone who
about workforce?
worked here who could havetalked about it quite a bit, but
I can't pretend to be a subjectmatter expert on that. I agree
with you. Though that, you know,our state, I think does a pretty
good job of allocating it towardthe highest need. And, you know,
chronic absenteeism is an issue,it really did start with a
pandemic kids kind of checkedout, and then they never really

(20:12):
checked back in. So we kind ofhave to figure out how to
reengage students and really getthem in, you know, really be
there, be present, and then alsokids that fell behind. And we
know that populations that havestruggled the most had the
widest gap, you know, that theyfelt way farther behind than
some of our higher performingpopulations of students who have

(20:33):
more access to resources, etc.
So we have to find ways to keepthose folks going. Because we
don't want to lose generation ofyoung people for the pandemic,
even though it may not be quiteas dramatic in some people's
eyes. But if you're behind werea couple of grade levels. That
is significant. And that's goingto put you back the rest of your
life. So yeah, this kind offunding is actually really

(20:56):
critical. But it's almost likean invisible thing. You don't
really know it until the studentleaves the school building, and
then they're behind, maybe theycan't read at grade level, and
they can't move on even throughpost secondary options. So
anyway, I'm personally happythat some of those funds are
coming to help these especiallymore challenged populations of
students keep up keep pace catch

So we have noticed the new at a glance Workforce
up, really.
System Poster highlighting howWashington's workforce
development system helps jobseekers find training and
employers connect with skilledworkers. Could you share a few
takeaways, key takeaways fromthis initiative? This poster the

(21:41):
what you're trying tocommunicate?

Yes, in your brain?
Yeah, one of my favoriteproducts, I should admit that I
am the former communicationsdirector, it's worked for
spirit. So I share Stephanie'sbackground in pushing out
projects. But yeah, this is whatI like to call because I named
myself America's favoritematrix. Oh, it is it is a
hourglass poster of our state'slargest workforce programs and
our staff. So we were basicallya policy and research agency

(22:04):
here, the Workforce Board isthat small state agency of about
35 people total. And like I saidin the intro, there's a board we
have a board of business andlabor representatives along with
government representatives thatdeliver workforce services. But
we put out this poster to showthe system which is a very
complicated, complex system inone spot. Now, it's not all the

(22:27):
programs, we couldn't fit thatthat would go round and round my
office five times probably Ialso often laugh because this is
what I call a quad fold sign ofthe trifle is a quad full
because there's so manyprograms, but it is a great way
to see, you know, our state'slargest programs, including
career technical education, forexample, at both the secondary
and post secondary level, itshows who is administering the

(22:50):
program, shows the funds thatare flowing both state and
federal funds. It shows who'sbeing served. And when we have
the data available, we docalculate performance. So it's a
great way to see how are theseprograms doing. And again, we're
not dinging any programs,especially as we're still
emerging from the pandemic andseeing those lingering effects.

(23:10):
But a lot of times this postercan tell you what's the
employment rate after a persongoes through a program? What are
their earnings? What's thereturn on investment for the
economy as a whole, we were ableto do that through a net impact
study. So it's a really greatposter. If you live in
Washington during this podcast,it also is free. So get a hold
of the show's hosts or whatever,we can send you a poster. It's

(23:33):
also online at the workforcesports website. So you can see
this poster as PDF as well.

I did not know you were the former
communications (inaudible).
That's great Marina.

also former reporter so as you know, I've
been put on spot here this is mycomeuppance for all the
interviews I have conducted inthe past.

That's right, payback. Okay, I like it. All
right, Stephanie. This podcastwas ultimately created to help
elevate thought leaders ineducation, particularly K 12.
How are you sharing the powerfulsuccess stories you're seeing?
You've touched on this earlier,but anything else you want to
add to how you're sharing thosestories within your communities?

Sure. So I think being in communications,
you always have to try newthings and engage in new ways.
And one of the most refreshingprograms that I run, I mentioned
my interns. So when we weretrying to get the performance
based pathway Bill passed, itkind of dawned on me that we
were talking about thesignificance of these high

(24:34):
school students and their workexperience and how that can
contribute. And I thought,let's, let's walk the talk and
let's hire some high schoolstudents to help me with
communications. We're trying toreach their peers sometimes and
we're doing a terrible job.
Let's see if they have any ideasand people thought I was crazy
paying high school students forthis but I have never had more
fun or thought about my job indifferent ways. And I think with

(24:57):
the help of these two youngladies, we've managed to connect
with so many experts and amazingpeople that want to connect with
them just because theirstudents, they want to do
interviews with them, we justgot back from sub pop records in
Seattle. I don't know if youknow, but that's Nirvana's old
label al AF. And the studentsgot to sign their name on this

(25:22):
huge signature wall and learnabout different internships at
sub pop records. And this is allbecause their attorney wanted to
be a part of their series fromstudents professional. They've
talked with the communityengagement guy from the
Seahawks, they talked with theCEO of code.org. I mean, people
want to hear from them. Andthat's the state board kind of

(25:45):
getting in with these people andhearing their stories, and then
hearing how they feel abouthands on learning and watching
them talk with my students. AndI think some of the most
impactful interviews have beenwith from peer to peer. So they
interviewed students at MaritimeHigh School about, you know,
canoe making and a bunch ofother things. And I think that

(26:06):
inspires lawmakers, I think itinspires the education
community, as a whole to kind ofsee these examples that they
didn't know, were out there andthink maybe we could do it here.
That's kind of been my goal. AndI think I'm gonna miss these
girls so much. They'regraduating soon, but I think
it's going to be a reallyimpactful program moving
forward.

I want to add, I personally love the fact that
Stephanie has those folks, thoseyoung people, I love to read
what they're up to. I rememberseeing an interview they had in
Tacoma, recently with this galthat was just so weird, because
it comes from a differentperspective. And that's what I'm
saying. I mean, this is what'sthis great about this podcast,
too, because Stephanie is bold,she's, you know, taking on this

(26:50):
challenge, because she alwayssaid, Well, how's that really
going to work out? And I thinkit's worked out great as just
like a viewer, like a, like aperson learning about what the
State Board of Education is upto. I feel like it has a lot
more authenticity, when I'mhearing it from young people,
because they're living it, youknow, in the end, like
Stephanie, saying, they havedifferent perspective, we're,
you know, we always talk aboutsocial media or whatever, how

(27:12):
are they interacting with socialmedia? How do they interact with
their peers? So we have a lot tolearn. But when you do that,
walk the walk and actually havethose folks working with you.
You learn a lot, probably morethan they do in some ways, I
think. Yeah.

Yeah.
They're like little celebrities.

Stephanie that's great. I just love hearing that.
It's amazing, right? We haven'tfigured this out. And every time
we're, we kind of have thatshock that students and young
people communicate messagesbetter and more effectively with
folks that we would really liketo have in the audience. And we

(27:47):
go, Wow, what an unbelievableconcept. But when people take
that on and do that, it's just Ithink the results are fantastic.
And you should be commended forthat.

Thanks.
Yeah, it's been awesome.

Okay, I heard a speaker recently say that the
next three to five years inworkforce development are going
to be the most exciting, mostinnovating and scariest three to
five years that we've had in awhile. It's just critical stuff.
So we won't touch scary. But,Marina, if you were to say, what

(28:17):
are you most hopeful about thefuture of workforce development,

I want to turn to skills based hiring. I think
that that, you know, that's sortof a term of art. There's people
know what that means, I think,but it's really breaking down
credentials, you know, postsecondary credentials into their
component pieces, as well asjust figuring out what people
come to the table with. Andrespecting that and
understanding that because, aswe know, again, we're at this

(28:44):
pivotal, we would say, watershedmoment and workforce
development. We know employerscan't get enough skilled
workers, we know that theirtraditional methods aren't
working for them anymore. Theycan't just go well, I'm going to
put it out for just people withbachelor's degrees, for example,
multiple states for it, forexample, have removed bachelor's
degrees as a minimum requirementfor a lot of their job postings.

(29:06):
Washington State employerslooking at that same pathway. So
again, what do people bring tothe table? How do we show them?
How do we help people advocatefor themselves? So to say, I can
do this, this and this, how canI prove I can do this, this and
this and how can I connect withemployers? So I will say that,
at the Workforce Board, one ofthe things that we work a lot on

(29:27):
currently, and I think it'sgoing to go on for the next 10
years, at least is credentialtransparency, which is another
big word, but basically, youknow, what's inside this
credential? You know, what arethe skills and competencies that
this person can do? How do Iverify that those are actually
in existence if it's not in atraditionally transcripted
degree? And then a lot of thisis also coming down to

(29:49):
technology like I spoke aboutearlier, which is digital
wallets, for example. So thatpeople can take their
information with them, they canshare it as they want. We always
want the employee or thecustomer to have control over
their wallet, for example, butthen they can share that
instantly with the playersrather than going. Okay, now
what do I do? Or what what aremy skills, it's just something

(30:12):
that that is with them. It'skind of like your own personal
marketing firm, your digitalwallet. But that's a piece of
Prudential transparency. It'sjust making it a much more
seamless system for workers toconnect with employers. And I
think employers are so ready forthis because again, they've had
so many hiring challenges thatthey can see, okay, that worker
can do this communications work,they have this math, math

(30:36):
skills, they can do Excel worksdeal with spreadsheets, what are
the things that that person cando? You know, what I used to
think I have to hire abachelor's degree person turns
out, I don't have to, theyactually have the key skills I
need to hire. And that helpsthat person move into the
workforce and helps the employerget the skilled worker they
need. And that's just going tokeep growing. I just anticipate
skills based hiring is just,it's got a lot of momentum.

So much fun.
Oh, go ahead Chad.

I was just gonna say that is as exciting and
possibility, I think in theworld of education, what we can
do for the students that weserve, is to give them those
access to that type of tool. Wecan do it in so many parts of
our lives. But we have not donethat yet in the educational

(31:21):
system. And I think it's we needto get there. And we need to get
there really soon. So I lovethat. I love that comment.

I will add we've piloted just so talking about
local project, we piloted aproject in Spokane, which is on
the eastern part of WashingtonState, where we have first
generation college students. Sothese are entering freshmen
going into Eastern WashingtonUniversity, it's a summer bridge
program. And they were issueddigital wallets through a
platform called Merit. Andthat's what there's multiple

(31:50):
platforms out there. But wepartnered with Merit, they were
each given a digital wallet,they were given some curriculum,
these students these again,these were first gen students,
so some career studies, and soeducation studies, so they could
get badges automatically intothe wallet kind of get some
momentum. And they were alsoconnected. This is the part we
were talking about earlier withan employer. That's that key

(32:11):
ingredient that's so difficult.
They were connected withProvidence Hospital in Spokane
and given opportunities to dosome job shadows. And work based
learning as part of theironboarding basically, into
Eastern Washington University.
And Chiness was very excitingwas lots of positive response
from the students and fromProvidence, too, because

(32:32):
Providence had to be reallybought into that it was very
instrumental in this as well. Soyeah, that's just an example of
what we're doing in Washingtonto kind of advance credential
transparency through digitalwallets are called LER. Somebody
we know that they're calledlearning and employment records,
but sometimes it's shorthandcalled digital wallets.

Yeah.

Would you send that to me that information? That's
fantastic. And just the kind ofthing that needs to be done all
over the place.
And it was I should also add,that was through the National
Governors Association skillsbased learning grants, I need to
give them props as well, becausethey help fuel the investment in
that project. I will send ityour way. Yeah.

That's great.
Well, this really has been sucha pleasure meeting both of you
and hearing more about the workyou're doing. It's so exciting.
I think you're makingtransformative change throughout
the state. So look forward towatching and watching your
continued success. Where can ourlisteners learn more about you
Marina, and connect with you andStephanie same thing with you,

Oh they can always go to our Workforce Board
website, that's a great place tostart. It's www.wtb.wa.gov.

So simple,

Really simple. We just go right into that website.
And we've got all sorts ofresearch reports that people can
look at lots of initiativesgoing on. We are in the middle
of the legislative session.
Well, that's not quite surewe're coming into the
homestretch. Right, Stephanie.
We're almost I feel like we'regetting close. So we do a lot of
legislative work. If you'reinterested in workforce
development, we track multipleworkforce bills, and I do put

(33:57):
out a newsletter twice a month,I send that out to anybody who
wants to be on it. And there arelots of national subscribers. So
feel free to sign up for thenewsletter and you can find out
what's happening workforce ineducation, Washington.

All right.
Thank you again, so much. Bothof you. Appreciate it.

Thanks for joining us for the Build Momentum
podcast today. If you enjoyedlistening, we would love to hear
your feedback, and would begrateful if you would leave us a
review.
This helps us to share thesepowerful stories with even more
people. If you liked what youheard, we would be honored if
you could share this episodewith someone in your network. We
look forward to seeing you nexttime on Build Momentum.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S04E15 - Workforce Development in Washington State | Marina Parr & Stephanie Davidsmeyer | REPLAY