Please note that this transcript was auto-generated. We apologize for any minor errors in spelling or grammar.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: [00:00:00] Okay, well good morning everyone. My name is Julie Shields and I am the senior Director of college planning education and training at MEFA. And I’m welcoming you, uh, because MEFA is sponsoring this, uh, terrific webinar this morning for Mass Edco. And we really love to support all of Mass Ed Echo’s work.

Um, what a terrific partner you are. And, uh, this I think is gonna be great this morning. I know I’m gonna learn a lot. Uh, this webinar is entitled The Growing Demand for Microcredentials and Other Short-Term Programs. And I think we’re all finding that, uh, we want to have as many options for students and we wanna educate students about all of the options that, um, are available to them, uh, when they’re planning their futures.

Uh, so we have a terrific panel and. Couple of housekeeping pieces. Um, I have recorded this webinar, so we [00:01:00] will post this and it will live in the MEFA Institute. So we will send you the link so you’ll always have access to this and you can share it with colleagues who aren’t able to be here today. And as we’re going along with, uh, with the panel, if you have questions, please put them in the q and a or in the chat so that we can make sure that we can answer those.

Some may be behind the scenes and make sure by the end we leave a little time to have your questions answered. So with that, I will turn it over to you, mark.

Panelist: Thanks Julian. Thank you for your sponsorship. We really appreciate it. I think most of the folks that are on this call and certainly on the panel appreciate the topic.

I think we’re all recognizing that there seems to be a trend, uh, in the growing demand for short-term programs. I think, uh, it’s important for those of us who work with students, uh, adults and families to be as up to speed on where we’re at. [00:02:00] We are convening panelists who represent, from our perspective three of the, uh, areas that probably provide a good portion of short-term programs, which include community colleges, uh, vocational and technical schools, as well as the mass hire centers.

So today we have four panelists joining us. Kathy Wrench, who’s Vice President for Academic Affairs at Quinsigamond Community College. Krista McKenna, who is the Dean of Workforce and Economic Development at Bunker Hill Community College. Mary May, who’s the director at the Abbe Community Education asbe, do more at Asbe Valley Regional Technical High School and GI Brail.

Eunice, who’s the operations manager at the Mass Hire Central Career Centers. We’ve asked each of the panelists to, uh, address some of the overall trends that they’re seeing in their arena, and then to talk about maybe some of their specific programs that they’re offering, as well as how their programs are funded and or what the [00:03:00] costs are to participants and their financial aid eligibility.

And as Julie had mentioned, uh, out of respect to all of our panelists so that they can get through their presentations. We’re holding all the questions until the end. Uh, with that, I am going to turn it over to Kathy. Good morning everybody. I’m gonna share my screen. I can need glasses for that, and then we’ll get going.

There we go. So it’s very nice to be with all of you today. Many of my colleagues on this panel and all of you that have joined us. Um, I wanna start first, I think it’s important to understand when we look at trends here at Quinsigamond Community College, we really look first at what’s driving our programming and what’s driving the work that we’re doing with community partners and employers.

So, of course, [00:04:00] across the country, there are several things that are happening that are really driving lots of change at the community college level. First, the intense workforce shortages that I know we all know about the chamber is, WS Chamber has done a really interesting study, recommend you look at it.

Um, looking at each state. The intensity of their, uh, workforce shortage. As you can see here in Massachusetts, we are, I don’t remember how they categorized it, but we’re at a critical level, 42 workers for every 100 open jobs. So this was published over the summer. It may have changed slightly, but we are in a critical, uh, space, which drives employers to be more creative about the kinds of skills and credentials they look for in their, uh, employees when they don’t have a lot of, um, options.

Which then comes to the second point, is this shift. It’s a slow shift from credential based to skills-based hiring. Many of you may [00:05:00] remember that last spring, governor Healy in, uh, announced that the, uh, Massachusetts government would be moving towards a skill-based hiring strategy, which puts emphasis on the experience, skills, and expertise that someone brings to the job, not necessarily only, or, or, or privileging the education credential.

Um, that is a huge shift, uh, across all industries. And I would say there are different industries in different places with really taking that forward. But I think it’s important to know this is happening across the country and that state governments like Massachusetts are really committing to it to, for two reasons.

One, to make sure that we get the widest pool of available workers. To apply for jobs. And second, from an equity point of view, to make sure people that have traditionally been left out of more traditional, uh, employment processes have an [00:06:00] opportunity to demonstrate what they know and can do. And the last thing that I wanna talk about in terms of trends across the country is the growth in apprenticeships.

I think for all of us. We know and understand apprenticeships in the skilled trades, in plumbing, electrical, those kinds of fields over the last 10 plus years. Um, the growth of apprenticeships across industry sectors far beyond the traditional ones we know and understand has really taken hold in advanced manufacturing, in finance, and it, especially in healthcare.

Um, those are, uh, areas where we’re seeing apprenticeships being developed, um, uh, collectively in those industries and at large scale. And another thing that’s newer to us in Massachusetts, and I know my colleague Kristen from Bunker Hill, we’re working on this jointly, is the introduce the introduction, excuse me, of apprenticeship degrees.

Which, um, allows us to rework, it’s really forcing us [00:07:00] to rework the curriculum in our academic programs, building an apprenticeship in from the start. So someone doesn’t have to make the choice between going to school or keeping their job. They’re able to do both simultaneously. It’s very similar to the, um, strategy the UK has used for a long time to prepare engineers and other technical workers.

And, uh, there are four community colleges of Massachusetts that were funded by the Smith Family Foundation and accelerate the future to introduce apprenticeship degree pathways over the next three years. Um. In Massachusetts, I, I won’t go into all of these in detail, but I want you to know what some of the priorities are here because again, this is driving and it’s coming to the credentialing piece.

This is driving the way we’re looking at how we serve our students and how we work with and serve the employer partners that, um, are looking for our graduates. From a legislative point of view, these were the [00:08:00] priorities in this past year. The, the first couple of priorities, um, of course focus on affordability and student support.

I will talk a little bit more about free community college later. Um, the Success Initiative is a student support initiative that allows us to, has allowed us to expand our advising workforce significantly and really introduce case management advising at scale, which is something we were never able to do before because we did not have the funding to bring that many advisors on.

But this has allowed us an incredible support system to not only pull our students in, but to wrap around them the entire time they’re with us. From a workforce development point of view, many of these programs are probably familiar to you. What I wanna say writ large about this is that I think this is evidence of.

Community college priorities focused on human capital development and investing funds in, uh, workforce training, [00:09:00] workforce focus training, and or on specific industries like early education and care that are, are experiencing critical, critical workforce shortages. Um, so all of these things contribute to that.

And then I wanna tell you a little bit about what’s happening at QCC and then I’ll tell you what we’re doing. Um, so at QCC over this last year, um, we have seen growing enrollment last, last fiscal year and again this year, um, largely, um, uh, motivated by the legislators, legislature’s commitment to mass reconnect last year, which was free community college for people over the age of 20, uh, 25, who did not have an academic credential this year, mass educated, expanded that to all students.

And, um, in this past fall, our enrollment, our full-time and, uh, FTE grew by 15%. Um, our part-time, full-time ratio is still skewed [00:10:00] very heavily toward part-time, which I think really indicates where we are in terms of, um, our students having to both make a living support, uh, that contribute and support to their families and go to school.

Um, I, I mean, our campus locations are just for your information. We don’t need to talk about that here, and I will talk to you. Uh, these are our top programs by enrollment. Healthcare is no surprise to any of you. Um, it continues to be of highest demand among, uh, many of our, our, our student applicants followed by, um, business.

It. Areas. Um, what I will say, and let me talk to you a little bit about what we offer and where we’re doing some micro-credentialing and where we’re focusing some efforts. So QCC offers, of course, degree in certificate programs in the five areas that I’ve mentioned. Their business computing and applied tech, English and humanities, [00:11:00] healthcare, math, science and education, and public service, education and social science.

When we build curriculum, we typically, especially in career focused areas, build it with certificates that stack into the degree pathways. So a form of micro-credentialing, um, in business computing and applied techno technologies right now, advanced manufacturing and it are of highest demand. I’ll tell you, accounting and finance, also very intense demand from employers.

Um. Likewise in healthcare. I mean, I think we all know that the, uh, the demand there is not only nurse nurse education, although there is an in enormous demand there. But in surgical technology, in, uh, respiratory therapy, rad tech, across the boards in healthcare, we are seeing intense demand and looking at ways we can accelerate our students [00:12:00] through those programs.

Um, you know, QCC by virtue of being a community college, is also just able to provide very robust academic and student supports. Again, not only to pull them into the pathways, but to wrap around and keep them here. We have a big effort going on relative to food security and our food pantry, which has grown dramatically a lot of.

Support for our parenting students, many of whom are young parents who need the supports in order to pursue their education. Of course, we offer credit for prior learning. We are re um, revamping many of our transfer agreements with our four year partners to make them far more advantageous for our students than past agreements.

I think many of the publics, but especially the private colleges, see, um, mass educate. They understand that free community college is gonna drive a lot of students to us, and they are reaching out to us, [00:13:00] looking at ways to make our transfer agreements more. Attractive to our make the transfer agreements we have with them more attractive.

And of course we have free community college, which I’ll talk a little bit about at the end. Um, one thing I’ll tell you, which I mentioned earlier, you will see apprenticeship degree pathways at QCC rolling out in the fall in practical nurse education and in medical assisting. The following fall in 26, we will roll out one in it and the following year in early education and care.

So those are the four pathways we are working on today in our workforce development unit. And I’m not gonna talk much about this ’cause Kristen really leads the one at Bunker Hill, but we do short term skills focused training, a lot of customized corporate training. And again, apprenticeships. We’ve been working on apprenticeships and youth apprenticeships.

For many years, many of those youth apprenticeships are built in, um, coordination with our early college and [00:14:00] dual enrollment pathways. And so we’re looking at ways that we can tie the things that we are doing across the board, um, together to make it so that students have steps to, to move from one, uh, experience to another.

And finally, I’ll talk about cost a little bit for our workforce development and our short-term programs. Costs vary by training, but many of them are grant funded and are offered at lower no cost. In fact, through the pandemic, the Commonwealth has invested an incredible amount of resource into workforce development.

And we have been able to offer, well, virtually, I think at this point, all of our workforce training programs in healthcare and IT, and some of the ones in manufacturing at lower no cost. And often with. A stipend, a student incentive stipend is part of that. Um, many of those also then from a credit for prior learning point of view, stack into our [00:15:00] academic, our degree pathways for credit bearing programs.

I mean, our tuition and fees link is there. It’s roughly about a thousand dollars for a three credit course. But remember, with Mass Educate now what, what we’re calling free community college, but what the community college people like to say is funded community college students who are pursuing six credits or more.

So essentially, um, two courses and have applied to and been accepted to a program at the college are, um, are eligible to apply for financial aid and we will work with them. And it’s true for all 15 of us. We will work with them to get all of the state, federal, and state dollars that are available to support their work.

Um, and then the free, the funded community college component of that is last dollar. So the Commonwealth picks up the remaining amount so that students can actually attend at no cost. Um, I have a [00:16:00] link here, which I won’t share now, but that is the details of it all 15 community college colleges have an info page like this on their websites.

Um, but I will say this has been a game changer for many, many people. Um, and that, that does it for me.

Thanks Kathy. Uh, and also for helping to queue up. Kristen. Kristen, let me turn it over to you. Good morning everyone. I’m Kristen McKenna. I’m the Dean of Workforce In. Economic development at Bunker Hill Community College. Um, and so I head up the, uh, area of the college that works on short-term credentials and, um, works with employers and many of the same things that my colleague Kathy does in her workforce division.

Um, I’m gonna share my slideshow now and if that’s [00:17:00] working and,

okay. Does everyone see that? We’re good. Great. So, um, uh, we have two campuses, two full campuses, and one in Chelsea and one in Charlestown. We have a lot of small campuses like the POW Center, Malden, a variety of other places where we run classes. Um, but our two official campuses are in Chelsea and Charlestown.

Um, and I just. The college itself is, is very diverse. We’re, we are the ninth most diverse community college in the United States. Um, and we serve about 18, um, thousand students between workforce development and our credit programs. Um, and you can just log on to our website to learn a lot more about the college in general, but I wanted to focus on our division, which is workforce development.

Um, I’m very grateful that Kathy already mentioned Mass Educate and [00:18:00] a few other things that I was gonna touch on, and she gave such a great, uh, detailed explanation of it, so I might gloss over those, but. We can always have questions in the end. Um, so our division has grown dramatically over the last six years, and in FY 24, we served a little under 6,000 students, um, with short term credentials, English as a second language programs, adult education, and um, and contract, um, uh, employer contracts.

Some of them credit, some of them non-credit. So, um, so our staff grew from seven full-time staff to 19 full-time staff due to the growth of, of a lot of these areas and the trends that we’re talking about. Overall, I would say the growth is particularly in workforce credentials that have industry recognized credentials.

Um, and especially for underserved communities. That is definitely the trend and something that we’re responding to, um, you know, uh, on a daily basis. Um, here’s a range of programs, [00:19:00] uh, that we offer that are short term training and microcredentials, and, you know, this is where the growth has been because we’re looking for those industry recognized credentials and looking for ways in which people can take a small step, maybe towards maybe, um, uh, a bigger training program, a more in depth training program or into the, our credit side of the house with programs that might assist them in healthcare IT and so forth.

Um, demand is very much the same as, as what Kathy mentioned in the Worcester area. Healthcare is king right now, and then of course, it, and some other programs. Um, but we, we pretty much have a. Um, I would say a, a broad scope of, of programs that we offer in different areas. Um, but no doubt it is, is the greatest, um, area that we are serving both in short-term credentials and degrees and partnerships with hospitals and other medical providers.

Um, so this is just a, a list here, and I’m gonna touch on each one of these. [00:20:00] Um, our adult education program is a free program that’s DEI funded. We often have waiting lists, but I wanted to mention it because, um, someone in the audience might have a student that needs to be referred to our, an adult education program to get more, uh, language skill development or work on their GED or their hi set.

We also have a language institute that works with, um, students whose first language is not English. They’re international students, local students, immigrant students, a variety. And I wanted to mention one thing. If you’re in the city of Somerville, there is a free opportunity for students to be able to study, um, English as a second language, as well as get a customer service and career readiness, um, micro-credential.

Um, and so I, I’m putting this information up here for people to go back to later if they need to know more information or ask questions about. Um, the, some, here’s a little bit more detail about who would [00:21:00] qualify for that free class or, and free opportunity. Um, and it’s Somerville, residents age 18. Um, and, you know, we are serving students that haven’t been served as much before.

Low income communities of color and traditionally underserved individuals. So these, these small opportunities that we get with city funding and, you know, other funders are great opportunities for someone in those communities. And so we have community partners that we work with, um, small nonprofits, um, and other, um, uh, agencies, social work, a agencies like Cass and the Welcome Project and East Somerville Main Street.

Um, community education is a big area of the work that we do in our division, and we offer a lot of courses that you can sign up for online. Um, very workforce focused. Um, but one of the things I wanted to mention is that we do have funding for students to take the teas prep. Exam, especially if they’re going into [00:22:00] nursing.

So if a student that you know, or someone’s looking to apply to the nursing program and apply to any of the nursing programs in the state, they have to take the teas exam, um, in order to, um, qualify the, for that program. And they need to get a good score. So we’ve got a free program here by a private funder, um, the Lynn Family Foundation, who is helping people to, um, take the test prep and the test at no cost and take it over and over again until you are able to get the score that you need to get into a competitive nursing program.

Once you’re in that nursing program too, there’ll be, um, various supports and bootcamp, um, uh, strategies that will help students who are struggling in that first year of nursing. ’cause that’s a really tough program. We also have the good jobs, um, challenge grant through the city of Boston and in the, in our greater Boston area.

And that is funding programs in clean energy and, [00:23:00] um, and more hands-on programs like Marine technician program and public water system operator. And the information is here for people who would, will like to do more of a hands-on job. We can train you in marine, um, technician, uh, repair. That would be outboard motors and, and small, um, not large diesel engines like you see on a ferry or something like that.

But we, um, have this program. We’re also expanding to hopefully include things like diesel repair and, and other, um, marine and uh, blue economy type jobs. So, you know, always check out our website. Things are popping up all the time, but. Um, additionally, introduction to water system Operator. This is an area, uh, that is retiring quickly.

People don’t realize that, you know, you’ve gotta get your water from somewhere and there’s gotta be people to help you with that. So we have an intro course here, um, for people who are interested in trying that, and that is free for now with subsidies and, and this [00:24:00] grant funding. Um, I know my colleague, uh, Jabil is gonna talk a lot more about what Mass Hire does, but we also do paperwork and help support students who are going into the TOPS program, which is training Opportunity program that is someone who’s unemployed and wants to pursue a program of study.

Um, we assist in our division with that. We also have programs that are approved for its or individual training accounts. Um, the Enterprise Center for Entrepreneurship is, um, a small business center, um, that the college has. Based on our Chelsea campus, we offer many free workshops, um, for small businesses or people interested in starting a business.

Um, and many of the employees of these small businesses can take things like serve, save, CPR, first Aid, nonprofit management. All these microcredentials are offered in our, um, ECET Center, and some of them are bi bilingual in Spanish and Portuguese as well. [00:25:00] Um, and as, as Kathy mentioned, apprenticeships are really big.

We are an apprenticeship hub and a, we can be a co-sponsor for any, um, employer who wants to do apprenticeship. We’re very focused right now on early childhood education, and we can help someone work on a certificate, A CDA, which is the child Development Associate, uh, certificate that you need for licensure or a degree in early childhood education.

And they will, uh, receive a subsidy from the Department of um, apprenticeship standards as well as Mass Educate can help someone get through the degree program while doing an apprenticeship. Um, and we work with several providers in the, in the Boston area to offer these working opportunities. Um, we also partner with, um, a clean energy, um, utility, uh, group that, uh, sponsored by our local utilities like Eversource and so forth.

Um, and we refer people to [00:26:00] weather ship weatherization training and HVAC training. Um, here’s some information. They do the training. We are the referral, um, body that helps connect students to this kind of training. And so if you want more information, you can reach out to my colleague Lauren, whose email is here, or look at the Pathways, the Clean Energy Pathways.

This is also free and um, you know, you have to kind of apply and see if you are eligible to be in this program. But it’s a great opportunity for some those that are interested in that area. Um, we have another grant with the City of Boston that’s in the life sciences, and anyone who is a Boston resident can receive, um, support to take a freele phlebotomy class, um, in our division or the medical lab certificate, or the medical lab degree, or if you have a degree and you want to get, um, more experience in a medical lab science program.

We also have free tuition for an MGB program [00:27:00] in medical laboratory science. Um, and more information is there as well as the contact information. Um, and the big thing that we do, um, that addresses a lot of short term programs is our R three funding. Which stand, which stands for Rapid Recovery and Reemployment.

This largely came, uh, into being after Covid when we saw so many people who were unemployed or underemployed who had the opportunity to come back to school and with a short term certificate, could make a lot more money than they were making perhaps in the service industry. Um, we particularly focused on, um, people with financial need to do this.

Um, and so there is a screening process in which someone who’s interested in program will work with my colleagues to figure out what program you could take for free, be subsidized, and sometimes even have a stipend as well. Those programs here are kind of color coded, as in some of them are specific to the Boston residents can go for free.

And then [00:28:00] some of them are a combination of funding from state and other, uh, private funders that you just need to be a Massachusetts resident or have been laid off in the state of Massachusetts. And those are listed here. Um, I’ll, I’ll point out on this list. Medical interpreter is funded by the Biogen Foundation and we typically each semester have 18 seats open for someone who is fluent in, um, either Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian, Creole, um, Mandarin Chinese, or Arabic.

Um, we don’t offer all of those languages at once. It’s kind of like, you know, uh, we see who, who applies and then, you know, we offer the class that has the most, um, uh, students interested in it. But we could offer Spanish. Arabic and Chinese in one semester. If you are fluent in that language and your English is at least to a ninth grade, uh, reading level, you may be eligible for this program, which is completely funded by the Biogen [00:29:00] Foundation and in a variety of other sources.

And that’s for people interested in going into hospitals and being an interpreter with families. Um, and, um, patients. It’s, um, it’s really quite a popular program and we fill up really easily with that one. Um, and the last thing I wanted to mention is we have a Career Pathways navigation person. Her information is here.

Um, it’s funded right now by the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, and this allows, um, a student who just doesn’t know where to start to be able to speak to a career navigator and for free, get the support and get all the options available to them so that they can, um, you know, figure out what pathway is right for the student.

And lastly, um, if anyone has any questions that we’ll take in the end, I’ll be happy to answer them. And I did not wanna go into the whole thing about mass educated. I’m glad Kathy did. But if you wanna know more about mass educator Mass reconnect, please click on [00:30:00] this link, um, for Bunker Hill Community College.

So, and that is, that’s it for me. Thank you. Much appreciated, Kristin. Uh, shifting from the community colleges now to the vocational and technical high schools, I’m gonna turn to Mary

and Mary, you’re muted.

There we go. Hi, my name. My name is Mary May. I’m the director of asit Community Education. Um, we offer, uh, technical training programs. That’s our Asit Technical Institute. That’s what we’re gonna focus on today. We also have our LPN program. We have our ASID After Dark, which is all of our personal enrichment classes.

And we also have an Asit youth program that we offer in the [00:31:00] summer for our fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. But today we’re gonna circle back to the Asit Technical Institute. Um, I’m gonna start with employment trends. I’m not gonna get too far in the weeds with this, but I just wanna focus on the areas in which I offer, uh, training.

Um, overall the construction industry has shown, uh, the strongest growth driven by demand for skilled trades. At the same time, manufacturing automotive clusters are either stable or slightly declining, impacted by technology shifts in broader economic factors. When referring to the construction cluster, I’m including carpentry, electrical, plumbing, HVAC technicians, and they have a median income of about 61,000 to 82,000.

We have seen significant growth in the clusters with a 35.9% increase in jobs over the past decade despite the covid related decline. Also, noteworthy carpenters have approximately 20,000 [00:32:00] annual openings. Electricians have approximately 18,000, and plumbers have approximately 50,000

in this cluster. Uh, for manufacturing. I’m referring to machinists, sheet metal workers, CNC tool operators and welders. This data reflects a slightly downturn. Those specific technical roles like CNC operators and welders still show, uh, growth potential. Automotive repair and, uh, maintenance sectors has experienced some job losses over the past decade.

The trend indicates that while the demand for automotive services continues, the industry faces some challenges. The technical training program specific tobit, I’ve listed them for you. Um, I’ve also noted, uh, the ones that are grant funded and I also, we do have medical programs with phlebotomy and, um, medical [00:33:00] billing and coding, uh, was not on this list, but these are pretty much all the, uh, technical training programs that we offer at Abit.

And again, we we’re focusing on the construction trades as well, but also we’ve added cosmetology aesthetics, um, HVAC construction supervisor. So it’s a pretty diverse listing of training programs. For funding resources we’re heavily funded, um, and consistently funded, um, by CTI Grants, um, CTI grants support technical training for students graduating from comprehensive schools that did not have an opportunity to attend vocational training, um, at voc schools, and also supports, uh, unemployed and underemployed individuals.

This career technical initiative, CTI, um, was an initiative by former, [00:34:00] uh, governor Baker and Pluto administration. Um, they understood the value in, uh, supporting technical training for young adults. I. We also have a foundation they like to remain anonymous. Um, who support not only students coming into the trades, but also they’re supporting the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders that wanna attend our, um, our summer program.

So it’s a great introduction to the school and it kind of plants that seed for, uh, vocational training. We also have payment plans. I’m not gonna click on the link. Um, so one of the things we found, and it, it was, uh, very challenging for people to go through training. Um, if they didn’t receive funding, ’cause they weren’t eligible, we still wanted them to participate in the training.

So we didn’t want any barriers. [00:35:00] So what we did was we set up payment plans and these payment plans. We give them options to follow how the income comes into their home. So most adults coming here, other than unemployed, are working during the day. So if they’re getting paid biweekly, they get to check off a biweekly PA payment plan.

So, and we, we spread it out over however long the program takes to complete. So when they leave here, they leave here without any debt. And that was really important to us. ’cause we all know, um, you know, student loan debt and that it’s just staggering. Um, so that was important to us to give them that option.

Um, and not, not to have barriers for people that didn’t. Meet the eligibility requirement, but also, you know, to give, afford them the opportunity for the training like everyone else. We also have miscellaneous funding sources and, uh, we’ll get into the Mass Hire de Braille. Um, mass Rehabilitation Commission also sends quite a few folks here.

We have the va, [00:36:00] um, my turn in smock, uh, for funding resources. And again, the industry recognized credentials, the stack credentials. This is, this is what is so important. Um, so some of these, whether it’s, uh, the NHA for the National Healthcare Association, EPA 6 0 8 is on the, uh, HVAC side. They, they’ll also get a OSHA 10 and a hot work card, uh, American Welding Society.

So it’s really important to us that what the funding that they receive through CTI. It also is, uh, offers them barrier mitigation. So it, it supports the students’ experience here holistically. So if they have challenges with transportation or childcare, um, we’re, we’re covering all that. And what we’re building is a portfolio.

That portfolio is the end game for employment. So these stack [00:37:00] credentials are in their portfolio. We support resume writing, cover letters. Um, we, we give them gift cards or tools of the trade. So when they leave here on that last day of graduation, we host a reverse job fair. And, and they’re, they’re manned with their portfolio and that’s what we’re building.

Um, so when we look at first glance at the CTI grants, it just looks like, oh, there’s, that’s a funding re resource. It’s more than that. It’s, you know, barrier mitigation, portfolio building, whatever we can do to make them shine. As a, a candidate in front of a potential employer. That’s it. Thank you Mary.

Much appreciated. Sure. Let me, uh, turn it now over to GI and Mary, if you can stop sharing.[00:38:00]

There we go. Jabil. It’s alls. All right, great. Good morning folks. I just wanna make sure that you can see my PowerPoint once I get it going. You’re able to see my PowerPoint? Yes. Okay, great. Again, good morning. Thank you everybody. Uh, and just, you know, really you’re, you’re in the presenter format. Okay.

Lemme see if I can switch that.

Better. There you go. All right, great. Thank you. I just wanna say I really enjoyed the presentations from my colleagues. It’s really great to see how interconnected we are. And again, they talked about a lot of the things that I’m also gonna touch on now. Uh, but again, my name is Jabre Eunice. I’m an operations manager at Mass Hire Central Career Centers in Worcester.

And again, I’m gonna touch on Mass [00:39:00] Hire, uh, more broadly. We are a statewide agency through the Department of Career Services. So everything that I touch on today gonna be very similar to the Mass Hire Center, uh, in your neighborhood. Okay. So again, we are across the state. Um, as we were talking earlier, there are now 28 mass hire career centers across the state.

Uh, we are in the central region that is that, uh, kind of dark yellow color you see there in Worcester County. And here is a closer look at our area. We are located in Worcester and Southbridge, particularly in downtown Worcester and on, uh, mechanic Street now in Southbridge, right where all the commerce is having, uh, happening in these different cities.

I’ll mention that in Mass Hire Central, we are a partnership of, again, the Department of Career Services as well as the City of Worcester. Every career center across the state is co-opt by the Department of Career Services, as [00:40:00] well as some other bidder that every couple of years goes out to bid for partnership of facilitating the career center.

Uh, in Worcester, again, it’s the city of Worcester, but if you were to go to say, Leominster, be Mount Wahoo Community College, if you were to go out to Boston, it could be the Goodwill. So it depends on the different area. They’re operated by different entities. Again, oftentimes a municipality, uh, oftentimes it is a nonprofit or the local community college.

And I will say too, that we are funded, I’m mandated by a law to tell you this, that we are funded through, uh, United States Department of Labor, um, and again through the executive office of Workforce and Labor Development at the State Department of Career Services. And again, we are a public service. So we’re funded through taxpayer dollars, uh, individuals, but mostly even I would say probably companies, businesses.

Uh, so we are free service to everyone and it doesn’t matter who you are, we’ll serve you. And again, we serve [00:41:00] everyone, uh, whether you’re a Massachusetts State resident or not. Um, whether you’re employed or not, a lot of people get confused and think Mass Hire only serves those folks that are on unemployment insurance, but really will serve anyone.

Uh, even if you have a great job and a great career, but you’re looking for something else or a change in your career, we’ll serve you as well. And we serve a bunch of different special demographic groups depending on, uh, essentially what their specific needs are, maybe different barriers that they might be facing in enhancing their careers or accessing employment.

So I’ll talk about those things a little bit. Those specialized services, uh, really kind of focus more on, like I said, different demographic groups. So whether you’re a veteran, we actually have priority of service for veterans. That’s our policy. Uh, so if you have veteran status, you come to the career center.

We have special counselors just to work with you, and we have special grants and programs, uh, to serve you as well, youth and young adults. Similarly, there is a special [00:42:00] counselor just for young folks that are under 24 years old, and then mature workers. Those folks that might be experiencing ageism potentially as a barrier or they need to do a career change based on what their current needs are.

Maybe again, their career was impacted by aging themselves. Think something that was very physically demanding, they need to make a change. We have special programs for those folks as well. Immigrants and migrant, seasonal farm workers. Um, you know, it’s kind of funny, we don’t think about Massachusetts as having a lot of migrant seasonal farm workers, but I’m sure everyone just experienced Apple picking recently, right in the fall.

Believe it or not, we have a lot of farmland in Massachusetts and people come, uh, from different parts of the world to work here. And so we have special services for them as well. Folks with a disability or those in recovery, uh, those with housing subsidies that might need to also manage their benefits.

Um, other folks that might be receiving public assistance benefits, say through Department of Transitional Assistance or others, those on [00:43:00] unemployment insurance, of course we do serve those folks, but it’s not limited to them. And anyone who’s eligible for the work opportunity tax credit, we would have special programs to support them as well.

Job seeker services really range. Um, and we like to try to meet people where they’re at, right? So again, whether you are a career professional, you’ve been in a certain industry for years, you’re an expert in your field, we want to meet you where you’re at there. Or if you’re, say maybe a young person just starting out with a un unknown career, you don’t know what you wanna do, you wanna do career exploration, we’ll try to meet you there as well.

Um, so we have everything from individual employment counseling to assessment tools for those folks that are trying to figure out what they wanna do, or they wanna understand the labor market and see what’s out there for them, see what those growing fields are. Uh, as well as of course we have our own job search engine I’ll touch on later.

It’s called Job Quest. That’s actually operated by the state, uh, [00:44:00] department of Career Services. And it has all types of jobs on it. You can create a profile there. You can go research jobs. You can see what events are taking place at the mass hire career centers and sign up for those things. So it’s basically, uh, it’s like our database almost in a way, in the information sharing platform that we have, we have a lot of workshops at the career centers.

Every career center offers similar workshops such as like resume writing, interview skills, but then other career centers around the state will offer more unique workshops. Just because, uh, you know, you, you live in Salem, doesn’t mean that you couldn’t attend a workshop in Southbridge, as most of them are actually offered virtually.

So, you know, you can expand your, your, your, your reach, uh, or your search when you’re going to look for different workshops that mass hire has to offer, and you can join those across the state. It doesn’t matter where you are. Again, we make direct job referrals to employers. Uh, we cannot place people. A lot of people sometimes confuse us for a placement agency.

We’re not a [00:45:00] placement agency. Uh, meaning I can’t just call up an employer and say, Hey, I got someone, and. You wind up working for them the next day. That’s, that’s not how it works. Really. What we do is we are empowering people to develop the skills to secure their own employment. Though again, we have great relationships with employers and we can make a referral.

I can go to an employer and say, Hey, I know you have this opening. Let me refer, uh, this job seeker to you. They’ve applied online, or whatever your application process is. We hope that maybe you consider them for an interview. It’s really the best that we can do. But also preparing you for that interview and knowing kind of the inside, uh, information about what that job entails or what that employer is looking for.

And again, we just have that human connection to the person on the other side. So you’re not just doing an online application and not hearing back. We can at least maybe try to get information from them. Where is your application? Right? What process are you in? Are you likely to get an interview? We can, we can try to help.

And then [00:46:00] we do a lot of different recruitment events and job fairs. I mean, I think in. Central. We probably average three or four job fairs a month or recruitment events. Um, some are really major, some are smaller, it depends. And then of course, access to training opportunities, which is kind of the crux of what we’re talking about today.

Uh, certificates. So we’ll talk more about that in depth as well. So again, individual employment counseling runs from just starting out from ground zero. I don’t know what I wanna do. As a job seeker. We’ll help you explore your options. What are your transferable skills? What do you like to do? What, what do you have experience in?

We can try to look and see again what the labor market entails. What are those skills that are in demand right now? If something interests you, we can help you with that career action plan to get into that job that you want. Uh, we do skills assessments. We have a lot of online tools as well as different, um, uh, tests like the Myers-Briggs.

Uh, again, resume assistance and critique. Everyone who’s [00:47:00] here is a certified professional resume writer. I’ll tell you a little secret and you know, talking about changing, uh, economy and trends and how technology changes everything. I’ll tell you the best resume critique tool out there right now would probably be chat.

GPT. Not gonna lie, we’re actually starting to use that ourselves a little bit, uh, in, in using AI tools because it’s so much faster, right? Rather than myself sitting for an hour reviewing someone’s resume, we’re starting to pop ’em into different, uh, technology platforms and in two seconds it critiques the resume, makes it that much better.

So just put a little FYI out FYI out there to folks if you need a quick, you know, resume critique or, or enhancement maybe using an AI tool. A lot of those are free interview coaching. That’s something that we have not been replaced by yet in terms of technology. So, uh, we are definitely here to help you with your interviewing skills.

We have a lot of different workshops as well as you can just sit one-on-one with somebody. Job [00:48:00] search assistance, as I mentioned before, job leads. You can find that on Job Quest or we can refer you to the job leads in the area and referrals to training and supportive services. Um, and more, and I I’ll mention too that the mass hire, uh, career centers across the state, we typically don’t offer the trainings here.

We contract with, again, many of the partners that you’ve already heard, whether it be ased or QCC or others. Uh, there’s so many different entities out there that are offering training opportunities. We partner with them. Okay. I mentioned assessment tools. Again, a lot of these are online. A lot of these are in person.

Uh, it’s just basically understanding what you wanna do as a worker. Um, a lot of people, again, come to us at this point in time. They’ll say, I’ll do anything or I don’t know what I wanna do. So we try to help them at that point. I mentioned labor market information. For those who don’t know, it’s [00:49:00] basically just understanding again, uh, what are the workforce needs in your area?

What are the skills that are in demand? What are those growing industries? Where can you find yourself, uh, in employment with the, the current skills that you have? Or what skills are you missing? And then we try to, you know, fill that gap for you by partnering with some of our, uh, training providers as well.

I mentioned Job Quest. Again, that’s that online, uh, you know, website and platform that we use. It’s actually the public, uh, facing platform of our statewide database, uh, which is really interesting. And so, again, a lot of jobs are posted there. It’s a job search engine. Uh, it’s a way to get in touch with the career centers.

It’s a way to schedule time one-on-one with a career coach. It’s a way to join of all of all of our workshops and hiring events. So if you’re not on Job Quest, if you’re looking for a job, you’re not on Job Quest, I highly recommend creating a profile there. And what’s also really cool about Job Quest is businesses [00:50:00] also create profiles and can search for folks directly through Job Quest.

Uh, so it’s kind of like, again, like a LinkedIn in a way, uh, where they can do their own search and try to find folks. Okay, I mentioned workshops. Every career center across the state offers workshops. We offer probably all the same basic ones. Um, you know, job search strategies, resume writing, interview skills and techniques.

But other career centers offer other more unique ones. So say if someone has a criminal record, um, they’re trying to navigate that. We have special workshops to help you try to figure out how to overcome those barriers. Again, we have a really great workshop here in Central for mature workers. There’s not too many other career centers doing that.

Uh, we call it using H Tiered Advantage. So if, if you’re looking for workshops, like I said, most of ’em are virtual. Now, that’s maybe one of the better things that came out of the pandemic. Only a few things came outta the pandemic that really helped us. But now, again, through technology, just like we’re having [00:51:00] this, this webinar here, you can access really any of the workshops across the state.

And I mentioned, again, we make referrals. So not only do we have employment counselors, but we have staff that just serve businesses. They go to employers, they understand what their workforce needs are, they understand their openings, uh, current and future. And then we try to share that information with our job seekers here.

We also serve businesses with, uh, accessing other state grants and resources. But again, primarily our focus, I, I would say, is on job seekers. But there is this good, you know, significant portion of the folks that are here that are serving businesses and trying to also help, uh, meet their needs. So again, those folks are the ones that set up a lot of our job fairs.

We have a really big job fair coming up, uh, this Friday, actually that’s gonna be exciting. And it’s, um, we call it our annual fall job fair, honoring our veterans. It’s open to everyone, not just veterans, uh, but we’ll have about 40 employers there. And we already [00:52:00] have about 250 people registered. Uh, earlier this year we did a job fair at Polar Park that brought in, uh, about 1500 people and also we filled a DCU center every year with about 120 employers in supportive services.

And that brought in over 2000 job seekers earlier this year. Uh, so again, a lot’s happening when it comes to recruitment events, other supportive services. We offer our connections to community resources. Again, we have a multilingual services, so you don’t have to just speak English in order to access our services.

You can speak any of the hundreds of languages that are out there. We’ll be able to serve you through the multilingual service line. Uh, of course those that are on unemployment are able to come here and get assistance. And we have a resource room, which is basically like a library. You can come use our computers, you can do job search, you can print out your resume.

You can do a lot of different things there. And I’ll touch on that briefly too. Uh, the resource room has all this different equipment for you to access. Like I said, it’s like a library. It’s all [00:53:00] free. There’s nothing of charge there. You just have to become a member and you can access all these great resources.

I’ll touch on training opportunities. Again, there’s so many different kinds of training opportunities. Um, we delved into, we owe it just a tiny little bit, uh, but I’ll go into it a little bit more. The Worcester Jobs Fund, that’s particular to us in the Worcester area. Uh, but I’m assuming other career centers have similar programs through their municipalities.

Future Skills, which is a really great program that is involved with CTI, career Technical Initiative, which we heard about. And then we refer out for people to get their GED high set, um, English as a second language courses. Higher education certificate programs, online training resources, et cetera. So just real quick, so WEOA is the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act.

Uh, we call that the funds LS Resort. So it’s very competitive. Um, we have limited funding. We really try to, we encourage people to access all these other free [00:54:00] trainings that you’ve been hearing about, or low cost trainings or trainings that are funded through other grants before accessing We owe funds.

Uh, they’re, they’re known as its individual training accounts. You’ve already heard of that. There are eligibility requirements, but most people meet them. Uh, the one that kind of stumbles people as selective service compliance and only applies to men who were born after January 1st, 1960. Basically, you have to register for the draft in the military, right?

So if you wanna get federal funding, you have to be registered for that. Uh, but that only applies to males. Again, our local policy that is that you have to live or have worked in our SDA. Other career centers will have different policies related to that, but everything else is the same. Uh, the two different grants that are under WEOA are adult and dislocated worker.

If you are eligible for adult, you’re considered s economically disadvantaged. You might be on a public assistance benefit or you make below the poverty line for your family size. For dislocated [00:55:00] worker, uh, there’s a few other criteria, but mainly it’s folks who have been recently dislocated, right? Or employed.

They’re on unemployment insurance, I would say nine times outta 10, or they exhausted their unemployment insurance benefit. And for those folks, they need to complete a training opportunity program application in order to go access training. So the types of trainings that people go into through itts. Um, I would say last year we supported about 250 folks in WEOA funded.

Its, and nearly about a half of them went into healthcare again. We heard earlier that healthcare is, is paramount across the state. Um, I think Massachusetts is number one state in the country too for healthcare, uh, in terms of quality of services. And so again, it is a very, very high demand for healthcare workers.

Um, it really runs the gamut in terms of the different types of opportunities that we put people in in healthcare, uh, as you can see from more [00:56:00] entry level to more advanced levels. And then it would be also maybe the next highest thing. So it is not necessarily within our regional blueprint. Um, so the mass hire central region, our focus is our healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation.

Those are the three booming industries in the central region. And there’s different regions of Massachusetts that have different, uh, industry priorities and focuses. It is also really growing. And again, I would imagine that’s across the entire state. Um, I mentioned a few other, you know, focuses here or, or popular trends that we’ve been seeing.

Um, in order to go to a ITA approved program, you have to go to a training provider that is on the eligible training provider list through the state. So they have to be reputable, they have to have certain, um, completion rate and entered employment rate for their programs as well. So there’s some requirements that those programs have to meet in order for us to be able to send you there.

And of course, all these [00:57:00] trainings, just like we’re saying, you know, the whole point of this is to talk about short-term trainings and certificates. Uh, all these programs have to finish within one year in order for it to be, um, eligible for We owe funds and of course we always want people to get full-time employment afterwards.

That’s the goal. Okay. Quickly touch on future skills and if I’m going over time, mark, please let me know. Okay. Um, so. The current training opportunities here through future skills, uh, are really incredible. This is one of the coolest programs that the state has rolled out in a long time. And again, you were hearing about it, uh, with Mary.

She was talking about the CTI programs. Um, I think everyone touched on it a little bit, but basically through the American Rescue Plan, um, the state got about $200 million to invest in workforce investment and they hit the ground running. They created this new program, marketed it as future skills to really meet a lot of the, the, again, the needs of the state, right?

Workforce needs. A lot of [00:58:00] that is focused on trades in particular. And again, we partner with the vocational high schools, um, in other entities, but mostly the vocational high schools to offer these programs to folks. Uh, so again, in order to be eligible for that, you have to be a Massachusetts state resident.

Uh, you have to make under a certain individual income. They’re not even looking at your family income, which is great. Um, and that’s under $53,000 a year, and there’s like a few other very loose requirements. I don’t even think you have to be 18. You can be 17, uh, to join, basically just authorized to work.

Um, it’s a very, very, uh, easy way to get into these programs in terms of eligibility requirements. And again, they drive people towards the trades, mostly hvac, uh, culinary arts, advanced manufacturing, carpentry, and a variety of different programs. But, um, you know, they follow typical school year, September to June about, and just as you heard before, these people [00:59:00] graduate with a portfolio.

They get all these different great credentials and skills. They’re, they’re so well supported through the whole entire program with transportation support, stipends, uh, other things, you know, equipment and tools. It’s, it’s really a great program, unfortunately, of course. All good things must come to an end in the program.

May be sun sunsetting, as we call it, uh, at the end of next year, December of 2025, but we’ll see if there’s an extension and we’ll see if there’s more funds left over. I’ll mention quickly that Mass Hire Worcester, uh, has the Worcester Jobs Fund. This is through the city of Worcester, so this isn’t super relevant unless you’re living in Worcester.

But again, it’s almost like a mini CTI program or a future skills program, but just for Worcester residents. So I would imagine that other municipalities across the state also have funds to support, uh, their local residents that may want to access training. Again, these trainings are really based on what the needs are in Worcester.

Uh, a big need for [01:00:00] us right now is school bus drivers. So we have those type of CDLB trainings. Again, we partner with the training providers that offer that. We don’t offer it directly. Training providers in the area go out to bid. We look at often who can accommodate the most students, uh, for the amount of money that we have, and then we work with them to get folks trained.

Of course, we can refer anyone to a GED program, English as a Second Language or Higher Education. These are some of our partners. As you see, QCC is listed there. Some of the free online training programs we have here include Professor Teaches, uh, which gives people different certificates in Microsoft Office.

Um, vis Beacon for those who are not really familiar with computers at all and need to start with the very basics. Um, a lot of digital literacy. That’s one big trend we see is a lot of adults, especially older adults, not as confident or comfortable with the computers coming here needing support, uh, with learning computers.[01:01:00]

Allison is another online program where folks can take courses. Um, it really runs the gamut. In terms of what courses are available there. Skill Base is another one. And then Grow with Google is something that we have a, a contract with a subscription where we can enroll people with that and they get certificates in it in particular, uh, with a focus on maybe Google’s platform.

So how to become a member? Well, you can join us just by calling. That’s our main line there. That would not be applicable to you if you were just, again, maybe in a different area, not Central Massachusetts. Just, just research on mass.gov. The career centers, you can easily do that. Or just Google, where is my local career center?

It should pop up. Just type in mass hiring, Google something will pop up. Call their main line, ask to join a career center seminar. Or you could go on Job Quest, create a profile there. Search for your local career center and, and join. Okay. And I just have a couple quick parting thoughts and then I’ll [01:02:00] conclude.

Um, I kind of wanted to stick this in somewhere, but again, I mentioned, you know, our, our biggest growing industries are healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and central mass. If you were to go more towards the metro southwest area, you’re gonna have a lot more it focus, um, you know, in different areas, maybe like Boston, there’s hospitality, retail, uh, it depends on where you’re at, right?

Finance, uh, clerical. So really research your area’s needs, uh, in terms of what’s in demand if you’re looking for a new career or looking to start a career. I’d mentioned too that at least in central mass, we’re experiencing an entry level squeeze, I call it. Basically as a result of the pandemic, a lot of employers were having such a hard time finding entry level employees.

They looked to start to automate, excuse me, my light went off, but they looked to automate and make things quicker, um, you know, and kind of replace the need for workers. So what we’re seeing now is a lot of folks that, that are typically in that entry [01:03:00] level area would be looking for entry level jobs.

They’re having a really hard time finding work as well. We did hear earlier that there’s basically two jobs for every job seeker out there, but those might be more at the mid-level entry level. We’re not really seeing that ourselves. So that really emphasizes the need for people to get certificates.

Again, things could change, right? They always do, right? We’ve gone through so much change in the last four years and God knows what the next four years are gonna look like too. Right? In terms of our economy and what workforce needs are, what resources are out there for, for, um, you know, I would say that if you have the opportunity to access credentialing or certificates that you should take it, especially while, while all these funds are out there, all these free programs are out there, definitely access ’em.

Um, again, as as we become more complex as a society, our, our, our workforce needs to become more complex. Our jobs are more complex. People are more specialized. And that’s, again, puts a really big emphasis on these short term [01:04:00] trainings that give people certificates so that they can essentially perform the functions needed, uh, by employers.

Okay. And with that, I’ll leave it back to Mark. Thank you folks. Thank you Gire. Uh, I, I noticed, and I think some of my colleagues from massed Echo might have noticed that you offer, uh, may this beacon typing, and they might suggest that I take advantage of that. Me too. Me too. Yeah. No, it’s, uh, it’s something that’s definitely helpful for a lot of folks.

And that’s actually where we see, I would say another 25% of our folks come here for WEO funded training. They, we wind up sending them to just basic computer skills. So if you’re out there and you need some computer training, there’s free online programs, but there’s also in-person training if you need that too.

Before I turn it over to Julia, I did have a question. What do you consider mature when you mentioned age? You know, it’s funny, it depends on who you talk to, right? Uh, [01:05:00] and if you talk to people about me, they might say, I’m an immature worker. You never know. But in terms of, in terms of, uh, a RP right now considers that anyone over 40, which when we work with them, which is really interesting, um, other groups would say 55 and over.

Mm-hmm. So it depends. It really depends. And I think it really matters to the individual as well. People might be facing ageism in, in different ways. Um, there’s ways that you can mitigate that just through your presentation skills, uh, what, what you’re basically sharing on your resume about yourself, um, as well as again, just updating your skills, making sure that your skills are relevant.

Great, thank you. Lemme turn it over to Julie now to coordinate the q and a.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank you, mark. Yes, and before I, I have a question, but before I ask it, I’ll just share with everyone who’s participating. Yes. If you have any, any questions now, please put them in the q and a and we’ll [01:06:00] ask them of of the great panel.

Um, the, there was one question that I believe Kathy answered behind the scenes, which is great, but I thought other people might like to, uh, know. The answer to it was just a question about supports. Um, once, once someone is employed, once someone becomes employed, as they’re starting their new job, um, what kind of supports are available to them?

And I think the person was asking sort of at all the levels. Um,

Panelist: can I jump in? Great. Great. Thank you. Sure. So, you know, for mass hire, I’ll say again, our goal is for folks to become gainfully employed. Um, typically as they’re doing that, we understand that they’re still transitioning. So we, for those folks that are enrolled in WEO programs or those that are enrolled in another [01:07:00] program that I didn’t really touch on, it’s called cia, which is the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment.

It’s really particular to ui, but our employment counselors follow these people even after they secure gainful employment. We touch base with them, we make sure that they are comfortable. Um, you know, sometimes people take a job, it’s, they’re taking that job outta desperation. They’re basically underemployed.

They still might be able to access some of our certificate programs at that point in time. So we would still be able to help them upskill as well as just counsel them and provide, I, I wouldn’t necessarily say just emotional support, but basically support and encouraging them. Uh, to maintain employment and, and to get grounded.

Um, even while folks are grounded, they, they still have a lot of access to the career center services that are here. Like I said, we serve everybody and then we have those supportive services that I mentioned. Sometimes that is financial, right? So say someone needs boots or a tool, uh, toolbox or something like that.

Like [01:08:00] literally they need to purchase tools in order to stay employed. We have resources and funds that we can provide to help them get those, uh, workforce tools that they need. Um, as well as, again, you know, access to other supportive services that we might be able to refer out to. So whether that’s mental health counseling, if someone’s feeling that their mental health is, is being impacted by work or the lack of work, um, or again, they want to continue their education, we can refer them out to some of our partners.

Uh, so there’s, there, there are resources for people, but I. Again, you know, I, I think having a job just typically helps resolve a lot of issues for a lot of people that they might be facing. Um, and we tend to see that once they’re employed, they’re so happy they, they don’t come back too often to us ’cause that was really their end goal.

But we do have a lot of resources for folks who are still employed, are looking to, again, in increase their employment.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank you. And Kathy, I wonder if you would just wanna mention a [01:09:00] couple of the. Things you, you mentioned in your answer to about community college support.

Panelist: Sure. Um, so I, um, I may have misread that question, but I, uh, I, what I responded to in that question was what kind of support do the community colleges provide in terms of job placement?

Um, so of course we all have career services centers of some kind, and each of us configure those services differently depending on the needs of our students and our employers. But we definitely here in Worcester, um, offer many of the same services. Jabre talked about resume development, interview skills, job search skills.

We all 15 community colleges use Handshake, which is a premier online, um, job search platform. What’s really valuable about, um, handshake is that I. All the state universities and UMass system use it as well. So if our students are using their [01:10:00] QCC, their community college degree as a stepping stone into, uh, further education, they can continue their profile as they continue through the system.

So that’s great. And when an employer posts in there, um. They also are, um, um, posting not only in our region, but they’re posting positions that can be seen by all users of Handshake. It’s a really great tool as opposed to the one that we used before, which we were really only one of a handful of schools using, and it was not as robust.

Um, you know, in terms of some of the other things Jabil talked about, once a student, once we have someone who has done work with us, completed a workforce program, graduated from a certificate or degree, they are always our students. So if they want to come back to use career services or other services that we have here, they are always welcome to do that.

And many of our workforce development [01:11:00] programs, the kind of job. Placement and support that I think this question is getting at, are built in to the services that students get. So, you know, there, I think there’s a variety of services, um, depending on what the student is here to do.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank you. That’s great.

And gi, I don’t know if you wanna talk a little bit, there was that question about service areas and if someone lives outside of your exact service area, can they use your services? How, how do, maybe you can talk again about how the mass hire service areas work.

Panelist: Yeah, yeah. And I just type two, uh, in the chat, the answer, but of course I’d love to say that yeah, you, you don’t even have to be Massachusetts resident to access mass hire services, but those are more of our broad free services.

Again, we, everything is free, right? But if you want funding. You have to be within our service delivery area, and you’d have to be, uh, a resident in most cases, uh, [01:12:00] of Massachusetts. And I’d recommend going to your local career center if you’re looking to access training funds in particular. That’s really the only thing though.

Um, again, you can access the workshops across all career centers and whether you live in Massachusetts or not, you can get employment counseling from any career center, whether you live there or not. But if you wanna access training opportunities, if you wanna get into some of these certificate programs, uh, that you would need financial assistance for, then you must go to your local career center.

Almost every career center has the same policy that you have to live in their service delivery area or have worked in their service delivery area. And it’s different. We call that local policy. So connect with your local career center to find out, but. Again, I’d always recommend going to the local one anyway.

It’s closer. Drive people who know the employers in your area, they, they’re aware of the, again, their, um, industry blueprint. So what, you know, uh, industries are really booming and have those needs. So there’s [01:13:00] probably a little bit more advantages, which is going with your local career center off the bat.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Okay. That’s great. Good. And we have another question. You mentioned Handshake, so there’s some interest in that. Are graduate students able to use Handshake?

Panelist: Yes.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Great.

Panelist: Yes, yes, you can. Terrific.

Hey, Julie, let me jump in. Uh, I, during our, uh, practice session, before we opened it up, uh, to our attendees, we were chatting a little bit about, uh, the Pell eligibility. Discussions that are going on in Washington right now, and I was wondering if I could turn to either Kristen or Kathy to share what, what they’re hearing in terms of Pell eligibility for additional short term programs.

Uh, I’m happy to jump in. Um, so there’s been a lot of discussion over the [01:14:00] last four years, um, at the federal level as to whether or not, um, we should use Pell for short term credentials. Um, many of the programs that we have, um, that Kathy has and I have at community colleges, but also, you know, other providers as well, and the short term Pell could be used for something like dental assisting, um, the.

Conversation has been largely very positive and very, um, bipartisan, um, nonpartisan. But it, it requires, um, area, um, areas that we’re offering these, uh, short-term credentials to sort, sort of show quality. And so that’s where we’re at right now with certain senators and representatives asking about, you know, what’s the quality, what is accreditation, what are various, you know, how do we know that someone’s getting a good, uh, training with their short term credential?

You know, and we. Many of the colleges, we have curriculum committees and accreditation and things like [01:15:00] that for our credit programs. Um, so you know that they’ve been vetted for quality. Um, and that’s just what Congress is asking for now is, you know, some sort of metrics to figure out, um, what is a quality program that’s being offered by a provider in your area.

Um, and so we’re looking in, our area here is Netchi is our regional accreditation body, and we’re working with them now to be able to figure out. How do we demonstrate quality in our community college programs, in our non-credit programs and training programs provided by other providers? How will we demonstrate that quality so that they feel comfortable moving forward to be able to approve this funding for a short term credential?

Um, and so, you know, the Pell is used for those who are low income or income eligible. Um, it’s not a student loan, it’s a grant basically for an individual. So just like if you took a, used your Pell for a credit program, um, hypothetically you’d be able to use this for your training program and you wouldn’t ha incur [01:16:00] any cost to be able to complete that program.

So let’s hope that they figure this all out and that, you know, we work across the country to, to determine what are our quality programs and then, you know, we’ll see if this new administration and this new Congress will be able to come together to, to approve that. Um, but you know, I, I’m feeling pretty hopeful actually.

I see a lot of positive discussions. Um, but I would also recommend that you look at the new skills on, I mean the National Skills Coalition. Um, they’re doing a lot of work in this area, and if you just type that into your browser, you’ll find their page and you’ll get updates, um, on this topic as, as they know them.

And Kristen, are they defining short term, uh, is it eight weeks to 14 weeks or something of that nature, or do you have any sense of what they define as short term? Um, I would say that’s still being determined, but I would say it’s anything under 21 weeks. Okay. Um, depends on the credential, depends on what needs to be accomplished, if there’s licensure involved, [01:17:00] you know, and like a short term credential like CNA could be offered as credit or non-credit.

If you take the non-credit one, you’re still getting the same exact program. You are getting the, it, it’s exactly what, you know, it’s based on the Massachusetts Department of Health Standards, so you get the same program. Um, it’s just being offered differently. That might be more advantageous for you to take, um, but you know, you have to pass the exam and get the licensure.

So it takes a, a little bit of time to get through all of that. Yeah. Thank you.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank you. And I have, um, I have two more questions on the same topic, so I’ll. Put that out there. But I’ll just also mention that, um, in the chat there’s, um, a link to the, uh, mass.gov lists regarding regional workforce blueprints.

So if, if you want to see that in the chat, you can, you can take that. And the two questions that came in are about the Mass Hire 360 career assessment. So someone asked about how to access the [01:18:00] password, the how to access it using username and password. Mm-hmm. And another question about after someone takes that assessment, can they speak with a counselor?

Panelist: Absolutely. Absolutely. So I’ll, I’ll take that one. Um, so Mass Hire 360, it’s also known as, um, uh, mass, CIS. It’s kind of been rebranded, but again, that is a labor market information tool, an assessment tool. I, I really like the one feature on it called the reality check, which is basically it asks you about what kind of quality of living or lifestyle that you wanna have, and based off of that, it tells you how much money you need to be making.

I take that every once in a while because I need a reality check every once in a while, right? So it’s a great tool. Um, so how do you get access to it? The usernames and passwords are really the career center’s, username and password. So Mass Hire has its own username and password that we wind up sharing with the job seekers directly.

So [01:19:00] essentially you do kind of have to become a Mass hire member, at least in Mass Hire Central, at least, uh, just get connected with us. We’ll share that information with you. So again, joining a seminar would be the first thing. Immediately after our seminars, you do meet with a career counselor. Um, so you could do that, you can do that virtually.

You can do that in person. You could do that across any career center. Doesn’t matter where you live. Again, I recommend going with your local career center, but you can access a seminar at any of the career centers and ask about Mass 360 or mass CIS. They’ll give you the username and password, and then you usually get into it.

So that’s, that’s at least our process here. Other career centers might just give it to you off the bat. Uh, but again, go on Job Quest. Request to meet with a counselor. You can schedule meetings with counselors right through Job Quest, or you could just call the local career center and ask to meet with a counselor as well.

And you can do that virtually and in person.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank you. You’re welcome. I guess I will just [01:20:00] mention, I’m gonna put this in the chat, um, that we have an upcoming related webinar, uh, through Reach Higher Massachusetts, and it’s going to be about some of the, uh, digging deeper into some of the great programs that are more technical and trade-based at a variety of community colleges.

And we’ll have people from those specific programs kind of getting into the nitty gritty of that. And so that’s gonna be on December 5th, and I am just gonna put the link to register for that in the, in the chat.

Let’s see if there are any more questions.

And I don’t see any,

Panelist: well, let me take this opportunity then, Julie, to, uh, thank our panelists. Again, I think the topic is very timely. I. Uh, and given the work that we all do to try to help people reach their [01:21:00] full potential, I think it’s really key that we’re always aware of what’s happening today as opposed to what was happening last year or the year before that.

So, um, thank you, uh, to my colleagues for taking the time and for those of you who took the time to attend this session. And once again, Julie, thank you for Mass, uh, for, for Mefa support. Uh, greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you guys so much.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Right. Thank you all. Yeah. Have a good day, everyone. Everyone.

Panelist: Yeah. Bye. Take care. Bye-bye now.