2021-22 Work Plan Activities

handshakeActivity #1: Provide Leadership and Guidance That Aligns w/SBCTC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Vision and Goals– Recovering and Eliminating Systemic Racism and Implicit Bias

Center working with its Advisory Board has adopted program goals that will help the SBCTC system identify, integrate, apply, and maintain EDI principles in all Center’s Career Pathway Programs curriculum.

The goal is to significantly improve our education pathway outcomes for all underrepresented communities building a diverse and competitive workforce. The Board established a working sub-committee made up of Board Members, faculty, staff, and students to collaborate on:

Reviewing current career pathway programs’ curriculum reduces implicit bias and social equity issues.

Identify and implement outreach activities that support EDI in the career fields.

Establish a data dashboard to assess and measure progress.
1. Participate w/COEs and SBCTC to recruit non-traditional students into Center’s career pathway fields.
2. Assess and report on progress to include the Data Pilot

Activity #2: Pathways to Partnerships: Collaboration Among Centers, Pathway Programs, and Public/Private Partnerships

The Center directors and staff will continue to hold bi-weekly meetings to expand and enhance their collaborations partnering with State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) staff and college leadership to:

  1. Update and publish the COE policy documents (SBCTC 4.40).
  2. Establish a Program Coordinators working group to identify efficiencies and effectiveness measures that COEs can partner on and share resources.
  3. Partner with others COEs on the CHMURA Data Pilot to research, analyze, and disseminate information on workforce supply and demographic data, which will report quarterly w/final recommendations.
  4. Partner with SBCTC on the COE Non-Traditional Student Recruitment Project to develop marketing products to recruit non-traditional students to their career pathways.
  5. Continue to jointly work on presentations to deliver to Workforce Education Council (WEC) at quarterly meetings.
  6. HSEM and IT Centers will work with Cybersecurity programs to discuss, identify, and implement strategies on how cybersecurity programs can enhance and expand their effectiveness in the CTC system.
  7. Work w/Energy Technology COE on Critical Infrastructure resilience issues by holding forums and other events to address impacts of the energy system on climate change.
  8. Work with Construction Management and Agriculture and Natural Resources COEs to support Governor’s legislation for tracking, maintaining workforce initiatives related to “forest health.”
  9.  Maritime and HSEM Centers will complete translating selected pages and content on their respective websites into North American Spanish, upload and format translated text.
  10. COEs will support a marketing committee to publish a newsletter(s) maintain a marketing committee COEs website.
  11. Continue collaborating with Pierce College’s HSEM degree program on the Diversity in Leadership initiative.

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Activity #3: Career Connected Pathways – Assessment, Training, Curriculum Development, and Experiential Learning

The Center will have identified training capacity, skills gaps, trends, and best practices within its industry sector. The Center’s Board has recognized that community resilience is directly tied to the ability of businesses to recover from disasters, and we need to focus on how private industry/businesses manage the impact of disasters on their employees, facilities, and operations. Emergency in the private corporate sector demands emergency managers who know and understand their challenges. We are also aware that the private sector delivers 60% of the disaster services in this country. The Center will assess the need for developing curriculum/courses, including defining the role of an emergency/risk manager in that setting, job titles and duties, and best practices to enable emergency managers to work effectively in the corporate sector.

It is essential to make emergency planning efforts inclusive of people of all ages and abilities as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. Inclusive Preparedness: Access/Functional Needs Certificate will be developed with members of the disability community and include preparedness, mitigation, response, short-term recovery, and long-term recovery. Members of the disability community will address best practices and innovative ways to be inclusive. Our emergency management systems have genuine obligations to practice inclusive preparedness, so they are equipped to accommodate everyone during an emergency. Center will work with the Coalition on Inclusive Emergency Planning (CIEP), which is a statewide disability advisory group that works with state and local emergency stakeholders to build disability accessibility and inclusion into all aspects of emergency management.

Career Pathways are expanding, and the needs of employers are changing as our needs of students and educators. Attention needs to be emphasized to identify and develop enhanced/expanded opportunities to provide students, faculty, and staff with experiential learning opportunities, including internships, apprenticeships, volunteering, coaching, and mentoring training to support students, staff, and faculty. There is also a need to collaborate and coordinate with the marketplace (public/private) and have them directly involved in offering stable and ongoing work experience opportunities paid and unpaid.

Activity #4: CTE Cluster: Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security Educational Attainment

The state currently supports over 86,000 employees in the CTE Cluster of law, public safety, corrections, and security. There is a growing demand in this cluster for security and protective service professionals, law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians. Governmental and public service organizations employ about 80% of the workforce, with 20% employment in the private sector. Careers are also in the recreational industries, insurance carriers, and general merchandise stores/warehouse enterprises. About 53% of employees in this cluster are between 19 to 44 years old and are primarily white men, with women making up about 34% and other racial groups 16%. Only 21% have obtained a two-year degree or certificate, and 2.6% a bachelor’s degree. 23% of employees gain their skills and knowledge from long-term employment in the industry. All the career fields in this cluster need to re-commit to uphold social justice and racial equality, measure and reimaging the outcomes they deliver to their communities. Techniques and training to deliver results need to be re-evaluated when it comes to this cluster area.

The Center will continue its work with the 19 Criminal Justice (CJ) Programs and employers to implement the model core curriculum, complete the OER curriculum project and embed EDI work in its curriculum.

The model core curriculum will assist with the marketability and common assessment of CJ programs in WA. The colleges will continue to work through
college-specific barriers to curriculum change, work with faculty and advisory board members to review and develop the OER curriculum. We will work as a team with faculty, deans, and administration to overcome state-level barriers to implementing a core curriculum, standard course numbers, OER, and EDI work. Move forward to implement CJ common core entry-level curriculum at all colleges with a CJ program.

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