Moving Beyond Degrees: Why competency is currency

Moving Beyond Degrees:
Why Competency is Currency
Michael Bettersworth
Texas State Technical College
Follow on Twitter @bettersworth
michael.bettersworth@systems.tstc.edu
www.forecasting.tstc.edu
June 2011
BRAZOSVALLEY WORKFORCE
Friday, June 17, 2011

Source: CollegeGrad.com. College graduates moving back home in larger number. 22 July 2009!

U.S. Credit Card Debt
$826.5 billion
U.S. Student Loan Debt
$829.785 billion
An estimated “$300 billion in federal student loan
debts have been incurred in the last four years...”
2007 Sub-Prime Mortgage
Balance: $1.3 Trillion

Four times the rate of
inﬂation.
Almost twice the rate of
healthcare.

Source: Cronin, Joseph & Horton, Howard.Will higher education be the next bubble to burst? The Chronicle of Higher Education. May 22, 2009.
“There is a growing sense among the public
that higher education might be overpriced
and under-delivering.”

Source: Business Roundtable, New survey reveals obstacles to training and education are threatening U.S. competitiveness and worker prosperity. October 8, 2009
And yet...
“American workers’ unmet need for further
education and training is exacerbating
today’s unemployment problem and
portending long-term trouble for workers and
businesses -- even after the economy recovers.”
-Business Roundtable

The War on Work
The Great Divide
The Higher Ed Imbalance
Engaging the Talent Pipeline

“...the collective effect [...] has
been this marginalization of
lots and lots of jobs. And I
realized [...] to me the most
important thing to know and to
really come face to face with
is the fact that I got it wrong
about a lot of things.”
“We have declared
War on Work”
Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs
Source: TED Speech, December 2008.

Source: Kelley, P.,The dreaded “P” word: an examination of productivity in public postsecondary education, July 2009.
Median earnings in Alabama employment market, and certiﬁcates/degrees weighted by value to the state and individuals:

Median earnings in Alabama employment market, and certiﬁcates/degrees weighted by value to the state and individuals:
Source: Kelley, P.,The dreaded “P” word: an examination of productivity in public postsecondary education, July 2009.

If you earn a bachelor’s degree, you will earn
$1,000,000 more over the course of your life.
BUSTEDIf you earn a bachelor’s degree, you will earn
BUSTEDIf you earn a bachelor’s degree, you will earn
$1,000,000 more over the course of your life.
BUSTED$1,000,000 more over the course of your life.

It’s not that you study,
but what you study
in relation to market
demand.

There is much talk of
“diversity” in
education, but not
much accommodation
of the kind we have in
mind when we speak
about the quality of a
man, or a woman: the
diversity of
disposition.!

Source: Dreher, Rod.The soft bigotry of high expectations.The Dallas Morning News. May 29, 2009.
Rod Dreher
“We have come to see labor as something
we do in exchange for money and not as an
expression of our intrinsic nature.
Many a white-collar man works hard but lives
in a world of soul-killing abstraction,
where what he does, what he feels and who
he is have little to do with one another.”

Source:The new competition for america’s jobs.Trends Magazine. June 2010.Source:The new competition for america’s jobs.Trends Magazine. June 2010.
Yet, up to 3 million highly-skilled technical
positions remain unﬁlled as of June 2010.
This “War on Work” has led to the
devaluation of certain career and educational
pursuits.
How did we get here?

80%
20%
Blue Collar
White Collar
“Mental”
“Manual”
The Class of Work

This division has been
applied to American
education.

Smith-Hughes Act 1917
Education Dissected
AcademicVocationalVocationalAcademicVocationalVocationalAcademicVocationalAcademicVocationalEducationVocationalVocationalEducationVocationalAcademicVocationalAcademicEducationAcademicVocationalAcademic

65%
20% 15%
Skilled “Labor”
“Professional”
Unskilled “Labor”
“Cubicles” “Fries with that?”
“Experts”
“Craftsmen”
“Developers”
“Skilled”
“Technicians”
“Engineers”
“Paid”
“Hired”
New Model - Still Off

Laser Optics
Laser Electro Optic Devices • Continuous Wave Lasers • Pulsed lasers •
Thin Films •Vacuum Technology • Geometrical and Wave Optics

Instrumentation & Process Control
Proportional, Integral and Derivative Control • Loop Tuning
Control Loop Systems • Computerized Control Systems (Allen
Bradley & Siemens) • Wonderware Graphics Fronts • Delta V
systems • Mechatronics

Mechanical Engineering
Materials Classification • Non-Destructive Testing • Alloying • Plastics •
Polymers • Composites • Advanced CNC • Tools & Fixtures • Electrical
Theory • Materials Strength • Fluid Mechanics & Applications • Machine
Design • • 3D Solid Modeling • CAD/CAM • Physics • Statistics •
Welding Processes • GTAW • GMAW • SMAW

Nanotechnology
Nanotech Characteristics • Image characterization • Nanotech
Processes • Scanning Electron Microscopy • Atomic Force Microscopy •
Transmission Electron Microscopy • Class 100 Clean Room • Continuous
Wave • Pulsed Laser • Geometrical Optics • Wave Optics •
Semiconductor Manufacturing

Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics, and Engineering Research
“CASPER”
Hypervelocity Impacts and Dusty Plasmas Lab & Space Science
Lab (SSL) are supplied with full time technical support using TSTC
faculty and students with CASPER's technical support staff.
National laboratory model with Baylor/TSTC.

Source: Hacker,A & Dreifus, C.Are colleges worth the price of admission.The Chronicle of Higher Education. July 11, 2010.
Higher education must serve all of these
segments; however, according to the
Chronicle of Higher Education,
““colleges are taking on too many
roles and doing none of them welldoing none of them welldoing none of them well.”

“Over the next ten
years, 26 of the top
30 fastest growing
jobs will require
some post-
secondary
education or
trainingtraining...The
demand for skilled
workers is outpacing
supply, resulting in
attractive, high-paying
jobs going unﬁlled.”
Emily Stover DeRocco
President,The Manufacturing Institute, National Center for the American Workforce
Former Assistant Secretary of Labor for Education and Training

The need for more skilled
employees has driven a national
effort to increase college
attendance and completion
numbers. In Texas we call this,
“Closing the GapsClosing the Gaps.”
What Gaps Are We Closing?

0
27500
55000
82500
110000
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
55000
82500
Texas Public Two-Year Colleges Awards
Texas Public Four-Year Universities Awards
College graduation is increasing in Texas.
That’s a good thing.

Technical awards are ﬂat/declining.
Academic awards are now the most common.
This is incongruent with job demand.
0
12500
25000
37500
50000
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Technical awards are ﬂat/declining.
25000
37500
Texas Technical Public TwoYear Awards
Texas Academic Public Two-Year Awards

Academic
Awards

Source: Carnevale,A., Smith, N, & Strohl, J. Help Wanted: Projections of jobs and education requirements through 2018.A study
prepared at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.Washington D.C. June 2010.
2007 2018
Associate’s degree,
certiﬁcate, or some college
27% 29%
Bachelor’s degree 21% 23%
Graduate degree 11% 10%
Level of education required by employers
What Level of College is Needed?

Source: McNichol, Oliff, and Johnson. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. States continue to feel recession’s impact. October 7, 2010

REALITYREALITY:
State and federal budget cuts
will lead to
further reductions in
technical training capacitytechnical training capacity...
...despite the need for
employable college graduates
with these technical skillstechnical skills.

When discussing education supply and
workforce demand, it is not the level
of education that is most important but
the alignment of competencies in
response to employer demand.
Simply increasing the number of
college graduates will not solve our
state and nation’s competency shortages.

“…I believe that our
education
system should
make a shift to
one that is
market-driven
and takes into
account the
skills needed by
employers.”
Tom Pauken
Commissioner
Texas Workforce Commission

The colleges that most students
attend "need to streamline
their programs, so they
emphasize employabilityemployability.”
Anthony P. Carnevale
Director, Georgetown Center
Georgetown University

“If educators don't
provide people with
employability all the
other missions, the
more grand missions
that are talked about at
colleges and
universities, they are
not going to
achieve those
eithereither.”

“If you can't make
people employable,
they are not going
to participate fully
in the life of their
times in this
system.”

“At the post-secondary level,
we need a concerted effort to
link work and learning by
providing far more
opportunities for work-based
learning.”
William C. Symonds
Director, Pathways to Prosperity
Harvard Graduate School of Education

We must develop talent
pipelines aligned with
market demand, not simply
increase enrollment and
completion...
..and measure performance throughout.

What you Measure Counts.
Solution #1: Metrics

Activity Performance
Enrollments
Demographics
Contact Hours
Course Completion
Graduates
Numbers of Awards
Award Levels
National Benchmarks
Placement Rate
Earnings
Student Satisfaction
Employer Satisfaction
New Companies
Return on Investment
Value to Taxpayer
Efﬁciency
What’s Measured What Counts

Traditional higher education is a linear
progression built on contact hours,
courses, semesters, and degree plans with a
primary focus on enrollment
growth and, to a lesser degree, completion.
We can do better.

Modularized workforce
curriculum with embedded
certificates in flexible schedules
aligned with employer
competencies where student
success is defined first as job
placementplacement, not simply completing
a course or earning an award.
Solution #2: Packaging

Fast-Track Model

Value-based funding models
where state appropriations are
based on the economic return
generated by placement rather than
the amount of time in seats.
Solution #3: Funding

More
Skilled
Talent
Placed in
High-
Demand
Careers
Earning
Premium
Wages
Generates
More
Tax
Revenue
Funding output means basing state
appropriations on Return on Investment.

Given reductions in capacity,
employers will need to
engage and invest directly
into talent pipelines critical to
their success.
Solution #4: Sourcing

Standard Talent Pipeline
College Career
Quality assurance of new hire is limited.
Retention can suffer if bad ﬁt.
Time to full productivity delayed.
Stronger candidates have been cherry picked.
Insufﬁcient volume of candidates.
-
-
-
-
-
Interview
Position Full Time
Hire
Enroll

Improved Talent Pipeline
College Career
Interview
Early
Look
Advisory Position
-
-
-
-
-
Enroll
Full TimeHire

Extended Talent Pipeline
College Career
Intern
Early
Look
InterviewScholar-
ship
Position
-
-
-
-
-
Enroll
Full TimeHireAdvisory

Advanced Talent Pipeline
College Career
-
-
-
-
-
Enroll
Intern
Early
Look
Full Time
Hire
Interview
Scholar-
ship
Position Co-OpAdvisory

Sponsorship Elements
College Career
Part Time Employment
Candidate Pays Tuition
Employment
Beneﬁts, etc.
Reimbursed Tuition
Pay Remaining Tuition
2Year Contract
Performance
Visits
Full TimeHireInterviewCo-OpAdvisory
-
-
Enroll
Intern
Scholar-
ship
Position Sponsor

Capacity Building Talent Pipeline
College
Middle School High School
SecondaryCollege
College
SecondaryCollege
Career
Certs
Full TimeHireInterviewCo-OpSponsor
Position Scholar-
ship
InternAdvisory
CompeteCampsToursCareer Interview
Dual
CreditEnroll

Aerospace Capacity Pipeline

High School

Military

Workforce education is not about
keeping students in seats.
It’s about getting people
out of seats and on their feet.
Competency is CurrencyCurrency.

Employability is more important
than a degree alone.
Return on investment is more
important than a contact hour.
Placement is more important than
enrollment.
“Imagination is more important
than knowledge.”

Source: Gardner, J. "Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?", p. 86 (1961)Source: Gardner, J. "Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?", p. 86 (1961)Source: Gardner, J. "Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?", p. 86 (1961)
“An excellent plumber is
inﬁnitely more admirable than an
incompetent philosopherincompetent philosopher.”
Source: Gardner, J. "Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?", p. 86 (1961)

“The society which scorns
excellence in plumbing because
plumbing is a humble activity
and tolerates shoddiness in
philosophy because it is an
exalted activity will have
neither good plumbing nor
good philosophy.”

John W. Gardner
“Neither its pipes nor its
theories will hold water.”

Michael Bettersworth
Texas State Technical College
Follow on Twitter @bettersworth
michael.bettersworth@systems.tstc.edu
www.forecasting.tstc.edu
June 2011
BRAZOSVALLEY WORKFORCE
ThankYou

Moving Beyond Degrees: Why competency is currency

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