SkillSmart Partner Spotlight featuring Montgomery Business Development Corporation and Rx for Employability

 

SkillSmart start partnership with Montgomery Business Development Corporation

With our corporate office located in Montgomery County, MD, we’ve had the privilege of working with local employers to gain a deeper understanding of their workforce needs and challenges through our partnership with the Montgomery Business Development Corporation (MBDC).

MBDC is an apolitical organization, established by the Montgomery County Council, that provides a business-friendly perspective regarding economic development issues ranging from strategic planning, to retaining and attracting business, and to employer and workforce advocacy. MBDC creates change in the positive economic model of the County by increasing the ability to compete, encouraging culture and innovation, minimizing the cost of doing business, and fostering business growth while improving “quality of place.”

As part of our Partner Spotlight Series, we talked with Ellie Giles, Director of Operations for MBDC to get her take on how the County’s Rx for Employability Program is creating positive change for local and state employers.

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SkillSmart (SS): Can you explain the Rx for Employability Program, how it came to be and what it hopes to achieve?

Ellie Giles (EG): The Rx for Employability initiative is a healthcare sector partnership as part ofEARN Maryland, a new state-funded competitive workforce and economic development grant initiative. It’s managed by the leadership of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR). The goal of Rx for Employability is to create a sustainable industry-led career pathway model that addresses current and future workforce needs. We’d like Rx for Employability to set an example for other regions throughout the country and can be easily replicated to create a more qualified workforce at large.

(SS): What are the key components of the program?

(EG): There are several. We’ve developed the program to encompass four key components; Rx for Employability is:

  • Industry Informed: comprised of industry focus groups, interviews and qualitative data that define distinct career pathways.
  • Population Specific: the priority population of the program includes unemployed or underemployed individuals or incumbent workers in need of updated training in Montgomery County.
  • Skills-Oriented: the program provides technical and employability skill training and support.
  • Data Driven: data of individuals by their outcomes is used to measure success and tailor the program as needed.

Rx for Employability has created targeted career pathways to provide a better educated and more skilled workforce in fast-growing positions. We strive to set our participants up for success in three key positions:

  • Pharmacy Technicians: participants can learn the right skills that can lead to a career path in pharmacy.
  • Sterile Equipment Processing Technicians: participants can learn the right skills that can lead to a career path in infection disease control in health care facilities.
  • Medical Coders: Rx for Employability provides continual bridge training from Medical Coders from ICD 9 to meet the requirements of ICD 10 as mandated by Affordable Care Act (10/1/15) so participants can continue along a career pathway in medical records management.

(SS): How does Rx for Employability receive funding?

(EG): Our funding comes in two forms. Maryland State Department of Labor and Licenses (DLLR) awarded MBDC with a $211,000 EARN grant to be paid over a 2 year period (fiscal years 2015 and 2016). We currently have an application pending for additional funding after 2016. Montgomery County Government provided $192,500 of funding for the Rx for Employability through the Department of Economic Development for fiscal year 2015; continued funding is pending.

(SS): How have Industry employers benefited?

(EG): The program has helped employers clearly establish their talent needs and identify internal career pathways not just for employers but for the industry as well. It’s encouraged the development of industry-specific career skills to ensure reliable employability today and into the future, and has provided recommended strategies for HR structures to improve job application processes and raise personnel awareness for entry level (establishing a community/industry connection).

(SS): How have community/training agencies benefited?

(EG): Through a number of ways, but most importantly Rx for Employability has enhanced support services of community and training agencies. The program has coordinated collaboration between 22 non-profit agencies for candidate outreach and participant support services, helping to identify strengths/challenges within the agencies as they interface with industry. It’s also unified a work-ready pipeline and skills development; we currently have a pending grant (for $100,000) to develop appropriate standards for consistent work-ready programs.

(SS): How have your participants benefited?

(EG): We’ve received a number of metrics that mark the success for participants. A few examples include:

  • Increased employment pipeline opportunities for participants through our “Earn while you Learn” process that created unique jobs providing both employment with dignity and apprenticeship training.
  • Individualized employability support to 80 potential Pharmacy Technician candidates through a partnership with CVS Health (interviewing, application completion, dressing, communication etc.).
  • Successful recruitment for Sterile Processing Technician training for 10 participants through a partnership with Adventist HealthCare.
  • Successful outreach for our Medical Coder-Bridge program with 290 participants through a partnership with the Montgomery County Medical Society.

In our first year, we’ve had nearly 400 participants interact with the Rx for Employment Program:

  • Pharmacy Technician: 80
  • Sterile Processing: 26 (Includes training participants and backfill employees)
  • Coder Bridge: 290
  • Total: 396

(SS): What do you feel is the greatest challenge facing the Rx for Employability program?

(EG): Coordinating all the wonderful resources in Montgomery County for a strong collaborative effort. It’s our greatest challenge, but it’s also our greatest reward.

(SS): Do you find that skills training is an issue for the employers with which you interact? 

(EG): MBDC works to engage the business community through business retention and business expansion activities. Strong talent and talent development opportunities are frequently mentioned as a reason for locating their business in Montgomery County. The Rx for Employability program has been enthusiastically embraced by the Healthcare industry and we have already expanded this model to include mid-level occupations with a new Nursing-bridge program providing specialty training.

(SS): What advice do you have for other jurisdictions looking to implement a program similar to Rx for Employability?

(EG): Listen to the industry to determine the skills needed for entry into a sector. Working with the industry sectors has not only allowed us to provide comprehensive skills training (technical and work-ready skills), but also provide the training to be progressive by addressing skills for future needs. We’ve been able create a sustainable career pathway.

(SS): What are the biggest challenges to ensuring students are career-ready?

(EG): The Rx for Employment program recruits from the wonderful non-profit community agencies in the County. Currently, we are partnering with 26 different programs to recruit candidates. The work-ready training provided by each non-profit program varies, and we’ve learned that a consistent work-readiness program across all programs is needed. To address this issue, we have applied for and have been granted additional State funding to pilot a work-readiness training program (based on input from employers) that we hope can be disseminated to all agencies and organizations within the County. The program will be competency-based with practical hands-on learning opportunities within a variety of work places.

(SS): How do you think SkillSmart can play a role in advancing the skills of our workforce to meet the demands of employers?

(EG): Making connections between current and needed skills and career opportunities is valuable support for our unemployed and underemployed. According to The Washington Business Journal, the March 2015 unemployment rate in the Washington area is 4.7%. The current opportunities require specialized skills. The SkillSmart technology is a fantastic tool to address the current employment needs by providing graphic progress reports and connections to the right skill training programs.

Learn more about Rx for Employability and how Montgomery County is working to train its regional workforce with the right skills employers need.

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SkillSmart Partner Spotlight featuring Per Scholas

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SkillSmart is proud to partner with other organizations whose missions are similar to ours in creating a smarter, more competitive workforce.

Our partner Per Scholas is determined to break the cycle of poverty by providing technology education, access, training and job placement services for under/un-employed communities.

As part of our Partner Spotlight Series, we recently talked with Bridgette Gray, Per Scholas’ Managing Director for the National Capital Region, to get a deeper understanding of how they’re achieving their mission.

 

per-scholas-interview

SkillSmart (SS): Before you joined Per Scholas, you worked with other organizations in similar spaces. Can you tell us what you’ve found to be a key takeaway or learning, what makes Per Scholas different?

Bridgette Gray (BG): The key takeaway is that Per Scholas has a model of training that provides rapid entry and/or re-entry into a high demand field of employment – IT jobs. Most organizations I’ve worked with before have a long process to get to an outcome, but Per Scholas has an 8-week training model and our students gain employment within 90 days post graduation. In fact, almost 90% of our graduates have found employment in the IT field.

SS: What is the greatest challenge to the success of programs like Per Scholas?

BG: Getting corporate investment and scaling the model. Another challenge is candidate recruitment – many of the people who apply have very low literacy rates and can’t get through our assessment. As a result, it’s a struggle to admit the 20 students we’d like to have per cohort. Finally, programs like ours are seen as competition to existing programs and community colleges, which impacts our ability to collaborate.

SS: Do you have any advice for other organizations or jurisdictions that are trying to establish training programs to meet the needs of their populations?

BG: Yes, collaboration and knowledge sharing are crucial.

SS: What do you think are the biggest challenges or opportunities facing the National Capital Region?

BG: There are many.

  • HR departments and hiring managers are disconnected from the hard skills needed by their organizations and continue to produce cookie cutter position descriptions without thinking through the hard skills outside of a degree.
  • Employers are not invested in training programs to help build out the talent needed.
  • There’s no cross pollination of knowledge or information sharing across the entities preparing our workforce.
  • Post-secondary institutions are not providing the hard skills needed to provide employers with viable talent pipelines. Workforce development organizations and post-secondary institutions are not playing well in the sandbox.
  • There is a literacy challenge among many people that a lot of programs in this area serve. There’s also a huge digital divide, with people having no connection to or knowledge of relevant, successful and viable training opportunities.
  • Too many underachieving workforce development programs continue to receive funding, but are not reaching measurable training and placement outcomes, i.e., livable wage careers, high-demand fields, increases in literacy rates, etc. As a result, employers are not able to get the talent they need.
  • There’s a lack of collaboration between training programs. For example, we partner withYear Up, a similar organization that focuses on 18-24 year olds IT, providing the first step in training in-demand skills to its students. We provide the second step, which is credentialing and job placement. It’s a great partnership that we’ve yet to see impact our funding, we’ve found that it enhances it.

SS: How do you think SkillSmart can play a role in advancing the skills of our workforce to meet the demands of employers?

BG: I think tools like SkillSmart are what we need to address the many issues we’ve identified above. I think SkillSmart can replace HR hiring tools, such as Taleo, etc. with greater accuracy of identifying the skills candidates have while highlighting where they can improve their skills. In doing so, the workforce will become skilled and qualified, meeting the demands of employers.

To learn more about how we’ll be working with Per Scholas, read the announcement regarding our partnership.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SkillSmart to Partner with Per Scholas

For-Immediate-Release

SkillSmart and Per Scholas, a nationally recognized IT job training nonprofit, today announced a partnership to help ensure students in the National Capital Region are acquiring the skills that IT employers need.

Per Scholas delivers IT-Ready training, a tuition-free 8-week course, that prepares hard-working adults (18+) to obtain industry-recognized CompTIA A+ certification and begin careers in IT. Students are able to acquire jobs as desktop support specialists, help desk support, IT support analysts and field technicians. Nationally, 5,000 Per Scholas students have been trained to date, with more than 85% of participants graduating and obtaining industry certification, and 80% of graduates securing jobs.

SkillSmart uses a proprietary algorithm to match the skills employers need to the skills held by job seekers to create better professional fits between both parties. Where job seekers lack skills, SkillSmart highlights training opportunities to learn or improve skill sets so they become better qualified.

The partnership between SkillSmart and Per Scholas will build stronger connections between Per Scholas students and IT employers in the National Capital Region. Per Scholas students can use SkillSmart to build skill profiles that best demonstrate their ability to perform necessary job skills and showcase industry credentials to potential employers.

Partnership between SkillSmart and Per Scholas

Per Scholas regularly reviews its curriculum to ensure it is training the most in-demand skills. Per Scholas will rely on SkillSmart to understand precisely what the employer validated skills are in order to deliver the most effective training content. The partnership will focus on the National Capital Region and expand to other locations in the future.

“SkillSmart is an ideal platform to ensure that Per Scholas or any workforce development training organization is able to keep up with the IT skills needed by technology companies,” said Bridgette Gray, Managing Director for the National Capital Region of Per Scholas. She continued, “To experience a platform that’s hands on with employers and job seekers, but also ensures there’s a link to education and training in order to build and gain additional middle skills, is a win-win. We are honored to be a partner with SkillSmart.”

“Partnering with Per Scholas’ innovative and nationally recognized program perfectly complements SkillSmart’s mission to prepare our middle skills workforce with the skills that employer need,” said Mike Knapp, Co-Founder of SkillSmart. “By driving from employer demand, SkillSmart will help Per Scholas continue their outstanding record of successfully placing its graduates in IT positions while helping the organization to scale nationally.”

About Per Scholas
Per Scholas is a national nonprofit offering free, high quality technology education, job training, and placement and career development opportunities to unemployed and underemployed individuals. Since 1998, nearly 5,000 have enrolled in its job training programs. The Per Scholas model has been twice recognized by the White House for its effectiveness serving the unemployed and proven successful through independent studies. For more information, visit perscholas.org, on Twitter @PerScholas and Facebook.

About SkillSmart
SkillSmart is a SaaS platform that provides a single source of connectivity between employers, job seekers and educators, helping employers identify and recruit new talent, and develop a pipeline to meet future talent needs. SkillSmart’s demand-driven approach equips users with a deeper understanding of their existing skills, market demand for those skills, and a clear pathway to gaining new skills. SkillSmart helps people become better qualified and more marketable by analyzing their skill sets to provide personalized career development through its accredited partners.

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Reducing the Skills Gap: Mike Knapp, SkillSmart

Center MarylandCenter Maryland welcomed Mike Knapp, CEO & Co-Founder of SkillSmart — a job placement platform that takes a unique approach to addressing the skills gap that exists between employers and job seekers. Mike explains how SkillSmart identifies and matches employers’ needs to job seekers’ skills and connects job seekers with opportunities to develop sought-after skill sets.

Watch the Interview »

 

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Today’s Workforce: Reconnecting Opportunity Youth

Young people part of Opportunity Youth, decreasing youth unemployment

There are significant challenges facing our young people that consequentially cost our economy over $6 trillion. Youth unemployment is now a critical issue; sitting at about 14%, it is two times the national average and represents more than 6.7 million youth aged 16-24 (this group has become known as “Opportunity Youth”). While so many of our youth are unemployed or underemployed, employers wrestle with the skills gap and finding qualified talent to fill their vacant positions. While many business, education and political leaders are working to address each issue independently, one solution may be the answer to both problems.

Read more about Opportunity Youth and the effects on our economy in our latest white paper.

Download the Whitepaper »

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Addressing Workforce Development in Montgomery County: An Economy at a Crossroads

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“Fifteen years into the new millennium, Montgomery County finds itself at an economic crossroads. Over the last decade, even as national and regional economies suffered through a near economic depression, employers and employees in Montgomery County have continued to provide the jobs and services that have regularly made the county one of the best places in the United States to work, live, and raise a family.”

Download the Report »  Download the Presentation »

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Member Spotlight: SkillSmart’s Jason Green Solves Unemployment Issues Through New Currency.

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SkillSmart helps you find your dream job. Whether you are looking to launch a career or find your fit, the company is there for you. SkillSmart is a next-generation job-placement platform that matches job seekers to employers based on skill proficiency.

Jason Green on how to find your dream jobWe caught up with Jason Green, VP of Business Development and cofounder of SkillSmart, to talk about his views on the current job market and how he stepped into the startup world after working in the White House for four years.

Read the Article »

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Public Meeting of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission

A hearing to discuss how SkillSmart, partnering with MGM Springfield, can decrease the number of underemployed and unemployed in the Massachusetts region. Using SkillSmart, a newly constructed MGM Springfield casino and resort, can better match individual’s skills to upcoming opportunities, and connect them with training and education to increase and refine their skill sets. Watch Mike Knapp, CEO and Co-Founder of SkillSmart, testify on behalf of MGM Springfield in regard to the positive economic impact of developing in the region. More »

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MGM Springfield career fair to draw job seekers to Basketball Hall of Fame

Robert Rizzuto, MassLive.com

MGM Resorts International’s career fair being held at the Basketball Hall of Fame is expected to draw hundreds to downtown Springfield Wednesday, as the company eyes applicants for the 3,000 permanent jobs it is looking to create with an $800 million resort casino just a few blocks away.

The career fair kicks off at 8:30 a.m. with a breakfast orientation, as Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis and MGM Resorts Vice President of Community Relations and Public Affairs Kelley Tucky are all expected to deliver remarks to the crowd. Also slated to address the applicants are executives with the SkillSmart company, which MGM is using to pair applicants with the best possible job match based on their skills and experience.

“What we are trying to do is get people to think about what skills you have acquired doing the things you did. That includes what you learned in all your jobs, whether it is managing a McDonald’s, working in a store, in the military or if you ran the social programs committee at church,” Michael Knapp, the CEO of SkillSmart previously told The Republican.

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MGM Springfield job showcase draws more than 600 to Basketball Hall of Fame

Jim Kinney, MassLive.com

MGM Springfield drew more than 600 job seekers to a career showcase Wednesday at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The event, one in a series of MGM job fairs, came less than a month before voters will decide the fate of the Massachusetts casino industry in a statewide referendum. Signs saying  to vote no, the action that would preserve the state’s gaming law, were available at the job fair.

Michael Mathis, the president and CEO of MGM Springfield, said his company is working to defeat the ballot question while still preparing to open the casino.

“We are in pre-opening mode,” Mathis, who spent the morning at the job showcase, said. “We won’t be caught unprepared.”

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