S04E08 - Workforce Development in Washington State | Marina Parr & Stephanie Davidsmeyer

In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Marina Parr, Director for Workforce System Advancement at Washington’s Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board and Stephanie Davidsmeyer, a Director of Communications for the Washington State Board of Education. Stephanie has 10 years of experience in nonprofit, corporate, and government outreach media relations.

Some Questions I Ask:

• Marina, tell us more about your work and if you have seen a shift in how districts prioritize workforce development. (01:25)
• Stephanie, from the communications perspective, what trends are you seeing in workforce development and advancement? (04:03)
• Have you both seen an increase in public-private partnership when it comes to workforce development in Washington? (08:09)
• How is the ESSER cliff impacting districts in Washington in terms of workforce development? (16:39)
• What are the key takeaways of the Workforce System Poster? (21:20)
• Stephanie, how do you share powerful success stories to the community? (23:51)
• What are you most hopeful about for the future of workforce development? (27:57)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Marina’s work and her view of districts prioritizing workforce development (01:49)
• Stephanie’s perspective on workforce development across Washington state (04:34)
• Marina and Stephanie’s points of view with regards to expansion of workforce development (11:08)
• Impact of the ESSER cliff on workforce development in Washington state (18:32)
• Key takeaways of the Workforce System Poster (21:42)
• How Stephanie tells powerful success stories(24:13)
• Marina’s hopes for the future of workforce development (28:21)

Quotes:

“We know that businesses are busy. Probably the biggest challenge in workforce development is getting businesses to the table, because they're really trying to run their businesses. So you need to make effective use of their time.” 

“I've talked to students that are making canoes and then talking with advisors and building reports about how much it would cost to open their own business in boat making. They have all this math and all these figures that go into it. These kids will just blow you away.”

“Our state has had something called industry skill panels that bring together similar businesses so they can discuss common skill gaps, hiring challenges, difficulties that their employees face finding housing and other support. And the interesting thing is that these businesses are typically competitors.”

“Chronic absenteeism is an issue. It really did start with the pandemic [when] kids kind of checked out, and then they never really checked back in. So we have to figure out how to re-engage students and really get them to be present. And we know that populations that have struggled the most had the widest gap.”

Stay in touch with the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board:
Website

Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
Free Case Study Guide
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn

Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn

About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook

Transcript

Sarah Williamson: 0:05

Hello and welcome to Build Momentum, a Podcast where we explore thought leadership and education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SW PR group.

Chad Bolser: 0:13

And I'm Chad Bolser, Chancellor Ivy Tech Community College in Richmond, Indiana. This season, we will launch a series exploring global workforce development and K 12 school districts and the leaders who are bringing this work to light.

Sarah Williamson: 0:29

We hear from CTE directors, superintendents and thought leaders on the topic of workforce development, how it shifted throughout the last several years, who is employing strategies that are making an impact and how they're sharing those stories with the broader education community. We explore how to leverage key partners, your constituents and the media to authentically impact your organization and the leaders who champion them. We can't wait to get started. So let's dive in. On today's episode, we're thrilled to have two leaders from the state of Washington with us Stephanie Davidsmeyer, the Director of Communications for the Washington State Board of Education, and Marina Parr, the Director of Workforce System Advancement at Washington's Workforce Board, which brings together business, labor and government agencies delivering direct Workforce Services. Well, these are two people, we definitely want to talk to you for our series on workforce development. It's such a pleasure to have you both on our show today. Welcome. (inaudible)

Chad Bolser: 1:25

So Marina, our first question for you is, would you share more about your work at the state level, to elevate workforce development, particularly in and supporting our K 12 students? And have you seen a shift on how districts are prioritizing workforce development? And have you seen a shift in how districts are prioritizing workforce development now, more than in recent years?

Marina Parr: 1:49

It's a great question, Chad. So I think a really good example of that is a bill that actually passed in 2023, that basically allows high school students to use workforce experience to graduate is by completing what's called a performance based learning experience. And that could be professional skill building, or internships, or even community service. And it's really acknowledging that students have multiple pathways and working toward their high school diploma, and that schools and employers are valuing work experience more than ever, this new law will eventually turn workforce experience into a graduation pathway, which is a really big deal. And I want to say that, it's not that there aren't questions that come from this new push for workforce experience, you know, maybe the student is working at a pizza place, by the way, my son does work at a pizza place. So there's a little bit of bias there. But you know, how does that relate to traditional subjects are students learning communication skills, they're learning how to measure how much cheese how much meat. So so much of workforce learning actually does translate to what we think of as traditional subjects like English and Math. But you do have to get your mind around it. And I think educators as well as parents of students, not to mention employers are seeing this connection more clearly, especially as our labor market undergoes significant challenges. And we're seeing for the first time in a while they think stuffing might echo this, too, that, you know, more high school students are working after school. And during the summer, for example, that was not the case just previously, sort of the millennials during the high school experience. They were not working after school, that was a big thing. Gen Z has flipped it, they are actually working at jobs and teen unemployment reached a 14 year high last year. And some of that has to do with higher wages, no doubt that employers are still facing hiring challenges. And teens are picking up some of the slack. And they're getting paid well. But some of it is a cultural shift, I think towards recognizing the value of work, even when a student is still in high school. And that last stat here is that the US Department of Labor recently reported that 37% of students between 16 and 19 are looking for part time jobs. And that's the highest percentage since 2009.

Sarah Williamson: 4:03

Thank God, Marina, I've been wondering

Marina Parr: 4:03

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

Sarah Williamson: 4:17

That is promising. Okay, Stephanie, I'd love to hear from a communications perspective. How have you seen workforce development and advancement increase? And are you seeing districts share those stories and the impact the work is happening with their broader communities across the state of Washington in particular?

Stephanie Davidsmeyer: 4:34

Yeah, well shout out to Marina for bringing up House Bill 1308, the Performance Based Pathway that's big for the seaboard. We're working on that right now. We actually just had a webinar yesterday. We welcome 350 counselors from all over the state. They're all chomping at the bit to get this performance based graduation pathway option in place for their students because people are really seeing the value as Marina saying there's kind of this shame Okay, so I think there is this recognition of like CTE, the performance based pathway, the CTE is another graduation pathway all on its own. And on a broad scale we're seeing that we just released also, it's kind of been a bigger week, we just released our Basic Education report where we talk to every single school district in our state, and we get the lowdown on what they are offering students and 93% of all of our districts are offering just a CTE graduation pathway option. That's great. We want to see options like that for students. And then now that this performance based graduation pathway option will be available, there's even more ability for students to show what they know, in ways that are different than a multiple choice test or assessment. So I think you've asked about communication, which I love. And I think on like a specific level, I see a lot of success stories. One that sticks in my mind is from a little school district called Shelton School Districts not far from Olympia, actually, where the board members and I visited last year, and we got to talk with a student named John, who was going to graduate high school, basically with his associate's degree and a job lined up in welding in Seattle, at a big welding company. And he had chosen this pathway specifically, with the support of his administration, support of his educators to really find out what is John passionate about what does he want to do after school? And how can we get with professionals in our state that can help him get to that place. And I think our board members were blown away by John and it wasn't because he went to a four year university, it wasn't because he was going to be a doctor or brain surgeon, is because he knew what he wanted to do. And he was ready. And so that was really inspiring for us. And I think seeing more of these stories would be even better. I think a specific one that comes to mind also is part of high school levels of high school in Des Moines, Washington, kind of between Tacoma and Seattle, called Maritime High School. And they are actually one of the seaboards grantees for a program called mastery based learning, which is all about project based experiences that these students are having. So these students who are interested in maritime careers are going to a school where they might, Marina used a pizza making example. But I've talked to students that are making canoes, and then they are talking with advisors and building reports about how much it would cost to open their own business in boat making. And they have all this math and all these figures that go into it. And these kids will just blow you away. So I feel like stories like that are really inspiring. And to get them out there on like a mass level. It takes a lot these days to get into like the broad news cycle. So I think I've spoken with my colleagues at other state agencies, and they've told me that all of their successes in communications, started on social media were picked up by media outlets, and then shared by influencers to get to a broader audience. So it's kind of like all these kind of magical things have to happen in tandem. And I feel like stories like the ones that maritime and the ones with John, it's possible. I think we've maritime, they've done a bunch of high level media stories, mostly because they've worked with lawmakers that are also interested in hearing those stories. So it'd be the media lawmakers and a government agency like ours, kind of doing those visits and building those stories up. I feel like I've talked for a long time have I answered that?

Sarah Williamson: 8:34

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

Chad Bolser: 8:39

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

Sarah Williamson: 8:48

Yes.

Chad Bolser: 8:49

One on the ground way to tell the stories. Yeah. I love the idea about the when you talk when you hit about the associate's degree and career alignment, things that we need to be doing. And you mesh that with the House Bill, how the states are really saying, and you hear this all over the country, we need to honor work, we've got to figure out a way to honor what we're doing here. And I think that that's this is good news. And so I think, to transition into that, how, and we'll hear from both of you on this, if you seen an increase in public private partnership, we can't do this alone, right? It can't just be one side or the other. Have you seen an increase of those partnerships when it comes to the workforce development in Washington? And how do you think this will continue to be a priority? Is this a flash in the pan? Is this something that will come and go? How do we prioritize this? And we can hear from both of you on that?

Marina Parr: 9:46

Thanks. I just want to add one more thing to Stephanie's comments to about that. You mentioned the super valuing these different pathways. I believe that in high schools here in Washington state they have a thing called Signing Day. Oh, I got into Stanford. I want to see I got into this apprenticeship program, I'm going to become a plumber and make $200,000 a year, I'd like to see some banners for that at the high school level, because that's where the value is shown to the students. I mean, I just as a parent of a high school students, so much of it is between themselves, they are the ones that are kind of populating what's what's good or bad. So I don't know, maybe other states, maybe I think you're in Indiana, right, Chad, maybe Indiana's doing this already. But I'd love to see that more in Washington.

Chad Bolser: 10:29

There are several places in Indiana that are doing those sorts of things to talk about career readiness, they're acknowledging the career readiness, the career pathway, there are in those work based learning environments to recognize that I don't think we've gotten to the point of banners and sort of the same recognition as the four year institutions. However, I do think these sorts of things, this conversation about how we develop talent will encourage us to recognize it in a way that is similar to all the other academic, and all the other achievements that come through the high school experience. So I think you're spot on there.

Marina Parr: 11:08

I'll create that they enter, that'll be the next thing. But anyway, yeah. So getting to public partnerships. I'll try to answer a little bit about that, you know, from a workforce perspective. And I know, Stephanie, they'll have other thoughts from more of the K12 perspective. But we know that businesses are busy, that's probably the biggest challenge in workforce development is getting business to the table, because they're really trying to run their business. So you need to make effective use of their time. I know, they're very interested, though, in education and getting the training that the young people need. Our state has had something called industry skill panels, and that's bringing together similar businesses, so they can discuss common skill gaps, hiring challenges, you know, difficulties that their employees face, and finding housing, other support. And the interesting thing is that these businesses, and these employers are typically competitors, right. So they're in the same space. And that's why they're facing the same challenges. But they feel like there's enough there that they should come together, they can advocate more effectively for common goals through these industry skill panels. A few years ago, the Workforce Board where I worked, we launched at what's called the upskill backfill initiative. And it's a demonstration project that started with $2 million in federal funds that our governor, Governor Inslee invested, it was to test drive new ways to build these stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors. And it really worked. I mean, this was just a smaller demonstration project we did in in quite a few rural areas, too, that were less connected to, you know, resources, such as higher education. And one case, I know, community college that was located in Vancouver, Washington, which is right across from Portland and big metro area, they actually drove their instructors out to a rural community to deliver the instruction at the workplace so that they could advance their skills. And so that's kind of one of those innovative things where the private sector employer, how am I get my employees trained up? And it's through those partnerships. And then the other thing I think that we can mention, I'm sure we can amplify more, it's just about how CTE does that career technical education, if they do meet with employers, local employers on a regular basis, they get to see, you know, what should be in the classroom? What am I teaching? What am I not teaching? What are my students going to need to know? And I think one of the biggest challenges and we're gonna see a whole other podcast probably is just about rapid changes in technology. technology's changing so quickly, that that conversation, it's almost going to be on speed drive, because you're just going to continually try to figure out like, what are the skills that these folks need to have? How are we going to get that into the classroom, as particularly with CTE, how to get that hands on experience, so that students are excited about it as well, I actually, again, because I am the parent of a high school, senior, my son's friend is really involved with robotics, for example, it's a really great CTE pathway. And they do get a lot of props, right, because robotics is super cool. But it has so many skills has so many applications to the real world. And again, they've got great, I think, employer connections to that program. So I see that I guess the follow up question, which is do we see this happening more? Yes, I think it's just going to continue. And I do think we're in a great spot, because employers really need that workforce, they are hiring, they can't get the skilled workers they need. They're much more open now to hiring folks that they wouldn't have looked at before people that might have been previously incarcerated, for example, people that come with language barriers. And so we're in a really great moment for workforce development, as well as in the K 12 sector to kind of get folks that were underrepresented into these jobs in these work experiences. So that's the exciting part. From our perspective.

Sarah Williamson: 14:42

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

Stephanie Davidsmeyer: 14:54

I actually do I really do. I There you go. reminds me of something that is not the same as Not totally the same as what you're talking about Marina, but Boeing in Washington, DC huge company, they have something called stem signing day. And I think it has a lot to do with the internships that they offer. But it's not on the grand scale that I think we're talking about, like with some of the other. And even with some of the sports, I mean, the sports. Yeah, I think to add to what Marina was saying, terms of like, public private partnerships in Washington, like I mentioned, Boeing, Microsoft is invested in the education happening in our state. So we have a lot of like, districts using Microsoft certifications for their students. And I was thinking about poor plus aerospace as well, that's for students, they interested in aerospace, obviously. And I just think having the businesses do have a care, especially in our state, and a lot of our businesses are global, because we're such a big deal in Washington State. No, just kidding. But we do work with them quite a bit. And in terms of public private partnership as a phrase that really brought to mind how our state is handling financial education, because that agency is a public partnership. And it's grown. I mean, the past few years, it was one person when I started working at our Office of Superintendent Public Instruction and and they have a big staff now. So people want to want that financial education for their kids and the businesses. I mean, it's in their best interest. Want it for the students as well. I think that's probably one of the main comments that we get at the board is out of rage parents, my kids don't know how to do their taxes, and even from students. I don't know how to do my taxes.

Sarah Williamson: 16:29

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

Stephanie Davidsmeyer: 16:32

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

Sarah Williamson: 16:39

Yeah, for sure. Shout out, by the way to Boeing, we just did a factory tour on Sunday. My son is a plane junkie. So he really loves airplanes. And we just did the factory tour. So impressive. I totally agree. Okay, I'm curious, how is the ESSER Cliff impacting the districts in Washington, State of Washington and workforce development in particular? And do you think the new Biden Administration initiatives are going to be do you think they'll tap into any Workforce Development Support? Or is chronic absenteeism, student support to student after school support? And then high dosage tutoring the three initiatives under the new program? Do you think that's going to touch anything you're doing in Washington? And do you think you can tap into any of that support?

Marina Parr: 17:23

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

Sarah Williamson: 17:41

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

Chad Bolser: 17:48

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

Marina Parr: 17:55

Yeah, he's loving it. He's a ninth grader since his first year there. And I'll add one more thing about workplace learning, because he also just participated in what we have is a legislative page program in the state, I'm looking at the state capitol for my office, and students get to spend a week with a legislator, running errands, delivering packages being on the floor, they learned to write their own legislation. And it's just a week long experience. And it gives her a front row seat to how our democratic process works here in the state. So that's another example of that really, that big focus on Workplace Learning. Awesome. Yeah. Anyway, Stephanie, go on with us so sorry.

Stephanie Davidsmeyer: 18:32

Yes, that's a good question. I think in our state, it seems like, along with the attention paid to the effectiveness of CTE and performance space pathway, like we were talking about before, there's this increase in the significance of community based organizations and nonprofits and things like that. So I know our state has done a big push on, like, using NSF funds for those kinds of things, which leads me to believe that this is what the students need. I know, I have two student interns who are graduating this year, they're seniors, they said they they're still kind of feeling the impacts from the pandemic and how that impacted them mentally and socially, as we were speaking to before. And I just think it's so important to have those dollars going to the things that students need, because they absolutely cannot learn if they're not supported in those ways. But I know that a lot of rules and a lot of considerations go into the distribution of these funds and our partners at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. They're very transparent about these dollars, and they have really informative website content, if you're curious about that. But yeah, I'm not sure. Marina, did you have anything you wanted to add

Marina Parr: 19:51

No, enough about it. We used to have someone who about workforce? worked here who could have talked about it quite a bit, but I can't pretend to be a subject matter expert on that. I agree with you. Though that, you know, our state, I think does a pretty good job of allocating it toward the highest need. And, you know, chronic absenteeism is an issue, it really did start with a pandemic kids kind of checked out, and then they never really checked back in. So we kind of have to figure out how to reengage students and really get them in, you know, really be there, be present, and then also kids that fell behind. And we know that populations that have struggled the most had the widest gap, you know, that they felt way farther behind than some of our higher performing populations of students who have more access to resources, etc. So we have to find ways to keep those folks going. Because we don't want to lose generation of young people for the pandemic, even though it may not be quite as dramatic in some people's eyes. But if you're behind were a couple of grade levels. That is significant. And that's going to put you back the rest of your life. So yeah, this kind of funding is actually really critical. But it's almost like an invisible thing. You don't really know it until the student leaves the school building, and then they're behind, maybe they can't read at grade level, and they can't move on even through post secondary options. So anyway, I'm personally happy that some of those funds are coming to help these especially more challenged populations of students keep up keep pace catch

Chad Bolser: 21:19

So we have noticed the new at a glance Workforce up, really. System Poster highlighting how Washington's workforce development system helps job seekers find training and employers connect with skilled workers. Could you share a few takeaways, key takeaways from this initiative? This poster the what you're trying to communicate?

Marina Parr: 21:42

Yes, in your brain? Yeah, one of my favorite products, I should admit that I am the former communications director, it's worked for spirit. So I share Stephanie's background in pushing out projects. But yeah, this is what I like to call because I named myself America's favorite matrix. Oh, it is it is a hourglass poster of our state's largest workforce programs and our staff. So we were basically a policy and research agency here, the Workforce Board is that small state agency of about 35 people total. And like I said in the intro, there's a board we have a board of business and labor representatives along with government representatives that deliver workforce services. But we put out this poster to show the system which is a very complicated, complex system in one spot. Now, it's not all the programs, we couldn't fit that that would go round and round my office five times probably I also often laugh because this is what I call a quad fold sign of the trifle is a quad full because there's so many programs, but it is a great way to see, you know, our state's largest programs, including career technical education, for example, at both the secondary and post secondary level, it shows who is administering the program, shows the funds that are flowing both state and federal funds. It shows who's being served. And when we have the data available, we do calculate performance. So it's a great way to see how are these programs doing. And again, we're not dinging any programs, especially as we're still emerging from the pandemic and seeing those lingering effects. But a lot of times this poster can tell you what's the employment rate after a person goes through a program? What are their earnings? What's the return on investment for the economy as a whole, we were able to do that through a net impact study. So it's a really great poster. If you live in Washington during this podcast, it also is free. So get a hold of the show's hosts or whatever, we can send you a poster. It's also online at the workforce sports website. So you can see this poster as PDF as well.

Sarah Williamson: 23:38

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

Marina Parr: 23:43

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

Sarah Williamson: 25:36

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

Stephanie Davidsmeyer: 25:56

Sure. So I think being in communications, you always have to try new things and engage in new ways. And one of the most refreshing programs that I run, I mentioned my interns. So when we were trying to get the performance based pathway Bill passed, it kind of dawned on me that we were talking about the significance of these high school students and their work experience and how that can contribute. And I thought, let's, let's walk the talk and let's hire some high school students to help me with communications. We're trying to reach their peers sometimes and we're doing a terrible job. Let's see if they have any ideas and people thought I was crazy paying high school students for this but I have never had more fun or thought about my job in different ways. And I think with the help of these two young ladies, we've managed to connect with so many experts and amazing people that want to connect with them just because their students, they want to do interviews with them, we just got back from sub pop records in Seattle. I don't know if you know, but that's Nirvana's old label al AF. And the students got to sign their name on this huge signature wall and learn about different internships at sub pop records. And this is all because their attorney wanted to be a part of their series from students professional. They've talked with the community engagement guy from the Seahawks, they talked with the CEO of code.org. I mean, people want to hear from them. And that's the state board kind of getting in with these people and hearing their stories, and then hearing how they feel about hands on learning and watching them talk with my students. And I think some of the most impactful interviews have been with from peer to peer. So they interviewed students at Maritime High School about, you know, canoe making and a bunch of other things. And I think that inspires lawmakers, I think it inspires the education community, as a whole to kind of see these examples that they didn't know, were out there and think maybe we could do it here. That's kind of been my goal. And I think I'm gonna miss these girls so much. They're graduating soon, but I think it's going to be a really impactful program moving forward.

Marina Parr: 28:12

I want to add, I personally love the fact that Stephanie has those folks, those young people, I love to read what they're up to. I remember seeing an interview they had in Tacoma, recently with this gal that was just so weird, because it comes from a different perspective. And that's what I'm saying. I mean, this is what's this great about this podcast, too, because Stephanie is bold, she's, you know, taking on this challenge, because she always said, Well, how's that really going to work out? And I think it's worked out great as just like a viewer, like a, like a person learning about what the State Board of Education is up to. I feel like it has a lot more authenticity, when I'm hearing it from young people, because they're living it, you know, in the end, like Stephanie, saying, they have different perspective, we're, you know, we always talk about social media or whatever, how are they interacting with social media? How do they interact with their peers? So we have a lot to learn. But when you do that, walk the walk and actually have those folks working with you. You learn a lot, probably more than they do in some ways, I think. Yeah.

Stephanie Davidsmeyer: 29:10

Yeah. They're like little celebrities.

Chad Bolser: 29:11

Stephanie that's great. I just love hearing that. It's amazing, right? We haven't figured this out. And every time we're, we kind of have that shock that students and young people communicate messages better and more effectively with folks that we would really like to have in the audience. And we go, Wow, what an unbelievable concept. But when people take that on and do that, it's just I think the results are fantastic. And you should be commended for that.

Stephanie Davidsmeyer: 29:39

Thanks. Yeah, it's been awesome.

Chad Bolser: 29:41

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

Marina Parr: 30:06

I want to turn to skills based hiring. I think that that, you know, that's sort of a term of art. There's people know what that means, I think, but it's really breaking down credentials, you know, post secondary credentials into their component pieces, as well as just figuring out what people come to the table with. And respecting that and understanding that because, as we know, again, we're at this pivotal, we would say, watershed moment and workforce development. We know employers can't get enough skilled workers, we know that their traditional methods aren't working for them anymore. They can't just go well, I'm going to put it out for just people with bachelor's degrees, for example, multiple states for it, for example, have removed bachelor's degrees as a minimum requirement for a lot of their job postings. Washington State employers looking at that same pathway. So again, what do people bring to the table? How do we show them? How do we help people advocate for themselves? So to say, I can do this, this and this, how can I prove I can do this, this and this and how can I connect with employers? So I will say that, at the Workforce Board, one of the things that we work a lot on currently, and I think it's going to go on for the next 10 years, at least is credential transparency, which is another big word, but basically, you know, what's inside this credential? You know, what are the skills and competencies that this person can do? How do I verify that those are actually in existence if it's not in a traditionally transcripted degree? And then a lot of this is also coming down to technology like I spoke about earlier, which is digital wallets, for example. So that people can take their information with them, they can share it as they want. We always want the employee or the customer to have control over their wallet, for example, but then they can share that instantly with the players rather than going. Okay, now what do I do? Or what what are my skills, it's just something that that is with them. It's kind of like your own personal marketing firm, your digital wallet. But that's a piece of Prudential transparency. It's just making it a much more seamless system for workers to connect with employers. And I think employers are so ready for this because again, they've had so many hiring challenges that they can see, okay, that worker can do this communications work, they have this math, math skills, they can do Excel works deal with spreadsheets, what are the things that that person can do? You know, what I used to think I have to hire a bachelor's degree person turns out, I don't have to, they actually have the key skills I need to hire. And that helps that person move into the workforce and helps the employer get the skilled worker they need. And that's just going to keep growing. I just anticipate skills based hiring is just, it's got a lot of momentum.

Sarah Williamson: 32:42

So much fun. Oh, go ahead Chad.

Chad Bolser: 32:42

I was just gonna say that is as exciting and possibility, I think in the world of education, what we can do for the students that we serve, is to give them those access to that type of tool. We can do it in so many parts of our lives. But we have not done that yet in the educational system. And I think it's we need to get there. And we need to get there really soon. So I love that. I love that comment.

Marina Parr: 33:11

I will add we've piloted just so talking about local project, we piloted a project in Spokane, which is on the eastern part of Washington State, where we have first generation college students. So these are entering freshmen going into Eastern Washington University, it's a summer bridge program. And they were issued digital wallets through a platform called Merit. And that's what there's multiple platforms out there. But we partnered with Merit, they were each given a digital wallet, they were given some curriculum, these students these again, these were first gen students, so some career studies, and so education studies, so they could get badges automatically into the wallet kind of get some momentum. And they were also connected. This is the part we were talking about earlier with an employer. That's that key ingredient that's so difficult. They were connected with Providence Hospital in Spokane and given opportunities to do some job shadows. And work based learning as part of their onboarding basically, into Eastern Washington University. And Chiness was very exciting was lots of positive response from the students and from Providence, too, because Providence had to be really bought into that it was very instrumental in this as well. So yeah, that's just an example of what we're doing in Washington to kind of advance credential transparency through digital wallets are called LER. Somebody we know that they're called learning and employment records, but sometimes it's shorthand called digital wallets.

Sarah Williamson: 34:32

Yeah.

Chad Bolser: 34:33

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

Sarah Williamson: 34:50

That's great. Well, this really has been such a pleasure meeting both of you and hearing more about the work you're doing. It's so exciting. I think you're making transformative change throughout the state. So look forward to watching and watching your continued success. Where can our listeners learn more about you Marina, and connect with you and Stephanie same thing with you,

Marina Parr: 35:10

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

Sarah Williamson: 35:19

So simple,

Marina Parr: 35:21

Really simple. We just go right into that website. And we've got all sorts of research reports that people can look at lots of initiatives going on. We are in the middle of the legislative session. Well, that's not quite sure we're coming into the homestretch. Right, Stephanie. We're almost I feel like we're getting close. So we do a lot of legislative work. If you're interested in workforce development, we track multiple workforce bills, and I do put out a newsletter twice a month, I send that out to anybody who wants to be on it. And there are lots of national subscribers. So feel free to sign up for the newsletter and you can find out what's happening workforce in education, Washington.

Sarah Williamson: 35:53

All right. Thank you again, so much. Both of you. Appreciate it.

Chad Bolser: 35:59

Thanks for joining us for the Build Momentum podcast today. If you enjoyed listening, we would love to hear your feedback, and would be grateful if you would leave us a review. This helps us to share these powerful stories with even more people. If you liked what you heard, we would be honored if you could share this episode with someone in your network. We look forward to seeing you next time on Build Momentum.