- [Narrator] Funding for this program has been provided by the Friends of Idaho Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

- Hi, I'm Wendi Secrist, executive director of the Idaho Workforce Development Council.

Welcome to this special presentation of the highlights of the Age of Agility: The Governor's Summit on the Future of Work.

Each year, the Workforce Development Council, Idaho Business for Education, and Idaho Public Television partner to bring employers, educators, and policymakers together to explore the future of work.

We hope you enjoy the presentation.

(calm contemporary guitar music) - Governor, thank you for those great remarks, and welcome to the Age of Agility.

How can we better connect employers with education, education and students, to create this - Well, there's many opportunities, - workforce pipeline?

- and in fact, for the employee that they need tomorrow, the Department of Labor, the Workforce Development Council, the community colleges, the universities is one source, but what I would recommend to everybody is that they think a little bit further down the road, and that they, whether it's a small employer, their HR department, go in and talk to the career counselors in the school system.

Go to the community college, go to the career technical college, go talk to the deans in the universities about what you need in the field of engineering, of science, of natural resources, fill in the blank.

There's some of the, one of the industries that's just going crazy right now is the construction industry.

There's some of the elements of the construction industry where they're doing their own training, they do their training on the weekends, they do their training at their own facilities.

That isn't practical for a smaller contractor, and so we wanna serve to help, but they need to reach out, but they need to think short-term, where's that employer we need tomorrow, and then I don't see the Idaho economy as stumbling going forward.

We're as well-prepared as any state, but they need to think long-term.

They need to take one, five, and 10 years out, and that's getting involved with those training facilities.

- So if you're going to advise educators, K through 12 and post-secondary, what advice would you have for educators?

How can they be more responsive to helping us develop the kind of workforce that we need?

- Well they need to have the dialogue with their employers.

Even an education college, you know, they need to talk to the superintendents, they need to talk, in the healthcare field, they need to talk to the hospitals, the hospital administrators, the doctor's offices.

This Age of Agility, which is a very apropos name, things are changing so fast, if people don't have the skills to retrain, to continue to add onto their skillset, they're gonna fall behind, and that's whether you're a student and an potential employee, an educator that's training 'em or the employer themselves.

- So if you were talking to students, if this were a classroom and you're talking to students today, what advice would you have for them to get ready for the future of work in our state?

- Well, always look for a field where you have a passion, and don't, if you decide to be a, one thing, and it doesn't feel comfortable, be sure that you make that change, 'cause we want people to have a passion for whatever they do in Idaho.

That's why my goal of having our kids stay here, and we want 'em to be here because they have a passion.

But they have to be able to work in teams.

The whole world has become so complicated that if you can't work in a team, if you, and there's some jobs where you can work in a silo, but those are gettin' to be fewer and fewer as time goes on.

You have to be able to work hard, but you also have to learn to continually learn, because in this fast-evolving world, whatever job you get, I used to speak at graduations, and I remember, my statistic to high school or college graduates is normally, they would have to, there'd be six job changes.

I thought, well I had to refresh that number, and I looked up some of the statistics, now it's like 14.

And of course in the tech field, it's like three a year, if you're a contractor in the tech field.

But regardless, there're very few people that're gonna graduate from high school, college, tech school, and be doing the same thing in 10, 20 years as they're doing now, even if they're running the same piece of equipment, 'cause the equipment's gonna change.

- So what do you think, as governor, what are the durable skills that our young people need to have for the future?

- Well, (laughs) show up on time.

- [Rod] That's a good one.

- Get along with your fellow employees.

Y'know, some of the, one of the benefits of this labor shortage is employers are starting to reach down and pick up younger and younger people, whether they're working at a restaurant, and even the most menial job that teaches you to show up on time, get along with the fellow employees, learn a skill, work with the public, those are skills that are applicable from the lowest job in a company to the CEO.

Those are all skills that're important, and of course, always learn to work hard.

- Governor, thank you for being with us today.

Really appreciate it, and thank you for answering a few questions, and good luck as we, as you keep working on workforce development here in Idaho.

We really appreciate your support for that.

- [Governor Little] Thanks, Rod.

- So now, we're gonna shift to talk about the role that work-based learning plays in talent development in Idaho.

This fall, Idaho Public Television had an opportunity to catch up with a brand new pilot happening at the College of Western Idaho's Workforce Training Center.

Instead of creating a traditional career center, they created a work-based learning center.

Check out this short video about their work.

(happy acoustic guitar music) - [Narrator] Education is viewed as the primary pathway to a career.

To understand how the future of education is preparing students to meet the demands for the future of work, Idaho Public Television in partnership with Idaho Workforce Development Council and Idaho Business for Education spent a day exploring the concepts behind the College of Western Idaho's new work-based learning center.

- CWI intends to bring to life the learn, do, earn model, which is really a statewide model adapted by the Workforce Development Council to really engage students early on in the learning process for different occupations.

- So we have three pillars around work-based learning, learning about work, and so that's activities, we're going in and doing an information session, a job shadow.

We can start learning about work as early as kindergarten.

Y'know, the firemen coming into the classroom.

So in our classes here at the community college in our work-based learning center, we will create purposeful activities for students to learn about work.

Then there's the concept of the second pillar is learning during work.

That's more of an internship.

- So they're not only in the classroom getting the academics as it pertains to that particular occupation, but they're out there in the workplace actually doing hands-on work and making sure that they're able to take what's being taught in the classroom and see how it applies in the workplace.

- [Christi] And then finally, the third pillar is learning at work, and that would be a full registered apprenticeship.

- I'm a big advocate for apprenticeships.

I believe this is the future of learning, because it's a learn and earn model, so by using not only apprenticeships but really work-based learning where they're actually working in the field and earning money, they're able to pay for that education as they go through that education.

- A lot of our students here work full-time.

Let's get them into the place where they can practice working at a place where they're getting their same degree.

- The retention rates using this model are much greater because the employer's engaged on the front end, not the back end of the education process.

- Companies are really kind of dying on the vine for workforce right now, and so using the tenets of work-based learning, we said, we have a chance to create something different but with a very specific focus.

We are helping bridge competencies from every one of our classrooms to those companies.

- [John] We're really relying on those strong employer relationships that CWI already had.

- [Christi] And so our work-based learning center is intended to introduce those kinds of work-based learning activities on the first day of classes for students here at College of Western Idaho.

- So the employers are really excited about this opportunity to build that pipeline, knowing that that student is a lifelong learner.

- [Narrator] To explore a pathway for your future, check with your community college to see what opportunities for work-based learning are available to you.

And if you're an employer or educator looking to help Idahoans connect with high-demand careers, go to WDC.Idaho.gov/leader to find the tools and resources that can help you make those connections.

- I'm really excited about that project.

It has such huge potential, and Idaho has come so far since we began making significant investments in work-based learning in 2016.

We love to see efforts like this all over the state.

When you think about the many ways that employers, education, and Idahoans can get involved in work-based learning, apprenticeship is really the pinnacle of that process for many employers.

- Thank you Wendi.

Before we begin, let's define what is an apprenticeship.

Apprenticeship is a career pathway whereby an individual can gain workplace skills and knowledge by participating in both a paid work component and a related instructional component.

Registered apprenticeship is a program in partnership with the Department of Labor, maybe state or federal, where the business sponsors an occupation standards that are approved by the agency, and then it culminates in a certificate that's awarded by the agency.

Apprenticeship is generally one to four years in length, and includes mentorship and related instruction along the way.

When we're speaking about youth apprenticeship, youth apprenticeship can be formal or informal.

A formal youth apprenticeship is a registered apprenticeship or what we call a school to registered apprenticeship.

Sean, you have participated in school to registered apprenticeship at Dennis Technical Center.

Tell us about the experience and why it's important for youth to participate.

- Thank you, Marie.

I see work-based learning as the future of education.

When you think about the opportunity for students to gain the related instruction that they're getting in the classroom at their local high school or their career and tech ed center, you combine that with that work on the job experience, and that's getting paid, it opens up a lot of doors.

With education, sometimes, especially with the pandemic that we just saw, when we were out and remote, we had a lot of what I would call content without context, and so students really, after the novelty of being online wore off, they really kinda struggled to succeed in that realm in some ways, and so some students really disengaged, and when you look at versus our apprentices who are already out working or either on apprenticeships or internships, they really weathered that pandemic really well, and they could see those connections, so they were gaining that content with context, and I think, as I mentioned, work-based learning being the future of education, it's gonna be the catalyst that I think changes and gets education to adapt to this new reality of what is work gonna look like in the future, and it's gonna be those employers like Crystal coming in, and Marie, coming in and saying, this is what we need.

This is what we need from you as a school district in terms of what we're looking for, the jobs that we have, the ability to fill the gaps that these companies have.

And so I look at education as, we have to move at the speed of innovation.

Companies can't wait for us to change.

It shouldn't take six years to get a cybersecurity program approved when that's such a need in the state, and so we have to move at the speed of innovation, and I think it's gonna be work-based learning that is the catalyst for that.

- As Idaho Forest Group, we've had registered apprenticeships since 2013.

We've had over 100 apprentices complete registered apprenticeship in six different occupations, and in 2018, we began our school to registered apprenticeship program.

We have 10 students that have gone through school to registered apprenticeship, and last summer we had three.

And what we find is, as you said, that partnership with the schools is critical, and Idaho Forest Group was in that same place that you referred to, looking at the knowledge of many of our best employees going out with retirement, and how do we bring that pipeline in?

And as a lumber manufacturer, the perception of that industry is it's dark, dangerous, and dirty, and it's become automated, and it's very different, and so we needed to have a way to get students in the door to see what the opportunities were, that these were great living wage jobs, and that they would grow in their career in any way they wanted, so we began partnering with high schools and reaching out and bringing students in with the help of the counselors, building those relationships, especially in those rural schools was really important.

In fact, this past summer, we had a young man named Alex who was out of Grangeville High School, participate in a millwright apprenticeship, an industrial mechanic, and we actually interviewed him and have some information here from him, and actually his permission to share, but Alex has said that the program is challenging, but also rewarding, and he feels like this has helped him stay motivated in school, it's required, because he has to keep his grades up, it's required that he maintains passing grades and passing attendance to participate in registered apprenticeship, and so Alex is motivated to go to school, but it also gets him out of that daily routine or rut that students sometimes feel like when they're going to school every day, so he actually gets up excited to go to work and school every day.

He is enjoying working with the millwright journeymen mentors that he's had.

He's worked with a variety of them, so he can learn from everyone's strengths.

Recently, he participated in our annual boiler shutdown at the mill, and he was able to experience what it was like for a team to communicate, and I heard the governor say earlier how important it is to learn teamwork and communication skills and work together, and that's everything that Alex learned, and he said, this is quotes, "I learned how important it was to stay organized "and communicate.

"There was a lot of different departments working together "at the same time, and it was cool "to see everyone working together to accomplish a task."

So that motivates him to want to participate in the workforce, to feel like he belongs to part of a team, and that he is a valued member of that team.

Crystal, you recently started a youth apprenticeship program at Teton Toyota.

Can you tell us about that experience?

How did you get it started, what were some of the challenges along the way, and how is it going?

- Okay, thank you, yes.

So Teton Toyota just started a youth apprenticeship program earlier this year, so we're new to this experience.

We were brought in by the IBE, Idaho Business for Education.

Roger was instrumental in getting us involved, so thank you Roger.

It's been a great thing for us as a business to be involved in the youth apprenticeship program.

It complements our business and the involvement of the education from an early level with the students.

A youth apprenticeship is a little bit different because you're bringing in a younger demographic.

One of the things that was really appealing to us is just having another pipeline of applicants, especially when that, the market, it, everybody knows this, that there's not as many applicants coming in for those entry level positions, especially ones that are skilled or someone that's interested in that type of work, so we focused on entry level technician jobs for the youth apprenticeship program in automotive, and that's something that's been great.

As soon as we started doing it, we had nine applicants come in the day that we got approved, so that's something that, if you're an employer, and you know how hard it is to get applicants to come in, especially, like I said, ones that are skilled, ones that are interested in that specific field, having nine applicants that same day was really great, and then having a cheerleader like Roger and Park Price, the people who kinda got behind us with it in Eastern Idaho, have really helped us along the way.

Education has always been important for Teton Toyota, like I said, to be involved, but this is a different level.

We've been involved at the college level, but this brought it down to the high school level, which is a lot different than, we're in the College of Eastern Idaho and we love being a part of the College of Eastern Idaho, but being involved at, with high school students, showing them the pathway and showing them that, hey, the skills you're learning, here they are, they're applicable, and we'll pay you to do it, I think brings in a whole different caliber of applicants to the workplace.

- So one of the keys to school to registered apprenticeship is that the student is engaged in education, where they're aligned with the occupation that the apprenticeship is focused on, so in your case, with the automotive, you had students that were in the automotive class at the high school, and so you were able then to bring them in to offer them some workplace learning, in addition to what they were learning in the classroom.

- Right, hands-on work where they're actually touching, feeling, working on a vehicle.

They're just right there with the people that we hired.

So there's an 18-year-old student right there working with one of our employees, mentoring them along the way, so it's a different type of learning, showing them that, hey, okay, so I learned this in the classroom last week of how to diagnose something on a vehicle, now you're taking that skill and you're seeing it hands-on, so that's how that integrates with the education, is the hands-on type of learning.

- Fantastic, and you had referred to that earlier, Sean, about context and content, so tell us about what happens to a student when they get that opportunity to have that workplace learning experience.

How does that motivate them?

- That is the thing that's going to, it's kind of a positive feedback loop.

As our program grows, and as more employers engage our students, they're going to see their friends going out and doing really well out in the industry, making a good wage while they're still in high school, or they're not coming to class maybe half the week, they're going out to work, and in industry, that's gonna then motivate other students to wanna be a part of that, and so it's gonna really help enrollment which is gonna boost our program numbers, which then in turn is gonna be able to allow us to get more students ready to go out to industry, as industry gets on board with youth apprenticeship.

The thing that I kinda worry about right now is, we're in the infancy of this, and if tomorrow, 100 employers for auto tech companies come out, we may not be able to meet that challenge, but we, at the same time, we need those employers, because that's kinda the carrot for the next group coming up, and so if we don't have that, we've seen that a little bit in our HVAC, plumbing, and electrical program, we had good success early on, but then we've had a challenge with getting kids out in electrical.

We've had kids out in plumbing and HVAC, but we haven't had the opportunity to get kids out in electrical yet, and so some of those kids that were in the early classes for electrical have kind of either switched to HVAC or plumbing, or they've gotten out of the program altogether, so we do need industry to start taking advantage of these opportunities, because it will help them and us in the long run.

- So what are some of the benefits as an employer that you find having this apprenticeship program, 'cause you mentioned that your students are, if they're not engaged in work-based learning, then they may not continue on with that particular occupational pathway.

- So I'd say as an employer, one of the benefits is you get another, just another source, so I always think having as many sources as you can is smart, and then you're creating a future, so if you're gonna start something like this, starting it today is better than waiting, because you need to start your pipeline early, and I said earlier, we're involved at College of Eastern Idaho, but high school is a different level.

If you don't start talking to kids earlier on about the opportunities in automotive, then you're not gonna have a pipeline of technicians down the road.

You have to invest in them and investing your time is one of those things that's really important, so as an employer, you get a partnership with the IBE, the Department of Labor has been instrumental, that's just one of the things that, you get a partnership, you're not in it by yourself.

One of the things that was a little bit intimidating to me as an employer was just getting started, and having the Department of Labor on board was instrumental in that, and that might be something that's kind of intimidating to you as an employer of, how do I get involved and how do I get started?

That would be something I would say is, just start, because the Department of Labor has the tools and the guidelines to help you along the way, so that's the nice thing.

- I think on that, talking about the pipeline, I think it was referenced earlier, Emsi, a local Idaho company, put out a report back in the spring called the Demographic Drought, and so if you've not read that, if you're a school, a state NNT, an employer, read that report, because what it's saying is you've got threefold hitting us.

You have the Boomers retiring at a huge rate, two million more Baby Boomers retired than expected because of the pandemic.

You have the pandemic itself, which has changed work probably forever, then you have a group of about 21, well really 18 to 34-year-olds that have completely checked out of the workforce, and then you have the drop in birth rates, and so that's not going to change any time soon, so as Crystal said, if you're not on the front end of this, in five years, you could find yourself in real trouble trying to find skilled labor.

And so you, there are always short-term needs in any industry, but you have to think long-term.

This isn't a fix your problems right now, this is a fix your problem in three years and maybe never have a problem again recruiting high-quality talent, and then the other thing that's nice about partnering with your local high schools is you're getting another level of pre-screening before they even go to interview with, say, Crystal.

So us as an entity, DTEC, we're not gonna send a kid out to interview if we don't think they're ready, and so you're coming with that extra level of scrutiny I guess, and then the individual has to interview, and it's always up to the employer whether or not you still hire that student, but they kinda come with a recommendation that you're not gonna get maybe from taking someone off the street.

- So with registered apprenticeship, having the Department of Labor, having Idaho Business for Education as partners is a great way to get started, have support, and they'll take you every step of the way through what it takes to build that apprenticeship program, they'll help you to find your program standards, help you find the resources for instruction, and then help facilitate those relationships with the schools, and with that support, it's easy to get started.

So with that, we wanna thank Crystal and Sean for being here today, and we're going to end with a short video on youth apprenticeship opportunities in Idaho that was published by Idaho Public Television.

- [Narrator] There are many pathways to a rewarding career.

With our American Graduate Getting to Work initiative, Idaho Public Television is exploring apprenticeships, an age-old model providing businesses with the skilled labor they need while giving youth an opportunity to earn as they learn.

Thanks to a grant from the US Department of Labor for almost 2 1/2 million dollars, the Idaho Workforce Development Council is launching a new initiative to invigorate apprenticeship opportunities across the state.

- It's a four-year grant.

It's going to allow Idaho Business for Education to hire staff to work with both school districts and employers to start youth apprenticeship programs.

- We're hoping to get juniors and seniors in high school.

We're trying to connect them to businesses.

- My name is Hunter.

I'm 17.

I am an apprentice plumber at Perfect Plumbing.

- It has been an absolute hoot to have these kids here.

- I'm Hayden Whitmer.

I'm a senior at Borah.

I just like to get paid to learn.

- [Marty] They're making $14 an hour while they're working in high school, and the cool thing is we're helping some kids succeed.

- It makes school so much better to go to, I tell ya that.

(laughs) - There are over 1,000 apprenticeable occupations in the United States, and we have a wide variety of options available to Idaho's employers.

- For the business, it's kind of a must, in my opinion.

Right now, people, I mean, they don't sign up for the trades.

- Apprenticeship is just as rigorous as a college degree, and it's just a different pathway to get there, so it's a win-win for employers, for our youth, for our state.

- [Narrator] To learn more about educational pathways to careers, go to Next Steps Idaho.

If you're a business wanting to create apprenticeship opportunities for youth in your community, contact Idaho Business for Education to explore a program to help fulfill your workforce needs.

And check out apprenticeship.Idaho.gov to get the tools you'll need to build a registered apprenticeship in Idaho.

(calm contemporary guitar music) Funding for this program has been provided by the Friends of Idaho Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.