Traditionally, underserved and disadvantaged populations struggle during the height of a healthy economy and often times go unnoticed.  This session will cover ways to leverage current situations to promote the growth and development of underserved populations. We will examine ways to increase retention, academic performance, and present a positive impact on workforce development. 

The time is now to lose the fear, learn to expand partnerships, and grow to new heights of success. Join us as the panel will address the following:

• Employer collaboration to maximize ROI
• Understanding employer and employee safety protocols post COVID
• Deeper Dives to deliver training solutions
• The talent pipeline
• Continual communication
• Quality of available workforce

 The overall goal of effective partnerships and relationships is to add value to one another’s activity. John Maxwell’s sage advice regarding expanding partnerships and leadership values capture this moment of opportunity best:

• Put behind us the difficulties and before us the progress.
• Put behind us the feelings and before us the values.
• Put behind us the disappointments and before us the gratitude.
• Wisdom always comes from dark times.
• Challenges are finite and infinite hope stands the test of time.

This panel will discuss the impact of Unmudl, a course-to-job marketplace founded by community colleges for working learners. Unmudl features non-degree courses and services that help learners build skills linked to real-world opportunities that lead to higher incomes and industry-recognized and academic credentials.
What distinguishes Unmudl is the potential to rapidly develop and disseminate community college content for working learners nationally—and to foster innovation that builds on the nation’s formidable community college infrastructure.
Panelists will present the Unmudl model, and provide examples of how this marketplace is being used to expand the reach and services offered by community colleges. It will also highlight lessons learned by colleges seeking to offer the right mix of online and in-person programming.

Tallahassee Community College (TCC) is uniquely positioned within the state of Florida and services three counties in its region (Leon, Gadsden and Wakulla). Demographically, nearly 21% of the population for whom poverty status is determined in Leon County, FL (56.2k out of 274k people) live below the poverty line, a number that is higher than the national average of 13.4%. The college itself sits within the 32304 zip code, which has been deemed the poorest zip code in the state of Florida. Additionally, the college services a highly diverse student population with 52% identifying as non-white. In an effort to address both equity and access of its largely diverse student population, the college developed a CARE (Connections, Academics, Resources, and Engagement) model in partnership with faculty, staff, and students. TCC partnered with the Myers-Briggs Company to build a personalized learning model for students based upon the results of their SuperStrong Inventory. Through this partnership, academic and learning communities were developed to guide all newly enrolled students. This session will highlight the process the college took to redesign its student experience by building a model of inclusion, academic mapping, personalized learning, and strategic outreach across campus.  Additionally, specific emphasis will be given to the College’s intervention response in light the of the Covid-19 pandemic and shift to virtual learning.

There is a long list of topics that we had initially intended to share with you during this session.  

• Our newly established NCCET membership programs for 2020 has been detailed in our website, but I look forward to providing a more detailed explanation of where we are going.   
• Our commitment to offering an ongoing series of conferences like this will be an important motivation for membership and sustained renewal each year. 
• This year we also kicked off new programs that are free to all members like the Tapestry Learning Place…   

… but we believe the most important new initiative in place this year, that will deliver the greatest benefit to our member schools, is the creation of our new NCCET Regional Field Organization.  While we remain the National Council for Continuing Education and Training, the CE and Workforce Development needs of our schools in different parts of the country will obviously differ.  We now have eleven different regions that can be sensitive to the unique demographics, industries, employers, climates, and member schools within each region.   The driving force within each region will be the Regional Director who will serve as a direct link between the regional areas and the national organization.   NCCET Executive Director, Ed Harper will hold an informal gathering of our first Regional Directors.