Work In Progress WorkingNation

In this episode of Work in Progress, I am joined by Heather Tinsley-Fix, senior advisor, employer engagement for AARP to talk about the aging workforce and why it is good business for employers to actively hire and promote older workers.







Refusing to hire a person or to promote them based on age is absolutely against the law.







Still, recent studies show that adults over the age of 40, including a vast majority of baby boomers, believe their age puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to finding a job, or limits their career opportunities.







Tinsley-Fix says the most recent AARP survey shows that 64% of workers over the age of 40 have felt or experienced age discrimination or ageism at work.







"It's largely subtle because it's unconscious. Most people have ideas about what 'old' means. Anyone who is older than they are is old. A 20-year-old thinks a 40-year-old is old and a 40-year-old thinks that a 60-year-old is old.







"But, in terms of feeling it at work, it can be slight comments like 'I'm having a senior moment.' It can be things like suddenly getting flat or even negative performance reviews when nothing in your performance has changed.







"It can be being passed over for innovative, or exciting, or challenging opportunities. It can be assuming that you're not interested in learning new skills. Companies might be really pushing upskilling to the younger parts of their workforce and not to the older parts of their workforce."







One of the perpetual and persisting stereotypes in society is that older adults are afraid of the changes in technology that continue to shape how we live, play, and work.







"It's one of the most entrenched myths about older people – they're 'not good with technology,' which is just ridiculous. Not only does AARP research show that 50-year-olds and up are just as active and avid consumers of technology as younger folks, we know that at work plenty of workers are able to adapt and move with the times and adopt to new platforms. It's frustrating that it's so entrenched and that it's still there, but it does persist and it's not true," says Tinsley-Fix.







She emphasizes that these misperceptions about older workers and jobs seekers – including their "fear" of new technology – impact their ability to find work or get a promotion.







And its not only the employees that are suffering. Employers have been saying for years that they are having a hard time finding talent for certain jobs. They are missing out on the skills and talent of this growing part of the workforce.







Right now, about one-in-five workers is over the age of 55 and that is expected to grow to one-in-four as baby boomers continue to decide to stay in or reenter the labor market because they have to do so financially, or they simply want to do so.







Tinsley-Fix goes on to outline the skills the older worker brings to the job and the advantage an employer that embraces a multigenerational workforce has over their competition.







You can listen to the full podcast here, or wherever you get your podcasts.























Episode 317: Heather Tinsley-Fix, senior advisor on employer engagement, AARPHost & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNationProducer: Larry BuhlTheme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode hereWork in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

In this episode of Work in Progress, Courtney Brown, VP of strategic impact and planning for Lumina Foundation, and Stephanie Marken, senior partner at Gallup, share details of a new joint study that finds that college affordability is a top concern for Americans, despite seeing a degree as valuable to career success.







The Lumina Foundation-Gallup State of Higher Education 2024 shows that cost remains a major barrier for students seeking a postsecondary education, with 38% of students plunging deep into date to pay for their education beyond high school.







"We have seen over the last decade enrollments declining in postsecondary education. At the same time, we need more talented people in our country. This is a problem. We see over and over again that cost is a huge barrier," Courtney Brown of Lumina Foundation tells me.







Stephanie Marken of Gallup adds, "We very intentionally interviewed people who don't have a degree or credential because we want to understand their attitudes towards and experiences with postsecondary education pathways, whatever that pathway might be. We found that over half of those who we interviewed who were not currently enrolled reported it was a very or somewhat important reason as to why they were not currently enrolled."







The researchers also talked to students who are currently enrolled about the high cost of higher education. "About a third of students who we interviewed reported that cost is a major barrier to continuing enrollment. We asked individuals if they considered stepping out in the past six months. We found about a third said that they had struggled to remain enrolled. Cost was the major reason for that," according to Marken







The study also finds that 71% of those who borrowed for postsecondary education struggle for years to repay their loans, says Marken, delaying major life decisions "whether that was buying a car, buying a home, having children, returning to postsecondary education for those who had stepped out temporarily. It's really keeping them from achieving important milestones that we would say is a life well-lived."







Despite the high cost, says Brown, the survey found that people do value a degree or a credential beyond high school. "We see over and over again that they say having some credential after high school is extremely or very valuable. That includes a certification, a certificate, or a degree.







"And 75% of students who were previously enrolled say that it's extremely valuable, so even the people that have not completed (their degree). I think it's really important that we understand that people value it, they just can't access it."







Brown also talks about the impact of not being able to afford college. "It's huge. We're seeing more and more schools having to close because the enrollments are declining. So that becomes a problem. That also becomes a problem for the communities those institutions are in because they're probably one of the number one employers in those communities.







"So there's this cascading of effect when enrollments start to decline. And most importantly, we're not going to have thriving communities. We're not going to have a nation that can compete economically, socially with others around the globe.







Brown and Marken address some of the other fallout from college being out of range financially for students of all ages. You can listen to the podcast here, or find it wherever you get your podcasts.







Read the Lumina Foundation-Gallup State of Higher Education 2024 report here.























Episode 316: Courtney Brown, VP of strategic impact and planning, Lumina Foundation,

In this episode of Work in Progress, I'm joined by Carolyn Lee, president and executive director of The Manufacturing Institute, to talk about what's behind the comeback in manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and what employers need to do to fill another 3.8 million jobs over the next eight years.







"We are at a all-time high since the Great Recession with manufacturing jobs filled here in the sector," says Lee. "We're just hovering at 13 million and that means we have recovered from all the jobs that were originally lost during the Great Recession and now we have gone back up all the way to the top of the mountain."







What's behind the resurgence in hiring?







Lee cites a number of reasons:









consumer demand and spending has been strong since COVID,







a favorable tax environment,







and the drive to invest federal money through the CHIPS and Science Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

















"From the CHIPS Act, there have been huge announcements of investment from Intel in Ohio. You have large investments being made in Texas and then a number of very large investments in Arizona. as well, and that's just specific to CHIPS. If you look at EV manufacturing, there's huge investments in Kansas and in Alabama and in Georgia and the Southeast," she tells me.







Lee adds, "Not only has it been the CHIPS and the Infrastructure Bill that have driven a lot of government funding, there is a huge grants program out of the Department of Commerce, the Good Jobs Act, which came from a previous set of legislation that helped invest in job training. That's something The Manufacturing Institute team has been working on in a number of regions including Fresno, California, Ohio, and Texas."







She says employers continue to hire, but there are still almost 600,000 open jobs in the industry every month. Many of these jobs require tech skills.







"This is what modern manufacturing looks like. It is digital. It is digitally-enabled. If you walk up to a CNC machine, it is enclosed and all the hydraulic liquids are inside, where in years in past it looked different. We have connected factories. We need data scientists and computer scientists. We also need to have software developers and other engineers







"People say, 'Oh, if you have those skills, you're going to go in the tech sector.' Well, a lot of the tech sector is the manufacturing sector, I would argue.







"In addition to those, we also need industrial maintenance technicians. The modern technology that is in manufacturing today cannot operate unless you have those high in-demand maintenance technicians and logisticians. Nothing works in a connected economy unless we have those really, really high in-demand logisticians that are helping us on the logistics side get everything where it needs to be. Not only the finished product, but all of your inputs too.







"Really, there's something for everybody here," explains Lee."







In the podcast, we also spend a lot of time talking about a just-released report from The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte Consulting that says over the next eight years, the manufacturing industry will need as many as 3.8 million additional workers, many with these digital skills. The report lays out a strategy to help employers fill those jobs, particularly through investing in worker training.







Lee and I discuss what this means for the worker and job seeker and why they should consider being one of those millions of in-demand workers needed in manufacturing.







You can listen to the podcast here,

A panel of distinguished leaders in philanthropy and business join me on the Work in Progress podcast to share their insight into the power of volunteering in your local community through your workplace.







Workplace volunteer programs have long been part of companies’ brand management and community relations strategies, but what do they offer the workers who actually perform the volunteer work?







A lot, as it turns out, from helping refine their skills to bringing a sense of purpose, of satisfaction, and a sense of empowerment as change agents in their communities, according to research from Ares Management.







Ares unveiled its key findings last fall in a white paper, Philanthropy, Purpose and Professional Development: Why Workplace Volunteer Programs Matter, and discussed them on a special LinkedIn Live event presented by Ares and WorkingNation, which you can listen to here.







Joining me in this conversation are:









Michelle Armstrong, head of philanthropy at Ares Management, elaborating on the research’s findings about workplace volunteerism and why Ares employees are so passionate about giving back to their communities.







Lee Fabiaschi, VP of employee engagement and community impact at Ares who shares insights into the company’s own workplace volunteer program, Ares in Motion (AIM) and how the company intends to grow the initiative.







Joseph Fuller, co-head of the Project on Managing the Future of Work at Harvard Business School talks about the hidden benefit for employers who sponsor community-based volunteerism for their employees.







Asha Varghese, president of Caterpillar Foundation discusses the incredible value these programs have on building skills for employees, particularly Gen Z workers.







Angela F. Williams, president and CEO of United Way shares what she’s learned about the impact on the community when a company – big or small – invests in their employees who live and work there.









You can listen to the podcast here, or download and listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find it our Work in Progress YouTube channel.























Episode 314: The impact and value of volunteering in your community through your employerHost & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNationProducer: Larry BuhlTheme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode hereWork in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

In this episode of Work in Progress, I'm joined by MK Palmore, director, Office of the CISO, Google Cloud and Todd Conklin, deputy assistant secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection. We're talking about how the federal government has partnered with Google Cloud to offer two new certifications and another training course to prepare workers for critical jobs protecting our national security.







For the federal government and private employers across the country, the demand for AI and cybersecurity skills is insatiable. U.S. employers posted nearly 200,000 jobs requiring AI skills in the past 12 months.







The World Economic Forum predicts demand for AI and machine learning specialists will grow 40% worldwide over the next five years. The demand for roles in cybersecurity is even stronger, with more than 400,000 jobs posted since April of last year. Both these areas of expertise point to employers' need for talent that can analyze data.







However, simply put, there are not enough workers with the skills needed to fill all the available jobs.







This week at the ASU+GSV Summit, Google Cloud and the Treasury Department announced a public-private partnership offering new certificate courses in cybersecurity and data analytics and a course in generative AI.







It's part of the government's effort to help connect talent to these in-demand tech jobs across industries and sectors, including the government, which is in need of workers to protect our national security infrastructure.







"It's a broad range of opportunities at Treasury in the cyberspace," explains Conklin, who in addition to being Treasury's deputy assistant secretary of cyber is also its chief AI officer. "You have the hands-on IT, actually being a person who is the first line of defense from a cybersecurity specialist perspective. We have general policy specialists that are more on the cyber policy that focus on how do we bolster standards."







This includes in the financial sector. "Treasury ultimately serves as the bank for the U.S. government and we process a significant amount of payments on behalf of U.S. citizens on a daily basis, which rivals our largest [private] financial institution. Effectively, Treasury itself operates as a global bank to some degree," explains Conklin.







In addition to cyber, he says there is also a demand at Treasury for people with advanced skills in data analytics and, now, AI, which is where the partnership with Google Cloud comes in.







"Generative AI is the dominating topic today among technologists and cybersecurity practitioners, so that's the leading cert that's come out, but we also have a complementary cybersecurity and data analytics cert along with those," says Google's Palmore.







"It's a growing field in terms of certifications that we've weighed into because we realize the value of providing certifications to folks as a bit of a shortened pathway in some ways. It provides substantive guidance, advice, and skill levels that will help people enter these growing fields of technology and explore the possibility of a career there."







Palmore says the certification tells the potential employer a couple of things, especially when combined with practice experience, which you get as part of the training.







"You are stating to an employer that not only can you grasp the academic portion of the work, but that you've shown the ability to then apply that work," he says. "I'm a big believer in the certification pathway and capability. I tell folks that as long as you are willing to do the work the certifications will give you that starting point."







So,

In this episode of Work in Progress, we share a WorkingNation panel discussion on apprenticeships for people with disabilities from the SXSW EDU conference in March in Austin, Texas.







Moderated by WorkingNation Advisory Board member Josh Christianson, project director for the Partnership on Inclusive Apprenticeships at the U.S. Department of Labor and senior specialist at the Cadmus Group, the panel examined apprenticeships as a rarely-tapped source of employment for people with disabilities.







Joining him on the panel were Mike Hess, founder & CEO of The Blind Institute of Technology, David Fazio, founder and president of Helix Opportunity, and Zariah Cameron, an equity UX strategist.







The distinguished group of panelists discuss the importance of inclusive apprenticeships, the benefits for both apprentices and employers, and the need for accessible technology and workplace environments.







They also address challenges such as outdated job descriptions, the lack of support from vocational rehabilitation programs, and the discrimination faced by individuals with disabilities.







The panelists provide resources and suggestions for creating more inclusive apprenticeships and vetting employers to ensure fair treatment of individuals with disabilities.







You can listen to the podcast here, or download and listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find it our Work in Progress YouTube channel.







WorkingNation is a proud media partner with SXSW EDU.























Episode 312: Josh Christianson, Zariah Cameron, Mike Hess, and David FazioHost & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNationProducer: Larry BuhlTheme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode hereWork in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here