Educational leaders at schools across Northern Kentucky discussed how their institutions are meeting the needs of today’s workforce.
The panel members discussed the skills and qualities necessary for today’s workforce and how regional businesses can attract talent.
Panelists included superintendent of Newport Independent Schools Tony Watts, Northern Kentucky University Director of Enterprise Engagement Jenny Sand, Vice President of Workforce Solutions Gateway Technical and Community College Christi Godman, and Campus Director of Interactive College of Technology Leon Gladney.
Essential skills and qualities that employers are looking for and how that is evolving today were discussed Wednesday.
Watts said one area they work on at the high school level is communication, with things like technology limiting face-to-face conversations; he said kids aren’t writing complete sentences at school.
Gladney said employers must understand their target audience when it comes to communicating.
“Look at the way they communicate, unfortunately, you know, social media, text messaging—I’ve had a person who actually said lol to me instead of laughing,” he said. “So, this is a new generation where we have to understand who our target audience is. I’m not saying dumbing down by any stretch of the imagination. However, you know, looking at where we are in society.”
Godman said getting a degree gives people transferable skills that employers look for, even if it’s not in their intended field—during the discussion, Watts said he has a degree in marketing and now works in education. She said what students learn in post-secondary education or work experience typically connects to their next role.
At NKU, Sand said they require students to take a professionalization course that teaches how to write a resume, interviewing skills, and other professional skills to respond to an area they saw students lacking.
“When I talk to employers, what they tell me is they’re looking for those essential skills,” Sand said. “An accounting firm wants an accounting degree; that’s normal. And there will be some people who want specific majors, but the majority of companies coming to talk to us are looking for folks who have skills, not specific training, because they’re going to teach them what they want to.”
As someone who works with many non-traditional students, Gladney said colleges have to meet people where they are, and in doing so, they have to be able to come up with ingenious ways to make students see value in what they have to offer.
“A wise person once told me in order for people to want what you have to give, you have to give them what they want,” Gladney said. “Right now, a lot of the individuals in our generation have been migrating towards more non-traditional methods of acquiring a lifestyle that falls outside the realm of what most of us as traditional employers are looking for.”
Gladney said finding the balance between a traditional four-year route and a skill that requires hands-on training requires the educational system and the business community to work together. He said programs need to be more dynamic to train individuals with no specific skill set on essential skills to turn out more productive and loyal employees.
Other than establishing that candidates should have essential skills to find a job at most places, the panel discussed how a company attracts that talent and creates a more inclusive workforce.
Community engagement and seeking people out are things Gladney mentioned.
“What we do here in each of your roles, you may wear different hats that go outside the realm of what it is you normally are doing or what your normal job description is,” he said. “That’s a transferable skill. A lot of these individuals who are bouncing back and forth, you know, two different jobs, they don’t see value. So, how do we incorporate value into what we’re doing? I think community engagement is huge. You have to get out there and meet them where they are.”
Sands said NKU helps meet students “where they are” by bringing companies to their campus. Western & Southern and Global Business Solutions recently opened call centers at NKU for students to work part-time.
“We were working with them, and they were trying to figure out how to get part-time workers, and they thought students would be great for that,” she said. “And we were talking to them, and I said, ‘Yeah, but you’re asking them to go downtown, to park, to dress up,’ which is part of Western & Southern culture, and that’s fine, but upon talking to them, we figured out that you could have a similar setup but on our campus.”
Sands said 30 students work for Western & Southern part-time, which can transfer over when they graduate.
As for inclusivity in the workforce, Sand said they had roughly 600 international students last year, and they try to work with employers to place them in the region’s workforce. She said a challenge is finding companies that have the ability to hire them.
“I talk to a lot of companies that want diversity,” she said. “They say we need diversity and how can you help us, but then they close their doors immediately when we talk about our international students and trying to place them.”
Sand said they will go back home unless they can find places to work, and the region loses out on that diversity.
At Newport Independent Schools, Watts said their job is to prepare students for college or the workforce. He said they are always looking for business partners to work with them; things like Adopt A Class programming or reading to a class also help students. Watts said one of his goals is for every senior in their school to be able to participate in workplace learning before graduation.
“I feel it’s important if our seniors can go out and get a feel for what they think they want to do in life, get that experience, and then they can say ‘yes, this is what I want to do, or no I better go another direction,'” he said.
Godman said organizations don’t have to work alone. She mentioned GROW NKY, which comprises leaders across educational institutions and community organizations working collaboratively to leverage the region’s assets to grow, attract, and retain a globally competitive workforce.
“Don’t feel like you have to do any of it alone,” Godman said. “When you have things that you need to talk to somebody outside of the region about or inside of the region, and you don’t know where to start. Reach out to any of us, and we can pull all the resources in collaboratively.”
