 Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Eric Sellers now and I'm the senior advisor and I lead JFF Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning. I've spent a 40-year career, excuse me, an ex-offender re-entry work. I ran a local workforce board for about 10 years. I ran a state workforce board for about four years. I did some policy work. I led the apprenticeship work at the Department of Labor during the previous administration and now I'm at JFF. We're leading our office. We're leading our Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning. Pleasure to join you today and a pleasure to have all these great panelists here. Really you're going to see today we're going to zoom all over the country and you're going to get, which is endemic to youth apprenticeship, actually all apprenticeships, is you're going to get a little bit of a different flavor from each perspective of the panel here, which is a good thing. Because there is a great deal of flexibility in youth apprenticeship. But we know apprenticeship in general has a positive ROI and Jonathan, who I was going to give the hook to if he didn't leave, has just done some ROI work recently for us in one of our programs and found a $1.48 return on every dollar invested. We know that the average age of apprentices in the U.S. is 28, 29, 30 years old and in Europe they're 17 and there is this growing and emerging, I call it a movement in youth apprenticeship. I mean, that's what attracted 300 of you to the call today, so there's great interest. We would not have had this conversation 10 years ago, eight years ago, probably even six years ago. In the last 100 years of apprenticeship in this country, there's been a couple of attempts to really bring it down to youth and connect the earn and learn model to youth, but hasn't been very successful until the last five years. And particularly with this effort by New America and the eight or nine great partners that they've involved. So we're going to talk a little bit about the business perspective, the demand side, why it's important to them, why they got into it. And without further ado, I'm going to get started. I'm joined today. Let me just tell you who we have here. We have Kelly Flamia, who's senior manager at Accenture. We'll get back to Kelly in a minute. We have David Trost, president and CEO of St. John's United in Montana. And I was just reading about St. John's this morning. Very interesting organization. Pam Knapp is the director of College and Career Readiness at San Joaquin County Office of Education and Stockton, California. And then lastly, we're going to go down to Texas to talk with Justin Yancey, who's with the Texas Business Leadership Council. So with that, let us get started and we'll go. Kelly, I think we're going to start with you first. Thanks so much for joining us today. I believe you're based in New York City. Is that right? I am. I am. I'm based out of the New York City office and actually live just a little bit south at the Jersey Shore. Oh, gee, tough break. Well, I'm at the Delaware Shore today, so I'll drive up to me. So Kelly, thanks for making the time. Look, Accenture is a global company, very well known and a lot of different pieces of work. I know you've been with Accenture for 20 plus years and the whole change management experience. And, you know, I guess you do the organization according to your bio through global strategic changes in human resources. So, so apprenticeship happens all over the world, more so in the US. Accenture and every other business in this country was a little bit slow to the table the last 100 years. So what was it that led to Accenture's interest in apprenticeship? I know you were doing some of that work in the Midwest and in Chicago and now you're really taking the plunge into youth apprenticeship in New York. What was the story? What motivated you and what are you all doing? Yeah, so, I mean, our commitment to apprenticeship really starts at the top, right? So you'll hear our CEO Julie Sweet talking about the importance of apprenticeship, our CHRO Ellen Shook talking about the importance of apprenticeship. And I think there's a really strong tie with Accenture's unwavering commitment to inclusion and diversity. And we look at apprenticeship as one of the ways that we can build a more inclusive and diverse pipeline. It also, you know, really parlays well with our focus on skills as our common currency, right? So it's not always about the degree that you have this concept of potential over pedigree. You know, really, we've really seen that come to life with with apprenticeship in North America. And now specifically, as you've mentioned in New York City with the launch of our first youth apprenticeship program, which continues to expand and now is also in Washington DC. That's great. So two really important things I'm going to pull from what you said. Skills are the currency in the workplace, maybe more so than a degree, which gosh, don't tell my mother that she never would have let me not go to college, right? And the other is leadership matters, right? Your CEO Julie is out there has been doing it for a year or two, did a great op-ed in the post with with Greg from Aeon about a year ago, really outstanding to see big leaders in the corporate world do that. So tell us about how you got connected to career-wise New York, which was also here to hear part of the pie network. How did that connection happen? How long did it take you to get the religion of it and plunge right in there for this apprenticeship? And I believe you have 20 students involved right now. Is that right? So our number has grown. Our inaugural launch cohort one, we refer to them affectionately as the terrific 20. And so that cohort launched last September. And then we just welcomed last Monday cohort two, which is our other terrific 20, in addition to four apprentices in Washington DC. So our numbers continue to grow. That's great. That's great. And how did that connection happen to you? You go to them, they come to you or you're at a networking event. How did these things happen at the corporate level? Because that's a real challenge for everybody listening in today. How do I get a great employer like Kelly in my neighborhood? So our connection happened, I would say, you know, very naturally with our CHRO, Ellen Shook, sitting on the business council for here to here and with them serving as kind of the incubating organization for career-wise. Accenture was, you know, one of the first at the table to make the commitment to launching and being one of the pioneers as part of the launch of this first modern youth apprenticeship here in New York City, with our commitment of 20 apprentices. So with that and in partnership with career-wise, we then looked to say, okay, how, what's this program going to look like? Right? Acknowledging that our program, which is a three-year journey and targets high school juniors, so 16-year-olds, that even though we have a number of different apprenticeships across North America, that there definitely were some unique nuances when you look at this particular youth apprenticeship audience. So we pulled together a small team that was just very passionate about this work and looking at, you know, how we create this pathway here at Accenture and how do we make this experience unique? I mean, that really was key, right? It wasn't just something we could take off the shelf. We had great starting point, you know, from our different programs, but there was a heavy degree of customization to really make sure that we were creating the right experience for our apprentices, and that started with looking at the types of roles that we were going to target. And so the roles that we targeted for our cohort one were across marketing, all different facets of human resources, as well as our local technology support. Wow, very interesting. So that's great. So you're using, it sounds like you're using the career-wise model, and Career-wise Colorado works with multiple sites across the country trying to spread the love of their model, which works very well, and spread it to New York and organize all these partners. So just real quickly before we have to leave you, and we'll come back, of course, but could you talk a little bit about the program structure? When there are juniors and seniors, how many hours a week are they working? What are they getting paid? What credentials do they get along the way? And what happens after they get out of high school? Yes, absolutely. So again, three-year journey, so they're coming to us, high school juniors, and they work 16 hours per week, and that's in compliance with local labor laws. And the way that that pans out during the week is Monday through Thursday, cohort one, and this I'm going to kind of quote pre-COVID, cohort one was working one to five p.m. Monday through Thursday, so they would go to school in the morning. They would have what I refer to as an adult commute in, as most of our students are coming from New York City public schools, and either the Bronx or Brooklyn, so about an hour-ish commute into the office, work from one to five, then head back home. This is an earn while you learn model, so they are earning a market of competitive wage. And as employees, they are also entitled to benefits. So they have the option to opt in for medical for dental for 401k, which surprisingly, we have a few of our apprentices, right? We're very keen on finance that have opted in for their 401k, as well as having the ability to participate in our employee staff purchase plan. That's great. And just before I leave you, there was one other thing. Well, there's two things. You spoke about Accenture's interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion, right? And companies get in this for various reasons, right? Some are concerned about their skills level, about their next generation of workers. Some are saying we need to diversify more. Was it all of those things? What really drove you to the table? What was the pressing need that drove you to the table as an employer? Yeah, so I would say, for Accenture, I would clarify and say it's not an interest in inclusion and diversity that it is a true commitment. And so again, you know, bringing in and ensuring that we have a diversity of thought and diversity across all of the different dimensions is really what we believe fuels innovation. And we are a company known for innovation. And so we need to have, you know, a diverse group represented at the table in terms of, you know, what our clients need, what we need. And so that's, you know, that's definitely a key driver. Yeah, and that's a really important point for companies that are committed and that a lot of companies are, but they're trying to solve several problems, whether it's or challenges reflect the communities they serve in or find a pipeline of workers for tomorrow or, you know, build our own workforce. So that's great. One last question. I promise this is really it. No problem. Has COVID slowed you down? It has not slowed us down. It definitely has required us to pivot. So in March, you know, as everyone knows, but certainly in New York City being hit, you know, quite hard with COVID. We, our program was impacted. And so we were what we were calling on a pause, right? So the DOE had a schools, New York City schools shut down and as they started to bring the students back. Internships and apprenticeships were actually on pause for quite some time. So about the mid-March timeframe, and then they weren't reinstated until early May. So during that time, you know, our program was still moving. I would say full steam ahead from a, from a core team perspective. So from the individuals that support all of our apprentices to make sure that we could, you know, one, continue to support the apprentices, you know, checking in with them, right? Their emotional kind of status and how they were doing, right? So really leading from the front with compassion that was our, really the top of the priority. But then it was taking a look at how is this program now going to look in a, in a COVID world where we aren't going to see them in the office. None of us are in the office every day anymore. So, so what does that look like? And that was everything from how do we, you know, get their PCs shipped out to them so that they are technologically enabled ensuring that everyone can connect and perform their jobs in a digital way. So it was looking at our curriculum with a slightly different lens. So we are very focused on, you know, building competencies and in these early months very focused on building what we were calling power skills. So the skills that everybody needs, those foundational skills to be successful. Well, now that took on a slightly different lens as you start to focus on trying to enable these students who are now juggling school in a virtual environment, to work in 100% in the virtual environment. You know, what does it look like to now focus on bullying in digital working into the curriculum, a focus on mental health and resilience, say, so do we slow, I, so that's why I say I don't think we slow down because we really use that time when the programs themselves were on pause to check in and make sure that our apprentices were okay and have what they needed. And then to make sure that as soon as the DOE gave us the green light. And that the programs could be reinstated that we were ready to hit the ground running in a slightly different way but still effective to really bring to life their experience which was initially so immersive and now had flipped to digital. I say overnight but we had a few weeks there to replan. Well, that's an interesting pivot and I'm sure you had to work very closely with your partners to do that. It sounds like you successfully adopted and pivoted to both your advantage and the advantage of the students. All right, Kelly Flamia from Accenture. Stand by we're going to go down the list a little bit maybe get you back for some questions. David Trost is the president and CEO of St. John's United in the great state of Montana. And I've read up a little bit on St. John's United is a really high quality human service agency that has a pretty wide connection there. Yes, Montana. So, David welcome very much tell us a little bit about what you're doing on apprenticeship. Well tell us a little bit more about about St. John's United and what you're how you got into apprenticeship. Yeah, thanks Eric. St. John's United is a human service organization providing services throughout the arc of life from birth to death. We provide adoption services preparing counseling mental health, childcare, and then provide housing and services for for a big part of our workforce is nurses and certified nursing assistants. And I think everyone's well aware that those are to really work for shortage areas, CNAs and nursing. And it is our issue at St. John's as well at any one time will have like 60 positions open out of a workforce of 700 were a nonprofit organization as well owned by local Lutheran churches here in Montana. And so, you know resources aren't a plethora. You know, I know that my friend Kelly over at Accenture they got they've got some deep pockets and make things happen maybe like this a little bit better at St. John's we we struggle to do things like this but having those 60 openings made us have to get really creative. And so one of the things we talked about was, can we create our own nursing school. And as we started to look down that path, St. John's nursing program in terms of a nursing school was going to be impossible based on the regulatory requirements to start a school. So then we said we would maybe partner with some schools to try to train students and figure out that I've been a part of orientation for nursing students over the last 25 years and every time I talk to a new nursing class one of the things I asked them is, will you graduate with college debt. And most of them will say yes, and I often respond with a simple question of why, because every hospital in this country, most nursing homes in this country will probably reimburse them for every penny of their college debt just to get them to work there at their places. And this is what I have been told by almost 90 to 100% of those students, we don't want to make that commitment. We don't want to be there too early. So the way we modeled our apprenticeship program or our program, what we call the originally a nursing fellowship program is that we were going to recruit juniors in high school students junior and seniors in high school to engage in our nursing fellowship program which was going to be a work in in pre terminal degree positions like being a aid or being a certified nursing assistant or then being an LPN and then being a registered nurse some kind of a progressive model. And while you were doing that, we would pay for your education. And when you graduated here was the magic bullet and what we thought would be successful, they didn't have to continue to work for us. We did all their service, pre degree, not post degree. And so that was the, the model that we were looking to do and so as we were working with the local high school as we're working with the local colleges, as we're working with our local workforce development group. The folks at the Montana youth apprenticeship program had heard what we were doing and asked us to take a leadership role in becoming the first registered nursing apprenticeship program in the Northwest. And so, so our program now fully registered as a nursing apprenticeship program. It's hard to do nursing apprenticeships just because of the, the, while we like the skills based learning, the, we talked about the terminal degree Kelly talked about, you know, over educated, under skilled, I mean, in this case, to get a nursing degree you have to go to college. And so it's not something so in college isn't necessarily the equal term term with apprentice. And so I had to include the apprenticeship concept but also require them to go and get a formal education. And there is no shortcuts unfortunately around nursing education you have to do 100% of that programming regardless. So why didn't you, I'm sorry, sorry for stepping in but so what made you decide to lean towards youth instead of saying you know what we're going to work with men skew and our community colleges and we'll get nurses right out of there you chose very specifically to lean in towards youth. So, why was that. It was really all about programming getting one was competitive trying to get it to get students to think about our place of business early and get them tied in show them that we care, fund their education prove that we're funding their education, and then also proving that hey when you're done you have no more ties to us and go become a pediatric nurse or become a ICU nurse or whatever, but their nursing school at St. John's will be mostly centered around geriatrics. And, and so it was a means to an end for many of them or will be a means to an end. Also parents love it. It has a fairly solid reputation in our community and I think parents aren't opposed to having their kids work at St. John's United. And if they're going to be nurses to only way to get into nursing school these days is to do see any work before you apply because it's almost a prerequisite to become a certified nursing assistant before you can become get into nursing school so competitive to get into those spots. How many schools, how many high schools are you connected with now where you recruit students. We're connected with any high school students that will commute or live in Billings to do this program so we have about five, six high schools and are in the 10 of them, the general metropolitan area. We work with one joint school that is sponsored by all the three high schools and in Billings, they all have a career center, you know, you guys know this stuff better than I do the career and educational technical technical education program and so they share in the infrastructure of the fourth high school that does just that and that's where we get most of our students and then we offer it also to teach. We're also the faculty member at that high school teaching CNA classes in the school setting. Okay, so it's very, very integrated system so Accenture Kelly and Accenture chose just to do a non registered a high quality non registered program and have a model with the partners that they have you chose to do register. You probably didn't even know what a registered apprenticeship was until Minnesota until Montana reached out to you but tell us how that came about and what support did you get from the state of Montana people. Yeah, when they reached out. One, it gave us credibility. Oh, first of all, if we're going to try to say we have a nursing program by being a registered apprenticeship program in nursing that gave us some credibility that was helpful. Two is I mean, nonprofit we hear the word money and grants in support here we're all over it and so the coming registered and working with the state of Montana, it gave us a new window of access to grants, and to support for things like that. This program has become pretty pretty pretty easy to raise money for. And so we have found a donor who had basically funded a significant portion of this program to endow it. So we have enough money in the endowment to hire a registered nurse mentor or an advisor that the colleges don't have to replicate. And they're on site and they are counseling and coaching and helping our apprenticeships work and learn in this environment. It's a time paid position and if it wasn't for this endowment, we would not be able to afford that. Right. And that's a significant part of the success. Right and that's that support all the way around on so many different issues I'm sure that they deal with there. So has. One quick questions one is for the on the job learning part. Are they working in your facilities. When they practice are they going to other hospitals and facilities to do they have to work in our facility unless it's part of a clinical portion that they need like, a rotation or a pediatric rotation and they'll go and do those things. Those won't be paid experiences but those are part of the general academic portion. There are hours that they work here when they're a CNA they get paid like a CNA as well as they get tuition reimbursement credits. So if they work just part time here in work consistently, there'll be enough tuition reimbursement credits to pay for their entire tuition. And then, and then those credits any unused credits can be used to advance their degree to the next level, as long as they continue to work for us at any time they have a terminal, a degree that they're done achieving like if they just want to become an LPN, they can stop in the apprenticeship program, apply for a regular full time position here or go somewhere else. But if they want to continue, they get to still stay in the program, they get to have the reduced hour requirement, and they can go on to their next level nursing. We will do this all the way through a master's degree, if they want. And we see examples like that all over the country where they will complete an apprenticeship the employer will gladly advance them tuition reimbursements to go to their bachelor's degree or whatever. So that is an interesting model that you say, look, will you graduate go wherever you want, you know, we, and, you know, we know that job retention is at 94% with most apprentices so I would imagine many of them out of their investment in you and your investment with them will hopefully stay with you. If we're successful, we will train more nurses than we need and so many of them will have to go elsewhere. Which is good for the industry and good for the state. Yeah, and good for our CNA positions that are so if they all serve as CNAs while they're going to school, it's filling our CNA positions which are even harder to find for us. That's great. Tough experience to get. Last question quickly. COVID did COVID slow you down? How have you coped or adapted with that? COVID has not slowed us down. It might have slowed students down. It might have slowed some other things but the, but for me, we've had our philosophy here has been that there is no better time to learn about health care than right now during the pandemic. And so most of the health care centers across the country, most of them here in Billings have said, hey, let's slow down students. I mean, you don't want to be responsible for them during this pandemic. I've taken the complete opposite track that if nursing folks who are in health, any level of health care education are not in health care right now, they are missing an incredible experience. One good example is we have an internship, a 12 month residency program or internship program for administrators, and all the administrative internships across the country had pretty much gone to zero. But the intern we had pre-COVID recruited, we said come out as early as you can. If the school college shut down early for her, we said come out because you have nothing else to do. There's no better time to be educated than today. All right, David. Great. Thank you very much. Montana's doing some really cool things with apprenticeship and now youth apprenticeship and I know the state of Montana's been working on this for a while. So great to see, see you all doing that at St. Joseph's. So we're going to fly. So David, thank you. Stick around for a minute. I'm going to be running tight on questions at the end, but I want to hear from the rest of our folks, of course. So let's fly over to California and meet with our good friend, Pam, who had me laughing on the phone the other day because she's pretty direct and we love that. Pam is the director of college and career readiness at San Joaquin County Office of Education in Stockton, and she has worked with a range of partners to create something called ARCH, which I'll let her explain and develop some really interesting apprenticeship work going on through the California Community College Chancellor's Office grant program. Pam, welcome. Welcome. I guess it's a morning where you are. Thank you, Eric. It's nice to be here. All right, so tell us a little bit. You were talking the other day on the phone, which I found interesting as to how you stumbled all over this apprenticeship stuff and forged a partnership with a lot of really key people on the ground that I think folks on the line would be interested in. So tell us a little bit about how all that came together and how you supported it. Well, certainly so in 2018, a large group of people in San Joaquin County, which is in Stockton actually came together. It was initiated by our local workforce investment board, and they brought together people from education, county and governmental jobs and industry to form the subcommittee they called the San Joaquin County High School apprenticeship initiative program. And so I came into that subcommittee in July of 2019, so one year later. So they have been forging this work with a champion at one of our small school districts called Ripon Unified School District because throughout our county we have a lack of professionals in IT information technology and specifically at our school districts. And as you know, all of the districts across the nation are rolling out a one to one device for all of our students and that's especially relevant now through COVID. And so we have been rolling out one to one devices in California, and they were being in need of service. And so the small school districts couldn't keep up with the demand. And so one of our district's superintendents said at this apprenticeship high school apprenticeship subcommittee meeting, we need to grow our own. We need to get a high school apprenticeship program started in IT, so that we can train our own students to work within our school district IT program and help with the needs that are out there. So that had been going on for a year and I entered the committee in 2019 and my new position at San Joaquin County Office of Ed after spending the past 25 years working as a high school counselor doing career tech ed and college and career readiness and I worked at a college in career placement so I have a background in CTE and my passion is working with students and seeing them progress through their goals after high school and so apprenticeship is the perfect marriage of career tech Ed. And it's the ultimate cherry on that Sunday because here these students are earning and learning and working all the way through to get that ultimate career and so when I joined the committee, it was as I said at the same time the California Community College Chancellor's Office had released an RFA for what's known as the California Apprenticeship Initiative Grant. And so I was charged with the task to lead the grant writing on that with several partners and so we wrote this grant and submitted it in the end of September and we learned that we were funded for $500,000 through the Chancellor's Office but the caveat to that is it's a three-year grant program and we agreed to register 25 high school students with the Division of Apprenticeship Standards in those three years. So that was daunting for me coming into this new program. Sure. Not sure how to make that happen so here we are a year later and we are moving forward. So you found young people and students in school to work to work in the IT division to help prepare the equipment because your growth in equipment due to COVID and everything else technology is taking over right so but you had some interesting partnerships along the way. You got together with your workforce board and what another college and then you had to work with representatives from the Division of Apprenticeship Standards I guess. So talk a little bit about your partners and what role the workforce for this plan. Absolutely and they were invaluable clearly to this because again I came into something new and I spell word apprenticeship and so my year of training with all of these folks has just been amazing and so definitely our workforce investment board in San Joaquin County is known as WorkNet and the executive director there led this charge to start the subcommittee and it was really in as an answer to Governor Newsom's directive that by the year 2029 he wants to see 500,000 apprentices in the state of California and so this high school apprenticeship subcommittee thought well why not tap into the youth and let's bring them on and let's register them. Within the subcommittee in WorkNet our local workforce investment board was the president of our local community college San Joaquin Delta College and the career tech ed dean, among others, and then many superintendents from within the school districts in San Joaquin County, and then me and other representatives from our county Office of Education. All of us together put together this grant and we were connected to PIA and PIA agreed to support us with a letter of support which was greatly appreciated and we connected with the division of apprenticeship standards and our particular representative I'm like I'm on a phone call a day with this person trying to make sure we cover everything we need. And so yes it is a definite collaborative. I guess the term registered apprenticeship is something you didn't even know two years ago is that right. I'm betting most of you on the panel probably didn't know what that was until recently right. And did you know that you didn't have to register your program or you just said I had to register it. As part of the grant requirements we have to register. Yeah, that's right. And so, and also in order to meet that 500,000 goal, they need to be registered with the division of apprenticeship standards. And then there are a lot of grant programs which is why some register both with the Department of Labor and in their states because it opens up the ability to apply for economic development funds or like the community college grant program or state apprenticeship funds. So that dual, dual registration doesn't have to be difficult some places it is but it certainly opens it up to state funding as well as federal funding so that's great. What lessons learned. I mean where do you think these students will go from here I mean some a critic would say well great they're working for the school system but what about getting a real job. These are real jobs are they not. Absolutely they're real jobs and so I think that the main thing that I want to stress is we started with what I want to call as a little hanging fruit obviously. IT departments had a need, and we have a need in San Joaquin County to train more people in it. And so the earnings as you learn the students are going to get this hands on training starting as soon as they can get back in the school districts so right now all of our district are still learning remotely. And we did move into the red tier in San Joaquin County so we're hoping that they will start to go back into the schools and I'm hoping the OJT portion of this will start. I'm really excited to report that we have six students who started their classes on Monday at San Joaquin Delta College so they're taking what's known as computer science 11. We're also serving the need of dual enrollment. And so these high school students are now duly enrolled with our local community college earning their college credits, and it's going to be a three year pathway so students will ideally start as junior 16 year olds, and take a class a semester over the summer, and then finish off the required work processes that are the RS9, the latest woman on structured courses that our committee put together that they wanted. And so they're all in they started Monday and they're all doing well so far. That's great. That's great. That's such a great you know more and more community colleges are getting into this space, more and more are partnering with workforce boards, although that's not always the case around the country. So it's nice to see these partnerships time together and then you working with the state and getting that grant, I think that was a really wise move in the interest of time I want to go on a little bit. Justin Yancey in the great state of Texas so stand by everyone I will say, please check the chat there's a couple of questions in chat a couple of links about nursing apprenticeships and some other information in chat to look with. Justin Yancey thanks for joining us from the great state of Texas. As I scroll for way too many open windows on my machine here. This is Business Leadership Council and you've been around business organizations business advocacy groups for many, many years. Guys like you are people I used to chase after when I worked at the state government local government to get business leaders who could be real advocates and cheerleaders for things that work. Justin how did you get connected in Texas to this apprenticeship movement again, fairly new probably in your world of business roundtable and business leadership councils. How did it come to you and what role have you been playing. Thanks Eric. That's right. It's new, but we're very excited to be involved in this. The Business Leadership Council has has as a market is a membership based organizations and so a couple of our things that are constant with our members are, you know, one they don't have a lot of time and on their schedule is that they were all having talent pipeline challenges. And so over the years we work with things that are a little bit more clunky in terms of not being able to connect really well with community colleges or school or K 12 and things and so we have a background of working in education and workforce. Our members know that we need, because they're seeing firsthand that they're, they don't have the talent to be able to grow and expand when when they want to. We've been working on this for years. The state has a goal of having 60% of our 25 to 34 year olds have some level of post secondary success. And right now in Texas, where about 44% of the of that was 10 years to go to to reach a goal that has now even increased around the entry from 60 to 6570% and we're showing that 71% of jobs in Texas by 2036 will require some level of post secondary success and currently about a third of our Texas high school students six years after high school graduation have some level of success so all of that together has made our member has brought our members together and realizing this is something that we really have to work on education workforce so when when Educate Texas brought to us and Educate Texas is a great collaboration partnership based in both Dallas and in Austin brought to this idea to us over still over a year ago I guess we were very interested. We spent some time with in Denver with career wise and Educate Texas and have been working on this and so we realized that for the first time, it's an employer led the employer driven mechanics, and while that adds to what Brent said is not being easy trying to get business partners to engage when they understand what it is, it's actually a lot of momentum very early on. But that that's the key element for us and again everyone I'm the only one on this panel is the earlier stages, we're going to have an actual, you know, programs going on yet there are some very similar things, but not what we call you the apprenticeship. So, having having that ability for business to say, this is what we need, we can bring in a, you know, a junior and senior in high school to teach them work with him directly is just going to be very helpful, and they get that. And again, some of the older bottles where you need help with your workforce yes well what curriculum do you need and what curriculum do you need in 10 years, and it's really hard for leaders and our CEOs and senior executives to be able to do that. With everything that's going on so this is a real time work partnership with the school and Community College and was very interested and again, want to thank you know paya new America. And we have a company in Texas Texas mutual that's supporting this work and an early champion of the work so we're very happy that Texas mutual insurance we're very happy to have them. That's great. So, you know, you have an interesting role and you know you're Kelly earlier said skills as a currency and to us practitioners employers are currency right very valuable to people in the system and the biggest question I get when we work with Community colleges or workforce boards or nonprofits is gee how do you engage with employers it's really really hard. But here we have an employer group is really trying to lead are you more of an advocate for the youth apprenticeship or recruiter or policy advocate cheerleader what exactly how does your organization sort of support it. Yes, yes, yes and yes. Okay, that's what I figured I will say though that, you know, the heavy lifting and really educate Texas is the key key partner here, as well as well as with Brent new America was career wise, we've had so much help and there's been so much support and that's why we've gotten this far so fast. And the business leadership council. We realized it can't just do that our members were small by design CEO senior executive organization. But we have, you know, other contacts of the business associations organizations and regional groups. And so we're ours. Our main purpose is to bring in the business partners, help the legislative pieces that will be needed and our, our, our state legislature. What it convenes next next year, all of those different things. But yeah, we're, we hope to be a, we have thought we are cheerleader for it as well and Texas being such a big state that the original approach we can talk about later if you want or not but we've you know Houston and El Paso and Austin are very different distinct, you know, cities. And so we really want to build a program that where we don't go into a place and say we're here to solve your problems but again this is the beauty of this. This is that we can work with chambers work, work boards and intermediaries to build on what they're already doing and then put this system though in place with businesses that are excited so really across the board right now we're we're to sort of figure out all what we are but we're just excited to be part of it. Yeah. And if a group of practitioners or stakeholders and hang on their joists I'll be wrapping up shortly. If a group of stakeholders came to you and say boy we're really getting hung up by this. This law of problem in the law about I'll make one up under 18 year olds working in in the workplace. And there was a bill floating around is that something you guys might get behind just report a print. Sure, we're very active our legislature meets 100 140 days every two years, even though you'll still see a bumper sticker everyone's why you're sure they didn't mean two days every 140 years but was as it's a very part time legislature we don't meet a lot. They don't meet a lot and so we're basically working around to prepare for the next session which starts in January under the umbrella of, you know, the pandemic and not knowing if we'll be able to get into the capital or not but yes we'll be pushing, you know, for some clarification working with the Texas workforce commission. And, and we work with the, there's a dropout recovery school hopefully they're watching that a Texas can Academy that we hopefully supporting them in some legislation that they need for their students to be able to participate. A variety of things but really everything is to drive system alignment. That's the key that we're working on but we will yes have a have a role in the next legislative session. Okay, great. I do want to get to any anything else that I'm missing that you would do want to say Justin I do want to sort of wrap it up and open it up for question before I do wrap up and anything else about the business leadership council. I mean it's such a great example of these partnerships at a much different level at the state, you know, educate Texas is leadership council others coming together sport this anything else we should know about. It's a little late but briefly I just say that our businesses in Texas what we're fortunate enough to have had a very strong economy before go good and you know things are really coming along quickly. As we start to rebound and so our, it's just the pride and true or that the reality is that this program is going to be strong in any kind of economy and so yeah we're just we're happy to see how this plays out with that coming out of a tough economic time. Great well I think JFF is also working in Texas so we hope to see on there as well. I know we have to wrap up and if I can have the indulgence of new America just for a minute. There's a lot of questions in the chat. A lot of people want to be in touch with you Kelly and Pam and David and all of you so you know I'll let folks follow up with you. And there's a lot of interest in the over educated but under skilled question but for each one of you I think would be really helpful. What is one tip you would have for a fledgling program on how to engage with employers. Right that seems to be the holy grail in this business. You're on the other side of that, but people want to know, you know, what's the best way for me to involve and get engaged with business so I can get them to take apprentices. Justin I'm going to start with you first I'm going to go over to Kelly. I think just making it. I mean, obviously I'm the opposite. I'm the other side of the other side of that but I think they're just the reality of making something that can work in the make sense and that can be done like this, where it's not this conversation with big ideas that don't this is very nuts and bolts. This is how it works. Thank goodness for career wise and and other other other groups around the country that have led to this. Provided some of some blueprints for us but businesses get it and so I'm looking forward to hearing what the others have to say but no, I mean, I think the fact that it's just very defined definitive yet yet customizable that if it wasn't customizable we wouldn't have any as near as much interest so so be clear, nuts and bolts, it's practical project, communicate that Kelly what advice to offer practitioners practitioners and stakeholders. Yeah, absolutely so I mean I echo Justin's comments around the flexibility piece I mean we've, as an example right with our different roles with marketing with human resources we now have folks working in our innovation hub I think it's really important as you engage employers to give them that flexibility as they start to think about the different ways in which a youth apprenticeship might be able to come to life within their own company. The other piece that I think is really important when you think about the pitch when you're talking to these companies is is being able to get them over that hopper that roadblock of the fact that these youth apprentices are often 16 years that really can sometimes be a stumbling block. And so I think one of the ways that you can do that is being able to articulate with examples from other employers of, you know, the different successes and type of work and value that these apprentices bring through the programs and these are not make believe projects they are apprentices are working on real work real projects I think when you're able to to articulate that that that really helps to get them over the fact that you'd be bringing someone that 16 years old into your into your office into your workforce. Right, these folks are not getting coffee and copying. No, I mean they're re so I use local technology support they are re imaging computers right and handling all of our different tech issues yeah. Well it's fabulous. That's great thank you Kelly David. So what's your tip for stakeholders or partners out there in the community to, or parents for that matter to engage in a youth apprenticeship program. So Eric, you know for those that are trying to help convince businesses to do this, I think you need to see it needs to be approached from a mathematical problem. There just isn't enough human beings to serve all the workforce needs in our in our country pre COVID even after COVID with so many folks not wanting to engage at this time that's that's hard so what I think an apprenticeship does is, especially youth it increases the numbers of potential workers. And so that is a reason for doing it I mean just stealing your neighbor's worker to replace your worker for them to steal them back is not going to solve the problems. So we need to find a new source of human beings in younger people are part of that new source. The other source is college students. While they're in college for four years in a traditional programming, they are out of the workforce. So, if you can get them out of a college setting for two, one or two less years by doing an apprenticeship that brings additional mathematical human beings to the workforce. And so with so many people retiring these days I think that's a reason why we have to support apprenticeships. Okay, great, great tips, great pitches and I know in the healthcare industry when I was doing sector work there. There was so much cannibalism. The facility a mile down the road offered $2 an hour more and people just go back and forth so this is a way to bring people together and serve the industry. Thanks David. So pan that let's go out to California. You, you're not an employer but you were part and parcel of the development of this how do you get. Well your employers were online what do you do with the next step how do you encourage employers to participate even your school system leaders. That's the million dollar question Eric and I'm hoping seriously that with these first cohort of six amazing students. I want to be able to, for lack of better words, show them off to everybody in our county and say look what we're doing. And this is what is needed. And it's the same thing. Everybody who gets trained not everybody but I mean so many people who get trained in it and our community. Go over the hill into the Bay Area because the pay is so much higher and the commute is there and that's what happens we need to keep these folks here in our community and that's exactly what we're doing and so. One of the things I have been harping on when I do my pitch is, did you have a job when you were 16. That's what I say to employers, because this is more than a job, and there's nothing wrong with the job. This is a career and this is going to lead to something students can stay engaged in for a lifetime, hopefully, and give back into our economic of our county and this is economics of our county so that's my pitch and I'm just hoping that the six and are going to be successful and then the snowball is going to start happening. You're all just beginning I see great things in the future for all of you. Kelly Flamia and Accenture with Accenture thanks so much for participating. I'm in DC so maybe I'll pay a visit to your DC program one of these times. David at St. Johns in Montana, really interesting healthcare model. Something for you folks to take a look at Pam really good example of kind of public partnerships and public and private workforce and Community College partnerships and schools. Really interesting and then Justin you can't do this work without Leadership Council such as you represent really key so thrilled to see that you guys are involved in it. And you know across the country you'll see chambers solely getting involved in other business organizations and trade associations very important partner. So whether it's registered or unregistered younger youth or older youth. Here are some four examples of some pretty interesting youth apprenticeship programs, and I know I'm way over. I'll turn it back to my friends at New America panel. Thank you so much for your time today really appreciate it.