LearnmoreMN Blog

Northfield effort turns to post-college support

By TORCH staff: Kim Horner, Teddy Gelderman and Jojo Schmidt, August guest bloggers

Northfield TORCH (Tackling Obstacles and Raising College Hopes) started with a goal: to increase the graduation rate among Latino students at Northfield High School. Now, eight years later, the Latino graduation rate is consistently over 90%, and the TORCH program has expanded to support all underserved students pursing postsecondary education, including low-income and first generation college-bound students.

TORCH is thrilled that many alumni have now earned AA and BA degrees, as well as acceptance into master’s level programs. Now, TORCH has started addressing new gaps. Postsecondary education is an important step for underserved student populations, however, the ultimate goal is for TORCH students to live meaningful, successful lives after they graduate. Unfortunately, despite on-going support and continued higher education, many TORCH students were falling short of their personal and professional dreams. For example, the TORCH program helped one former graduate find a paid internship — only to have her request an unpaid job shadow because she did not feel she was “qualified enough” to be paid for her work. Though bright and capable, too many students struggle to recognize their own abilities, and accept less than their full potential.

A large factor in students’ struggle to reach their potential is internal barriers, or the restrictions that students place on themselves. These barriers have the power to shape individuals’ lives and prevent them from success because they do not perceive some opportunities as viable options. For many TORCH students, these barriers first stood in the way of high school graduation, then postsecondary education. Now many TORCH students must overcome internal barriers preventing them from seeking opportunities in the workforce. The risk is that students won’t move forward, remaining caught in the cycle of poverty.

To address this trend, TORCH is developing new programming aimed specifically at helping students overcome their own barriers and perceptions about what they are qualified to do in the workforce. Changing perspectives takes time, and requires well-supported programming. TORCH now supports a more extensive mentorship program. By pairing TORCH students with college-aged mentors, students will have role models who are currently exploring and pursuing their own dreams. Again and again, TORCH sees the enormous gains made possible by positive relationships, and we are excited to foster new relationships between TORCH students and the college community in Northfield.

Additionally, a job and internship program for juniors and seniors will begin this fall. With support from Workforce Development, this program will equip students with job skills such as resume writing and interviewing. In addition, in collaboration with the Northfield community, the program will place students in internship positions, allowing them to explore careers in their fields of interest. By engaging students in potential career paths, we hope to make those paths tangible and more viable for students. Students will develop their workplace skills, but also gain an understanding of their own talents and interests.

Despite the many successes of the TORCH program, there is still much to be done. We cannot break down internal barriers overnight, but with supportive relationships, experience with job skills, and exposure to workplace opportunities, TORCH students will have a better chance at personal and professional success. TORCH depends on collaboration with community partners and we look forward to your advice and suggestions. Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below if you have any thoughts or ideas!

Why we need to pass the Minnesota Prosperity/Dream Act

By Juventino Meza, May guest blogger

Note: The MN Senate passed SF723 May 1 in a bipartisan basis, 41-23. Now it will be amended into the Higher Education Omnibus bill in Conference Committee, and then head for a final vote on both chambers. Gov. Mark Dayton has signaled that he will sign it.

When it comes to Minnesota, there are many things we should brag about: a lot of lakes, great businesses and great educational institutions are among them.

A few things we should not brag about: our embarrassing achievement and opportunity gaps, along with our future forecast of high numbers of retirees and too few workers with the educational qualifications our state needs. It’s actually kind of scary because all of this will impact how we do policy around education, health care, taxes and other issues for decades to come.

Here’s a small piece we can do today to address some of our future issues: pass the Minnesota Prosperity/Dream Act (SF723/HF875). Senator Sandy Pappas and Representative Carlos Mariani, along with 35 bipartisan co-authors introduced this bill to recognize certain undocumented youth as Minnesota residents for the purposes of eligibility for state financial aid and in-state tuition if they:

• Have gone to a Minnesota high school for 3 years;
• Receive their diploma or equivalent;
• File an affidavit with the respective college/university saying they will apply to change their immigration status as soon as they are able.

According to a study on state-based Dream Acts around the nation:

• In-state tuition results in a 31% increase in non-citizen enrollment in institutes of higher education.
• In-state tuition is correlated with a 14% decrease in high school dropouts among non-citizen Latinos.
• The benefits associated with in-state tuition do not appear to come at a financial cost to the U.S. taxpayer.

This is only based on in-state tuition; imagine the numbers if we equalize our financial aid for all Minnesota graduates.

Minnesota should be at the forefront of exploring and developing mechanisms that allow immigrant students to access and finance higher education that will keep more students in school, allow them to graduate from high school or obtain their GED, and attend and finish college in Minnesota (and subsequently live and work in Minnesota).

Even with federal immigration reform, Minnesota has to pass the Minnesota Prosperity Act

Like many other proposals, this bill has stalled in the House of Representatives in part due to leadership focusing on the U of M and MnSCU and confusion about it being a “federal issue.” However, if you look at the merits of the bill, it’s the opposite. Minnesota has the authority and the obligation to give its students a fair shot at higher education. Minnesota students shouldn’t be begging to be allowed to go to college, especially at a time when we will have a shortage of qualified workers.

Moreover, the federal government is debating immigration reform and we need to understand that it will be left to the states to decide to give in-state tuition and financial aid to undocumented youth who are legalized through federal action. It will not provide federal financial aid (the current proposal even says so in the DREAM Act section).

Some ask, “why should we let these students go to college if they cannot legally work?” Some undocumented students are already eligible to legally work through Deferred Action, a federal program (only for certain students who graduated from high school or got their GED). Minnesota should prepare more students who will eventually benefit from federal reform. It’s in the best interests of the state — economically, for our workforce and for closing the achievement gap.

Minnesota Prosperity Act/Dream Act uniquely enjoys broad support

By the time a student graduates from high school, Minnesota has already invested significant resources in their success. To prevent that student from pursuing higher education would be to squander our investment. The Center for American Progress estimates that allowing DREAMers equal access to financial aid would create 1,600 jobs and add an additional $359 million to Minnesota's economy over the next 10 years.

SF723/HF875 has the unique support of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and Education Minnesota. It’s supported by the community, student groups, business organizations, faith groups, the U of M, the Minnesota Private College Council, MnSCU, Agri-Growth Council, Chicano Latino Affairs Council, Latino Economic Development Center and many others.

Ultimately, these are students who grew up in Minnesota. They are as Minnesotan as anybody else. We cannot afford to lose the opportunity to tap into talent already in our state.

More information

• View a letter signed by supporters of SF723/HF875
• View a list of other public supporters
• Citizens League's 2009 study on immigrant students' access to higher education
• Find out what you can do

Credits or competencies?

By Curtis Johnson, April guest blogger

Is it time to retire the credit system? Sounds radical, I know. But last December the Carnegie Foundation, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, said it would review the relevance of the “Carnegie” credit hour, since 1906 the primary metric of student progress toward a college degree.

Andrew Carnegie could not have imagined in 1906 that his device for legitimating faculty-teaching responsibility as the first teacher pension system was introduced would morph into a standard scoring system for students. But it did. And now a century later, Carnegie managing partner Thomas Toch says it “looks increasingly antiquated.”

For starters, a transcript of recorded credits doesn’t tell employers anything about a graduate except general endurance toward a degree. It says nothing about what graduates have actually learned and what they can do in a variety of real-world situations.

But, you say, if students earned the credits, isn’t that sufficient evidence of learning? No, not after a decade of employers’ complaining that even after their human resources departments screen to interview only college graduates, they too often find that applicants are not well enough educated for them to hire. They may have passed tests measuring memory of facts and principles, but they come up clueless about solving real problems, doing critical analyses, not to mention the skills involved in working with others. Some of them still start sentences with “Me and….” This gap makes employers crazy. And it deepens cynicism about the whole higher education system.

What’s worse is the suspicion that many students simply play the credit game — studying just enough to get grades sufficient to earning a credit and collecting enough credits to grab the degree. Studies showing the drop-off in study time between the freshman and sophomore year would seem to support the suspicion.

Let’s hope Carnegie turns a bright light on a potential game-changer movement — a shift toward documenting actual proficiencies, accumulated in a permanent portfolio.

Educators have long talked about assessing competencies. Indeed, one of the institutions in the MnSCU system — Metropolitan State University — was founded on this principle. But most institutions wading into these waters did so by layering a proficiency protocol on top of the grades-and-credit system, producing more work for faculty and administrators. Seen by many as a fad anyway, the approach faded in most institutions.

But now a shift to documenting competencies is gaining momentum as a way to restore the intellectual integrity of the whole system and build new bridges between colleges and the expectations of students and employers.

With the advent of inexpensive tablet technology and rapidly emerging competitive software systems, we are fast entering a no-excuses zone for making this shift. Minnesota’s even home to one of the start-up technology firms (e-Lumen) offering proficiency software and technical assistance for implementation.

Minnesota also has an embryonic system for students to compile (and control) their own portfolios of what they have learned and can do. Called “e-folios” and originating with work at Century College a few years back, this movement is now spreading.

Nationally, accreditation agencies have for years now called for this shift, especially agencies in the western half of the U.S. And prospects for scaling are propelled by the interest of the American Association of Colleges and Universities in marketing the proficiency model all over the country. Former Carleton College vice president Dan Sullivan, now the recently retired president of St. Lawrence University in New York, has been commissioned by the AAC&U to develop a network of institutions willing to commit to this new model. Sullivan thinks Minnesota could be a model laboratory, a first mover; he reports that he’s found at least 10 Minnesota institutions — public and private — willing to make this commitment. Even more Minnesota institutions have said they are “interested and watching.”

---

See an interview with Curtis Johnson about higher education, produced by Twin Cities Public Television.

The achievement gap: not someone else's problem

By Mike Ciresi, March guest blogger

The achievement gap that exists between our K-12 students of color and white students will have profound effects on higher education in the state in the coming years and, therefore, on our economy unless we work diligently to close the gap. If we do that, we will help ensure that our students are ready for college and the workforce of the 21^st century.

In a state that boasts the highest ACT scores in the nation, 40 percent of our high school graduates entering public colleges and universities require some type of developmental course in math or English or science. Many are students of color. The achievement gap in K-12 has led to what many experts call a college-readiness gap.

Our colleges and universities have to spend millions of dollars on these courses.

Now consider that by 2018, 70% of the jobs in Minnesota will require some post-secondary education. There will be fewer jobs for people without a high school diploma and those jobs won’t pay enough to support a family. Our businesses will need highly trained and highly skilled workers to compete nationally and globally.

On an individual level, a college graduate earns $650,000 more over a 40-year career than a high school grad, according to the Pew Research Center.

Add to that the changing demographics of the state. For example, Minneapolis is now 40% people of color. In a few decades, the state’s largest city will be majority people of color. If the achievement gap persists, we will as a community leave behind a generation of young people and we will shortchange what our businesses need to grow and prosper in a highly competitive world.

But if we begin to close the achievement gap and graduate students of color at the same rate as white students (in Minneapolis, for example, fewer than half the students of color graduate on time), we can add $1.3 billion annually to our state’s economy by 2020. And better educated residents will mean less reliance on social programs, lower crime rates, higher rates of voting and volunteering, and more students prepared for college and high-skilled jobs.

We should applaud efforts such as the recently announced GradMinnesota initiative, co-chaired by Lt. Governor Yvonne Prettner Solon and Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius. The initiative seeks to increase the current high school graduation rate in Minnesota from 77 to 90% by 2020.

As I mentioned in my post earlier this month, the Minneapolis Foundation, with a host of community partners, has launched “RESET Education,” a public awareness campaign aimed at closing the achievement gap. It emphasizes five successful strategies that are working effectively in some Minneapolis district and public charter schools and in schools around the country. RESET stands for: Real-time use of data; Expectation not Excuses; Strong Leadership; and Effective Teaching and Time on Task. Business leaders, educators and parents can get involved and help make a difference. Many colleges are already working closely with local high schools and middle schools and their students.

The achievement gap is not someone else’s problem. It is our problem. And we must solve it sooner, not later, for the sake of our K-12 students, who are our future college students and high-skilled workers. Find out more about RESET Education and what you can do to make a difference.

STEM education needs to get real!

By Yvonne Ng, January guest blogger

As an engineer and computer science professor at a liberal arts institution — and a women’s institution to boot — it was heartening to learn that the White House is focusing much-needed resources and energy to bear on a challenge with which I have been grappling for years.

In early December, the Obama administration designated increasing the number of students earning undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by one million over the next decade as a Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) goal.

Based on recommendations made by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report, “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics,” these CAP goals specify women and under-represented minorities of particular interest as they represent an untapped pool of college graduates.

This can only help and support Minnesota students seeking higher education and attracting them to STEM fields, which Minnesota’s workforce urgently needs.

When I first started teaching computer science at St. Catherine University, I taught, as most professors do, the way I was taught: lectures, example programs/problems and standard homework questions. As my initial overfull classes dwindled by half by the end of my second year, it was clear that something needed to change or I would put myself out of a job. Luckily, students shared with me their brutal feedback — GET REAL!

Lessons revolving around inputs, outputs, variables, conditionals and iteratives were interesting and the way they could make the machine do tricks was nifty, but how, they asked, did it relate to computers in the real world?

Drawing on my time in industry, I realized they needed projects that would engage them creatively. Motivating projects combined with good curriculum design results in students who don’t whine, “Why are we doing this?” but instead demand, “When are you going to teach us this?” “Are you sure that gives us enough time to get our project to work?” Students become collaborators in their learning.

And you know, that’s how it is in the real world — you learn what you need to do to make your project a success. And it’s not just personal pride that motivates: It’s the sense of doing what’s needed for the company and its workers; your success means something real. A former boss reminded me of this every time our computer-automated system broke down: every minute down was food out of customers’ mouths — their bread and butter depended on our systems working reliably and accurately.

The young women in my classes thrive on this. While nobody starves, it’s important that their projects involve something that they care about — something they want to work. When they say, “Gosh, this will be SO COOL,” then I know I have them. They will push themselves to master the concepts, make the connections and put in the grunt programming time needed to code their masterpiece.

This kind of project-based learning and careful curriculum design has been critical to the success of “Engineering for Everyone” courses I teach at St. Kate’s. The secret to success again is real projects that allow students to see the applications of the theory in something they have a vested interest. They get their hands dirty; they spend long hours “in the shop” (or at the kitchen table); and they test-redesign-test again to get the device to work.

It’s not surprising that reality is important for females. The majority has not had these experiences as children so they need to have the time to play in reality. As adults, they learn more from this play in a shorter period of time, so a college course with planful “hands on” components can jumpstart a “disadvantaged” student.

It’s not just women who statistically lack these experiences with STEM reality: students from lower economic backgrounds often lack these experiences, and interestingly, we now find those from upper class backgrounds are equally lacking.

The former don’t have enough money to own “things” like bicycles to have a context for mechanical concepts like gears or crankshafts. The latter have so much money that they don’t fix things, so how things work is just as big a mystery.

I once heard that insanity was doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results. It’s time to stop the insanity of teaching STEM topics the same way and expecting women and other under-represented students to flock to them. The decades long track record of this method of teaching shows it is successful at NOT encouraging them into STEM.

As the president’s PCAST report recommends, we need “a diversification of teaching methods” that are “more effective in reaching all students.”

So let’s replace the insanity with a good dose of reality. After all, if the students are excited about doing real STEM projects, then won’t they love their STEM jobs?

An old industry learning new tricks

By Jim Campbell, August guest blogger

It’s been said that many of the longest-operating organizations in the world are institutions of higher education. While industries have evolved, the Fortune 500 list has turned over, and political boundaries have formed and changed, the higher education system has held relatively constant. In fact, the University of Minnesota, Hamline University, Saint John’s University, and Winona State University were founded before Minnesota even became a state in 1858. Many of our other public and private schools have been educating students for over a century.

The longstanding higher education tradition in Minnesota is mostly a good story for Minnesota. It has helped us build a world-class workforce, which has enabled decades of relative prosperity.

However, sometimes, strong traditions can challenge progress. Though I haven’t been around quite as long as some of these schools, I have had a long affiliation with Minnesota’s higher education institutions (including earning a BS at the U of M in the 60s, serving on alumni and foundation boards, and serving as interim Dean of the Carlson school in the 2000s). For the past couple decade, I have been completely frustrated by the pace of change at our higher education systems.  But I am happy to say that this past year I have felt an historic shift in attitude and actions among our higher education leadership.

Previously it seemed that to me that though the world evolved in significant ways, the schools were slow to respond. Technology enabled new ways of accessing higher education. Colleges and universities are serving a broader spectrum of the population, as job prospects for those with only a high school diploma have significantly diminished. The new economic normal is putting unimagined financial pressures on the systems and our students. Yet, in the past, Minnesota’s higher education institutions seemed to make only incremental efforts to respond to these forces. And instead of working together as public service providers, the higher education institutions cooperated very little, each sticking to their own domains believing they had little to benefit from working together. I often felt their actions even bordered on unproductive competition.

Since last fall, I have been working with The Itasca Project Higher Education Task Force (see report here), which included higher education leaders Eric Kaler, Steven Rosenstone, Brian Rosenberg, as well as business and community leaders. We have spent countless hours together around the same table discussing the future of higher education in Minnesota, how the systems might work together in new ways, and how business can be a more effective partner. Let me say that again: the leaders of the U of M, MnSCU, and a private college are working together and with business to identify ways to enhance Minnesota’s economic prosperity. We’ve initiated plans to work together to improve workforce alignment, build a stronger ecosystem of research and innovation, and to improve operational efficiencies through collaboration.

Of course we have a long ways to go to get to where we need to be for this 21st century economy. Yet, this activity has felt dramatically different than any higher education initiative I’ve been associated with. Our new leaders are not comfortable with business as usual, and I have felt their conviction to do things differently for Minnesota. In fact, I just learned that MnSCU and some of the private colleges are preparing for their first joint purchase together. This was a very small step, but I believe this is the start of a new wave of collaboration that will positively impact our region.

Though our higher education institutions may very well be around in another hundred years, they need to be very different organizations than they are today. I am pleased that Minnesota’s institutions have acknowledged that need to change and have started down the path.

Getting more from our higher education system requires collaboration

By Greg Page, August guest blogger

Global forces are demanding ever more from our higher education system. Minnesota is fortunate to be starting from a position of strength, but to remain competitive we must be better.

Over the last nine months I have had the pleasure of chairing a task force, convened by the Itasca Project, to identify strategies for higher education in Minnesota that drive long-term, sustainable economic growth and prosperity. The task force included higher education leaders Eric Kaler, Steven Rosenstone, Brian Rosenberg, as well as business and community leaders (see the report here 5MB, PDF).

The group identified a four-part strategy:

• Align academic offerings with workforce needs;
• Foster an ecosystem of research and innovation;
• Form new collaborations across higher education to optimize system-wide intellectual assets and efficiency; and
• Graduate more students with the foundational and technical skills needed to drive Minnesota’s prosperity.

These strategies and much of the task force’s deliberations, centered on a single unifying theme: the need for more robust and meaningful collaborations. The new economy requires our higher education systems to work together in unprecedented ways to benefit from operational efficiencies and to give students better options to achieve their degrees. But getting our institutions of higher education working better together is not enough. The business community must engage with higher education in new ways; such as:

Articulate future workforce needs, in terms of foundation and technical skills and sharing with institutions and students;

Engage with more students to help build their skills and expose them to employment opportunities through student projects and internships;

Partner with our institutions on research and innovation, where appropriate, to support the growth of Minnesota’s core economic sectors; and

Share operational expertise (e.g., implementing shared services).

I believe that through these collaborations we have the potential to create a fundamentally more powerful engine of learning, innovation, and economic growth for Minnesota. While important collaborations have been undertaken in the past, the new efforts foster partnerships with far greater intentionality and scale than previously imagined, creating the nation’s foremost collaboration of educators and employers.

The good news is we’ve gotten a lot of support and excitement for these strategies. This seems to be, thankfully, a non-partisan issue. I’ve had the opportunity to talk with business groups, policymakers, the Minnesota Private College Council, the U of M Board of Regents, the MnSCU trustees, and more. The reaction we have gotten most often to the proposed strategies and intention of renewed collaboration has consistently been “how can we help?” And from the business leaders I have talked with, I know we intend to do our part. We have formed a compact with higher education leaders to be more engaged partners and invite educators and employers to sign on.

The Itasca Project higher education task force has been a remarkable journey and there’s much to do yet. The fact that business leaders, the U of M, MnSCU, and the Private Colleges agreed to work together to chart a new course for higher education suggests this is a new era. Given the intensifying global competition, we must move with urgency into that new era of collaboration.

It’s time to get serious about the skills gap

By Jonathan Blake, May guest blogger

All over Minnesota, parents and students are making one of the most important decisions of a lifetime: where to send that student to college. Everywhere you look, news stories are focusing on the dual issues of college affordability and student debt. Next to buying a house, it’s likely the biggest financial decision a family will make. As such, it is important that parents and students consider some hard facts about what the future holds for recent college graduates.

A recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found “the outstanding student loan balance now stands at about $870 billion, surpassing the total credit card balance [in America] ($693 billion) and the total auto loan balance ($730 billion).” Minnesota is unfortunately helping to lead the way. According to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, the state is ranked fifth in the country for student debt.

College affordability and student debt should not be viewed in a vacuum. One of the most important things we can do to help alleviate the student debt burden is to equip graduates with the skills and experience they need to build successful careers. In this area, there is plenty of room for improvement.

One issue that should be addressed on the state and national level is the growing skills gap. According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Statistics there are currently as many as 3.5 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. because many companies can’t find qualified candidates. Here in Minnesota, according the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, if qualified applicants were suddenly found for such open positions, the unemployment rate would drop by 2%. Such an impressive drop in the state unemployment rate should impress policymakers and cause higher ed administrators to take notice, especially during this prolonged economic recession.

The skills gap problem is worsened by the impending retirement of the baby boom generation. A Pew Research Center report indicates that 10,000 baby boomers will reach age 65 every day for the next 20 years. Whether the younger generation is prepared to replace these workers is up for debate. According to a recent survey of HR professionals by AARP, more than half said their older workers had “stronger writing grammar and spelling skills.”

This is not an argument for or against any specific type of educational pursuit. Rather, my intent is to show the necessity for higher education institutions to make adjustments amongst students and educators to ensure that the current and future workforce is prepared to fill the job requirements that a modern economy demands. If Minnesota is to retain its status for providing a highly trained workforce, changes must be made now to ensure that we remain up to that task.

How do we stop a workforce shortage?

By Kathy Schmidlkofer, March guest blogger

My last blog post challenged you to be an ambassador for our higher education system. But we need to do more. Our world-class workforce is one of our best regional assets, but threats to this status are certainly looming. Our region is currently experiencing a skills mismatch between our talent and the needs of our employers. This national trend is expected to continue. The big question is how do we turn this situation around so we have the right workforce prepared for the jobs of the future? I work for an organization trying to drive jobs and capital investment to our region so my sincere hope is that we can maintain the competitive advantage our workforce gives us.

The challenge of the future is two-fold in our region. We have a significant disparity in educational attainment between whites and our ethnic minority communities. In addition, while post-secondary institutions in the state are producing many graduates, they are not meeting private-sector demand in high-growth STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math). Aligning degrees with needed skills will be critical to promoting individual success and economic growth. Site selectors tell us that the number one criterion for companies looking to place jobs is the availability, talent, and skill level of the workforce so, to maintain the economic vitality of this region, we cannot afford to ignore this workforce shortage.

Key demographic trends are disturbing given the need for a more educated workforce. The recent Compass report by the Wilder Foundation said the state’s population is getting older, more diverse, has a widening income gap, and educational disparities that start early and continue.

While more than four of five white, non-Hispanic high school students in Minnesota graduate on time, just over half of students of color do, according to the report. However, in an encouraging sign, the graduation rate for students of color has risen more than 10 percentage points since 2003.

Education levels will have a direct impact on the economic health of our region’s residents. Unemployment rates go down as educational attainment rises. As the demand for highly skilled workers has increased so has the wage premium of higher education. In 1975, bachelor’s degree holders earned 57% more than high school graduates. In 2007, they earned 83% more.

Employers need to play a key role in communicating their future needs to the higher education establishment. This is especially true of fields where they expect growth as well as the need for broader skill sets. Jobs today are demanding a more flexible skillset: Employers report that communication, reading comprehension, critical thinking, and ability to learn are key skills they seek in employees. As workforce needs change, perhaps employers also will be challenged to consider filtering students differently. Rather than filtering by the prestige of a graduate’s academic institution and specific degree, employers may need to review how they assess a candidate’s specific skills such as the ability to communicate, problem solving, leadership, and critical reasoning skills.

Educators already are aware of the challenges ahead and are working toward solutions. At GREATER MSP, our Partnership Advisory Council has made turning around the workforce shortage a priority and its members are working with MnSCU and other education organizations and businesses throughout the region to address and solve the mismatch.

Knowing that this workforce shortage could get worse without substantive action, I turn the question to you: What else should be done?

Our best and brightest: A major regional draw

by Kathy Schmidlkofer, March guest blogger

This is my challenge to you: Be an ambassador for our region’s higher education system.

As part of an organization that is working to drive job growth and capital investment in the Greater MSP 13-county metro area, one of my key messages to potential employers is that our skilled workforce is one of our greatest assets.

Site selectors tell us that the number one criterion for companies looking to place jobs is the availability, talent, and skill level of the workforce. Our region consistently ranks as one of the best-educated, most productive workforces in the country.

Greater MSP’s world-class workforce is thanks in large part to our higher education system, which falls into four main groups. Here are some interesting facts about them that should make you proud.

• The University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus has been listed as a “Public Ivy” in The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities for offering an education comparable to those of the Ivy League schools.
• Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU), provide workforce training to 125,000 students annually through partnerships with employers.
• Private colleges such as Augsburg College and Hamline University offer a world-class liberal arts education with an approach that prepares students to deal with complexity, diversity, and change.
• Private for-profit schools such as Cappella, Rasmussen, and Walden, are based in Greater MSP and offer traditional and online learning environments with a global reach.

Higher education spending by all of these institutions totals more than $7 billion a year. As the demand for higher education increases, that investment already has gone a long way toward our region’s reputation. The Daily Beast calls the region “one of America’s top brainpower cities,” based on its intellectual environment and percentage of residents with college degrees. The state ranks sixth in the nation for the percentage of our population with an associate degree or higher, with MnSCU campuses granting the most degrees. Private colleges have produced notable leaders such as former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who graduated from Macalester College, and Timothy Flynn, a University of St. Thomas graduate, who recently retired as global chairman of KPMG International.

Besides educating future workers, these academic institutions and their research and development focus provide our region with additional economic benefits. As an example, inventions at the University of Minnesota brought nearly $390 million to the state in the past five years and its alumni have founded 10,000 companies in the state. The importance of these institutions to private enterprise cannot be understated.

Our region offers an all-encompassing array of higher education alternatives but too few people here talk up our leading edge. Let us all be ambassadors for our outstanding higher education establishment. Please join me in spreading the word about a valuable resource that distinguishes our region amidst intense global competition.

More information about GREATER MSP