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Career education is a vital pipeline to high demand jobs in the workforce. Students from all walks of life benefit from the opportunity to pursue their career education goals and find new employment opportunities. Join Dr. Jason Altmire, President and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), as he discusses the issues and innovations affecting postsecondary career education. Twice monthly, he and his guests discuss politics, business, and current events impacting education and public policy.
Jason Altmire (00:00)
Welcome to another edition of Career Education Report. I'm Jason Altmire. This is our 101st episode. So as we start our second 100 episodes, we wanted to bring on a very special guest. And we have done so with Governor Jared Polis from Colorado, who is in his second term as governor. He previously served several terms in the US Congress and was a very successful businessman in Colorado. And we're going to focus the conversation
on the amazing work that he has done as a national leader in workforce development. So, Governor, thank you very much for being with us.
Gov. Jared Polis (00:38)
Jason, it's pleasure to be on the show.
Jason Altmire (00:39)
You can focus your attention as governor on so many different things. You can choose whatever issues you want to expend the most energy. And you focused more than most policymakers on issues related to workforce development, especially workforce shortages in key industries that are experiencing an acute skills gap, such as the skilled trades and nursing. Your budgets have included increased funding.
for those initiatives, why have you chosen to spend so much of your time and clout on those issues?
Gov. Jared Polis (01:13)
Well, it's really a big deal because it's about two things. It's about opportunity at the individual level and it's about economic success at the aggregate level. know, individual level, obviously you get good skills, you can get a good job. What that adds up to across the economy is a state that can attract major employers, a state where companies reinvest in growth because they are able to hire the people that they need. when we're looking at, you know, economic prosperity for the people of Colorado and when I worked in Congress across the country.
Really one of the best things we can do is better align education and skills attainment with the outcomes that matter to people, which is getting a good job that pays well.
Jason Altmire (01:52)
You created a statewide program offering free training and healthcare programs at Colorado Community and Technical Colleges, and you said you plan to expand that program into other sectors as well. I was wondering if you could talk more about that and how the reception has been and how the program has worked so far.
Gov. Jared Polis (02:11)
Yeah, so one of the workforce gaps that we identified in Colorado and I think similarly nationally was in many of the healthcare related fields all the way from EMT and nurse assistant up through nurse, nurse practitioner, physician's assistant, the whole continuum. That was really the result of two things. One is the pandemic burned out. A lot of healthcare workers retired early. Some did well. went to, you know, they got to work at different places across the country and made as much in a year as they would in three or four years and retired after that.
So we had a lot of burnout. And the second is demographics. Colorado, like the country, is simply getting older. So it takes more health care workers to keep everybody healthy. So in identifying that, we said, what can we do to encourage people to pursue these fields? And we did care forward and care advance. So we've now had over 16,000 Coloradans who got free credentials for those critical occupations through our community college system. So it really did significantly increase participation in getting these skills. It helped fill the workforce gap.
When we launched it a few years ago, I heard from one young community college student, said, you know, he training to be a nurse assistant. said, with the money I saved on tuition, I was able to fix my car to be able to get to the class. So it really makes a big difference for people. And these are all also upwardly mobile and stackable, right? You may be an EMT today, you may be a nurse assistant, phlebotomy, then you may decide to go to nursing school, right? There's all kinds of opportunities in healthcare. We're also looking at other sectors where there are...
current and projected gaps in people with the skills needed. We're part of the Luminative Foundation's Future Ready States Initiative to really better define what credentials of value look like. And then of course we want to target state investments to help make sure that lack of resources at the individual level doesn't really hold somebody back from fulfilling their potential.
Jason Altmire (03:55)
Yeah, as you mentioned, these are state initiatives, but you also had the opportunity to chair the National Governors Association. And the membership is bipartisan. It involves all governors, both parties, and sometimes partisanship does get in the way of progress. But you were able to bring people together and build a bipartisan coalition to take on some important issues, including workforce development.
Do you think this is one of those rare issues where a bipartisan consensus is possible?
Gov. Jared Polis (04:27)
You know, when you're a governor of a state, it's not about Democratic or Republican solutions. It's about how do you better train your workforce and attract great employers and provide opportunity at the individual level. So there really weren't any major partisan issues at all in bringing together all 50 governors. It's 55 governors, includes the territories, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, et cetera. So around my Let's Get Ready, Educating All Americans for Success initiative as chair of the National Governors Association.
And frankly, it was really a discussion about how we can better measure outcomes. And there's some work that we can talk about in other forums, like the importance of early childhood, the importance of civics. But the one that we want to talk about here is how do you better align successful work outcomes with what we do in our schools? And how do you make sure, for instance, if somebody's not going on to a four-year college after high school, how do they leave high school with a meaningful certification or skill that they're able to get a good job and, course,
There's many ways to do that. We've been scaling apprenticeships in Colorado, a lot of work between our community colleges and our high schools, all kinds of private skills academies, so many different ways that people can get the skills. How can we better credential them? And then of course hold providers accountable for the value that they're generating.
Jason Altmire (05:39)
And of course, there's a national debate on the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Labor and how to better coordinate the activities related to workforce development. But in Colorado, you've recommended merging the functions of the different agencies with oversight over higher ed and workforce policies to create a better coordinated statewide effort to expand pathways for students to transition their education into careers.
This followed a streamlining of Colorado's workforce training to improve credential attainment, reduce bureaucratic hurdles, and better align the education and labor with market needs. Why is this important and how's the reception been?
Gov. Jared Polis (06:22)
So in Colorado, mid-sized state, have on our own over, I think 110 different workforce readiness programs. And they're administered by a number of different agencies currently. Some of them are the Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Some are Department of Higher Ed. Some are Department of Human Services. Some are the Higher Ed Department. So what we did is we said we should really streamline this because we can't expect a...
consumer, somebody who wants to upskill, whether they're 35 or 16 years old, whatever their age is, we can't expect them to navigate this space. How do we really evolve our department of higher ed to look at it more as a department of skills and achievement and really look at, of course, two year and four year colleges are part of that. They're one of the ways people get skills, but there's so many others across the economy. And how do we really provide that portal and access to every Coloradan?
leading to better up-skilling that better helps our success and prosperity as a state.
Jason Altmire (07:17)
And that talks about coordination of state agencies, policymaking entities, but it's also important to streamline communication between employers and training providers to ensure curriculums match the skills that are most in demand in the workforce. How have you navigated that side of things with the employer and the educators working together on these workforce development issues?
Gov. Jared Polis (07:42)
Yeah, part of the impetus for the reforms we're working on is to make it easier for employers to engage. And we have many great examples of employers engaging. It could just be their work with their local community college on a particular program. But we'd like to do this at a higher level and kind of build into the bones of these new agency employer participation. We have, through our Office of Economic Development, they're generally been the lead on a lot of that. We have an apprenticeship tax credit that helps companies defer the costs of apprenticeships in their first couple of years as they come online with that.
opportunity now. So we have a number of ways that we can help employers get there, but we don't want them to be isolated on their own island. We very much want them to be part of this higher education skills ecosystem that we're creating.
Jason Altmire (08:24)
You brought up apprenticeships and I was going to ask you about that. Where do apprenticeships and other hands-on learning opportunities come into play from a state perspective? As you know, the U.S. Department of Labor has the registered apprenticeship programs. The state generally is in charge of administering the WIOA, Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act, funds. So what can a governor do to assist?
and expand hands-on learning opportunities for students in a state.
Gov. Jared Polis (08:56)
Well, know, registered apprenticeships, of course, are a gold standard. And in addition to the employer tax credits, we have outreach programs supporting their growth. We're working with the U.S. Department of Labor as a center of excellence to expand access to apprenticeships. There's really a lot of ways to develop hands-on learning, learn while you earn models. We have been working to expand access to industry recognized credentials for every Coloradan, again, particularly at the high school level. And we're piloting work to embed.
industry sponsored projects into community college and college classrooms. there's no really no one silver bullet, but it's really about how across the board you can build in this work experience. And that's another reason we're kind of de siloing that and doing that through our unified department that we're working on.
Jason Altmire (09:41)
There's a lot of attention on community colleges, not just in Colorado, but around the country. What's the role for private trade schools in all this? How do you view the ecosystem working to provide greater access for disadvantaged students while ensuring that programs are high quality and meet the workforce needs of employers?
Gov. Jared Polis (10:01)
Well,
you trade schools are one of the ways that people can get skills that are marketable and meet the economic need. We know that we need to do better in this regard. of every hundred ninth graders in Colorado entering ninth grade, high school, 23 are going to go on to earn a bachelor's or an associate's degree within six years after high school. So there's a lot of folks there that are going to want a good job, have some ongoing aspect of training and skills.
And that's really what this is all about. Whether you're getting your skills at a community college or an associate's degree or a trade school while in high school. What's key is that all the doors lead to quality and successful outcomes. So the learner can be confident and kind of have full disclosure upfront about what the job placement and earning looks like.
Jason Altmire (10:47)
We track the media coverage of workforce development issues and it seems like every single day, both in the national and regional media, there's talk about the skills gap and the need for workforce development initiatives. It's a very hot topic and you've taken the lead in Colorado and nationally through the National Governors Association. How do you feel about the momentum of the issue?
Moving forward, do you feel like it's gained traction? People understand the significance of the impact to American competitiveness, the businesses inability to fill these high demand jobs?
Gov. Jared Polis (11:29)
I'd say it's happening from the bottom up in the grassroots level in very exciting ways across the country. I don't think the policy landscape at the state or the federal level is even really caught up with all the reality of today and tomorrow's economy, as well as all the different ways that people can get the skills they need to be employable. So I'm very excited by the dynamism, the creativity, but frankly, like what we're trying to do in Colorado, the state and federal side need to catch up and continue to encourage innovation.
Jason Altmire (11:57)
What do you find in Colorado are the jobs that are in the highest demand, where there's the biggest gap in skills?
Gov. Jared Polis (12:04)
Well, it's across the board, Jason, right? So it's more about how do you match kids and learners of all ages with the aptitude to specific skills gaps? We need people in advanced manufacturing. We need people in health care. We need people in farming and ranching. We need people in tech and IT. So I mean, we have a very diverse economy here. Teaching is another example. We need great pipelines of school teachers, especially in rural areas. That's always a challenge to make sure that we're able to grow our own and prepare.
students to often come back to the same area they grew up and teach. there's many across the economy and states that really excel in this are really distinguishing themselves, not only for course, individual opportunity, but also for being a great place for companies to grow and hire people.
Jason Altmire (12:46)
My last question is going to be about your future as a term limited governor. But before I do that, I wanted to give you the opportunities or anything else on this topic that you wanted to get out there or talk about.
Gov. Jared Polis (12:58)
Well, I really appreciate you furthering the dialogue. I think it needs to be elevated at the national level and at the state level. A lot of exciting innovation in workforce readiness. And we just really need to update kind of the policy framework and funding streams to really turbocharge it to make our country more competitive.
Jason Altmire (13:14)
Yeah, and we thank you for your leadership on this. You really have moved the needle on this in many ways, certainly in your own state, but also nationally. And I know you're going to continue to do that. And you're in your last year of your second term, your term limited as governor to your last year in office. So have you given any thought to what you might want to do next?
Gov. Jared Polis (13:36)
Well, look, I'm focused on I have another year of this job and entirely every moment, you know, focused on doing this. It's a great honor to be able to serve as governor and in the workforce readiness space alone. Jason, we talked about some of the things I'm going to be doing over the next year and we have a number of other areas I have a lot of work to do as well. So I'm looking forward to running through the tape.
Jason Altmire (13:57)
Well, you've done a great job. We've been friends for a long time. I'm proud of the work that you have been doing and I know you're going to continue to do great things. Our guest has been Governor Jared Polis of Colorado. Thank you for being with us.
Gov. Jared Polis (14:10)
Thank you, Jason.
Jason Altmire (14:14)
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Career Education Report. Subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. For more information, visit our website at career.org and follow us on Twitter @CECUED. That's at C-E-C-U-E-D. Thank you for listening.