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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:
Hello and welcome to another edition of Career Education Report. I'm Jason Altmire. And we see almost every day articles about the shortage of workers in America, especially in the skilled trades. They talk about it continuously, it's a really important issue, and there are many groups that are out there trying to do something about it, but I don't know if there is any group that is doing more to address the workforce shortage than the Tech Force Foundation. And many of our listeners probably are familiar with the work that they do, some may not, but today we have the CEO of the Tech Force Foundation, Jennifer Maher. Jennifer, thank you for being with us today.
Jennifer Maher:
Thanks for having me, Jason.
Jason Altmire:
And maybe you could start by talking about what is Tech Force? What's the Tech Force Foundation? How long has it been in existence, and what is your mission?
Jennifer Maher:
Absolutely. Well, we are a nonprofit 501C3. We're a national charity with the mission to help students to and through their education into careers as professional technicians. And so that's representing anything from automotive, aviation, diesel, collision, motorcycle, Marine. We always say when Techs rock, America rolls. These are skilled workers that we need. I always kind of say, if your car started today, thank a tech. If your airplane arrived at its destination, thank a tech. They're just so paramount to our daily lives and the country needs them. We've actually been around since 2007, and then I joined the organization in 2014. We started as a scholarship only organization, but in 2014, the board said we need to do more because while scholarships are a huge piece of helping students get through that technical education and into those careers, it's just not enough. There's more to the problem on why we have such a workforce shortage. That's when we expanded our mission and made it what it is today.
Jason Altmire:
Why do you feel that career schools are so important in solving this problem? When we're talking about the skilled trades, there's huge demand, we're rebuilding America, roads and bridges, highways, ports, airports, locks and dams, the whole deal, and you need workers to do that work all across the country, and there's an enormous shortage in the skilled trades. Why do you think that career schools in particular are such an important area to address in solving that problem?
Jennifer Maher:
Because we're all wired differently. And I think in the last 30 years, we've really done a disservice telling everyone that there's only one road to success, that you have to go to a four year college, that's the only way for you to be successful, and we really kind of turned our nose up at the skilled trades and we're paying for it now. So the reality is we are wired differently and there are people who love problem solving and working with their hands and taking things apart and putting it back together. And with the rising technology in the transportation, AKA mobility industry, these days, it is an exciting place to be. It's changing and evolving rapidly. And not every kid wants to, as they would say in their words, fly a desk the rest of their life, right? And they want to know they have options.
And the reality is going to a technical school and the skilled trades gives you those options to use your brain, to use your hands and to problem solve. And they are no longer these blue collar careers, they're new collar careers. They're filled with STEM and technology and incredibly good, solid, middle class pay, and they're a perfect fit for many people in our country. So we should be supporting the skilled trades because as I said earlier, we need them and during Covid, essential workers became very obvious, and also it's just a better fit for happiness and prosperity for so many people's futures.
Jason Altmire:
You were talking earlier that you've moved into some other areas in addition to scholarships, but I think most people who think about the Tech Force Foundation identify you with the scholarships. I don't think people have conception of exactly how big an operation your scholarships are and the volume and number of scholarships that you provide. Can you talk about how many scholarships each year you award and how much that equates to?
Jennifer Maher:
Well, each year we award more and more as we continue to fundraise and convince people that these students are worth investing in. Really, since inception, we've released about a million dollars a year on average in scholarships and grants, but this year, we got a very significant grant from the Ford Fund that's allowing us now to do 2.3 million dollars in scholarships this year alone. And when I say scholarships, you're smart listeners from education, I really should be saying scholarships and grants because scholarships are tuition based and cost of attendance. But we also do relocation and Life Happens emergency grants for many, many students, and that's important. They're a little riskier, your donors giving out a cash grant, that if that student drops out of school, there's no prorated portion to get back. It's just gone. But it has been proven that that's often the obstacle so many students need.
They walk out and they find out that they have a flat tire and their tires are completely bald and there's nothing they now can do without replacing those tires. But they were living dollar to dollar. And so now they have to choose between paying rent or replacing those tires. But if they don't replace the tires, they can't get to school, they can't get to their part-time job, and all pun intended, the wheels fall off and the dominoes fall and we lose them as workers because they've had to drop out of technical school. And I think the irony is so thick and sad that the number one Life Happens emergency grant I get is for a car repair or flat tires, and yet these are kids going to school to become those types of technicians. But they just don't know anything yet. They've just started and they're learning, but they're committed, they want to get through that process.
But we have learned since 2007 doing this, the average student drops out over a $450 hiccup. So if we want to solve workforce challenges, those scholarships and grants are important, and that's why our mission is to get them to and through. Because you can give them a scholarship for tuition, but there's just a lot of other, as we joke, potholes that they can fall into and they need some more help. But we really are only awarding one out of every four applications we get each year. So we would love to keep raising more money, and we fight to do that every day by inspiring donors to get behind these students in our mission because we want to be able to award a hundred percent. But everything we do is needs based. So the students apply, they have to show proof of financial need. We know from our statistics that at least 50% of these students are first gen, meaning they're the first ones in their family to go on to post-secondary school.
We know about a third of them self-report that they have a learning difference, which makes sense because it just shows neurologically, they are wired to be more tactile learners and hands-on, and that's why maybe sometimes the ADHD or dyslexia is making the academia not as good as a fit, whereas when they are hands-on and tactile, they're thriving. So we really liked being able to award these scholarships and grants to help them with their financial need, but also get them into that post-secondary technical education where now they're thriving and they're building their self-esteem and confidence because sometimes in more of the traditional high school academia, they don't feel like they're thriving and they don't feel like they're that great student. And suddenly when they're in their sweet spot, as I said, we're all wired differently, and when you get them in their sweet spot, suddenly they soar.
Jason Altmire:
And you alluded a few times to the life happens emergencies and the difficulty some students have just because they're busy people. We have single moms, veterans returning from the workforce, folks who are in transition, maybe were laid off from their job, looking for a different career, going through a divorce, whatever it might be, all types of different circumstances and people are struggling to make ends meet in addition to taking on the challenge of entering the workforce through a tech job. What are the demographics of the type of students that you serve, particularly women? I see on your website you make an effort to highlight the success of women scholarship recipients.
Jennifer Maher:
Tech Force's mission, as I said, is not just scholarships and grants, but it's also a career exploration. So we start as early as middle school. There may be a 13-year-old student who's wondering, "What do I want to do when I grow up? And I just don't see myself doing those things. I'm looking for something different, something that fits me." So we begin to serve students as early as 13. We have a community online that's called Tech Force, and it's a network where they can come in and start doing online trainings and trivia and participating in contests. They can find a technical high school in their area. And then as they get older, they can continue in that community, start to meet mentors, get free tickets to events, apply for scholarships, find post-secondary technical schools, and then even go further, which is then to find apprenticeships and jobs. So we say our pledge is to get them from pipeline to placement, taking them across that journey and being there, all the different milestones throughout that.
And so we really do serve students beginning at 13 all the way to... I have students in post-secondary who are 40, 50, they may be career changing adults, they may be returning veterans. About 16% of our scholarships go to veterans because they are coming back from the military with incredible technical skills, maybe they've worked on aircraft or equipment. But they can't touch your Kia when they come home. They have to go back to school and get the certifications that allow an employer to hire them. So we just see the wide range. And you're exactly right, Jason. Unfortunately, less than 3% of all technicians are women. And so, Tech Force really has an initiative of diversity and inclusion to be able to make sure that young women and people of color in all different types of backgrounds see themselves in this industry. And so we just do a lot of storytelling around our women techs rock and other initiatives so that you can really see yourself in this profession.
Jason Altmire:
Yeah, because we're going to need all hands on deck moving forward, men and women and anyone who wants to get into the tech fields is going to be critical for America moving forward. And if you're a student and you are interested in these programs, you maybe don't know where to go, you're evaluating different options, how would a student find out about the scholarship opportunities? How would they apply? What types of schools can they choose to use them at?
Jennifer Maher:
Yeah, so we support students going to any technical school, and that could be whether they're enrolled in an automotive, collision, diesel, motorcycle, marine, motor sports, restoration, welding, literally any type of a technician education, we'll support them. And the thing about creating that community that I spoke of is we purposely designed an IT solution to wrap around our mission in everything we do because we know that young people, gen Z in particular, and millennials, they want to use their smartphone. They want to get information and they expect to be able to Google and to find information using their phones. And what I often think is part of our problem with the workforce shortage is that people don't know what they don't know. As an education and a society, we tend to just say, "You can be anything you want in the world. Good luck." And then we throw them to the wind and they really don't know how to navigate that. They don't have contacts and networks and they don't know what they don't know.
So what Tech Force does is we mine the entire industry and try to collaborate with everybody so that we can find those nuggets of solutions, but bundle them and package them in one place where the students and the parents, instructors, they can all find it, and that is Tech Force. So when you go to TechForce.org, you join, you go and create an account to get inside that network. And when you're in there, then you can play and dapple. You can see all the other like-minded people who care about technicians, who are working technicians or those future aspiring techs. And you can take that training, you can search for the schools. You'll see all of our scholarships being able to apply right to and through there as well as apprenticeships and jobs. So it's really your one stop shop is to just join the network. And whether you're 13 or 55 or a hundred, you can come in and be a part of that community.
So I think that we're always trying to get the word out to say, this is where we're trying to upload as many solutions as possible. And we have in there the schools that we have found and created partnerships with. And when I say partnerships, it means I just need to know people at that school who will return our phone call because if we cut a scholarship check, we need to know where to send it, how to benefit that student's account and have that relationship. We need to know those instructors are there because we have resources to be able to share the information and news, and we want to be able to give the instructors those resources. We also have support for instructors, maybe continuing education. So we want to know you.
And so for you to be able to come into that community, create a profile as an instructor or school staff students, that's how then we can talk to you, and we have kind of those drip nurture campaigns where we can keep in touch with you, keep sending you information. And even though right now we're proud of the 750 some schools that we're partners with, we want all the thousands that are offering these types of technical programs and to know them. But we are a small but mighty staff of nine, and so that's why you can help us by actually reaching out and telling us you're there and that you care so that we can use that to be able to communicate with you.
Jason Altmire:
We are definitely going to do that. That's part of the reason I wanted to have you on the podcast is to get that message out. This is an incredible resource, when you go on that Tech Force network site and you start looking through the list that's there of the schools and the different information pieces, you can spend hours, literally, learning about what's going on out there, who's involved, and it's just an amazing resource. So I would encourage everyone who's interested in this to get involved. And you mentioned earlier, one out of four students that apply actually get the scholarship. You would do more if you had the resources. But what is the decision making process in determining who gets the scholarships? Is it a group of people who review applications? What's the criteria?
Jennifer Maher:
Well, the criteria first and foremost is that you have financial need. We are a 501C3, so we're not giving it just on your good looks and your smile. You have to have and have evidence of financial need. We do restrict it for US citizens and or those with DACA status. So I sometimes get that question from our friends to the north in Canada, can they apply? Then each donor may have their own restrictions. So as a charity, you are legally bound that if a donor donates a thousand dollars and says, "I want this to be a scholarship for a collision student or an aviation student or an automotive," Then I have to restrict it for students enrolled in those programs. We have donors who may restrict it to certain states, regions, specific schools or classes, or they may also say, "I want it to go to female applicants," Or they have some other criteria.
What happens is, the student fills out one application and it comes into the database and the software that we use, and it matches them up to the criteria of each donor fund, and it then puts them in the running for all that they are eligible for. And then we have a review team that goes through and rubrics and scores applications in order to find out who then is selected to receive that award. So that's basically our process. And I think what makes Tech Force strong and unique is that we're doing this all year long, 24/7. So a lot of groups have scholarships, maybe even schools have scholarships, but they do a fall or a spring and then they wait until the next year. We have our applications open 24/7 year round. So we're awarding tuition scholarships every single month, relocation grants every three weeks, and Life Happens emergencies every week. So it's really quite a robust machine that has to be processing through, and we're blessed that we get between four and 6,000 applications a year, but we want more because we want more students to know about it and apply.
And at the same time, in order to not turn them down, we hope to continue to raise money because when you read these applications, I mean, these students are committed and hungry to work in this workforce, but they need support to get through, and that is the challenge. When you open the paper every day and you read about these workforce challenges, and yet we've got the audience who wants to become that workforce. We just need to nurture them through, like I said, those potholes that they fall into or when they're spinning, going, "I don't know what to do in life. I don't know how to make this happen." And they just get lost. And I always say shame on us that we can't help them navigate that journey better. And that's why we created the Tech Force model of being able to stay with them through those hiccups and stay with them through that journey so we are successful and we just don't shoot them into the wind and say, "Hope you become a tech. Good luck."
Jason Altmire:
And with regard to the funding, what are the sources of funding? Where does the money come from to fund the scholarships? Are employers involved in funding it? I would think they would have a vested interest.
Jennifer Maher:
As a national charity, we want everybody, right? We want to have a mix of revenue streams, of donation streams coming in from corporate, individuals, foundations, government grants. That would be ideal. Tech Force is still relatively small being a $5 million organization. A big chunk of that is corporate because they do see the need and want to get behind this mission. So we have a lot of corporate donors, whether they're employers or whether they're companies who their products depend on technicians. A lot of them have a reason. But we also have major gift donors who just believe in career and technical education, they believe in veterans,.they have their sweet spot about why they believe. And then we have individual donors who may just say, "I'll donate $20 a month on my credit card reoccurring." We need all of that.
I always joke, the McDonald's hamburger theory is if everybody threw in a buck, we'd have a billion bucks, so if everybody could just do something if you believe in technical education and if you believe that when your car starts today that you do need skilled and competent technicians out there to keep this world moving.
Jason Altmire:
And what are the programs that you have? I noticed on your website it's called Career Hub. Can you talk about what that program is?
Jennifer Maher:
So that's within the network that I'm talking about. So as soon as you join Tech Force and create your profile, one of the options in addition to pushing scholarships or training or our trivia and contest is Career Hub, and that is where you'll find apprenticeships and jobs posted by those who are supporting our mission.
Jason Altmire:
This has been a lot of information. You're doing incredible work, making a big difference for America and especially for individual students all across the country. If somebody wanted to learn more about Tech Force and what you do, how would they find you?
Jennifer Maher:
Please go to TechForce.org. That is the charity's website. And like I said, the Tap Nav bar is the website where you can do your homework and learn about us, but then push that top button, join now and create a profile for yourself as school staff or industry professional or just an enthusiast, and then you can kind of see under the hood of all those resources that we have to support students, schools, and instructors. So that's how you check us out, and I hope you do.
Jason Altmire:
Our guest today has been Jennifer Maher, the executive director of the Tech Force Foundation. Jennifer, thank you for being with us.
Jennifer Maher:
Thanks so much, Jason.
Jason Altmire:
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 at CECU Ed. That's at CECU Ed. Thank you for listening.