Next Skills Prepare Tomorrow`s Workforce

June 2008---The Next Skills Institute (NSI) is the training program for the 21st century workforce, which teaches the employee skills needed to be successful on the job. A review of eleven workforce studies, validated by business and industry, identified eight categories of skills that were most frequently reported by nearly 82% of employers surveyed as "most important." The Los Rios Community College District`s Workplace Learning Resource Center (WpLRC) joined in a collaborative partnership with SETA/Sacramento Works, their local workforce investment board (WIB), to address the need. The Sacramento WIB then provided the seed money to develop the Next Skills Institute, a series of eight, 8-hour training courses:

1. Creativity and Innovation for Everyone

2. Valuing Diversity at Work

3. Navigating Technology at Work

4. Effective Listening

5. Verbal Communication for Working Professionals

6. Employability Skills

7. Service Orientation

8. Interpersonal Skills for Building Teamwork

The Next Skills curriculum is unique in many ways. First, the curriculum is customized for the diversity of Greater Sacramento and California. In not only the Diversity course, but also in the Listening and Interpersonal Skills courses, participants see the link between people`s differences and the value those differences offer. Second, the curriculum combines, upgrades, and re-introduces soft skills usually offered individually in similar programs, like critical thinking, decision making, and problem solving. Third, it adds two, key, higher-level skill areas: creativity and technology, and it introduces some future skills workers will need, like emotional intelligence. Finally, interactive exercises, case studies, engaging videos, discussions, surveys and checklists - real world tools for success on the job - enrich the dynamic training materials.

Employers benefit from increased job productivity and employee retention, less conflict and tension on the job, reduced expenses for recruiting and training, and having a pool of employees who are certified in the Next Skills Proficiencies. Only those participants who have demonstrated to the instructor that they have mastered the content and skills taught in all eight Next Skills modules will receive the Certificate of Next Skills Proficiency, issued by the Los Rios Community College District WpLRC. Mastery is determined by a combination of objective pre-/post-tests and instructor evaluation of interactive class activities. Employers support and value this certification by providing a competitive advantage to certificate holders in terms of hiring, promotion, salary increases, or other recognition.

The Next Skills target audience includes employees who need certain skills to retain their jobs, those seeking advancement opportunities, and people seeking employment. The collaborative partnership with the WIB provides an ideal delivery model that serves multiple audiences. WIBs like SETA/Sacramento Works provide NSI coursework to the unemployed. Community colleges provide Next Skills to incumbent workers through contracts with their employers.

The State ETP (Employment Training Panel) has confirmed that their training funds will cover this 64-hour program and that they will assist businesses in applying for them. Each course can be taken in any order, and can be offered as one eight-hour day (recommended) or divided into four-hour time blocks. The program can be taken in its entirety for the Certificate of Next Skills Proficiency, or courses can be taken individually. Community colleges are also preparing to offer NSI on campus for credit, starting with Folsom Lake College during Fall 2008. As one, 3- unit course or eight, 1/2-unit courses, NSI will be especially valuable when taken as an elective for CTE programs. NSI can also be offered as non-credit.

A January 2008 train-the-trainer workshop produced 22 additional NSI-Certified Trainers for the Sacramento WIB and regional community colleges. So that this model can be replicated statewide, two more train-the-trainer workshops will be offered during 2008, one in northern and one in southern California.

For more information, contact Next Skills Institute / Workplace Learning Director, Valerie Carrigan (916) 563-3253, carrigv@losrios.edu or visit http://www.wplrc.losrios.edu/nextskills

[Back to Success Stories]