LACCD Launching New Sustainability Workforce Institute

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) recently applied for a federal grant for the creation of a sustainability institute. Share with our readers what you envision for that institute and where it stands in terms of funding.

Just a few months ago, LACCD submitted a request for an earmark appropriation to establish a sustainability institute. The request was for a total of $4.5 million, $1.5 million a year, over three years. The funding will establish an institute that will serve as a think tank for faculty members and other LACCD administrators. We wanted to come together on to the programs we should be developing to prepare students for the latest, cutting-edge jobs within the green industry and current programs that should be enhanced and improved to prepare students for new green jobs.

We want to also expose our faculty to this industry by providing them with internship opportunities and professional development opportunities so that they can learn as much as possible about what is going on with this industry and use that knowledge to create new programs or enhance current programs.

Another major use is to provide support for students so they can get exposed to this industry by creating what we call "Green Teams." Green Teams provide an opportunity for students to come together to learn about the industry and see how they can participate in taking what they have learned in the classroom out to their local communities. We want to tie in, as much as possible, what they learn in the classroom to a real-world experience.

A recent Next 10 report said that since 2005 in California green jobs have grown ten times faster than total job growth. What is the role of the community college district in preparing that workforce?

The green industry is still maturing and growing as compared to, let's say, the health industry where you have occupations that have been around for a long time and career ladders that have also existed for quite a long time. That means that you can start as a certified nursing assistant, work up to a licensed vocational nurse, and then go on to a registered nurse program. The green industry is still maturing and developing. As such, we want to increase our knowledge base so that we can create the appropriate courses and curriculum that will prepare students for those new jobs.

I am aware of the number of jobs that are being created. However, we need to give assistance to the college faculty to be able to translate the needs of this new industry into courses and curriculum. That is the purpose of the institute: sustainability. It will bring together what we know about the labor market to ensure that courses are being developed to compliment that.

As vice chancellor for Economic and Workforce Development you work with all of the campuses of the L.A. Community College District. How is LACCD working with your nine campuses to ensure that they stay connected to what is happening in the green economy?

There are other federal resources that we have been receiving for a long time, such as the Carl Perkins vocational and technical education dollars. We have earmarked a portion of these dollars for colleges to create programs in the green area. That program began last year. Basically there was $1 million that was divided amongst the nine colleges. They used those dollars to begin the process of understanding the industry. That will continue this year. Those dollars can also be used for professional development and internship activities for the faculty. We are in year two of this program known as the "Innovation Fund." Also, we have what we call a "sustainability group," which is a district-wide committee chaired by our district-wide academic senate president, where faculty members from across the nine colleges come together monthly to learn about the latest market and job trends and learn about new funding opportunities. This committee has been great for faculty and has helped them develop a good picture and perspective as to what is going on in this industry.

Recently we had a meeting where we invited faculty from all of the colleges, as well as career technical deans and other administrators, to meet with us here at the district office and talk about the latest round of Green Jobs Act grants that are coming down the pipeline from the Department of Labor-a $500 million RFP that will be will released in June. We met to talk about what we want to apply for, what the programs are that we want to discuss, and what the industries are that we want to outreach to.

Hilda Solis is the new U.S. Secretary of Labor. What opportunities do you see as a result of Californians like Secretary Solis being in the administration?

The appointment of Secretary Solis will be a great opportunity and blessing for this part of the country. Secretary Solis is a former board trustee for the Rio Hondo College, so she is very familiar with community colleges. She is a former Congress member. East L.A. College, one of our primary colleges, was within her district. Since she became secretary of labor, the chancellor has had discussions with her about her plans and agenda. I have been involved in meetings with the city of Los Angeles, SEIU, and others to inform her about how we are working together.

That's where we also learned about some of these new grant opportunities and about the federal stimulus. We learned about the usage of those dollars and where she sees opportunities for community colleges. She has expressed several times that she wants us to partner and collaborate with others, not just to apply on our own, but to see how we can collaborate with the city and environmental organizations, labor, and faith-based groups. That is something we are doing as we prepare for these new grants that will be coming out in June.

She visited East L.A. College recently to visit their solar farm. East L.A. College has quite a number of solar panels and they hope that it will generate enough energy at their campus to eventually make it self-reliant.

LACCD's East L.A. solar farm seems quite different from what was proposed by the city of L.A. under Measure B. Rather than rely on rate payer funding and designing a new job training program, could LADWP have collaborated with LACCD regarding a green jobs program?

Yes. We are collaborating as we speak, specifically on workforce development. There are two big examples of that. Recently, the city of L.A. had a meeting to discuss these new grants that I've been talking to you about-this $500 million RFP for green jobs. The city had a meeting to talk about what they would like to do with this grant. I was invited to that meeting and I let them know what we can do and how we can collaborate together in submitting that grant.

They received their portion of the stimulus dollars for workforce development-about $22 million-which they plan to release through a number of RFPs. In most of those RFPs, community colleges will be a mandatory partner so that we can work with the city's workforce centers and other organizations. We will partner with them to prepare the workforce. A lot of those dollars are being dedicated to the green sector.

Is LACCD collaborating with L.A. County regarding workforce training?

The sense that I get from the county regarding how they want to use their dollars is that they want to go status quo. They are using their dollars to give to their workforce centers. The city of L.A. instead plans to use their dollars to create vocational training programs and to work in high growth sectors like the green sector, logistics, and health. I did not see that kind of innovation from the county. Having said that, I am in communication with the county to see how colleges can become an integral part of how they implement their dollars.

One of LACCD's colleges, L.A. Trade Tech, puts out a Green College Initiative publication and is doing a lot in terms of clean tech workforce training. Elaborate on that college's green efforts.

Trade-Tech College is certainly one of our flagship colleges with regard to the green sector. They are doing tremendous work in terms of developing courses, programs, and certificates, and offering a wide spectrum of courses. The challenge that we have is that L.A. is such a big area and we want to show that other colleges will develop similar programs. We don't expect residents who live, for example, in the Harbor College area in Wilmington near the Mission College in the city of San Fernando to come all the way to Downtown L.A. to take courses at Trade-Tech.

In L.A., the way that you stay competitive, specifically with community colleges, is by offering courses that Trade Tech has in other parts of the city. We are working together with all of the other colleges to develop a number of courses and curriculum so that residents can also take those courses at other colleges.

How do you hope the federal stimulus money coming to this region will be spent? What are you most pleased with, and what are you most concerned about regarding how funds will be awarded?

I am pleased that in the federal stimulus legislation colleges are seen as a mandatory partner-education and training is a requirement. Under the old Workforce Investment Act it was a "work first" policy, meaning that the goal is always to place students, place anyone who is unemployed, in a job. The problem with that approach today is, number one, there are not as many jobs. There are not a lot of jobs for people to go into. Secondly, there is a need for training. A lot of jobs require that you have a certain knowledge base and technical skills.

The bad part is that we need to spend these dollars rather quickly. Even though the number of jobs in the green economy is increasing, they are not increasing at the speed needed to help the high number individuals who have been laid off. We have been experiencing a massive number of layoffs. We have averaged 500,000-600,000 a month over the last six to seven months. A lot of those layoffs are here in L.A. All of those jobs don't exist yet, even though they are increasing. We need to figure out ways to help all of those individuals that were trained so they stay connected to a job. We can do that by creating internship opportunities for students or on-the-job experiences so that they can learn about potential jobs. When those jobs are there, those individuals can have the best chance possible to get that job.

What worries me is that the purpose of the federal stimulus is to get people on the job, but the problem is that the economy doesn't have all of those jobs available at this point. We have to be able to spend these dollars in a matter of 18 months to two years. That is not a lot of time.