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CAEP Annual Plan: 2021-22 24 Lake Tahoe Adult Education Consortium

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2021-22 Produced: Aug 17, 2021, 08:44 PM UTC Frank Gerdeman

24 Lake Tahoe Adult Education Consortium

Plans & Goals - Consortium Approved

Executive Summary
ADVANCE continues to work to serve the broad needs of the community, including consortium members, through adherence to our founding principles and the firm belier that if we are designed (built) to serve anyone, we might just serve everyone. This has allowed for a number of local best practices which will remain cornerstones of our work such as rapid program incubation and deployment, local access for programs that support adult learners and providing services that reach across members, sectors, and partners. For the latter, this was, and remains the founding principle behind our Transition Navigator positions that provide holistic case management and systems navigation support to individuals). We will also work to increase access to all community members who need the support and services offered through ADVANCE through multiple locations, enhanced use of technology and “self-service” platforms and honing our focus on the non-native English-speaking population of South Lake Tahoe. Highlights of the 20-21 program year included the continued operating of our off-campus site to allow for in-person service, including high school equivalency testing (which resulted in over 40 graduates – our largest number to date), revamping and upgrading the Tahoe Career Connect website (a collaboration with the Tahoe Prosperity Center) to make it more user-friendly and add valuable resources to help adults looking to upskill-reskill-or enter education/training, and we added more resources and capacity to serve the local Latinx community with online support and increased bi-lingual staffing. One project we were able to complete in 20-21 was an initial review of selected LTCC Board Polices (BPs) and Administrative Procedures (APs) for student accessible, especially students who are not native English speakers. We were able to create a graduate level practicum with a student from the Middlebury Institute of Monterey who provided valuable insight and feedback on how e could make existing documents more accessible and better craft future policies and procedures (in terms of accessible language and understanding). These efforts will continue in the 21-22 program year as will continue to focus on strengthening membership, refining governance, and improving organizational and structural processes to ensure we operate as effectively and efficiently in helping all learners in our unique mountain/resort community thrive. This will include adding one additional community organization and a student/participant member to our governing group. Apprenticeship(s) remain an important focus as we restarted the Culinary Apprenticeship program in winter 2021 and launched the Tahoe Lift Maintenance Apprenticeship program with a pilot at Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort. This new industry sector program will continue in 21-22 and is being considered as a model and support platform for state-wide implementation through SkiCalifornia (and potentially national replication by the National Ski Areas Association – NSAA). As/if/when access to onsite training becomes available at our member organizations, we also plan to relaunch our boot camps – especially small-engine repair and culinary with additional program offerings being designed to support entrepreneurship (in English and Spanish), more access to digital literacy learning and assessment, and support for working ELLs, including Spanish language skills for managers and front-line supervisors in partnership with the local Tahoe Chamber. Another focus for us in 21-22 is to explore how our resources (especially those from Emsi – such as SkillsMatch, Analyst, and Career Coach) can help support and guide local and sate efforts to build true credit for prior learning that will allow many working adults to shorten their own paths to certificates and degrees. Much of this will be done in collaboration with a newly hired Career Counselor at LTCC as we work together to better create and connect career pathways in our area. Our overarching goal(s) for 21-22 are to continue to meet our own “triple-primary” principles of pathway creation/connection, and management, incubation of innovative practices, procedures, and services, and to serve as a catalyst for broad community engagement by the consortium and individual members.
Regional Planning Overview
Per the last sentence in our executive summary (above) by adhering to, and focusing on, our founding principles and purposes of navigation, incubation, and collaboration. As stated last year, we also continue to look three-years out every year so that this (and future) annual plans will continue to serve the strategic needs and vision of not only our consortium, but our community.

Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
Like last year, many of the immediate, or pressing, gaps are related to the impact of the ongoing pandemic. The immediate needs that we saw early in the pandemic - UI assistance, food and other basic needs support - have been addressed as government programs became (and remained) available. What we are seeing now are longer term issues - housing (remote work saw an explosion in area home sales with prices skyrocketing well beyond the means of most working adults AND the loss of significant long-term rental capacity as home ownership changed), recovery, and changed priorities in many individual and family lives (this, and housing, have negatively impacted staffing for almost all local employers). While several of these issues remain outside of our full control, there are roles for us to play in addressing each of them. Upskill/reskilling will continue to be a need and an opportunity but will require new and innovative solutions, especially in terms of scheduling and processes. Most education/training options continue to operate on a traditional student model whereby the learner fits the rigid training schedule into their life. Obviously, this is easier for a younger, more traditional high school to college aged student than for working adults who face time demands of job, family, and life. Increasing available, flexible pathways to learning (and the attendant increased economic participation) will be critical as the accessibility gap from previous years has, in many ways, been exacerbated by the pandemic and the impact on housing locally.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
We use a variety of methods and resources to identify this gaps. One primary source is through collaboration and integration with our partners - from the Tahoe Chamber (local business feedback, input, information) and the Tahoe Prosperity Center (Basin-wide economic and housing data, and information) to workforce development agencies in CA (Golden Sierra) and NV (JOIN, Inc) who provide access to employment data. We have also invested in several high-quality resources that allow us to focus on the specific and local details/data of our unique, two-state community. These include Emsi Analyst (i.e., zip code level LMI), and CollegeAPP (wide-range of community, household, and individual level data). By bringing together the input and anecdotal information from community partners, data from existing agencies and our own research using our purchased resources, we believe we have a solid picture of the needs, challenges, and opportunities within our local ecosystem.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
Effectiveness continues to be measured primarily by participant and community outcomes. This includes completion of high school credentials (HSE and diplomas), access and skill gain in basic skills, especially improving ESL gains and digital literacy (more important than ever with the continued expansion of online education), entry to postsecondary education and training and successful completion of same. As mentioned above, we still expect a significant increase in the need for re-training and up-skilling as well as continued need for connection to support services, including mental health (as we have seen locally and nationally during the ongoing pandemic), transition navigation services for our community as evidenced by student feedback and referral numbers/sources. Continuing to focus on metrics that demonstrate positive movement in addressing systemic racial injustice remains a priority and we look to the state and our partners for collaborative assistance in clarifying those.

Gaps In Service

New Strategies

Strategy #1
In keeping with our foundational principles, incubation of new and innovative services remains a key strategy in addressing these gaps. Program year 21-22 will see increased implementation of competency-based approaches at the secondary level and the exploration of those lessons and resources to help our post-secondary partner(s) begin down that path. Several resources acquired during the 20-21 program year, especially SkillsMatch and Skillibi (from Emsi-Burning Glass) should help us make significant progress at both levels and could serve as a pilot/model for other consortia and institutions around the State.
Strategy #2
We will increase services to our non-English -speaking communities in several ways. We will expand our capacity to provide Spanish and/or bi-lingual Transition Navigation services, increase use of our existing resources (like Burlington English and Voxy EnGen), ensure more integrated support for those entering job training and/or apprenticeship, and work with local employer partners to improve hiring and workplace interactions between employees and supervisors (including offering a "survival Spanish for Supervisors" minicamp).

Seamless Transitions

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Continued use and refinement of our "whole-person" Transition Navigation approach. This is another founding principle which allows us to personalize the pathway, supports, and services at an individual level and increases the likelihood for successful goal attainment by our participants.
Strategy #2
Maintain the collaborative partnerships with community organizations and the business community. This has, and will continue to, connect us to those most in need of our services and, in turn, to connect our participants to additional supports/services and employment.

Student Acceleration

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Use of new resources (like SkillsMatch and Skillibi) to further our efforts at driving and supporting more credit for prior learning (CPL) at the secondary and post-secondary levels. In addition, this strategy will include professional development for our internal team as well as providing resource access and PD to our education members.
Strategy #2
Move the ski lift maintenance apprenticeship program from pilot (Sierra-at-Tahoe) to additional resorts within the Tahoe Basin (and beyond - as noted earlier in this plan). This will include continued focus on creating new supports and resources to ensure access for English language learners as part of our personalized "cohort" of one" approach.

Professional Development

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Continue to participate in ongoing local opportunities with all community partners that includes bringing subject-matter experts for shared training events to our mountain community. In PY 21-22 thiswill also include training on new and developing systems and services (especially those piloted/created related to APL/CPL as mentioned in the Strategy #1 under Student Acceleration).

Leveraging Resources

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Expand partner access to, and use of, proven tools (i.e. Traitify) and processes (i.e., navigation) to avoid duplication of effort (and/or expense) and continue to build common language and context among the various agencies and institutions. This is another case where we believe our local work could serve as a laboratory/incubator and model for more regional and/or state implementation.
Strategy #2
Connect to the growing conversation and work at the State and National level on skills-based education, credentials, and hiring. This ties directly to our own local approaches and will allow us to share ow experiences AND benefit from the work of others in this rapidly developing arena.

Fiscal Management

A narrative justifying how the planned allocations are consistent with the annual adult education plan which is based on your CAEP 3-year plan.
All allocations are reviewed against the vision/mission of the partnership as well as the 3-year and 1-year plans during the CFAD process and again during the annual planning and budgeting process.
An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2021-22.
As in previous years, carry forward funds not expended by members revert to the consortium for incorporation into one-time expenses during 2021-22. During PY 20-21, these carry forward funds allowed us to address unanticipated costs associated with COVID19 while letting us further define/refine annual operating costs. We expect that for PY21-22, we will see some lingering needs form COVID19 but most of the carry-forward funds form 20-21 will focus on one-time investments to meet the strategies outlined above.

Certification

Alpine County Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Matthew Strahl Alpine County Unified School District

08/07/2021 01:19 PM PDT

El Dorado Co. Office of Education - Member Representative

Approved by Carey Buchanan

08/13/2021 01:25 PM PDT

Lake Tahoe CCD - Member Representative

  • Brad Deeds
  • Dean of Workforce Development and Instruction
  • deeds@ltcc.edu
  • (530) 541-4660 ext: 225
Approved by Frank Gerdeman

08/17/2021 01:44 PM PDT

Lake Tahoe Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Frank Gerdeman

08/12/2021 09:32 AM PDT