May 19, 2026

Degrees Aren’t Enough: Why Graduates Still Aren’t Job-Ready

Degrees Aren’t Enough: Why Graduates Still Aren’t Job-Ready
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Today’s graduates are doing everything “right”—earning degrees, building credentials—yet many still struggle to land their first job. Meanwhile, employers are searching for talent that can contribute from day one. So what’s missing? Alexandra Levit explores the widening gap between what schools teach and what workplaces demand. She makes the case for work-based learning as a critical bridge. It’s time to rethink how we prepare people for work—and what “ready” really means.

Working on Purpose is broadcast live Tuesdays at 6PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Working on Purpose is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

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The topics and opinions express in the following show are

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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not

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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing

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W FOURCY Radio.

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What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the

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answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose

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at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their

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lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization

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that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their

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highest potential. Business can be such a force for good

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in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide

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guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we

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all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor

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Elise Cortez.

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Welcome back to the Working on Purpose program, which has

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been brought to with passion and pride since February of

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twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning in again this week. Great

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to have you. I'm your host, doctor Release Cortes. Most

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leaders are sitting on untapped human energy, and I help

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them unlock it. I'm an organizational psychologist, logo therapist, workforce

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advisor and the founder of the Gusto Now movement. But

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the title that I really love is much simpler. I

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traffic and energy. That's my jam, not the surface level

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motivation or another employee engagement initiative, but the deeper force

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what I call Gusto, the life force of performance that

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drives commitment, perseverance, and genuine ownership of a shared admission

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in the clients we serve. EVE only more beouts on

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how we can work together at gustodashnow dot com or

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my personal site, Eliscortes dot com. Getting in today's program

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we have with us Alexandra Levitt. She's the founder and

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CEO of Inspiration at Work, a woman owned futurist consulting

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business with the goal of preparing organizations and their employees

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to be competitive and marketable in the future business world.

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She's the author of several books, with her latest one

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co author called Make School Work, Solving the American youth

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employment crisis through work based learning and so out. Now

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we'll be talking today about the widespread problem of preparing

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youth for the workforce, how necessary upskilling is spearheading the

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direction of education and the approach she and her co

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authors advocate for solving the early workforce preparation problem. She

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joins us today from Chicago. Alexandra, Welcome to Working on Purpose.

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Thanks so much, Elise. It's great to be here.

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Isn't it great to be hanging out together? Absolutely well,

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let's celebrate this beautiful thing you brought into the world here.

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I love to be able to show this. I'm one

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of those people who still likes reading actual physical books

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and I use them to decorate my house, So thank

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you for the decoration.

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You're welcome if you enjoy what's inside us.

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I did, I did, which we're going to talk about.

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So let's just first, since I know quite a bit

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about you, having read your book and of course looking

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at your website and your LinkedIn, but our listeners and

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viewers don't, so if you could just start by introducing

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yourself and help us understand why you're so committed to

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helping young people enter the workforce. Prepared to work and

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earn a sustainable living wage.

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Sure. Well, first of all, I like to explain what

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a workforce futurist is, because most people are shaking their

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heads and saying, I've never heard of that job title. Well,

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just like the advice that I give others, I've morphed

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and pivoted with my own job title over years as

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I've determined what clients are looking for as a consultant.

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And I became a workforce futurist kind of informally as

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a result of a book that I wrote now over

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twenty years ago called they Don't Teach Corporate in College.

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And when the book came out, I was really just

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this twenty seven year old kid myself who I had

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a story of being a high achieving student and going

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out into the business world and failing in my first

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several jobs and going to the Dale Carnegie course and

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having a light bulb go off and say, someone should

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really tell other twenty somethings what they need to do

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to be successful. I can be that person wrote the

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book and really just intended it to be a side project.

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But I over time started getting asked by HR teams,

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in particular if they could advise on the future of

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this new prop of twenty somethings in town called the millennials.

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Millennials were making a huge splash at the time, and

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we didn't really know what to do with them. We

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had never seen the types of behaviors that they exhibited before,

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and so I was forced into a position of having

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to forecast what I thought the millennials would be like

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as they grew into their careers and as leaders. And

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at first that was just a bunch of quantitative research,

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just talking and surveying a ton of people. But over

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time I learned the method to the madness of the

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practice of strategic foresight, and over time I have gotten

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a little bit better at the scientific practice of this

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and doing it in a more formal way, as you

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might say, And it's been a ton of fun. The

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only way to know if you're any good as a

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futurist is to wait, and so it has been toughly

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entertaining to see my forecast that have come true and

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have not come true over the years. And for those

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of you who are again still pondering the term futurists,

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it really just means somebody who looks at trends that

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are coming up through whatever environment you're in. So in

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my world, it's the business world and tries to make

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an educated determination based on signals about what has the

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potential for disruption. And so we look at the education

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to work transition as being ripe for disruption and being

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one of those sticky, thorny problems that especially here in

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the US are dealing with. It is a global phenomena,

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but I think it's a little bit worse here in

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the sense that we have all of these new college graduates,

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very talented young people, and we simply, for a variety

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of reasons, do not have the jobs for them right now.

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And so we see stagnancy in the career launch of

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these young people. And so is there a better way?

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We think there is. And so when I met the

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folks at GPS Education Partners that were making a real

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difference in the West, trying to provide really high quality

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work based learning to high school students so they could

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then make a good decision about whether a four year

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college was the right next step for them. And it's

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been a journey, it's been a lot of fun, and

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I look forward to telling you all about it.

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Thank you. That was beautiful. It's wonderful to see your passion.

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And I want more people to be able to lean

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into their passion. And that's something I want to get

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to in just a second. But before we do, let's

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just sort of situate. You know, there's a real disconnect here.

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We have young people who are coming out of high

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school or maybe even finishing college, and they need to

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land their first job, and they don't have the experience

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or the skills to do that. At the same time,

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the US labor shortage sits at seventy percent, you say

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in your book, which is five points below the global average.

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And so what that means is that seven and ten

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employers are unable to find suitable workers for their job vacancies.

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I mean, this is just a crazy like mismatch here.

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Yeah, and this has been the case for quite some time.

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People like to blame it on AI and say, well,

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AI is the reason that college grads don't have jobs anymore,

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But we have always seen this gap between the positions

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that are available to be filled and the individuals who

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are ready and willing to take those positions. Here in

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the US. That's been a problem since I got into

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this space. Twenty years ago, and so it's only becoming

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more urgent. But it's not a particularly new problem. Unfortunately,

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it's one we haven't solved. But that's what we're here

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to do with Make School Work. We hope that we're

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posing one realistic and really practical solution to this quandary

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that we've been facing.

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I really appreciated the forward by Geen Eddie, who is

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the executive chair of the American Student Assistance. I love

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that she talked about the idea of helping students find

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their eke guy. I've had eke guy authors on my

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show before, and I was so delighted that that showed

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up in the book. And so those of you who

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don't know what eke guy is, it's a Japanese concept

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and it really speaks to like it kind of means

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something like what makes for a good life, life right,

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And so I love that, you know, she's mentioning here,

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she says, helping more young people they deserve to find

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their eke guys. She says that intersection of what they

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are good at, what they can be paid for, what

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the world needs, and there it is their passion. So

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I really appreciate this idea that you're trying to right

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out of the gate. Help you do that so they

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don't come to us or to me when there are

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forties and fifties and they just you know, hate their

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life and hate their job and wonder why they made

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this choice. So I want to celebrate that. And if

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you want to speak a little bit too, a little

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bit more of the spirit of what the GPS is

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trying to do with this regard, and we'll get more

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into the mechanics of it later, but at least let's

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start with how they're trying to help.

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Yeah, I think the critical thing is that we're providing

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or not me, but the GPS Education Partner programs are

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providing young people with information and choices. So when I

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was going through school, really there was only one choice

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given to me, and that was get enough good enough

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grades and do well enough that you will go to

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a good four year college. Once I got into the

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four year college, really nobody thought much about what I

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was going to do after that, and it was up

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to me to figure out, Okay, I have all this education.

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Now he might translate that to something that is actually marketable,

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will actually pay me a living wage. And now we

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see that the opportunities exist with employers facing increasing labor shortages,

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as you mentioned, to bring in high school students who

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are not just doing a job shadowing and not just

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doing a tour of the facility, but are actually working

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as entry level professionals and apprentices on let's say, a

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manufacturing shop floor, and they're doing this for a period

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of time so that they actually become an integrated part

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of that employer's team, which provides us all sorts of benefits.

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It provides the student with information and experience. Maybe they

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loved it and maybe they didn't, and the information that

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they got about what they don't like is just as

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important as the information about what they do like, So

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that's still a valuable experience, and they get that information.

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They also learn a lot more about how to work,

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which is not a skill that you just get. I mean,

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my own story is proof of that. My goodness, it

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took me five years to get it together and figure

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out the professional human skills that were necessary to be successful.

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And when you are working as a sixteen or seventeen

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year old high school student in a professional environment, you

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start to learn even really basic things at least like

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if I don't show up for a gig on time,

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or I don't show up for my job on time.

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I'm not just affecting myself, I'm affecting my entire team.

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And my team has families to support, so every time

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I let them down, there are real world consequences to that,

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and that is something that just most teenagers do not

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get exposure to. So by the time they graduate, they

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really are in a position to make a decision. Can

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I continue to work. Do I like this job? Do

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I like this industry? Do I see it as something

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I could continue to pursue and move up in? And

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if so, does my employer think I need additional education

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right now? And if they do, is it something they

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might help me pay for? So you get a little

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bit out of the debt situation that a lot of

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students find themselves in, or they might decide, Okay, well

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now I'm going to go to a four year college,

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but I'm much more targeted in what I want to

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do there, and I know how that college education is

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going to translate into a job when I get out.

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And so I think those are the values that are

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provided to the students. And another thing that we see

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a lot and we don't really think about or talk about,

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is the positive impact on the employees themselves who are

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working in an environment where an opportunity for mentorship can

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be golden. For people who maybe they feel stagnant in

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the job, maybe they feel like there's nothing more to

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learn or nothing more to teach, maybe they're worried about AI,

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i'd have all types of things going through their minds.

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But here's a young person who can really benefit from

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your expertise and you can really take under your wing.

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And we see that as an enormous impact on employee

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engagement and job satisfaction in existing employees.

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Yeah, and what I appreciate to even just still on

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the forward, just talking about there were so many ways

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to be able to educate, help prepare these youth for

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working apprenticeships, internships, company based programs. I love the stackable

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macro credentials, stemcams, community learning. You know, for me, as

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I read the book, you reminded me that for me,

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I grew up in a small town in northeastern Oregon.

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When I graduated high school, Alexandra, the population was four

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thy eight hundred, and I had one single, single ambition,

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and that was to get the heck out of there.

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And so I got a co op job in my

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senior year of high school and I was just answering

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phones in this pumping company. But the owner would call

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in from Portland and he liked my work ethic and

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the way that I interacted on the phone, and he

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said this magical phrase to me one day, said, if

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you ever find yourself in Portland, you've got a job

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with me. And that was my first job. That's how

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it happened. I just shuddered to think how I would

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have flailed if I didn't have that kind of conduit

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and that kind of preparation.

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And that's the beauty of work based learning. And you

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essentially did a work based learning assignment. You established a relationship,

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You learned enough about it so that you could hit

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the ground running, come on board right away, and not

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need as much of a training period. And that's how

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we hope this will work. And of course we can't

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promise every single person who goes through a work based

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learning program is going to end up working at the company.

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It's not the only solution to your pipeline issues. But

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I think what it does do in the community that

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you're in, is it fosters this sense of yes, we

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are going to take care of our own. We are

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going to look at the high school students in their area,

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and if they don't necessarily end up working for us, like,

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they'll still be working in our community and helping our

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community have the jobs filled that they need so that

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companies don't have to leave the community to go somewhere

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else because they don't have enough people, which we see

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happening a lot.

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Well. And as you say in the book, of all

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of this really hinges on this idea of public private

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educational collaboration and that's expanding. So if you could speak

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a little bit to that, this whole three P sort

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of approach.

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Yeah, I mean, I think it's it's tricky, and that

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is the one thing that we say about work based learning,

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especially what we deem high quality work based learning. It's

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not a particularly easy thing to do. And because of

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exactly what you're talking about, we do require in order

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to start one of these programs from scratch. There are

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a lot of stakeholders that are involved in the education

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of young people. So of course you have the individual

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school districts and the individual schools, you have public policy advocates,

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so this could be a nonprofit organization or even a

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government organization, and you have the employers, and so there

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are a lot of different parts here that may come

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to the table with agendas that don't exactly match up

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and objectives that might be slightly different. And so the

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role of an effective work based learning we call it

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a convener, is to gather all of these people in

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the same room, determine what are the similarities and differences

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in what they're trying to achieve, and develop a partnership

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that is truly a win win for everyone. And I

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think that it is tough, and we don't like to

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tell people that this is an easy thing to do,

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but it is doable. And as we said, this is

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a space that is ripe for disruption. So it's not

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like everyone in these organizations and schools and companies as

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being like, yeah, that our system works just fine as

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it is. Everybody recognizes that the system is fundamentally broken

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and we have to do something to change it. So

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the goal is, all right, if we want to get

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people to change, how do we get them to do

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that change in the most palatable, easy way possible. And

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that's what we try to do. When we bring everyone

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together for a work based learning program.

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Beautiful Alexandra, let us let our listeners and viewers dwell

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on what we've been talking about so far. We've been

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talking about the widespread problem of preparing youth for the workforce.

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I'm your host, doctor Relise Cortes. We've got on air

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with Alexandra Levitt, who's the founder and CEO of Inspiration

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at Work, a woman owned futurist consulting business with the

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goal of preparing organizations and their employees to be competitive

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and marketable in the future business world. When we come

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back from the break, we're going to talk about how

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necessary upskilling is spearheading the direction of education. We'll be

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right back.

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Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning

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and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies

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visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose

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inspired leadership and meaning fuse cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,

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and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to

335
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invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit

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00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:12.079
her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to

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get your employees working on Purpose. This is working on

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Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today

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00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:27.119
or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email

340
00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:32.279
to a lease A lisee at Eliscortes dot com. Now

341
00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:34.119
back to working on Purpose.

342
00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:41.279
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working

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on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Release Cortes, as I'm

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dedicated to helping create a world where organizations thrive because

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their people thrive are led by inspirational leaders that help

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them find and contribute their greatness. And we do business

347
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at Betters the World. I keep researching and writing my

348
00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:55.960
own books. So one of my latest came out. It's

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called The Great Revitalization. How activating meeting and purpose can

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radically in liven your business. And I wrote it to

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help leaders understand today's workforce. What do they want to

352
00:18:04.279 --> 00:18:06.279
need to stick around and give you their best And

353
00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:09.440
then I provide you twenty two best practices for you

354
00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:12.279
to be able to elevate your leadership and your culture

355
00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:13.759
to keep them. You can find all my books on

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00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:16.880
Amazon or also my personal site at least Cortes dot com.

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If you are just now joining us. My guest is

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Alexander Levitt. She's the author of Make School Work, Solving

359
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the American Youth Employment Crises through Work Based Learning. Co author,

360
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I should say, because there's two other authors as well.

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So now that we're talking in this segment about how

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necessary upskilling is spearheading the direction of education, we already

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said it in the last segment, how for your degrees

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are starting to lose their luster. You say that very

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very very directly in your book, and you talk about

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the appeal of micro credentials, and you yourself have done that,

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and you say here in the book that according to Cosera,

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ninety percent of students believe earning a micro credential can

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help them secure a job after graduation. At eighty percent

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of employers believe professional certificate strengthen job application. So there's

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some real need to this here.

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Yeah, And this is one of those trends where I mean,

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I told you least, I'm always honest about where I

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get things wrong and when I get them right, And

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this is one of those things that I would have

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expected to take off a lot more quickly than it did,

377
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meaning micro credentials, because it just makes logical sense that

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in a world it's getting increasingly more complex, where one

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shot at education at the very beginning of your life

380
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doesn't really prepare you with all of the skills you

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might need to have a career in different parts of history. Really,

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and if you think about if you have a fifty

383
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sixty year career, that's a really long time and a

384
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lot of things change during that period. And so to

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say that you would be done with education at the

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very beginning and that you would never need to learn

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anything else is a little bit It just doesn't make

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a ton of sense to me. And so the idea

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that you could be working in an industry or working

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in a function and you say, hey, I think I

391
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need some additional skills, for example, in data analytics. Well,

392
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you don't need to go to a back to a

393
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four year degree to get a PhD or a master's

394
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in data analytics unless that's your core job. But if

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you just need that as just something that's in your

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00:20:16.839 --> 00:20:19.359
back pocket or something that's a nice adjacent skill for

397
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what you are doing, then getting a micro credential in

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that is highly efficient and effective. It's a lot of

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00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:29.640
times done online. They're either free or low cost, they're

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accessible to the average person, and so What we really

401
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need to see though, with micro credentials is some kind

402
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of standardization, because I think there are outlets that are

403
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sort of universally respected, but there's a lot more courses

404
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out there when you're just kind of like, I don't

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know who's creating this content, who's vetting this content, and

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I'm not sure if I should, if I'm an employer,

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accept the micro credential, or if I'm just going to

408
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rest on my laurels and see if they have a

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degree or not in the area of question. But it should,

410
00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:05.039
in theory, be something that is highly beneficial to everyone

411
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involved because you can really scale up much more quickly

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doing it through micro credential or certification program than you

413
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could if you decide every time you need a new

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skill that you're going to go back for an additional degree.

415
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Yeah. Yeah, beautiful. So you already touched on this here, Alexander,

416
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but I want to go back to it here because

417
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you talked about Well, first, let me situate. One of

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the many things I like about your book is I

419
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love the case studies. So this isn't just an academic greed.

420
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You're sharing real world examples, and I want to get

421
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to one here later with IBM of how they're they're

422
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putting these work based learning programs to work, and so

423
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we really get to a feel for we could do

424
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that kind of thing. So one of the things I appreciated.

425
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You have a section of your book where a gentleman

426
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named Mike Irwin, who's a retired CEO at Tailored Label Products,

427
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commented that today's students need a structured, tangible way to

428
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evaluate career options and that being on the site alongside

429
00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:05.480
working adults and facing real rewards of consequences mature as

430
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kids in a way nothing else can. And I completely

431
00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:11.119
agree with that. I'm so grateful my parents made me

432
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work for them in their restaurant when I was fourteen

433
00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:17.359
years old, and I'm that nothing could replace that kind

434
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of learning.

435
00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.559
Yeah, and you know, we're seeing with our young people's

436
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stay and I have two teenagers, so I'm getting this firsthand.

437
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They don't work. And it's not necessarily that they don't

438
00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:30.480
want to work, it's just it's not pushed, it's not

439
00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:35.279
really facilitated. It just there's a higher barrier to entry

440
00:22:35.400 --> 00:22:38.680
in the world of teenage traditional teenage employment. And then

441
00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:42.079
you have people who are not teenagers who have to

442
00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:46.480
take traditional teenage employment because they don't have anything else.

443
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And so the result of all that is that our

444
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young people are not working at all as much as

445
00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:55.559
the youth do. And this really widens the gap even

446
00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:58.599
further as to whether or not they are ready to

447
00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:02.160
go to work when graduate from school, because a lot

448
00:23:02.200 --> 00:23:04.680
of times they haven't even had the experience of having

449
00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:08.440
an internship, or having a retail job or a hospitality job,

450
00:23:08.759 --> 00:23:10.599
the things that we used to take for granted. A

451
00:23:10.599 --> 00:23:12.960
lot of young people are not given access to them,

452
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and so they're really flying blind. And the folks at

453
00:23:16.200 --> 00:23:18.640
GPS said, no, I love to tell the story of

454
00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:22.240
my own son because I feel like this crystallizes the

455
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point of work based learning more than anything at least

456
00:23:25.079 --> 00:23:27.839
in my life currently. And he is all of his

457
00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:31.319
life thought he wanted to be an aerospace engineer, and

458
00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:33.799
he just thought it was cool to like build spaceships

459
00:23:33.799 --> 00:23:37.880
and build rockets, and we had no way of determining

460
00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:42.440
what the actual work of an entry level aerospace engineer is.

461
00:23:43.039 --> 00:23:46.039
So essentially, we were going to spend, you know, hundreds

462
00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:49.160
of thousands of dollars on a four year degree and

463
00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:53.440
we have no context for what whether my son will

464
00:23:53.480 --> 00:23:57.799
actually like the work or not. So it's extraordinarily risky

465
00:23:58.319 --> 00:24:01.319
where I have to be honest, I haven't had access

466
00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:03.200
to a work based learning program for him here in

467
00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:06.240
the city of Chicago, but we did do a nice

468
00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:10.559
job shadow with the folks at MXD. And at MXD

469
00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:14.240
they my son learned in pretty much the first ten

470
00:24:14.279 --> 00:24:17.440
minutes that as an entry level aerospace engineer you are

471
00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:20.240
not building the rocket. You're not even building a section

472
00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:22.880
of the rocket. You're not even building a major part

473
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:26.519
of the rocket. You were building a single panel on

474
00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:30.160
that rocket. And was like, whoa, So it's going to

475
00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:33.119
be a long time before I'm involved in the entire process.

476
00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:36.000
And they're like, not even necessarily. You may never get

477
00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:38.799
there unless you're a systems engineer. These are the things

478
00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:41.119
that unless you're there, you're not going to find out.

479
00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:43.960
And wouldn't it be nice if my son had had

480
00:24:43.960 --> 00:24:47.160
that information prior to deciding on this courier?

481
00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:51.319
Absolutely? Oh my goodness, yeah, absolutely. Well. I mean, you know,

482
00:24:51.400 --> 00:24:54.759
kids are supposed to declare their you know, their general direction,

483
00:24:54.920 --> 00:24:58.960
but in middle school these days, it's just crazy. Yep, Okay,

484
00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:00.640
So I have to tell you, I was so delighted

485
00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:03.400
when I read about these three types of skills that

486
00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:07.880
the Druz Foundation articulated, which just blew me away. And

487
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:10.759
of course, you know, why can you share with those

488
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:12.720
three different skills and kind of how they're different?

489
00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:16.440
Well, I mean, I think I so GPSAID has their

490
00:25:16.480 --> 00:25:19.039
way of defining skills, and I have my way of

491
00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:23.400
defining skills, and they're mostly aligned. I think when I

492
00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:26.640
like to think of skills, I think of things that

493
00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:30.039
are tangible, hard skills that are things you can learn

494
00:25:30.119 --> 00:25:34.160
from reading a book or taking a course. Computer programming

495
00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:36.640
might be an example you talked about we talked about

496
00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:39.720
podcast hosting. That is actually an example of a hard skill.

497
00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:42.319
It's something that is much more tangible. And then you

498
00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:47.799
have more soft interpersonal skills that are associated with how

499
00:25:47.799 --> 00:25:51.119
you get along with people and how you make judgments

500
00:25:51.279 --> 00:25:55.279
and how you apply your intuition, how you solve problems.

501
00:25:55.839 --> 00:25:58.759
And then there are the skills that are sort of

502
00:25:58.920 --> 00:26:03.799
uniquely human skills. So, and I'm also talking about when

503
00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:06.920
I phrase these, I tend to call them pre industrial skills,

504
00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:10.680
which refers to the skills that we all needed before

505
00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:15.039
technology existed. So the skills to just be a person

506
00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:17.880
in the world and do so ethically, responsibly, and with

507
00:26:17.960 --> 00:26:21.079
an eye toward having the most meaningful life possible. So

508
00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:23.400
basically what you were talking about the very beginning with

509
00:26:23.519 --> 00:26:27.240
working on purpose or working with purpose. Human skills allow

510
00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:29.880
us to do that. So I mean, more or less,

511
00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:31.880
we're whether we're talking about it in the book in

512
00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:34.039
the context of work based learning, or we're talking about

513
00:26:34.039 --> 00:26:37.519
it more generally. Most people would agree there are buckets

514
00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:41.440
of skills. And I also love the part of the

515
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:45.400
book where we talk about durable skills because to me,

516
00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:47.960
that's a little bit of a different dimension in the

517
00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:52.240
sense of I think skills in all three areas could

518
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:56.680
be classified or not classified as durable skills. It just

519
00:26:56.680 --> 00:26:59.599
depends on what they are. But durable skills are those

520
00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:04.200
that you will need in a variety of different occupations,

521
00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:10.319
in a variety of different scenarios or roles. And because

522
00:27:10.359 --> 00:27:12.680
we have to become as broadly skilled as we can

523
00:27:13.160 --> 00:27:14.759
in a world where we don't know what career we're

524
00:27:14.799 --> 00:27:18.240
going to have next, those durable skills have increasing importance.

525
00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:20.400
We used to call them transferable skills. It's pretty much

526
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:23.200
just the same thing as that, but I think it's

527
00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:26.359
important that when we look across the dimension of hard, soft,

528
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:30.039
and human skills, we consider their durability because there are

529
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:34.319
areas in all three where skills are more durable than others.

530
00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:37.240
Well, of course I picked up on that because you know,

531
00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:39.640
the durable you know in the book are really they're

532
00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:42.000
referencing what they used to be called soft skills or

533
00:27:42.039 --> 00:27:45.000
sexual self actualization skills, and so so much of that

534
00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:48.319
is what we've been doing for our leadership development programs

535
00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:50.119
and our culture work, et cetera, and totally what we

536
00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:52.599
evangelize in the Gusto Now movement, which is really about

537
00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:55.240
doubling down on humanity in the age of a AI,

538
00:27:55.319 --> 00:27:59.279
helping people to learn how to more deeply understand and

539
00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:02.759
live and use their emotions to be able to increase

540
00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:05.200
their effectiveness and being able to relate to you know,

541
00:28:05.240 --> 00:28:08.680
other people, customers, follows, et cetera. All those kinds.

542
00:28:09.599 --> 00:28:10.839
You're living the work right there.

543
00:28:10.920 --> 00:28:13.160
I am, Yes, that's it. So we're champions of this stuff.

544
00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:15.480
So I was just you know, I remember when I

545
00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:17.640
first got into the field, and I was really focused

546
00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:19.839
on more of those soft skills, and people are like, oh,

547
00:28:19.880 --> 00:28:21.880
you know, woo loo soft and now of course they're durable,

548
00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:25.720
so anyway, it just made me giggle. Okay, so just

549
00:28:25.839 --> 00:28:28.039
if we could briefly, I want to if I can

550
00:28:28.759 --> 00:28:31.759
have you situate. You have lots of those case studies

551
00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:33.599
and spotlights in the book, and there was just one

552
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:38.279
about how IBM helped launch students immediately into the technology workforce,

553
00:28:38.519 --> 00:28:39.839
and if you can say a little bit about that,

554
00:28:39.880 --> 00:28:41.279
you don't have to go in a great detail, but

555
00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:42.480
it help us color it.

556
00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:46.039
So IBM was one of the first I think I

557
00:28:46.039 --> 00:28:48.559
can fairly confidently say that they were one of the

558
00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:52.759
first big Fortune five hundred companies to invest in young

559
00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:57.079
people through boot camps, so essentially having young people come

560
00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:01.359
to IBM or do something that IBM has created in

561
00:29:01.480 --> 00:29:04.200
order to gain a specific skill set so that they

562
00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:07.759
would be better prepared for digital careers in particular. And

563
00:29:07.799 --> 00:29:10.160
what I love about IBM's work is it's not all

564
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:14.559
self serving. They really do look at that community aspect

565
00:29:14.599 --> 00:29:16.960
that I talked about a few minutes ago, that by

566
00:29:18.079 --> 00:29:20.920
making young people aware and skilled to go into technology

567
00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:24.880
careers in their community, it really benefits everyone. And I

568
00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:27.160
also like the age groups that IBM has worked with.

569
00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:31.640
I mean, they've started pretty young in getting middle schoolers

570
00:29:31.640 --> 00:29:35.200
and high schoolers interested in this by letting them try

571
00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:37.920
the work hands on so they can actually see is

572
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:40.720
this something I could see myself doing for eight hours

573
00:29:40.759 --> 00:29:44.279
a day every day. And I really admire them because again,

574
00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:46.319
they were one of the first. They put their neck

575
00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:49.680
out to do something that not a lot of companies

576
00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:52.519
were doing. And frankly, it's that companies don't want to

577
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:55.720
invest in programs like that, and that one was a

578
00:29:55.720 --> 00:29:58.960
lot broader than just having a single work based learning initiative.

579
00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:02.759
It was a huge investment, and I think giving them

580
00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:06.000
credit for that is important because it's something that has

581
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:09.039
helped all of us in this quest to promote more

582
00:30:09.079 --> 00:30:09.839
work based learning.

583
00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:13.279
That's to know, a big part of what we evangelize

584
00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:14.960
in this program and in my own work. Business can

585
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:16.759
be such a force for good in the world, you

586
00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:18.960
know when it's really directed here, and we have such

587
00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:21.759
an opportunity to partner, as you say in the book,

588
00:30:22.279 --> 00:30:24.799
with public organizations public agencies to be able to bring

589
00:30:24.839 --> 00:30:27.680
about these necessary changes. So all that to say, thanks

590
00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:32.079
for writing the book. Amazing. Let's grab our next break here.

591
00:30:32.119 --> 00:30:34.000
I'm your host, doctor Release Cortez. We' are on the

592
00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:36.599
air with Alexandro Levitt. She's the founder and CEO of

593
00:30:36.680 --> 00:30:40.440
Inspiration Network, which is a woman owned futurist consulting business

594
00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:43.039
with the goal of preparing organizations and their employees to

595
00:30:43.039 --> 00:30:45.880
be competitive and marketable in the future business world. And

596
00:30:45.920 --> 00:30:48.720
this last segment we were talking about how necessary upskilling

597
00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:51.759
is spearheading the direction of education. And the last segment

598
00:30:51.799 --> 00:30:53.920
here we're going to talk about the specific work that

599
00:30:54.119 --> 00:30:58.119
GPS Education Partners is doing to solve this early workforce

600
00:30:58.160 --> 00:30:59.960
preparation problem. We'll be right back.

601
00:31:15.240 --> 00:31:18.799
Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning

602
00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:22.680
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies

603
00:31:22.759 --> 00:31:26.559
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired

604
00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:30.599
leadership and meaning imfuse cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and

605
00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:33.920
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite

606
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:36.680
a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her

607
00:31:36.720 --> 00:31:39.960
at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get

608
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:48.799
your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose

609
00:31:48.920 --> 00:31:52.160
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or

610
00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:54.960
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to

611
00:31:55.039 --> 00:32:00.440
Alise a l se at Elisecortes dot com. Now back

612
00:32:00.480 --> 00:32:01.799
to Working on Purpose.

613
00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:08.720
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to Working

614
00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:11.359
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Les Cortes. As you

615
00:32:11.400 --> 00:32:13.599
know by now, my program is dedicated to empowering and

616
00:32:13.640 --> 00:32:16.319
inspiring you along your journey to realize more of your potential.

617
00:32:16.799 --> 00:32:19.240
I mentioned my last book, The Great Vitalization in the

618
00:32:19.319 --> 00:32:22.519
last segment there. What I did is that contains twenty

619
00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:24.640
two best practices to help you elevate the culture of

620
00:32:24.680 --> 00:32:28.200
your organization for today's discerning workforce. I created a simple

621
00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:30.839
three page assessment that you can download from my site.

622
00:32:30.839 --> 00:32:33.079
It's free to help you ascertain the extent to which

623
00:32:33.079 --> 00:32:34.960
you are meeting those standards. You can find it at

624
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:38.240
gustodeshnow dot com if you are just now joining us.

625
00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:40.720
My guest is Alexander Levitt. She's the author or co

626
00:32:40.759 --> 00:32:44.000
author of Make School Work, Solving the American Youth Employment

627
00:32:44.039 --> 00:32:47.799
Crisis through Work Based Learning. So I want to do

628
00:32:47.880 --> 00:32:50.119
a little bit of justice to the work that GPS

629
00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:52.640
is doing. And I know this, maybe you can't speak

630
00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:55.160
to this as deeply as they can directly themselves, but

631
00:32:55.200 --> 00:32:56.960
I know you can give it some justice. Here So

632
00:32:57.359 --> 00:32:59.960
if we could start with this notion here. You say

633
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:02.240
the book that all definitions of work based learning involve

634
00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:05.480
providing a work aligned experience as part of one's education

635
00:33:05.559 --> 00:33:09.000
to prepare for a potential career. But any of those

636
00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:14.359
experiences can be positioned on a continuum based on three variables, purpose, intensity,

637
00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:17.559
and immersiveness. Can you speak to a little bit about

638
00:33:17.559 --> 00:33:18.559
what that means?

639
00:33:19.559 --> 00:33:21.920
Well, I mean, I think one of the things that

640
00:33:22.039 --> 00:33:25.000
my colleague Steph Locke always says is we're not aiming

641
00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:28.160
for random acts of work based learning, which is what

642
00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:30.119
my son essentially did when he did, you know, a

643
00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:33.480
couple of hours job shadowing to find out, you know,

644
00:33:33.519 --> 00:33:37.240
how aerospace engineering really worked. And I think when we

645
00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:39.920
talk about work based learning in the context of the

646
00:33:39.960 --> 00:33:43.400
pergems that GPS Education Partners offers, we are talking about

647
00:33:43.480 --> 00:33:46.559
high quality work based learning. So there's a method to

648
00:33:46.599 --> 00:33:51.400
the madness. That's the purpose where we know why we're

649
00:33:51.400 --> 00:33:55.440
doing this, why are we interested in this particular opportunity,

650
00:33:55.720 --> 00:33:57.599
what are we hoping to learn from it? So we

651
00:33:57.640 --> 00:34:02.960
have really concrete goals, and how is the opportunity going

652
00:34:02.960 --> 00:34:05.000
to be structured? So are you going to go there

653
00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:07.319
three days a week? How is it going to fit

654
00:34:07.400 --> 00:34:09.960
into your school day, how long is it going to

655
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:13.639
go for, what are your specific responsibilities going to be.

656
00:34:13.800 --> 00:34:18.960
So you've really bound it around fairly tight parameters so

657
00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:21.360
that when you go and do the experience, you know

658
00:34:21.599 --> 00:34:23.880
pretty much exactly what you're going to be doing and

659
00:34:23.920 --> 00:34:26.519
what you're going to get out of it. And then

660
00:34:26.639 --> 00:34:30.639
immersiveness is my personal favorite in the sense that I

661
00:34:30.679 --> 00:34:33.639
think just being on site, for example, on a shop

662
00:34:33.679 --> 00:34:37.840
floor in office and seeing day in and day out

663
00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:41.159
what people do to get work done. What does the

664
00:34:41.480 --> 00:34:44.760
process look like, what are the workflows, what are the

665
00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:50.079
technologies that are coming into for example, a manufacturing environment.

666
00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:53.920
Nobody has familiarity with a lot of these robotics technologies.

667
00:34:54.119 --> 00:34:56.679
But if you're a young person who's literally there when

668
00:34:56.719 --> 00:34:59.320
the technology is being brought in, you learn to do

669
00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:05.360
your job in service of that technology or leveraging that technology,

670
00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:08.440
and then you grow up alongside it as you acquire

671
00:35:08.440 --> 00:35:11.199
more skills, then you learn the next stage of dealing

672
00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:14.880
with that technology. And so I think immersiveness really refers

673
00:35:14.920 --> 00:35:17.400
to the fact that you have the opportunity to be

674
00:35:17.480 --> 00:35:21.920
up there, up close and understanding exactly what's going on

675
00:35:22.159 --> 00:35:25.239
and what the business is going to need and you're

676
00:35:25.320 --> 00:35:28.239
actively contributing to a solution as opposed to just being

677
00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:32.119
an observer, which a lot of programs that are geared

678
00:35:32.119 --> 00:35:35.440
toward young people, we allow them to look at what

679
00:35:35.480 --> 00:35:38.360
we're doing, but they don't actively participate. And I think

680
00:35:38.400 --> 00:35:41.559
high quality work based learning one of the very important

681
00:35:42.119 --> 00:35:45.880
things that it does is it allows young people to

682
00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:47.800
be in it to an extent that they really do

683
00:35:48.039 --> 00:35:50.480
understand what it would be like to have an entry

684
00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:51.800
level role in this field.

685
00:35:52.679 --> 00:35:55.480
Awesome, awesome help. So I think our listeners can view

686
00:35:55.519 --> 00:35:57.079
short to get their head around how can we make

687
00:35:57.079 --> 00:36:00.400
this work for our organization and then building on that.

688
00:36:00.599 --> 00:36:02.559
You also see in a book that high quality work

689
00:36:02.559 --> 00:36:07.400
based learning programs focus on what you call the four a's, authenticity, aspiration, ability,

690
00:36:07.440 --> 00:36:09.639
and agency. If you can speak a bit to those.

691
00:36:10.360 --> 00:36:13.079
Yeah, I mean this is another way that we define

692
00:36:13.119 --> 00:36:16.480
high quality work based learning, and authenticity is really it's

693
00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:18.599
something the student wants to do, the employer wants to

694
00:36:18.639 --> 00:36:21.960
have the students, So it's an authentic learning experience from

695
00:36:21.960 --> 00:36:25.840
the perspective of everyone is doing this for a specific purpose,

696
00:36:26.320 --> 00:36:29.960
and we hope to be true to ourselves in that purpose.

697
00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:36.239
Agility really just encourages students to try different things and

698
00:36:36.280 --> 00:36:39.840
to understand that what they pick might not be the

699
00:36:39.840 --> 00:36:42.840
be all, end all of career satisfaction, but that it's

700
00:36:42.880 --> 00:36:45.840
important because it allows them to learn those durable skills

701
00:36:46.119 --> 00:36:48.559
that will make it easier for them to work in general,

702
00:36:48.639 --> 00:36:52.039
in the purpose, in the future business world, or in

703
00:36:52.079 --> 00:36:58.599
a manufacturing setting, whatever they would choose. Aspiration helps them

704
00:36:58.639 --> 00:37:02.679
decide what their next steps are. And a lot of times,

705
00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:05.000
as I was saying a few minutes ago, if you

706
00:37:05.199 --> 00:37:07.880
have not tried things, you don't know what you don't

707
00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:11.159
like or what you do like. So it's very important

708
00:37:11.199 --> 00:37:14.280
to give young people the process of trying different things

709
00:37:14.760 --> 00:37:17.639
and understanding that at the end the day, they do

710
00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:20.039
want to earn a living wage and they want to

711
00:37:20.039 --> 00:37:22.800
have a career that they feel at least a little bit.

712
00:37:22.679 --> 00:37:23.320
Of passion for.

713
00:37:23.480 --> 00:37:25.840
So that that's the aspiration. And I missed one. Let's see,

714
00:37:25.880 --> 00:37:30.039
I did agency agency. Agency. Yeah, So I mean agency

715
00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:32.360
just fits really well with the other ones in the

716
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:34.800
sense of the students in charge of their own destiny.

717
00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:37.519
It gives them the opportunity to say this is for

718
00:37:37.559 --> 00:37:40.159
me or this is not for me, and we don't

719
00:37:40.199 --> 00:37:42.280
just tell them, Okay, there's one path to a four

720
00:37:42.360 --> 00:37:44.960
year university and you better take it or else we

721
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:47.000
are saying, you know, maybe that is for you, and

722
00:37:47.039 --> 00:37:49.519
maybe that isn't. But here are a whole bunch of options.

723
00:37:49.880 --> 00:37:53.039
You have the agency to decide what happens next, and

724
00:37:53.119 --> 00:37:55.480
you have the ability to make the most of this

725
00:37:55.599 --> 00:37:58.960
opportunity so that it gives you as much knowledge and

726
00:37:59.159 --> 00:38:01.800
background skill as possible moving forward.

727
00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:05.400
I love it. I absolutely love it. Okay, now let's

728
00:38:05.400 --> 00:38:07.679
celebrate another case study that you have in your book here.

729
00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:09.400
There were so many to choose from, but I really

730
00:38:09.480 --> 00:38:13.360
appreciated the Johnson Controls one that you that you situated

731
00:38:13.400 --> 00:38:16.760
that all about giving back while also combat to the

732
00:38:16.920 --> 00:38:20.480
HVAC labor shortage and at the same time being able

733
00:38:20.519 --> 00:38:24.519
to gain recruiting competitive advantage by cultivating that youth. That

734
00:38:24.639 --> 00:38:25.679
was just so smart to me.

735
00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:28.320
It's so smart to me too, at least, and I

736
00:38:28.360 --> 00:38:31.559
don't understand again, this goes back to the very beginning.

737
00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:33.920
Why to me, this is a no brainer. Why would

738
00:38:33.960 --> 00:38:37.639
you not take this low hanging fruit when you're having

739
00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:41.599
such trouble staffing your positions? And I think it really

740
00:38:41.599 --> 00:38:44.239
comes down to the pain hasn't gotten great enough yet.

741
00:38:44.800 --> 00:38:47.360
Assure as I look at demographic trends quite a bit,

742
00:38:47.920 --> 00:38:50.679
and what we see is that pretty much globally, there's

743
00:38:50.679 --> 00:38:53.480
a few countries where this is an exception, but globally

744
00:38:53.519 --> 00:38:56.159
we are losing population. There are not going to be

745
00:38:56.280 --> 00:38:59.360
enough young people available to work the jobs that we

746
00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:03.239
currently have, and there's a lot of discussion around AI

747
00:39:03.519 --> 00:39:06.320
might replace people in certain jobs. To date, that has

748
00:39:06.360 --> 00:39:10.280
not happened, but the projected labor shortage is still happening.

749
00:39:10.760 --> 00:39:13.559
So we need a solution that is not just well,

750
00:39:13.639 --> 00:39:15.559
we can expect that we won't need as many people

751
00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:18.679
because AI will take over everything that's not good enough.

752
00:39:18.719 --> 00:39:22.199
And so organizations that are saying, look, I've got a

753
00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:25.079
perfectly healthy pipeline of young people right here in my

754
00:39:25.159 --> 00:39:28.239
community who I can put to work and train them

755
00:39:28.280 --> 00:39:30.559
to go into these roles, and then I can stop

756
00:39:30.599 --> 00:39:33.320
worrying so much about the sources. Where am I going

757
00:39:33.360 --> 00:39:35.559
to get these people? How am I going to compete

758
00:39:35.840 --> 00:39:39.679
with big companies that have massive brand names in a space?

759
00:39:39.719 --> 00:39:41.599
I mean, that's something a lot of small to medium

760
00:39:41.679 --> 00:39:44.719
companies deal with. It's like, you don't have to do that,

761
00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:49.119
you can provide the experience that gets a student to

762
00:39:49.320 --> 00:39:53.199
your organization first, and if they're not working for your

763
00:39:53.280 --> 00:39:55.440
organization in the long run, maybe one of their relatives

764
00:39:55.519 --> 00:39:58.719
or friends is. It really does build that presence of

765
00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:02.679
an organization within the community that in an ideal world,

766
00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:03.519
it wants to stay in.

767
00:40:05.559 --> 00:40:08.920
So I want to finish really with the idea here

768
00:40:09.119 --> 00:40:11.320
you say it in the very last page of your book.

769
00:40:11.320 --> 00:40:13.519
Really is your ultimate goal and sharing the ideas in

770
00:40:13.559 --> 00:40:16.280
the book is to catalyze systemic change and how America

771
00:40:16.440 --> 00:40:19.599
prepares its young people for success. Boy, you know, talk

772
00:40:19.599 --> 00:40:21.800
about doing something with your one precious life. I think

773
00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:23.960
that's so fantastic. So if you could see a little

774
00:40:23.960 --> 00:40:26.119
bit more about just the whole spirit of why you

775
00:40:26.159 --> 00:40:28.239
wrote the book and what it is that you're trying

776
00:40:28.239 --> 00:40:29.880
to accomplish it with it.

777
00:40:30.320 --> 00:40:32.679
Well, I was so delighted when I met the folks

778
00:40:32.679 --> 00:40:35.519
at GPS, said, because I have been looking for a

779
00:40:35.519 --> 00:40:37.800
solution to this for the last twenty years, in the

780
00:40:37.840 --> 00:40:40.159
sense of I talk with companies all the time. They're

781
00:40:40.199 --> 00:40:43.559
thinking of moving out of their area, their state, or

782
00:40:43.599 --> 00:40:46.239
their community because they can't get enough people. And then

783
00:40:46.400 --> 00:40:51.119
we see this early entry level hiring crisis happening where

784
00:40:51.480 --> 00:40:55.119
there are more young people, more college grads out of

785
00:40:55.679 --> 00:40:58.800
the workforce than there have been in recent memory. And

786
00:40:58.880 --> 00:41:00.679
so we've got a lot of people look and for work,

787
00:41:00.719 --> 00:41:02.639
and we've got a lot of jobs. How do we

788
00:41:02.719 --> 00:41:05.280
match the two of And there are technology solutions to this,

789
00:41:05.880 --> 00:41:09.679
but I really like the education angle to it because

790
00:41:09.719 --> 00:41:12.880
I think we do spend a lot of education formal education,

791
00:41:13.079 --> 00:41:16.400
teaching people things they don't necessarily need to know, whereas

792
00:41:16.440 --> 00:41:19.559
this I think uses the time and the energy and

793
00:41:19.599 --> 00:41:23.440
the funds more productively. And so while it's a big

794
00:41:23.480 --> 00:41:27.280
mission to change our education system systemically, you have to

795
00:41:27.280 --> 00:41:30.800
start somewhere. And I'm hopeful that as a result of

796
00:41:30.800 --> 00:41:33.480
this book and all of the wonderful work that gps

797
00:41:33.679 --> 00:41:37.039
ED is able to expand nationally and before we know it,

798
00:41:37.079 --> 00:41:39.639
you can access work based learning wherever in the country

799
00:41:39.679 --> 00:41:40.079
you might be.

800
00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:43.400
I love that. I love that mission. It's so exciting.

801
00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:46.360
And that's the other thing is, of course, people want

802
00:41:46.400 --> 00:41:48.239
to be part of something that they can feel great about.

803
00:41:48.320 --> 00:41:50.719
They feel extended by being part of that. So it's

804
00:41:50.760 --> 00:41:52.480
just such a great thing. I think we'll turn on

805
00:41:52.519 --> 00:41:55.800
a lot of listeners and viewers toward that end. So

806
00:41:56.000 --> 00:41:58.119
in closing here, Alexander, I think you know that this

807
00:41:58.159 --> 00:42:00.119
show is listened to why people around the world, and

808
00:42:00.159 --> 00:42:02.199
they tune in for various reasons, but in part their

809
00:42:02.280 --> 00:42:05.239
tuning in because they want to become a better leader.

810
00:42:05.480 --> 00:42:08.840
They want to help create workplaces where people thrive, and

811
00:42:08.880 --> 00:42:11.559
they want to be able to create a space where

812
00:42:11.960 --> 00:42:14.280
everybody can learn and contribute. What would you like to

813
00:42:14.360 --> 00:42:14.800
leave them with.

814
00:42:15.800 --> 00:42:18.199
I would like to leave them with the idea that

815
00:42:18.239 --> 00:42:22.920
this is possible. Work. It takes creativity, it takes tenaciousness,

816
00:42:23.360 --> 00:42:26.679
but anyone in any part of the process, whether you're

817
00:42:26.679 --> 00:42:29.679
an educator, whether you're a public policy person, or whether

818
00:42:29.679 --> 00:42:33.840
you're an HR person or an employer, you can start

819
00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:37.079
with a pilot that is relatively simple to accomplish and

820
00:42:37.119 --> 00:42:39.639
grow it over time. This is work that is accessible

821
00:42:39.920 --> 00:42:42.840
to everyone, and yes, throughout the globe, there are some

822
00:42:43.480 --> 00:42:45.599
areas of the world, Europe being one of them, that

823
00:42:45.639 --> 00:42:49.599
are better at this work based learning thing than others,

824
00:42:49.719 --> 00:42:52.840
and so learning from those around us who have done

825
00:42:52.920 --> 00:42:56.599
things successfully and figuring out how we can adapt those

826
00:42:56.679 --> 00:42:59.800
successes to our own requirements and our own populations.

827
00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:03.840
I am just alighted to hear this, and I really think,

828
00:43:03.920 --> 00:43:05.760
you know, I don't I don't want to have us

829
00:43:05.760 --> 00:43:08.840
should in here, but I really do think that organizations,

830
00:43:08.880 --> 00:43:11.360
you know, we we rely on them. They are we

831
00:43:11.440 --> 00:43:13.599
they we We will help power their mission and in

832
00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:16.679
return we need a livelihood. And there's that partnership I

833
00:43:16.679 --> 00:43:19.519
think is really really beautiful. And I hope we've enticed

834
00:43:19.519 --> 00:43:22.360
at least a few listeners and viewers viewers to come

835
00:43:22.360 --> 00:43:23.599
and join us for this ride.

836
00:43:23.880 --> 00:43:24.559
I hope so too.

837
00:43:24.599 --> 00:43:27.760
Thanks Elise, I'm so grateful to admit to Alexandra to

838
00:43:27.880 --> 00:43:29.440
have read your book, to be inspired by it, and

839
00:43:29.480 --> 00:43:31.079
to share with listeners around the world. Thank you for

840
00:43:31.119 --> 00:43:34.639
being on working on purpose and my pleasure. Listeners and

841
00:43:34.679 --> 00:43:36.159
viewers you're going to you want to learn more about

842
00:43:36.159 --> 00:43:39.159
Alexandra Levitt, the work she does as a futurists consultant

843
00:43:39.159 --> 00:43:41.559
at Inspiration at Work, and her books, which include Make

844
00:43:41.599 --> 00:43:43.719
School Work A couple of places you can go. You

845
00:43:43.719 --> 00:43:46.719
can start on her personal site, which is Alexandra Levitt

846
00:43:46.719 --> 00:43:49.159
dot com. Let me spell that for you. So Alexandra

847
00:43:49.559 --> 00:43:51.880
A L e X A N D R A and

848
00:43:51.920 --> 00:43:54.280
her last name Levitt as just one T L E

849
00:43:54.360 --> 00:43:57.400
V I T Alexandra Levitt dot com. You can also

850
00:43:57.519 --> 00:44:01.320
go to Make school Work to learn more about the

851
00:44:01.320 --> 00:44:05.159
book itself Make Schoolwork dot org. Last week, if you

852
00:44:05.159 --> 00:44:06.719
missed the live show, you can always catch it be

853
00:44:06.760 --> 00:44:10.159
your Reported podcast. We were on the air with Ryan Godfredson,

854
00:44:10.239 --> 00:44:14.000
the author of Becoming Better, the groundbreaking Science of Personal Transformation.

855
00:44:14.360 --> 00:44:17.679
We talked about the difference between horizontal development and vertical

856
00:44:17.679 --> 00:44:20.880
development in leadership development. We dove into the being and

857
00:44:20.960 --> 00:44:23.920
doing sides of ourselves and then talked about some ways

858
00:44:23.920 --> 00:44:26.480
people can immediately start the process of vertically developing on

859
00:44:26.519 --> 00:44:28.760
their own. Next week, we will be on the air

860
00:44:28.800 --> 00:44:31.599
with Mary Bair talking about her playful and incredibly jam

861
00:44:31.599 --> 00:44:35.599
packed resource Treasure drow book called Squash the Sunday Scaries,

862
00:44:35.920 --> 00:44:39.079
a modern playbook to rebuild trust, transform culture, and ate

863
00:44:39.199 --> 00:44:42.079
nite your workplace. See you. Then, let's continue leaning into

864
00:44:42.119 --> 00:44:44.599
discovering how to elevate your operating system as a leader

865
00:44:44.760 --> 00:44:48.719
and create destination workplaces where legendary business takes place. Let's

866
00:44:48.800 --> 00:44:49.519
work on Purpose.

867
00:44:52.920 --> 00:44:55.559
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to

868
00:44:55.599 --> 00:44:58.639
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise

869
00:44:58.719 --> 00:45:02.679
Cortes each week on four cy. Together, we'll create a

870
00:45:02.719 --> 00:45:07.320
world where business operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires and passion performance

871
00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:10.159
and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning

872
00:45:10.239 --> 00:45:14.039
and purpose they crave. See you there. Let's work on purpose.