Fall 2024 Convening: Day 2

Day 2: Friday, October 11, 2024

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.    
Networking Breakfast and Registration Opens

9:00 a.m. - 9:10 a.m.    
Welcoming Remarks
Dr. Ralf Heckner, Swiss Ambassador to the United States of America 

Signaling Skills: Considerations for Higher Education and Business Leaders 

With increased focus on skills-based hiring, exposing and signaling both credentials and skills is important and requires shifts. Leaders from industry, higher education and enabling tech providers will dig into what the current state of skills-based learning, hiring, and development really looks like, how HR systems and approaches are evolving, and what this means for aligned approaches across higher education and industry for better skills signaling. 

Speakers:
•    Jae Lynn Akin, HR&D Executive - Talent Management, State Farm
•    Kennon Harrison, Workforce Lead, ETS
•    Sania Khan, Vice President of Innovation, Ellucian

10:25 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.    
Break

10:40 a.m. - 11:20 a.m.    
Preparing the AI Workforce of the Future: Taking Action

Our members have been at the forefront of developing the approaches to prepare, upskill, and reskill the workforce of the future. This session will focus on sharing new insights on how AI is reshaping the workforce of the future and focus on advancing shared BHEF initiatives around preparing the AI workforce of the future. 

Moderator:

Jeff Armstrong, President, Cal Poly

Speakers:

•    Antonio Delgado, Vice President of Innovation and Technology Partnerships, Miami Dade College 
•    Ryan Oakes, Senior Managing Director, Accenture

11:20 a.m. - Noon    
Roundtable Discussions

These roundtable discussionss enable our members to address emerging issues in small groups will address the below topics.  Contact kristen.fox@bhef.com to submit additional topics.

Green Skills & Clean Energy Jobs
With more than $1.5B in federal funding being infused into clean tech, clean energy, and “green” jobs, the demand for “green” skills represents a unique opportunity to leverage a record wave of resources in ways that meaningfully close talent gaps and provide economic mobility and good jobs to learners. However, the ambiguity in defining “green” skills and jobs creates challenges in how businesses and higher education institutions create alignment in the career and credential pathways needed for talent from GED to PhD. This roundtable will cover best practices in defining clean energy jobs and “green” skills, highlight a selection of innovative projects and collaborations, and culminate in a draft action plan to guide to future initiatives for BHEF’s network. 

Facilitators: 
•    Frank Avery, Managing Director, BHEF
•    Missy Henriksen, Executive Director, Center for Energy Workforce Development

Embedding Industry Credentials
Acquiring industry-recognized credentials can improve a student's employability and post-graduation success. They also offer students entry-points to institutions that offer them or provide credit for attaining them. Simultaneously, businesses seek industry credentials as a signal of job readiness and continue to develop them for internal and external jobseekers. This session explores the latest trends in leveraging industry credentials in student preparation and talent recruitment, including financial models and benefits and strategic partnerships. 

Speakers: 
•    Rob Magliaro, Workforce Partnerships Lead, Grow with Google
•    Janelle Simmonds, Global Academic Enablement Lead, Siemens

Noon – 1:00 p.m.    
Lunch and Closing Panel: Charting a Bold Path Forward for Higher-Education Business Partnership

Targeted place-based federal investments such as NSF Engines, Tech Hubs, and CHIPS are driving regional economic growth in sectors critical to US competitiveness and strengthening national security. Through these and innovative state initiatives, BHEF members and partners are leading ground-breaking work to advance high-impact partnership models in their states and regions. In this session, we’ll share the key components to launching these partnerships and harnessing federal and state investments, successes and lessons learned from regional collaborations, and how our members can play a pivotal role in driving economic and talent development and advancing opportunity in their communities.

Moderated by: Jennifer Thornton, Chief Programs Officer, Business-Higher Education Forum

Speakers:
•    Terrence Cheng, Chancellor, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities
•    Shannon Gilkey, Commissioner, Rhode Island Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner
•    Amanda Kosty, U.S. Economic Development Administration
•    Justin Yancy, President, Texas Business Leadership Council

1:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.    
Next Steps and Adjournment
Speaker: Kristen Fox, CEO, Business-Higher Education Forum