Episode #13: Is it time to “knit together the workforce system crazy quilt of data so we can really use it to drive performance?” Dr. Joshua Hawley (The Ohio State University) thinks so.
Release Date: 02/25/2020
Episode #26: "Our data is a reflection of our moral values.” JFFLabs’ Josh Copus and Eshwar Eswaran on the organization’s new Outcomes for Opportunity initiative (O4O).
Making Better Work
This week host Kristin Wolff explores O4O—an exciting effort within the ecosystem of program stakeholders, data and performance experts, and civic tech champions trying gain more value from the vast amount of data the workforce system collects. This JFFLabs’ initiative focuses on creating value at the local level. It has engaged seven workforce boards in a cooperative effort to use their collective data more effectively and share insights more widely—through analytics on the one hand, and user-generates data stories on the other. It’s an exciting vision that complements and enriches...
info_outline
Episode #25: "We need to link how we track education and training in the classroom with what is occurring at work." SPR Senior Strategist Vinz Koller on opportunities in apprenticeship.
Making Better Work
It's Apprenticeship Week! #NAW2021 In honor of the occasion we're speaking with Vinz Koller about apprenticeship, data, equity and a vision for the future. Vinz leads the organization’s apprenticeship portfolio. Resources cited: Leveraging Workforce Data Systems to Improve Programs: The Case of Apprenticeship (A WDQI Resource Brief, 2021): How Apprenticeships for Opportunity Youth Stay Resilient (SPR & JFF): JFF’s Center for Apprenticeship & Work-based Learning: New America’s Center on Education & Labor: Vinz! For more information: Sign up for the #MakingBetterWork...
info_outline
Episode #24: “How does tech … innovate alongside government?” Bitwise Industries’ Michelle Skoor shares insights.
Making Better Work
Michelle is Bitwise’s Chief Workforce Officer and served as Director and launch architect of the organization’s Onward platform, first developed in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Michelle helps catch us up on Bitwise’s growth—especially in apprenticeship—and shares important lessons about data and how it can be quickly deployed to help workforce agencies design programs (ongoing!) that get workers back on their feet quickly and with confidence. We’re really excited about this one! Have a listen! Resources: Bitwise Industries: The Onward platform: Digital New...
info_outline
Episode #23: Dr. Annelies Goger says we need “a data framework that mirrors a living system” — and can evolve with need.
Making Better Work
In this episode, Dr. Annelies Goger, Rubenstein Fellow at Brookings, shares her insights about workforce policy and programs and identifies practical steps we can take to improve them through better data and modern data systems. Annelies offers a rare perspective on workforce data. As a researcher with SPR, she evaluated programs and made policy recommendations to improve economic opportunities for people and communities. Poor, outdated, or hard-to-access data was a problem she experienced first- hand. While at Brookings, she has engaged dozens of researchers and practitioners—as well as...
info_outline![Episode #22: “Setting up data systems for the next crisis – [that’s the] work now.” Checking in with New Jersey’s Dr. Sean Simone. show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/item/19761935?height=50&width=50)
Episode #22: “Setting up data systems for the next crisis – [that’s the] work now.” Checking in with New Jersey’s Dr. Sean Simone.
Making Better Work
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Sean Simone, Director of Research and Evaluation at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development (Rutgers University) in New Jersey. We cover traditional workforce data topics – like NJ’s evolving training provider data systems (ETPL) – and what it means to build for the future. Sean understands the power of data to inform good strategy and practice, improve NJ residents lives and livelihoods, and rectify past injustices—and he’s doing everything in his power to bring these elements to the design and implementation of data systems, strategies,...
info_outline
Episode #21: The Promise of Cloud Technology meets the Urgency of Now: Making the Most of the Pandemic, with Dr. Julia Lane
Making Better Work
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Julia Lane, cofounder of the Coleridge Initiative—a program that aims to transform the way governments access and use data for social good. It’s a wide-ranging discussion covering major themes in Julia’s new book, Democratizing Our Data: A Manifesto, new public data demands sparked by the COVID crisis, as well as strategies for meeting urgent needs in the short term while building better systems infrastructure over time. Julie sees both critical urgency and limitless potential for using data more effectively to inform public policy, program designs, and...
info_outline
Episode #20: "Cloud computing has democratized data….COVID has accelerated demand for it.”
Making Better Work
This episode is jaw-dropping. Spanning massive changes in data to the thriller-style story Rhode Island’s successful Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program launch in under 10 days, Dr. Justine Hastings shares a wealth of insights, lessons, and possibilities from her experience working with states to reimagine their data systems and applications. Justine* is the founding director at Research Improving People’s Lives or RIPL, a new kind of Data Science and Research Lab based in Rhode Island that works with public and social sector leaders from across the country to use...
info_outline
Episode #19: COVID Chaos, Data & Silver Linings: No More Saying “We Can’t” Because We Just Demonstrated “We Can.”
Making Better Work
In this episode, we turn the tables. Producer Doug Foresta interviews Kristin Wolff about the impact of COVID-19 on WDQI and partner data projects. The two barely take a breath in this impromptu chat about the crises and opportunities the pandemic has made evident, and the vastly expanded stakeholder networks and partner ecosystems engaged in solutions work.
info_outline
Episode #18: Colorado’s Data Journey: “We’re building value for the future into our systems now.”
Making Better Work
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Mark Duey and Kevan Fish, project leads for Colorado’s Workforce Data Quality Initiative with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
info_outline
Episode #17: California’s Building System to Help More Californians Benefit from the State’s Treasure Trove of Workforce Data
Making Better Work
In this episode, our host Kristin Wolff talks with Patrick Getz, project lead for California’s Workforce Data Quality Initiative, with the California Workforce Development Board.
info_outlineDr. Josh Hawley is a workforce data guru. An Associate Professor in the Glenn College and an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University, Dr. Hawley also leads the Ohio Education Research Center, a collaboration of six Ohio universities and four research organizations aimed at bridging research, policy and practice around education in the State of Ohio, pre-school through workforce. He also serves as faculty for Coleridge Initiative (New York University) administrative data training programs and as a formal subject matter expert for the Workforce Data Quality Initiative and informal advisor to states all over the country seeking to improve the way they manage and use education and workforce data.
In this podcast, Kristin Wolff (our host) talks with Dr. Hawley about what he’s learned in over a decade of work in this area, what opportunities he sees, and how he’s put the data he works with to use in his own research on education and workforce policy and programs, including apprenticeship.
Enjoy! (And, by all means, share and comment!)
For more information: · Dr. Josh Hawley, Ohio State University: http://glenn.osu.edu/faculty/glenn-faculty/hawley/ · Dr. Hawley explains workforce development (video): https://www.flatlandkc.org/news-issues/education/making-case/ · Coleridge Initiative: https://coleridgeinitiative.org · Ohio Analytics: http://www.ohioanalytics.gov/index.stm · Workforce Success Measures: https://workforcesuccess.chrr.ohio-state.edu/about · Apprenticeship: https://workforcesuccess.chrr.ohio-state.edu/reports?location=99999&program=app&subprogram=all&provider=n · Also: https://fordhaminstitute.org/ohio/commentary/making-good-apprenticeship-promise-will-require-major-investment-states
Social: · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-h-bbaa6b1/
· Twitter: @HawleyJosh
Sign up for the #MakingBetterWork monthly newsletter – your source for all things #data & #FutureofWork:
_______
Disclaimer:
This podcast was produced by Social Policy Research and Workforce 180 with support from the US Department of Labor. The views expressed are those of the speakers and should not be attributed to the US Department of Labor or other public agencies (state, federal, or local). Mentions of trade names, commercial products or organizations does not imply endorsement of same by the US Government or representatives.