Episode #18: Colorado’s Data Journey: “We’re building value for the future into our systems now.”
Release Date: 08/12/2020
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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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_outlineIn 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.
Mark and Kevan share Colorado’s effort to build data-rich, human-centered systems that respond to the current crisis and provide value “way out into the future.” Focused on creating sophisticated tools for matching people with first jobs, next jobs, and training that makes the best use of their talents and skills, they envision a future that provides more pathways to better work (we love this!) and builds in the flexibility to respond to shocks – like COVID-19.
For more information:
- Sign up for the #MakingBetterWork Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/903537e424bb/mbwnews
- US Department of Labor’s WDQI Effort: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20190722
- Connecting Colorado: https://www.connectingcolorado.com/
- My Colorado Journey: https://www.mycoloradojourney.com/
- Onward Colorado: https://onwardco.org/
Social:
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment on Facebook
Credits:
Produced with support from the US Department of Labor’s WDQI Technical Support Project and (fantastic) Doug Foresta.