Collaborative Research: EPIIC: Generating Regional Innovative Partnerships (GRIP)

该合作项目旨在通过增加能力和基础设施，扩大两年制高等教育机构在新兴技术项目中的参与，以发展和维持以下机构的强大地区合作伙伴关系：威廉·雷尼·哈珀学院(William Rainey Harper College)、常春藤理工社区学院(IN)、密西西比湾沿岸社区学院(MS)、沃什本大学理工学院(KS)和威斯康星州立大学理工学院(KS)。在为期三年的时间里，该项目将为每个机构的新能力的开发、实施和评估提供资金，以便有意义地参与跨部门伙伴关系，以推动劳动力发展的努力。合作机构(队列)将通过实施商业和工业领导团队(BILT)咨询委员会模式，以其机构以前从未做过的方式吸引雇主。这种模式与大学目前使用的传统咨询委员会有很大不同，这些委员会通常每年开会两次，缺乏雇主的参与，也不考虑未来的劳动力市场需求。在BILT中，地区性雇主扮演着共同领导的角色，并与教师合作，通过分享未来12至36个月劳动力所需的知识和技能来开发和更新课程内容。这种更深层次的参与度将显著影响学术课程的质量和相关性，并将使学生为就业做好更好的准备。与地区商界领袖建立关系将确保课堂内容与时俱进，并为学生实习、学徒、导师和客座演讲者创造机会。各机构将利用可公开获得的BILT资源和一名BILT顾问来实施BILT进程，以针对特定于区域的行业伙伴关系。学院将分享经验教训、最佳实践、个人机构计划的进展，以及实施全校改革障碍的解决方案。该项目的总体目标是建设机构能力，以发展劳动力发展项目的外部合作伙伴关系，使其更好地响应地区劳动力需求。目标包括制定、实施和评估特定于机构的、可复制、可扩展的计划，以将当前的传统咨询委员会流程转变为BILT模式，以便与行业合作伙伴建立有意义的接触，并确定侧重于确保BILT团队中代表性不足的个人和企业的招聘和外联战略。机构的活动因机构而异；然而，共同的活动包括为至少一个学术项目实施BILT咨询委员会模式，使用公开的BILT资源和一名BILT顾问针对特定的区域行业和雇主，以及制定和实施机构特定的战略计划，以建设在其各自的区域创新生态系统内发展和维持区域伙伴关系的能力。协作活动包括为在社区和技术学院实施BILT创建一个可复制和可扩展的框架；就BILT对学生、项目和区域经济的价值对教职员工和雇主进行教育；建立虚拟月度会议时间表；创建实践社区，以分享最佳做法、个人机构计划的进展、面临的挑战和旨在解决实施机构改革障碍的解决方案；为讨论和文件存储创建一个协作平台；召开由私人投资机构和共同投资机构组成的管理人员工作组，交流群体进展状况，并确保所有交付成果都达到目标；并计划在美国社区学院协会主办的劳动力发展研究所年度会议附近举办一年一度的面对面队列研讨会。第三方评估员将评估该队列项目的结果和影响。该项目的更广泛影响将是通过BILT增加学术界、工业界和其他人之间的合作伙伴关系，这将导致加强和深化雇主的参与，使社区和技术学院能够为区域创新生态系统做出贡献并成为公平的合作伙伴。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The collaborative project aims to broaden the participation of two-year institutions of higher education in emerging technology programs by increasing the capacity and infrastructure to grow and sustain strong regional partnerships at the following institutions: William Rainey Harper College (IL), Ivy Tech Community College (IN), Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (MS), Washburn University Institute of Technology (KS), and WSU Tech (KS). Over its three-year duration, this project will fund the development, implementation, and evaluation of each institution’s new capacity to meaningfully engage in cross-sector partnerships to advance efforts in workforce development. The collaborating institutions (the cohort) will engage employers in ways that have not been done before at their institutions by implementing the Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) advisory council model. This model is substantially different from the traditional advisory committees currently used at the colleges that generally meet twice per year, lack employer involvement, and are not considering future labor market needs. In the BILT, regional employers have co-leadership roles and collaborate with faculty to develop and update course content by sharing the knowledge and skills needed for the workforce 12 to 36 months into the future. This deeper level of engagement will significantly impact the quality and relevancy of academic programs and will make students better prepared for the workforce. Building relationships with regional business leaders will ensure classroom content is current and create opportunities for student internships, apprenticeships, mentorship, and guest speakers. Institutions will implement the BILT process using publicly available BILT resources and a BILT consultant for the regional-specific industry partnerships being targeted. The colleges will share lessons learned, best practices, progress on individual institutional plans, and solutions to barriers to implementing college-wide change.The overall objective of this project is to build institutional capacity to grow external partnerships for workforce development programs to make them more responsive to regional workforce needs. Goals include developing, implementing, and evaluating an institution-specific, replicable, scalable plan to transform the current traditional advisory committee process into the BILT model to create meaningful engagement with industry partners and identifying recruitment and outreach strategies that focus on ensuring representation of underrepresented individuals and businesses on the BILT teams. Institutional activities vary by institution; however, shared activities include implementing the BILT advisory council model for at least one academic program, using publicly available BILT resources and a BILT consultant for targeting specific regional industries and employers, and developing and implementing institution-specific strategic plans to build capacity for growing and sustaining regional partnerships within its respective regional innovation ecosystem. Collaborative activities include creating a framework for implementing BILT at community and technical colleges that is replicable and scalable; educating faculty and employers on the value of the BILT for students, programs, and the regional economy; establishing a schedule of virtual monthly meetings; creating a community of practice to share best practices, progress on individual institutional plans, challenges faced, and solutions designed to address barriers to implementing institutional change; creating a collaboration platform for discussions and document storage; convening an Administrators Working Group comprised of PIs and co-PIs to communicate the status of cohort progress and ensure all deliverables are on target; and planning an annual in-person cohort workshop adjacent to the annual Workforce Development Institute conference hosted by the American Association of Community Colleges. A third-party evaluator will assess the outcomes and impacts of the cohort’s project. The broader impacts of this project will be increasing partnerships between academia, industry, and others through the BILT which will lead to strengthening and deepening employer engagement and enabling community and technical colleges to contribute to and become equitable partners in the regional innovation ecosystem.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.