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

该合作项目旨在通过提高能力和基础设施来扩大两年制高等教育机构对新兴技术项目的参与，以发展和维持以下机构强有力的区域合作关系：威廉·雷尼·哈珀学院（伊利诺伊州）、常春藤科技社区学院（印第安纳州）、密西西比湾海岸社区学院（MS）、沃什伯恩大学理工学院（堪萨斯州）和华盛顿州立大学理工学院（堪萨斯州）。在为期三年的时间内，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，以有意义地参与跨部门伙伴关系，从而推进劳动力发展的努力。合作机构（群体）将通过实施商业和行业领导团队 (BILT) 咨询委员会模式，以以前在其机构中未曾做过的方式吸引雇主。这种模式与目前大学使用的传统咨询委员会有很大不同，后者通常每年举行两次会议，缺乏雇主的参与，并且不考虑未来劳动力市场的需求。在 BILT 中，地区雇主发挥共同领导作用，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将极大地影响学术课程的质量和相关性，并使学生为就业做好更好的准备。与地区商业领袖建立关系将确保课堂内容是最新的，并为学生实习、学徒、指导和客座演讲创造机会。各机构将使用公开的 BILT 资源和针对特定区域行业合作伙伴关系的 BILT 顾问来实施 BILT 流程。各学院将分享经验教训、最佳实践、个别机构计划的进展，以及实施全学院变革的障碍的解决方案。该项目的总体目标是建设机构能力，以发展劳动力发展计划的外部伙伴关系，使它们能够更好地响应区域劳动力需求。目标包括制定、实施和评估针对机构的、可复制的、可扩展的计划，将当前的传统咨询委员会流程转变为 BILT 模式，与行业合作伙伴建立有意义的互动，并确定招聘和外展策略，重点确保 BILT 团队中代表性不足的个人和企业的代表性。机构活动因机构而异；然而，共同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 BILT 顾问来针对特定的区域行业和雇主，以及制定和实施特定机构的战略计划，以建设在各自区域创新生态系统内发展和维持区域伙伴关系的能力。合作活动包括创建一个在社区和技术学院实施可复制和可扩展的 BILT 框架；教育教师和雇主了解 BILT 对学生、项目和地区经济的价值；制定虚拟月度会议时间表；创建实践社区，分享最佳实践、个别机构计划的进展、面临的挑战以及旨在解决实施机构变革障碍的解决方案；创建用于讨论和文档存储的协作平台；召集由 PI 和联合 PI 组成的管理员工作组，以传达队列进展情况并确保所有可交付成果均达到目标；并计划在美国社区学院协会主办的年度劳动力发展研究所会议旁边举办年度面对面队列研讨会。第三方评估员将评估该群体项目的成果和影响。该项目的更广泛影响将是通过 BILT 加强学术界、工业界和其他各方之间的伙伴关系，这将加强和深化雇主参与，并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.