CEOs for Cities News

Save the date: National Talent Dividend Meeting is Apr. 7, 2014 in L.A.!

CEOs for Cities Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Stay tuned for more information here!

Register now: CEOs for Cities National Meeting, Sept. 29 - Oct. 1

CEOs for Cities Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The agenda won't be finalized for a few weeks, but if you're planning to attend the 2013 CEOs for Cities National Meeting, Sept. 29 - Oct. 1 in Grand Rapids, MI, you can save the date and register now.

The meeting will be held during ArtPrize, the internationally acclaimed art competition that Time Magazine recently listed in its Five Festive Events You Won't Want to Miss in 2013:

The world's most lucrative art competition isn't in New York City or Hong Kong but in Grand Rapids ... Founded in 2009 by Rick DeVos -- heir to the Amway fortune -- the annual ArtPrize (Sept. 18 to Oct. 6) will distribute some $560,000 to its 2013 winners, chosen by both a professional jury and the votes of the more than 400,000 visitors who will arrive to view the work. The prize money is the largest of its kind in the world, but ArtPrize's real difference isn't cash. It's the event's "unusual and daring ability to completely democratize the process of artistic judgment," says 2011 judge Noit Banai. "Whether one agrees or disagrees with the grand public's choice, the process empowers ordinary people to be the sole judge of value."

Learn more about the National Meeting here. You can also book your hotel room at a discounted rate at the Grand Rapids JW Marriott by calling 877-901-6632 (mention CEOs for Cities) or reserving online.

Webinar: Linking learning to work, May 3

CEOs for Cities / National League of Cities Tuesday, April 30, 2013

CEOs for Cities concludes a six-part webinar series entitled "Strategies for City Success," designed specifically to meet the needs of cities participating in the Talent Dividend Network and Talent Dividend Prize Competition.

The series began in December. Each webinar begins at 2:30 pm EST.

The next webinar, Link Learning to Work: Engage Employers to Develop Career Paths to Support Recruitment, Retention and Readiness, is hosted by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and will focus on the importance of career pathway information for all stakeholders, including employers, educators, counselors, case managers, students, and incumbent workers. Stephanie Steffens, Director of the Colorado Workforce Development Council, will showcase a project sponsored by the Governor of Colorado whereby the public sector, education, employers and workforce investment entities are working together to build a statewide Career Pathways System.

During the session, CAEL will showcase interactive career maps, which are industry career overviews which provide information for all positions (entry to CEO level) including job descriptions and responsibilities, education and experience requirements, standard wage ranges and career progression opportunities. We will examine models for several industries including: Telecommunications, Health Information Management and Solar Energy.

Webinar: Engaging the adult population, April 5

CEOs for Cities / National League of Cities Monday, March 25, 2013

This webinar will provide an overview of Prior Learning Assessment. Prior Learning Assessment is a process by which adults can obtain college level credit for learning that's taken place outside of the college classroom, i.e. work or life experiences.

PLA has many forms that range from standardized testing to individual learning portfolios. CAEL has been a leader in PLA policy development, defining institutional rigor, and providing an independent platform for potential college students to submit learning portfolios for college level credit (LearningCounts.org).

This session will showcase the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, which is working with CAEL to promote PLA to employers across the state as they pursue the Talent Dividend prize, focusing on the importance of PLA in helping adults to amass credits for what they already know, and advancing them towards completion faster and more effectively.

Register for the webinar here, and view the complete series and register for all of the webinars here . (Participants must register for each webinar separately.) We hope you'll join us!

Webinar: Working as a community, Mar. 1

CEOs for Cities / National League of Cities Monday, February 25, 2013

CEOs for Cities continues a six-part webinar series entitled "Strategies for City Success," designed specifically to meet the needs of cities participating in the Talent Dividend Network and Talent Dividend Prize Competition.

The series began in December and will continue on the first Friday of each month through May 2013. Each webinar begins at 2:30 pm EST.

The next webinar, Working as a Community, is on March 1.

The webinar will highlight how economic development and workforce development efforts are not only complimentary, but must be linked in order for communities and their economies to grow. The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) will provide examples of work conducted with our economic analysis partner, Avalanche Consulting, across the country to assess regional skills development assets and align learning opportunities with growing and high-potential industry sectors.

While each community's economy and economic development aspirations are unique, CAEL will share how communities can make the most of their schools, training programs and partnerships to increase job opportunities for its citizens while addressing businesses workforce needs. The session will showcase the JAXUSA Partnership -- Jacksonville and Northeast Florida's regional economic development initiative. JAXUSA is a private, nonprofit division of the JAX Chamber.

Register for the webinar here, and view the complete series and register for all of the webinars here . (Participants must register for each webinar separately.) We hope you'll join us!

Register for the 2013 National Talent Dividend Meeting in Philadelphia, PA

CEOs for Cities Monday, February 25, 2013

CEOs for Cities will hold the 2013 National Talent Dividend Meeting in Philadelphia. The conference will be held at WHYY Public Radio's modern facilities on April 8-9, 2013.

The conference begins the morning of Monday, April 8 with organized neighborhood tours of Philly before official meeting remarks commence at noon at WHYY. In addition to the morning keynote, the first day will include two break out sessions, a networking break, and an evening reception. Day two of the meeting begins at 8 am and includes morning and afternoon keynote presentations, a panel discussion on sustaining and linking national talent initiatives, a talk-back session where participants can engage with speakers, and other exciting presentations. The conference events will conclude at 3 pm on Tuesday, April 9.

Featured speakers include an opening message from US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and a keynote address from Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

Upcoming survey for CEOs for Cities

CEOs for Cities Monday, February 25, 2013

Recently, Lumina Foundation released a new strategic plan for the next several years in order to reach the 2025 goal of 60% higher education attainment in the US.

The core focus of their approach is place-based strategies like the metro strategies for college completion that many of you are working toward building. An executive summary of the plan can be found here. (Link opens in a PDF.)

Lumina will work to establish metropolitan regional partnerships across business and higher education sectors, in collaboration with political leadership, K-12 education, youth-serving organizations, local foundations and funders, college access networks, and faith-based and other community organizations.

HigherEd Insight is conducting a survey as part of an evaluation of Lumina Foundation's Adult College Completion Initiative, which provides funding to CEOs for Cities' Talent Dividend Network. The purpose of the survey is to identify lessons learned about metro/citywide efforts to increase postsecondary completion rates. Your participation in this brief survey will be tremendously valuable to the Foundation in learning about the different metro-based approaches. Please look out for an email with the survey link on February 28.

Follow the #talentdividend Twitter list

The Civic Commons Sunday, February 24, 2013

Where do the leaders, thinkers, and doers Tweet about the Talent Dividend? At the Talent Dividend Twitter list, of course.

Missing from the list? We'll add you! Just email us.

Live chat with Noel Harmon, National Director of the Talent Dividend

CEOs for Cities Monday, January 28, 2013

If you've been following #talentdividend on twitter, you know that every day more and more people become convinced of the economic value of higher ed. So as more people wake up to the potential of the Talent Dividend, what's next for the project and the competition in 2013? What have we learned so far about what works? And what are the most exciting experiments happening around the country?

Join us for a live chat on the Civic Commons with Talent Dividend National Director Noel Harmon on January 29 from 2-3pm EST, moderated by Dan Moulthrop of The Civic Commons.

It's easy to sign up if you haven't already. When you get to the site, look in the top right for a link to "Register for an account." Click on it and then you can either use Facebook or an email address.

Hope to see you there.

Webinar: Municipal leadership for local completion initiatives, Feb. 1

CEOs for Cities / National League of Cities Monday, January 28, 2013

The series began in December and will continue on the first Friday of each month through May 2013. Each webinar begins at 2:30 pm EST.

The next webinar, Municipal Leadership for Local Postsecondary Completion Initiatives, is on February 1 and is hosted by the National League of Cities.

Assessing starting points and gauging progress regarding postsecondary completion goals entails sharing data. School districts, community colleges, and four-year institutions, and city planning departments charged with digesting census data all bring key data to the table. Sources such as the National Student Clearinghouse, to which districts and colleges may belong, also play important roles. Representatives of Dayton, Ohio and one other CLIP site will describe how they've successfully shared data and reflect on data sharing lessons learned.

Register for the webinar here, and view the complete series and register for all of the webinars here. (Participants must register for each webinar separately.) We hope you'll join us!

Webinar: Using data to drive success, part 2

CEOs for Cities / National League of Cities Monday, December 17, 2012

The series began in December and will continue on the first Friday of each month through May 2013. Each webinar begins at 2:30 pm EST.

The next webinar, Using Data to Drive Change for Postsecondary Success, Part II, is on January 4 and is hosted by the National League of Cities.

Assessing starting points and gauging progress regarding postsecondary completion goals entails sharing data. School districts, community colleges, four-year institutions, and city planning departments charged with digesting census data all bring key data to the table. Sources such as the National Student Clearinghouse, to which districts and colleges may belong, also play important roles. Representatives of Dayton, Ohio and one other CLIP site will describe how they've successfully shared data and reflect on data sharing lessons learned.

View the complete series and register for all of the webinars here. (Participants must register for each webinar separately.) We hope you'll join us!

2013 National Talent Dividend Meeting is April 8-9 in Philadelphia

CEOs for Cities Monday, December 17, 2012

Save the date: The 2013 National Talent Dividend Meeting will be held in Philadelphia, PA, April 8-9.

More details coming soon from ceosforcities.org!

Webinar: Using data to drive success

CEOs for Cities / National League of Cities Monday, November 19, 2012

CEOs for Cities is pleased to announce a six-part webinar series entitled "Strategies for City Success," designed specifically to meet the needs of cities participating in the Talent Dividend Network and Talent Dividend Prize Competition. This event, spread over the next six months and generously supported by the Kresge Foundation, The Council on Adult and Experiential Learning, and National League of Cities, will explore strategies around data use, engaging municipal leadership, economic development and workforce, and adult learners with key stakeholders sharing tips on implementing their ideas.

The series will begin the first Friday in December and will continue on the first Friday of each month through May, 2013. Each webinar will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET.

The first webinar, Using Data to Drive Change for Postsecondary Success, Part I, launches on December 7 and is hosted by the National League of Cities.

Building upon the release of attainment and enrollment reports to Talent Dividend cities, representatives of Riverside, California and another city in the Communities Learning in Partnership (CLIP) initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will discuss how they have assembled and built analytical capacity, used data points such as attainment and enrollment to establish baselines, and set citywide goals. Riverside recently joined Louisville, Kentucky among cities establishing public postsecondary success goals in the form of a "report card," available here.

Key reference is here.

View the complete series and register for all of the webinars here. (Participants must register for each webinar separately.) We hope you'll join us!

Connecting education to employers to bridge the skills gap

CEOs for Cities Monday, November 19, 2012

CEOs for Cities spoke with the key players behind two important programs in Chicago that are trying to connect college students to the workforce and encourage them to develop the skills employers need: the College to Careers (C2C) program, spearheaded by Chicago City Colleges, and the Minority Male STEM initiative, a partnership between Chicago City Colleges and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

Writes Tara Sturm:

Addressing the current and future realities of our economic situation is important for those wanting to move into the workforce, as well as the developing needs of employers. The collaborative Minority Men STEM Initiative highlights the growing need for skills rooted in mathematics and the sciences. The initiative gives 20-25 African-American, Latino, or Southeast Asian students the opportunity to receive academic support, paid research experience, and access to a learning environment or "culture of science" that will pave the way for academic success, future job opportunities, and (hopefully) a path to graduate school. The participants in the program would complete an associate's degree at City Colleges, then move on to UIC to finish a Bachelor's degree in the same field. The program encompasses a myriad of different services, but Hyman emphasizes that research shows students having already completed and associate’s program have a higher probability of success in earning a four-year degree.

Read the full story here.

Can you get through a recession with a college degree?

CEOs for Cities / The Hill Monday, October 22, 2012

While closing the gap is important for getting more citizens across America employed, is it a worthwhile investment when our economy has been hit hard and jobs more scarce? It turns out that economic strains are making the need for skilled workers even greater. An article by Jamie Merisotis, president of the Lumia Foundation, published by The Hill demonstrates the importance of educating low-skilled citizens as we ride the tail of the Great Recession.

According to the article, those with just a high school degree lost 230,000 jobs while those with college degrees gained 187,000 jobs during the slow recovery between January 2010 and February 2012. The stats are even more telling for recent graduates. While unemployment rates for new four-year college graduates reached a high at 11.1% in July 2011, they have dropped to 6.8% as of May 2012. For those entering the job market right after high school, their unemployment rate peaked at 30% and was still at 24% in May, by comparison. The difference is even more drastic when manifested in underemployment statistics. While only one in seven recent college grads are underemployed, nearly half of all recent high school graduates are mired in underemployment as they seek out solid footing.

Read the full story and check out an infographic about job losses and gains during the recession here.