PART 1

As promised in the last blog post on entrepreneurs, I have done some research on a relatively new aspect of the world of entrepreneurs: small business incubators. The National Business Incubation Association provides links to member small business incubators by state. Check out those in California.

Just what is an entrepreneurial—or small business—incubator?

I recently spoke with Dr. Gustavo Chamorro (noted as “GC’ in the interview below), the Director of the Digital Media Center (DMC) in Santa Ana and part of the Rancho Santiago Community College District in Orange County, California. The Center offers 40 digital media arts, digital music, TV/Video and business courses leading to an Associates degree or certificate through Santa Ana College. And it provides the home of the DMC’s Business Incubator.  The DMC opened its doors in 2006 and was created to stimulate economic growth in Orange County by attracting emerging businesses to the area and providing educational programs in the areas of technology mentioned above.

Digital Media Center

What is an entrepreneurial incubator, and how is it connected to the community college?

GC:  Most people know community colleges as a place where you get your transfer units or as the place where you get a technical career. They don’t know us for our economic development efforts. In our case, we feel that the community college cannot be just about education. You need to help those students get jobs as well. That’s where we come in. We start with company founders and help them grow to the point where they need to hire people—students and people from our community. We also provide consulting services to these businesses at no charge. We believe that education and economic development—job development—need to work hand in hand to ensure that our students will have jobs in the future.

Is the Digital Media Center part of Santa Ana Community College?

GC:  We’re part of the community college system. Our economic development programs are actually from our District facility. So we’re part of the community college district, and we work with the two local colleges: Santa Ana Community College and Santiago Canyon College.

Is the idea of an incubator something new?

GC:   They have been around for many years. Most are nonprofit, like us. And most are at universities. You don’t see many being operated from a community college.

An entrepreneur is someone with an idea, an idea that solves some kind of problem in the world. And they want to make a difference—as well as make money doing it. But once you have an idea, there are many things you have to consider, like what the competition is, how to fund the operation, and how to pull together a team. Typically this all starts with a business plan or at least with a road map of where you want to go.  When the companies first come to us, they have their road map, but they may be friends working together out of their home. Entrepreneurs like this come to us with an executive summary of where their business wants to go, how they’re going to market it, and how it’s going to make money. What we offer them is office space at a low price—typically $200 a month, the best deal in town—and it includes utilities, Internet access, and a furnished office, ready to move in. But the real value comes from the services we provide:  consultants at no charge. We have a CPA, a CFO, a technology officer, a social media strategist, a marketing strategist, and attorneys if they are drafting a contract or applying for a patent.

And when they are ready, we also connect the companies to investors. A bank is not going to give you money based just on an idea. Eventually you need accredited angel investors, who are typically individuals with disposable funds to invest. And we help make that connection. We have a company that just received over $4 million. We make sure the new companies are ready before we introduce them to funders, as we want to preserve our relationships with investors by only introducing them to companies with a ready-to-sell product or service.

So you have a list of people ready to invest?

GC:  We have people we can introduce the companies to, but it doesn’t always mean they will invest. What we provide is easy access to investors that are not normally easy to contact. And remember, these investors are getting hit from all directions by new companies. So for the new companies, even if they aren’t funded, it is at least a good experience on how to refine their pitch and their vision. They are also validated by our sponsorship; we make the matches and give them a little more credibility.

There’s more to this interview with Dr. Chamorrow. Tune in for PART 2: Getting In, Growing Out.

SAVE THE DATE!

We know that now that we’re well into the throes of the holidays, with Thanksgiving just a couple days away, professional development opportunities in the spring are probably the farthest thing from your mind. But just in case you’re one of those folks who really likes to plan ahead (or in case you want to make, “Plan Ahead for Things” one of your upcoming New Year’s resolutions), we thought we’d give you a heads-up on the following:

UC Curriculum Integration Institutes
April 11-14, 2013
Westin SFO, San Francisco

APPLICATION OPENS DECEMBER 17, 2012 at www.ucop.edu/ucci

Join us at the Spring 2013 UCCI Institutes!

Participants at the spring 2013 Institutes will create courses that integrate:

• Health Science and Medical Technology with Language Other Than English (“e”)
• Arts, Media, and Entertainment with History/Social Science (“a”)

Why attend the Institutes?

The UCCI Institutes offer participants the opportunity to:

• Collaborate with educators from around the state to create model courses that bring real-world relevance to traditional academics.
• Learn new approaches to teaching in their content areas
• Become better-versed in the UC course-approval process

Even more reasons to participate:

All participants earn:

• 2.5 Continuing Education Units through the Education Department of UCLA Extension
• A stipend of $550

Participants’ schools or districts are reimbursed:

• up to $250 to cover sub costs for teachers who attend the Institutes.

UCCI also covers the costs for participants’ registration, meals and accommodations (though not travel) for the entire four-days of the Institute. UCCI encourages schools and/or districts to cover teachers’ travel costs.

The UCCI is an intense but exciting professional development opportunity for secondary school educators. For those of you curious as to what it might be like, we blogged about one here.

We hope you will apply to participate in the Spring 2013 UCCI Institutes, and we invite you to share this information with colleagues who also may want to attend.

In Parts One and Two of our feature series, The Education of the Entrepreneur, we addressed the current debate around whether or not entrepreneurship is a set of skills that can actually be taught, and then some of the major lessons-learned that can be shared with new or budding entrepreneurs.

In this, Part Three of the series, we’ll be focusing on not just whether entrepreneurship can be taught, but how it might best be taught. And to begin, we’ll start by sharing the stories of Scott Landow, who spoke at the Entrepreneurship in Education Conference, “Launch it! Grow it! Move it!” that took place in Fresno, CA earlier this month.

Scott Landow, Cal State San Marcos, and founding partner of Ventures 2.0

Scott Landow, in his session “Teach a Man to Fish,” took our question one step farther: if you can teach entrepreneurial skills, how should the class be structured so that students get the most of out it?

Mr. Landow is a founding partner of a company called Ventures 2.0, which helps businesses in trouble get back on their feet. He has high-end new business experience as a CEO and founding partner of half a dozen companies in the last 20 years. When he was asked to teach an entrepreneurship class at California State University at San Marcos, instead of falling back on classic business class curriculum he took a more experience-based approach, one that made more sense to him.

Most such classes begin with a work plan. But Mr. Landow believes that if you grow your business from a seed to fruition, your work plan will write itself. Not everyone will agree with this, but this compelling approach focuses on learning from hands-on experience. (You can write the work plan based on your experience later—and then use both experiences for your next venture.) Mr. Landow called it “teaching entrepreneurship using local social causes as working models to enable learning with real dollars and affecting the lives of real people.”

“You can’t teach a business idea or concept, “ he contends, “Entrepreneurship is in real time. Students have the vision. They just lack the fundamental skills.” Teachers, he says, are like the bumper rails at the bowling alley: we help students hit the pins. “Start small so they can taste of success. This gives them the confidence to take the next step.”

But Mr. Landow added another goal to the venture: social responsibility. The money the teams raised would go to a charity of their choice. “What if giving back was not an afterthought,” Landow said. “What if is was the core pillar?” This gave the students a whole new dimension to their need to succeed: they were doing this for someone else, and they didn’t want to let them down. You can read about the enterprise in the North County Times.

Mr. Landow’s idea is for student teams in the class to create a lemonade stand as a business. And that is just what they what they did…where it was possible. In one case a lemonade stand already existed (at a street fair) so they had to be creative: they invented “citrus sippers”–fresh fruit with candy straws–instead.

Photo Courtesy of UC San Marcos

In the end, the project grew into something that involved the whole community. A student had a cousin, Ricky, who has a rare disease and needed a bone marrow transplant; he was living at a Ronald McDonald House that was to be the recipient of their team’s profits. Mr. Landow seized on the opportunity and challenged the class to expand the donor pool by enrolling as many CSUSM students as they could in the marrow registry. They created “Ricky’s Army.” Their pitch: “Save a life, while you can.” This was their final assignment in the class. And the response was enormous. They enrolled 2000 Cal State San Marcos students in the bone-marrow registry.  You can read about it here.  And here.

Stay tuned for more on entrepreneurship as we go beyond the classroom.

We will explore the role of the business incubator (like the one in Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Digital Media Center) in helping entrepreneurs get started. And we’ll talk with new successful business owners to better understand what they had to do to get there.

Can entrepreneurship be learned? In Part One (see below) of our series, The Education of the Entrepreneur, we looked at some of the debate surrounding this question and others. The Entrepreneurship in Education Conference, “Launch it! Grow it! Move it!” that took place in Fresno earlier this month provided more perspectives and answers to consider.

There were many fascinating speakers and presentations at the Fresno Conference—from business people to entrepreneurship instructors. To see what you missed, check out the conference agenda.

The keynote speakers included Caroline Cummings and Jason Gallic from Palo Alto Software, Arel Moodie from Empact, Kelly Matthews from the University of Oregon, Scott Gerber, the Young Entrepreneur Council and Fix It America, and remarks by Michael Roessler, State Director of the Business & Entrepreneurship Center and Dr. John Welty, Cal State, Fresno.

Caroline Cummings, Palo Alto Software

Caroline Cummings is a dynamic serial entrepreneur.  She is the vice president of Marketing for Palo Alto Software, which developed the number one selling business planning and management tools, LivePlan—business planning and management tools students and new entrepreneurs will find very useful—as well as Business Plan Pro, and Sales and Marketing Plan Pro. Ms. Cummings co-founded entrepreneurial programs at the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, including Smart-Ups Pub Talks and the Southern Willamette Angel Network. She also helped create entrepreneurial programs in Southern Oregon including the Southern Oregon Angel Investment Network and Angel Conference through a contract with the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network. Since then her most recent venture, RealLead (mobile marketing for the real estate market) sold in early 2012.

Her fearless tales of entrepreneurial failures and successes are an inspiration to students and new entrepreneurs who about to make the leap–and made the rest of us (well, me) feel like slouches. She is at the level now where she can give insider advice on the initial big decisions a new business requires—like choosing the right co-founder or legal team or how to spend your money wisely. Ms. Cummings spoke on the ten reasons most entrepreneurial startups fail. The top reasons (and solutions) are:

• You have assembled the wrong team
  – Reevaluate your people and their skill sets.

• You assembled the wrong legal team
  – Go with your gut when picking lawyers.

• You took dumb money
  – Know your investors before they invest.

• You are stuck on your original idea
  – Be flexible: an idea is a living thing, let it evolve.

• You aren’t paying attention to your customers
  – Ask, listen, implement, reward, and thank!

• Founder-itis
  – Know when to step down when your business outgrows you.

Arel Moodie, Empact

Another speaker at the conference was Arel Moodie. Mr. Moodie was recognized by USA Today as a Top Generation Y Entrepreneur. He is also a well-known and sought-after professional speaker on entrepreneurship and the co-owner of The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, an organization that brings top young entrepreneurs to colleges and universities as well as other organizations to help “spread the entrepreneurial mindset.” He is the author of “Your Starting Point for Student Success,” a book he says helps students “get through college, not just TO college.” His story is compelling—from his youth in a Brooklyn project to beating the odds by going to college, starting his own Internet company, and becoming a professional speaker as well as a bestselling author. He is also a partner with the company Empact, which coordinates entrepreneurship events nationwide.

Mr. Moodie stressed that one of the most important things you can do as an entrepreneurship teacher is get better at promoting your own successes. Put up photos in your classroom of you with celebrities. Add your framed awards. Make connections with local media and be sure your students’ events are covered. And for the love of Pete (Mr. Moodie would say it this way), make your FaceBook page a celebration of your work, your accomplishments, and your successes as well as those of your students.

What Richard Branson’s mom taught him (see Part One), he has parlayed into the Virgin Group of over 400 companies worldwide. He has written a lot on the lessons he’s prepared to teach about entrepreneurship—including his book, Screw It, Let’s Do It. But he does at one point summarize it thus:

To be a successful entrepreneur:

1. Live in the moment: be decisive and keep the momentum going.
2. Have fun and love what you’re doing.
3. Give back: make philanthropy one of your major goals.
4. Never give up, never surrender!

All of these shared stories and lessons are good ones – the advice seems sound. But the question that follows is, if entrepreneurship can be taught, how should it be taught? We’ll cover that in Part Three of this special series, The Education of an Entrepreneur, to catch the perspective of one more speaker from the Entrepreneurship in Education Conference, “Launch it! Grow it! Move it!” and then include the perspectives of some of our colleagues doing this very thing.

Stay tuned for Part Three: When Entrepreneurs Become Teachers

Can Entrepreneurship Be Learned?

When Richard Branson’s mom was asked, Can entrepreneurship be taught? she said, “Yes!” (It all began when she cured her son’s shyness as a child.)

But can students learn entrepreneurial skills in a classroom?

Harvard Business School professor Dr. Noam Wasserman believes you can teach aspiring entrepreneurs informed technical processes to preempt historic start-up mistakes. He says, “We can teach founders to use [data] to avoid common hazards.” His belief is that an entrepreneur can be taught much like an accountant, an engineer, a doctor, or a lawyer.

Peter Drucker—who taught ‘knowledge-based business education’ at Claremont Graduate University—put it this way in his 1985 book, Innovation and Entrepreneurship:“Entrepreneurship is risky mainly because so few of the so-called entrepreneurs know what they are doing.”

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Victor Hwang, on the other hand, feels entrepreneurship can’t be taught. He says start-up life is simply too messy. Real entrepreneurs must have a broad spectrum of personal experiences to deal with the unexpected, unprecedented, and the unquantifiable. He also states, “Leading a start-up also demands a deep understanding of people that can only come from real world experience.” (From Inc.com)

And some believe that entrepreneurs are just born that way.

When we think of entrepreneurs, we think of self-made individuals like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. In the stories of their successful businesses, all they seemed to need was an idea, some like-minded friends, and a garage. And the courage to take the risk.

Alex Lawrence in Forbes Magazine believes there are three kinds of entrepreneurs: small, medium and large. “[For the large,] think Google or Apple and in some smaller examples Toms Shoes or Papa John’s Pizza.  The founders of these companies were born to be entrepreneurs and while they clearly have learned a lot along the way, the things that make them successful are simply traits that cannot be taught.  How does one teach another how to build a search engine that will change the entire planet?  Clearly there is much more than lines of code that matter.  The [large entrepreneur] knows no other way.  They will risk everything and anything, time and again, to make a global impact.  Anything smaller feels like a waste of time to them.  It’s in their DNA.”

Maybe the answer is yes and no.

“Some entrepreneurs may be born while others made, but what is true is that all of them need to develop and hone the skills needed to create and grow a business,” said Douglas K. Mellinger, vice-chairman and co-founder of Foundation Source and a trustee at Cogswell College. “We need to reinvent the way we prepare our students to enter the business world by enabling them to start and run businesses while in school.” According to a survey Cogwell College commissioned, 73 percent of Americans say that the best way to teach a student to become an entrepreneur is to enable them to create businesses or intern.

These questions and many others were addressed at the Entrepreneurship in Education Conference—“Launch it! Grow it! Move it!”—in Fresno last week, an event presented by the Business & Entrepreneurship Center (BEC) Program and hosted by the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (at Fresno State) at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center.  We’ll be sharing some of those answers with you in Part Two of this series on The Education of the Entrepreneur. And we’ll introduce you to several serial entrepreneurs and their stories. Stay tuned!

California Chamber of Commerce calls the bill a ‘job creator’

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed into law a bill that significantly enhances California’s economic growth and global competitiveness by reauthorizing the California Community College’s Workforce and Economic Development program.

Senate Bill 1402 by Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) extends the reach of the Workforce and Economic Development program that has been creating key partnerships between community colleges, businesses and labor. The program was scheduled to expire at the end of the year and the new law resets its sunset provision for Jan. 1, 2018.

More than $22.9 million was appropriated in the 2012-13 state budget for this highly successful and popular program.

“The Workforce and Economic Development program has been a bright spot for years within our system and is a vitally important part of our state’s economic recovery,” said California Community Colleges Acting Chancellor Erik Skinner. “Students and businesses continue to turn to our colleges to connect the training we provide with the good-paying jobs that are out there. A well-educated workforce is key to strong businesses and economic vitality, and our workforce program makes that connection. Had we not made this investment our state would look vastly different in 10 years and not for the better.”

This collaboration leads to advances in curriculum and certificates needed by the workforce. The competitive grants administered by the California Community Colleges Workforce and Economic Development program spark innovation, creating new courses and improving and updating curriculum. This innovative approach provided by community colleges ensures that business workforce needs are served by an agile and responsive program.

“The secret to the success of our program has been bringing our state’s businesses together with the students, instructors and top training we can provide on our campuses,” California Community Colleges Vice Chancellor of Workforce and Economic Development Van Ton-Quinlivan said. “Up and down the state we see the difference these programs make in our students’ lives, their ability to secure a well-paying job in growing industries. I’m glad our governor and state lawmakers decided to reinvest in the future. That investment continues to pay dividends.”

Lieu said his bill is another step toward transforming California’s job approach to a sector-based strategy by focusing on the state’s competitive advantages and labor market needs.

“In an era of limited resources, it is imperative that California use a coordinated approach to workforce and economic development,” said Lieu. “Training students for good-paying jobs in relevant and competitive sectors is the pathway to a strong and stable California economy.”

California’s community colleges are leading the way for preparing the current and future workforce in a new and changing global market:

• The California Community Colleges system is the state’s largest workforce training provider, by serving more than 2.4 million students each year. The overall result is an investment in California’s economic recovery.
• California Community Colleges offer more than 175 degree and certificate programs in hundreds of vocational fields that are in need of skilled workers.
• The Workforce and Economic Development innovative sector-based initiatives served 48,470 organizations, resulting in improvements in productivity, sales and new equity investments of more than $215 million.
• The Workforce and Economic Development program consistently creates or retains more than 16,000 jobs through its high-growth initiatives. The California Chamber of Commerce has labeled the program as a job creator for California.

The measure takes effect Jan.  1, 2013.

This is a guest blog post written by Melody Vaught (her second blog post ever; read her first blog here) who is an adjunct counselor and counseling instructor at Santa Ana College, Santiago Canyon College, and for the Small Business Development Center in Orange County, California. She holds a Masters Degree in Educational Counseling and is a speaker on college and career topics. 

Recent college graduates walk into a job interview with a reputation. Fair or not, they are accused of being unprofessional. So say 621 human resource professionals and business leaders surveyed by York College of Pennsylvania Center for Professional Excellence in 2012 in their report, Professionalism in the Workplace.

So what is it about these young workers that has earned them this ire? According to these human resource professionals and business leaders, it is their appearance, body piercings and tattoos, attitude, rudeness—including being late for the interview–poor grammar and communication skills, and their sense of entitlement.

Professionalism in the Workplace (page 90)

Who is failing this generation of workers?  Whose responsibility is it to teach these soft skills that employers value? If there isn’t a foundation provided for those social and soft skills in the home, it falls to schools to integrate the skills into their course content.

The CTE Pathways Initiative Community Collaborative Grant—and our host, Orange Coast Community College, with the leadership and organization of Rita Jones (of Career Cafe fame), Dejah Swingle, Jen Kochanski, Tracy Parker (all from Coast Community College District) and Kathy Johnson from Vital Link—provided that opportunity for some Orange County high school and community college instructors this past July by offering a two-day soft skills training and externship workshop.  This training included a field trip for attendees so that they could learn directly from human resource professionals, what soft skills job applicants need. It also incorporated interspersed video clips, short lectures, group activities, listening to colleagues sharing their experiences, observations and best practices incorporating soft skills into their courses, and some time for self-reflection and planning.

DAY ONE

During the introduction to the soft skills training, the tone was set when the facilitator asked, “How can a job applicant communicate their skills if they don’t even know when or how they have used soft skills?”  The challenge to our group of high school and college faculty was to think about how we can integrate information about soft skills into our curricula along with opportunities for students to practice them.  We need to graduate students who are prepared to talk about how their skills match the skills required for a particular job. And we need to help them tell a story and give examples of how they successfully used each skill.

The introduction was followed by a frank discussion of which soft skills these instructors see lacking in their students, which included:

• coming late to class or excessive absences (attitude)
• not meeting course deadlines (time management)
• not doing their best work (strong work ethic)
• avoiding oral presentations (oral communication)
• exhibiting poor writing skills (written communication)
• complaining about group projects (leadership and team work)

Orange County Sanitation Dept. Core Values:

1. Honesty, Trust, Respect, 2. Teamwork, Problem Solving, 3. Leadership and Commitment, 4. Learning/Teaching, Talents, Skills & Abilities, 5. Recognition & Awards

 In order for us to pinpoint soft skills that employers value and to validate that information, the first day included an on-site visit to four different industries.  My group visited the Orange County Sanitation District in Fountain Valley, California, a county government agency.  We were hosted by Mark A. Esquer, Engineering Manager, and Laura Maravilla, Senior Human Resources Manager, experienced interviewers who shared the following experiences:

• Most candidates have very poor interview skills.
• If the application or resume contains information that is not factual, the applicant will not be considered.
• Candidates should know the company’s core values which are listed on the website, displayed on the walls, and printed on their literature.  (See above.)
• They are looking for applicants who can provide examples of the skills that they have honed and which match the skills of the position for which they are applying
• If these skills and examples are not covered in the application or the resume, they should be highlighted in the cover letter.
• Applicants who don’t offer a solid handshake and maintain good eye contact and confidence in their abilities, don’t get the job.
• Hard skills will get you an interview but soft skills will get the job; a paper screening is used to ensure that the applicant is qualified to do the job; the interview process is used to ensure that the applicant’s personality is a good fit with the team.
• Being a good fit is so critical that a new hire’s probationary period can be extended to one year if there are red flags.
• During the probationary period, a “keeper” employee is one who volunteers or looks for ways to learn new skills.
• There is a job shadow program that enables an employee to learn about a new job of interest to them, so networking is a valued soft skill.

DAY TWO

On the second day of the two-day training, a representative from each of the four groups reported on what they learned about the soft skills each industry valued in potential job candidates. Reflecting on the information we learned in the two-day training from the event leaders, our colleagues, and our field trip, we were given time to propose a classroom activity integrating a soft skill we want to initiate in our class.  Here are some examples of some of the more interesting activities we came up with:

1.  A high school photography instructor plans a final exam that requires each student to meet with a client, attentively listen to the client explain his photography job, and complete the job according to the client’s specifications by a deadline.

2.  A college counseling instructor will invite business and human resource professionals to visit the class to conduct mock interviews.  Each student will receive a written evaluation of their resume, cover letter, and interview. And the professionals, as a panel, will present interview tips and pitfalls.

3.  A marketing instructor will provide extra credit for students who join Service Learning, an on-campus program that places students in non-profits matching their skills with an organization’s need.  Students will improve their non-profit’s website and instruct employees on how to use social media to manage their visibility.

In addition to generating creative ideas for integrating soft skills into the classroom, other tangible outcomes of this two-day training were the invaluable networking opportunities between colleagues, the chance to meet with business professionals to confirm the importance of soft skills and, for me, receiving a commitment from Laura Maravilla, Senior Human Resources Manager at the Orange County Sanitation District, to guest lecture on interview skills in my classroom.

And those 3 P’s of soft skills?  I admit that the title of this blog was deceiving but I felt duty bound to include an Important Public Service Announcement from the Orange County Sanitation District as a thank you for their hospitality. Here are the 3 P’s:

The only three items that should be flushed down a toilet are:

poo, pee and paper (toilet)

Joining the team at Orange County Sanitation District by following these directions will not only help the environment but teamwork is an important soft skill.  How this will fit into a good story about how you were a productive team member to use on a job application will take some creativity and good writing skills, but I will leave it to you to figure that out.

We’re happy to report that the first year of Roseville High School’s Geometry in Construction program that we first wrote about here, has come to a successful conclusion. The house has been built, inspected, is all up to code, and up for bid! Bids are being accepted up til 1 PM on September 4th. Here’s the info about the house and the program from the Property Spec Sheet:

“The Roseville High School Geometry in Construction Program is the first of its kind in California. The program combines traditional College Preparatory Geometry with Construction Technology to create a contextual, “hands-on” learning approach that
provided RHS students with the relevance that is so often missing from traditional math classrooms. During the school year, the students apply their math while learning the entry level skills required building a 656 square foot 2BR/1BA house. The 2011-2012
house was 100% student built under the supervision and instruction from the GIC staff and an exceptional list of industry partners and trade organizations. The majority of the students were sophomores (15-16 years old) and over 30% of the students were nontraditional Industrial Technology students (female). The class provides life changing experiences for students who take these lessons with them not only into future math classes, but careers and beyond.

“The 2011-2012 RHS Geometry in Construction house is a CA Certified Factory Built Home. It can be legally moved and placed on most locations in California. The house will be sold by the Roseville Joint Union High School District through a closed bid
process “As-Is/Where-Is”, and the buyer assumes the responsibility to move and set the home and complete any site work needed to ensure occupancy. The proceeds from the sale of the home go directly back to the RHS/GIC program and help fund the 2012-1013 Geometry in Construction Class. Questions about the bidding process, to schedule a tour of the home, or for general questions regarding the RHS Geometry in Construction program, please contact Jeff Bailey: jbailey@rjuhsd.us; or 916-782-3753 Ext 3804.”

Design and Quality Assurance
656 Square Feet, 2 Bedroom, 1 Bath (13’8 x 48’ footprint)
Certified California Factory Built Housing
Designed and Engineered by R&S Tavares Associates
Design Approval by PFS Corporation
Quality Assurance and Inspections by PFS Corporation
Fire Sprinkler design and installation supervised by Beutler Corporation (C-16# 162634)
Title 24 by R&S Tavares Associates

Interior Features and Components
9 Foot Walls Throughout
Vaulted Ceilings in Kitchen/Great-room and Master Bedroom
Recessed lighting in Kitchen and Hallway
Engineered and wired for ceiling fans in all rooms (not included)
Closet Plumbing for Stackable Washer Dryer Unit (Electric Only)
Bullnose Exterior Corners and Windows
Stainless Steel Pro-Flow Double Sink w/ ½ HP Badger Disposal
Pro-Flow High Efficiency Toilet
Pro-Flow Kitchen, Lavatory, Tub and Shower Fixtures
Plumbed for high efficiency exterior tankless water heater (not included)

Exterior Components
30 Year Composite Roof
Fortifiber House Wrap and Flashings
James Hardi Lap Siding, Shingles and Vented Soffit
Anderson 100 Series Lo-E Windows
ThermaTru Craftsman Style Fiberglass Entry Door
Motion Controlled Entry Lights on Front and Rear

HVAC
System Design and Sized and Installation supervised by Beutler Corporation (Lic. #162634)
Carrier 60 MBTU Downflow Furnace 92% AFUE (58MEC060-12)
ASPEN 2 Ton Downflow Coil and Lineset (CC24A34)
Engineered and wired for addition of Carrier 2-Ton AC Condenser (not included)
Honeywell Setback Thermostat (FC6000)
R-6 Ductwork
HERS Tight Ducts
Delta Bathroom Exhaust Fan

Additional Details
Unit will be sold without flooring, appliances (including water heater), and/or ceiling fans
Engineered Drawings, Inspection Reports and Title 24 may be viewed during normal business hours at
RJUHSD Facilities Department: #2 Tiger Way, Roseville, CA or by appointment by calling Jeff Bailey
916-782-3753 Ext 3804

It’s so impressive and amazing what our young people can do with the support of a caring and invested community of adults around them. Please pass on the information regarding this home to anyone who may be interested in purchasing this type of structure. Also, watch a news piece about the house and the Geometry in Construction program here.

I have been told I have an impeccable grasp of the obvious.

And sometimes so does research. “Distant objects appear to be far away, study concludes.” I’m sure that’s in an article in The Onion somewhere. But often research does confirm what seems obvious to us—which can be reassuring.

Career development through work-based learning would seem to be one of those obvious things. Isn’t it apparent that some of us can’t learn from a manual, that some—maybe most—of us need to do to learn? Or maybe that everyone learns better by doing? And even though some of us can work with and from a theory, eventually we must put it to practice.

But what can we say to show how well work-based learning really works—however obvious it may seem?  Does it motivate kids to stay in school and get better grades, as well as put them on a path to a career?

McClane High School students in the first California high school to host its own student-run bank branch.

What is work-based learning?

WestEd conducted a study of work-based learning and produced a seminal 2009 report called “Work-based Learning in California” that sums up what it is and how it works:

Work-based learning is an educational strategy that links school-based instruction with activity that has consequences and value beyond school. Work-based learning is informed by professional workplace standards. It uses the workplace, or in-depth experience that includes employer or community input, to engage high school students and intentionally promote learning and access to future educational and career opportunities. Work-based learning can include internships, apprenticeships, workplace simulations, student-led enterprises and other opportunities in the business or nonprofit arena.

Work-based learning has three levels:

• Workplace tours and job shadowing
• Internships and service or social learning
• Career preparation and development: apprenticeships and professional training programs

In order to work it requires three things:

• Direct employer or community involvement that provides students with important exposure to industry or professional standards and makes the experiences authentic. It requires the purposeful linking of education with the world outside the classroom and active mediation between the culture of school and the cultures of work and community so that students can bridge their roles as students to their roles as contributing members of society.
• in-depth engagement–substantive experiences well beyond career exploration, and
• It must be connected to curriculum, which may include academic and/or career technical education curricula. Learning in this context is intended to include academic and/or technical content knowledge as well as higher-order thinking skills and workplace interpersonal and other skills.

It’s about motivation.

So to work for the student, work-based learning must engage them in the workplace as well as connect what they are doing to what they are learning to the classroom. Standards aside, a student must learn in the classroom the skills that will help him in the workplace as well as connect the applications of these workplace skills to what he is learning in the classroom.

This research shows that the success of work-based learning is based upon the connections students see between the school and the workplace and what they are learning and how they can use it. And their own successes motivate them to stay in school and do better.

• Roughly 75 percent of students polled agreed that the idea of a school that prepares them for college and employment is appealing. New Center Aims to Help Motivate California High Schoolers, Ed Week, April 12, 2006.

• 89% of students believe that a school where they could take courses that they need for college but also have more opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge relevant to future careers would be more interesting to them. 91% say they would be more motivated to work hard and do well if they attended this kind of a school. Report findings: Based on a Survey Among Califorinia Ninth and Tenth Graders, by ConnectEd, The California Center for College and Career, 2006.

What do students say about it?

• A survey of over one thousand American teenagers was entitled Getting By: What American Teenagers Really Think About Their Schools (Johnson, Farkas, & Bers, 1997). The title reflects the study’s findings: most students say they could do better in school if they tried, but they have minimal interest in academic subjects. Majorities of student respondents said that the best thing about school is that they get to be with their friends, and they do not think they will need to know in the real world the things their school is teaching. Yet, a majority of student respondents to the survey also said that doing a job internship for school credit would result in them learning “a lot more.”

• Students told of changes in their attitude toward school as a result of their participation in the [work-place learning in a chosen field or Cluster]. A self-described average student explained the motivation she found: “I never excelled in science, I never excelled in English, I never excelled in math. . . . I never found my thing. But this, it really gave me a focus. I totally know what I want to do. . . . I’m not ignorant to the fact that I may change my mind because everyone changes their mind, but I think that I will stay in this general area and it really has given me assurance.” She went on to imagine what her high school experience would have been without the opportunity to participate in a Cluster: “I would probably go through the basic classes and just do the routine.” In actuality, she reported that before, “I was discouraged because I couldn’t do well. Now I’m doing okay in the business and I’m striving–it’s given me more self-esteem that I can do this, when I was falling behind in Chemistry and science.” Her grades have improved to all A’s and B’s.  Work-Based Learning for Students in High Schools and Community Colleges, 1998.

• Work-Based Learning in Philadelphia Alumni Opinion Research Survey– In October 1998, Madonna Yost, an opinion research firm, conducted a telephone survey of June 1997 graduates which included 272 students who had participated in Work-Based Learning (WBL) while in high school and 302 alumni from the same schools who had not.  The results of the survey, which obtained a cooperation rate of 83%, indicated:

– Almost twice as many WBL alumni than non-WBL alumni said their high school education helped them “very well” or “more than adequately” to prepare them for employment.

– Nearly half (44%) of the program’s graduates reported receiving job offers from the organization in which they received their WBL training.

– Most WBL alumni rated the educational quality of their WBL experience as either “excellent” (39%) or “good” (48%).

– Of those who were currently employed, WBL alumni were more likely to be working in their chosen career area than non-WBL alumni (44% vs. 26%, respectively).

– Almost all (97%) WBL alumni would recommend the WBL program to others.

• A 5-year study of 3.4 million Texas high school students (Brown 2000) found that Tech Prep students had higher attendance and on-time graduation rates and lower dropout rates than both non-Tech Prep CTE students and the general population of secondary students.

• A national survey conducted in 2005 for Achieve, Inc. showed that among the high school graduates surveyed who joined the workforce without getting a college degree, 39 percent said that there are gaps in their preparation for what is expected of them in their current jobs. Ninety-seven percent of these graduates said that real-world learning opportunities and more relevant coursework during high school would have improved their preparation.  From“Rising to the Challenge: Are High School Graduates Prepared for College and Work? A Study of Recent High School Graduates, College Instructors, and Employers.”

What do employers think?

•  More than four in five employers believe that completion of a supervised and evaluated internship or community-based project would be very or fairly effective in ensuring that recent college graduates possess the skills and knowledge needed for success at their company. With 69% of employers saying this type of assessment would be very effective, they clearly think that supervised and evaluated internships would have the greatest impact on student achievement. How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student Learning? (a survey of employers), 2008.

What Work-Based Learning Can Do:

Lists of the benefits and the value of work-based learning are plentiful. And among other things, work-based learning will:

• engage and motivate students in learning by connecting classroom work to students’ personal and career interests
• reinforce and improve academic learning and engage students in new modes of thought (e.g., higher-order critical thinking and problem-solving)
• advance students’ social and emotional development toward adulthood, including their identity formation and their sense of self-efficacy
• enhance students’ general workplace competencies, such as communication, teamwork and project planning
• enhance students’ understanding of particular careers through depth of experience.  “Work-based Learning in California,” WestEd, 2009.

Students with Career Development skills:

• are more successful in the workplace
• make more money
• have fewer health problems
• produce more goods and services
• experience shorter unemployment periods.  From “It takes a village to reach and inspire our students,” Susan Coleman, Orange Coast College

And North Carolina has put together an extensive list of the values of work-based learning for students, employers, schools, and the community. Some of the benefits they found for students include:

• application of classroom learning (both academic and vocational) in real world setting
• establishment of a clear connection between education and work
• development and practice of positive work related habits and attitudes including the ability to think critically, solve problems, work in teams, and resolve issues that relate to possible careers
• assessment and understanding the expectations of the workplace
• expansion and refinement of their technical skills
• development of an increased motivation/appreciation for staying in school and the importance of postsecondary education opportunities both at the community college level and at the university level

Career development is life-long learning. It’s never-ending. To be successful, today’s students must view it as a sequence of events that includes continuous training in and beyond school where they earn certifications, gain new skills, and make informed career choices.

Work-based learning has the potential to create better students and better-equipped people in the workforce and the community. For students who are looking down the road, this kind of schooling makes sense–and their future, however distant, doesn’t look so far away.

No one ever forgets a good teacher. He or she makes a class fun and interesting–and rewarding. (We gave my botany teacher in college a standing ovation at the end of her last lecture. Botany!) I came away from such teachers inspired by newfound interests…but without a plan. As many as 60 percent of students are just like me, entering college “undecided.”

I wished I had started thinking about this earlier. I needed help.

Career development is all about helping young people make informed decisions. With their skills and tools, the career counselor can help students map out where their strengths and interests lie so that they can see a possible pathway…or several. And based on these evaluations, they can begin to consider the possibilities and make choices that make sense for them. There are resulting benefits to this process: the student feels motivated to stay in school and get better grades because he can see at least one realistic possibility of where he can go. And because of the career development plan he has worked out with the counselor, he knows the minimum of what he has to do.

And if he is excited about the possibilities, he can embrace and be inspired by the prospect of life-long learning. All the skills he learns and the certificates he earns have a purpose: they can take him to a better life. This journey, as it unfolds before him, gives relevance to what he is learning in school—both academics and career technical education—and motivates him to persevere.

What is a better life? One of the jobs of a career counselor is to open that up to the student and let him find his own answers. And to let him know that the decisions he makes today can have a huge impact on his present as well as his future. But also that the road branches constantly, and with the knowledge and skills he learns, he can veer onto another path if he chooses—the road that took him this far has prepared him to meet the new challenges of whatever is around the next bend. (Or to quote Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”)

The Theories

But career counselors don’t work in a vacuum; their tools are well-considered plans that have been decades in the making.

There are theories–what one researcher calls the “conceptual glue” that “describe where, when and for what purpose career counseling, career education, career guidance and other career interventions should be implemented”—that hold the process together.

It all began with Frank Parson in the early 20^th century and who is considered to be the father of vocational guidance. He had a three-step model:

• an accurate understanding of their individual traits (aptitudes, interests, personal abilities)
• a knowledge of jobs and the labor market
• rational and objective judgment about the relationship between their individual traits, and the labor market.

Since then there has grown a body of theory related to career intervention. You’ve probably heard of some of them: the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the Holland Theory of Vocational Types, Bandura’s Social Cognitive (self-efficacy) Theory, and Super’s Developmental Self-Concept Theory, some of which you can explore here and in more detail here. And there is the Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad and Herma Theory that offers that career decision making occurs in three phases: fantasy, tentative, and reality. And there are more recent theories that you can explore here.It’s clear career development has been researched long and hard, and its foundation is solid. And, of course, there are standards.

The Standards

Remember the ASCA national career development standards?  In brief, they are:

• Standard A: Students will acquire the skills to investigate the world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions.

• Standard B: Students will employ strategies to achieve future career goals with success and satisfaction.

• Standard C: Students will understand the relationship between personal qualities, education, training and the world of work.

So a career counselor needs to give students the tools to explore their own interests and skills and career options and then help them plan their next steps.

Ok, you get it. Career development intervention can theoretically have a huge impact on students’ lives.  But once again you are wondering, can you prove it? What are the facts? How do you make the case for career development for those who are not a part of the CTE community?

And more importantly, how can you convince students to take advantage of career development and counselors while they are still in school? How can you show them that career counselors and career development really make a difference?

Image source: Educational and Industrial Testing Service (EdITS)

The Facts

Unlike the ‘fact sheets” that are available for CTE in general, numbers for the impact of career intervention are hard to come by. One great source is “The Educational, Social, and Economic Value of Informed and Considered Decisions by Scott and Meegan Gillie (Isenhour) from America’s Career Resource Network Association. I have pulled a few from this report as well as other. I recommend you give it a look.

1. The earlier students enter a program of study, the more likely they will complete a degree. Students who enter college on a clear subject pathway in the first year are twice as likely to complete their degree than those who did not. Sense of Direction, Cal State, Sacramento, 2011.

2. More than 90% of middle school students in a career planning program reported agreeing or strongly agreeing that they “will be able to overcome barriers that stand in the way of achieving my career goals.” Road to Success, MATHEMATICA, 2010.

3. Students who understand the connection between school and their career goals are more motivated, get better grades, and are more likely to go to college. Career interventions lead to increased academic efficacy and motivation, two variables that are known to be related to improved academic achievement. Career Development Interventions, 2003.

4. The combination of participating in a career planning process and receiving supportive guidance as well as receiving information about postsecondary institutions (majors, financial aid, the application process, and support services) increases the likelihood of postsecondary participation and success. Value of Informed Career Decisions, 2003.

5. Having a career plan is associated with better grades, participation in more academically rigorous curricula, and a greater likelihood of expecting to complete four or more years of postsecondary education. Value of Informed Career Decisions, 2003.

6. Indiana’s investment in educational and career planning information over a period of twelve years contributed to a 61 percent increase in student movement from high school to college, an improvement in the state’s national ranking on the high-school-to-college continuation rate from 40th to 17^th. Value of Informed Career Decisions,

7. Students who take a college career course execute fewer course withdrawals and take fewer courses in order to graduate. Impact of Career Course, 2002.

8. Girls who took a career course graduated in an average of 50 months, compared to 61 months for non-participants. Impact of Career Course, 2002.

9. Students in schools with fully-implemented career guidance programs have higher grades and find feel the school has a more positive climate . Statewide Evaluation Study, 1997 and Helping 7^th Graders Feel Safe, 2001.

10. And students who have been set on a pathway to a career and higher education are less likely to drop out. Consistently, schools are finding that when curriculum is based on career education and linked to core academic subjects, their dropout rate declines. EDITS

The Future

There is a lot of research out there on the far-reaching impact of career development and counseling on adults and careers. Workers report higher levels of satisfaction, less depression and stress—and unemployment–and, of course, higher salaries. And employers report lower worker turnover, lower health care costs, and increased worker productivity. Social benefits for the community include lower poverty rates, healthier families, more continuing education, greater community leadership, and less criminal activity, among other things. But that’s more the impact of the result of higher education and career success, so it’s one step farther up the ladder, and fodder for future blogs.

We remember a good teacher fondly. And if we were lucky enough to have had a good career counselor–who helped us discover our strengths and interests and the possibilities early on–we will remember him or her with gratitude as someone who changed our life for the better.