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Corporate Voices' New Report Highlights Innovative
Industry and Community College Partnerships
Partnerships Discussed at White House Summit to Increase Workforce Readiness, College Completion Rates
Corporate Voices released a new report this week highlighting the imperative for partnerships between community colleges and employers to enhance workforce readiness skills and increase U.S. college completion rates. It finds that these partnerships play a key role in enabling young people to successfully combine postsecondary education with work.
The paper, titled 'From an Ill-Prepared' to a Well-Prepared Workforce: The Shared Imperatives for Employers and Community Colleges To Collaborate, was released on Wednesday, the same day as the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges, convened by Dr. Jill Biden. Donna Klein, CEO and Executive Chair of Corporate Voices, participated in the Summit, along with administration officials, business leaders, philanthropists, and community college and student representatives. They discussed the critical role community colleges will play in helping the U.S. lead the world with the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020, so that American businesses can be competitive in the global economy.
Yet as we invest in community colleges for America's economic future, Corporate Voices' report emphasizes the importance of "Learn and Earn" partnerships with businesses, given the reality that many community college students need to work to support themselves and their families.
Corporate Voices' report includes "Learn and Earn" examples, such as the Verizon Wireless partnershipwith Pima Community College, and AOL's partnershipwith Year Up. It was made possible with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Postsecondary Success Strategy.
We encourage our corporate and strategic partners to share the report widely with colleagues and other interested groups.
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Workplace Flexibility: Ensuring Success for the 21st Century
Discovery Communications; Keats, Connelly and Associates; and PCL Construction Services Become Business Champions in National Campaign
Corporate Voices would like to congratulate Discovery Communications; Keats, Connelly and Associates; and PCL Construction Services for joining our national workplace flexibility campaign since the last issue of this Update. We thank them for expressing their support for workplace flexibility as a business imperative by signing Corporate Voices' Statement of Support for Expanding Workplace Flexibility.
They are the most recent additions to a cohort of leading Business Champions, including: Accenture, Allstate Insurance Company, AOL, BaxterInternational, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Childrens' Creative Learning Centers, Cisco Systems, CVS Caremark, Ernst & Young, George Mason University, Knowledge Universe, KPMG, LifeCare, Marriott International, McGladreySM, Sodexo, and Workplace Options, among others.
Businesses enjoy a host of benefits by joining the campaign, and there is no financial obligation. Business Champions recognize that flexibility practices modernize the workplace to meet the needs of 21st century families, so that families and businesses can be more productive, more competitive, healthier, and happier.
Corporate Voices launched this national campaign at the request of the White House after a first-ever White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility in March 2010. The goal of the campaign is to create a broader awareness of the positive business and employee benefits of workplace flexibility. We are inviting businesses across the country to sign our Statement to express support for a set of shared principles around workplace flexibility as a strategy to ensure success in the 21st Century.
Corporate Voices is working in tandem with national policy groups and the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor to galvanize business engagement around upcoming national flexibility forums in Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. All Business Champions that have signed our Statement will have opportunities to participate.
We applaud the efforts of our partners in spreading the word about this important work-life initiative. Upcoming examples are:
- The Flexible Workplace Initiative's upcoming panel discussion on "The Future of Workplace Flexibility." The event will honor the 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Award recipients in Houston on October 28, and panelists will discuss policy development, technology, wellness, and implementation in the context of workplace flexibility. Register for the webcast.
Please visit the national workplace flexibility campaign website to access campaign updates, new Business Champions, ongoing media coverage, events, and promotional activities.
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United Way Worldwide Ready by 21 Webinar Series: Engaging Business to Support the Education Pipeline
Corporate Voices for Working Families participated in the United Way Worldwide Ready by 21 Webinar Series presentation of "Engaging Business to Support the Education Pipeline" on Thursday, September 30, 2010.
The purpose of the webinar was to provide local United Way leaders with an overview of the soon-to-be released Business Engagement Toolkit for Community-Based Organizations.
Representatives from Eli Lilly & Company and the United Way of Central Indiana participated and chatted about experiences and lessons learned around business engagement and partnerships. |
Business and Education Partnerships Webinar:
Baxter International, Inc. Highlighted
 On Thursday, October 7, 2010, the American Association for School Administrators and Corporate Voices for Working Families, both members of the Ready by 21 National Partnership, highlighted the benefits of business and education partnerships and provided tips for engaging and sustaining these partnerships.
Alice Campbell, Senior Director, Global Community Relations, at Baxter International, Inc., a Corporate Voices' member company, highlighted their Science@Work Partnership with Chicago Public Schools. Dr. Jim Scales, Superintendent, of Hamilton County Schools also highlighted three business and education partnerships taking place in Tennessee.
View slides from the presentation and listen to the recording of the webinar.
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Congressional Briefing: Ready by 21, Improving the Odds for Children & Youth
 Corporate Voices will host a Congressional staff lunch briefing on October 19 as community and business leaders in Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Nashville discuss the model partnerships they are building to ensure that all youth are ready to succeed in college, work, and life.
In these and other communities across the nation, innovative leaders and educators are coming together under the Ready by 21® banner to make youth their top priority. This briefing seeks to highlight and discuss these local partnerships, and how federal policy can support and enhance the most promising efforts.
- Karen Pittman, Co-founder, President & CEO, Forum for Youth Investment
- Stephen M. Wing, President, Corporate Voices for Working Families
- Ronnie Steine, Metro Councilman-at-Large, Nashville, TN
- Gaye Morris Smith, Executive Director, Georgia Family Connection Partnership, Atlanta, GA
- Thomas A. H. White, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, Unum Group, Chattanooga, TN
If you'd like to join us, please contact Dorian Friedman a dfriedman@corporatevoices.org or 202-467-8135 |
Call For Entries: Best Companies for Hourly Workers
Deadline for Applications is Quickly Approaching - October 15, 2010
 For the second year, Corporate Voices is pleased to partner with Working
Mother
Media to present the Best Companies for Hourly Workers. Best Companies
for
Hourly Workers honors companies dedicated to creating and using best
practices
to support their non-exempt employees.
Public or private
for-profit companies are invited to apply, including companies,
corporations,
and autonomous subsidiaries that offer their own benefits program and
report to
their own CEO.
Applicants must also
have a minimum of 500 employees in the U.S. with at least 50% of those
U.S.
employees being nonexempt workers.
The online survey is open to applicants until October 15, 2010 at wmmsurveys.com. There is no cost to apply.
Winning companies will
be featured in the May 2011 issue of Working Mother magazine and on
workingmother.com, and will be invited to celebrate their success at an
event
to be held in the Spring of 2011. Only winning companies will be
announced;
non-winning companies will remain confidential.
All companies that apply, including those that
do not make the Best Companies list, will receive feedback showing how
they
compare against all applicants.
In April of 2010, the
following companies were named to the inaugural list of Best Companies
for
Hourly Workers:
CCLC (Childrens' Creative Learning Centers) University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics
More
information about the Best Companies for Hourly Workers program can be
found at workingmother.com/bestcompanies. |
What We're Reading
Re-Shuffling the Workplace, The Huffington Post, October 7, 2010.
The Costs of Rising Economic Inequality, The Washington Post, October 6, 2010.
U.S. Waives Health Insurance Minimums for 1 Million, Bloomberg News, October 5, 2010.
Ten Tips to Create a Flexible, Virtual Work Environment, The Huffington Post, October 1, 2010.
Employers Aren't Trying Hard to Hire, The Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2010.
The Assets Agenda 2011: Policy Options to Promote Savings and Asset Development, New America Foundation, September 2010.
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