S3,E16 - Emilija Postolovska

 

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This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO, and your host for Talk CNY. One of the ways that CenterState CEO is working towards reaching its goal of creating a region where all people can prosper is by supporting and investing in programs that help create greater access to new and growing careers that are popping up in our community. The Bridge to Manufacturing Careers program is one such initiative. On this episode of Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank, we are joined by CenterState's Director of Workforce Innovation Emilija Postolovska to talk about the program and its success. Emilija, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thanks for having me.

Bridge to Manufacturing Careers program just celebrated its second cohort, which is so exciting.

Yes.

Can you tell us what is the Bridge to Manufacturing Careers program and what are some of its goals?

Yeah, absolutely. The Bridge to Manufacturing Careers program is a pilot that has been a couple years in the making now. We launched our first cohort last summer, but this is an opportunity for people in underrepresented populations in the community to have an opportunity to access education, training, just general exposure to careers in advanced manufacturing, which are really growing in this area, and give them the proper education by way of a degree program at OCC called the Electromechanical Technology Degree. That was created in partnership with Micron, where graduates of the degree will have the proper skills and training and education to be hired as technicians in the plant when it opens. But also it's very much a transferable degree, and there are a lot of job opportunities with a lot of local manufacturers right now, so they don't have to wait until Micron is open. The other key pieces around there are making sure that we are offering various kinds of barrier mitigation and removing the challenges that have often been one of the biggest issues in a lot of people being able to even think about a career change, pursue the kind of education that they need.

And that's where the term bridge comes in. Right? That's the program design. So can you tell me a little bit about what a "Bridge" program is? How does it function and how is it a little bit different from the typical "start here," "end here" programming?

Yeah, so with something like a Bridge program, it's not necessarily a very clearly defined timeline. It's not a 12 week in-and-out program or something along those lines. We really wanted to make it where we meet people where they're at. So entry onto the bridge is very fluid, continuous recruitment, but there are some key benchmarks and milestones that we reach, of course, with the ultimate end goal of hopefully OCC or another chosen pathway. But the idea is to really understand who people are at their core and really try to help them make this fit into their lives instead of them getting shoehorned into something that might not be their choice. This is where those conversations around really understanding what their challenges are, where they are in their lives, what do they want to do, have they ever thought about what a job in manufacturing looks like?

Do they know what current manufacturing looks like or are they used to what the old school ways were?

The factories?

Yeah. Everybody's getting their hands into something, which is true, but it's a very different environment now. And so we have opportunities where people who participate on the bridge are exposed to what does it mean to go to school: campus tours, meeting some potential professors, looking at the labs that they'll be hopefully going to school in, doing the employer tours, getting that opportunity to go face-to-face and really see what happens on the floor. And then making those really key networking connections that will hopefully help them in the future. And then offering opportunities to brush up on math skills, for example. Or if they are an English language learner, if they need to brush up on some English language skills, then we have opportunities to connect them to different resources that will allow them to strengthen that before they continue to pursue their future.

So the Bridge to Manufacturing Careers program isn't so much like the typical job training program. It's more of like there's all these different stops, like you said, maybe brushing up on math skills or language skills or career and employer introductions, GED skills. How have you seen people respond to that? I'm sure folks aren't necessarily used to that as a job training model.

Yeah, no, I think so far we've had some really good response. I think one of the most interesting parts about this is the way that the participants that we've had so far have been able to engage at so many different levels and have really been able to pace themselves. I think that's really important. Of course, there's deadlines in when you have to register for classes or if you are going down the college route, submitting financial aid forms and different things like that. But it's very much designed so that they can really feel like they are making this choice for themselves, and then we are there to support them along the way. So one of the key components of the program is working with a navigator who right off the bat will during the early intake process of really understand who they are, what their goals are, what has prevented them from pursuing something like this in the past. And then really looking at from a holistic standpoint, what is it that needs to happen? Do they need transportation, childcare?

Those are some of those supportive services.

Yeah. A lot of supportive services, and those are one of the key components that makes this stand out from a lot of your typical job training programs, where your engagement with the participant is very short term and maybe at times a little bit more transactional. This is very much based in relationship building and having that comfort and confidence to know that you can connect with the participant, and then they also feel like they can ask for the support that they need.

Yeah, that's really great. Can you tell me a little bit more about the participants? We had just this most recent one, nine I believe, are planning to go on to OCC, and in that first pilot cohort, there were eight who ended up going on to pursue a degree at OCC. So it's been really great so far to see these people succeed and explore these careers. Tell me a little bit more about them. I mean, how are they experiencing the program? How has Bridged influenced them, and where are they now?

Yeah, absolutely. From the first cohort, we have a few people that we have still continued to stay connected with who have really just taken the opportunity and ran with it. One of the students from the first cohort came to us already having a four-year degree in something totally unrelated to manufacturing. I think it was something like philosophy, but decided that the job that he was doing really wasn't for him, and he really is into a lot of the technology and the hands-on things. I think that's another component with Bridge. When we're looking for people to come into the program, part of the exposure is really key to help them understand what this looks like. But we're also looking for people who have some of those transferable skills, who like to take things apart and put them back together. Who are into Legos, or if you're a nail tech, a lot of transferable skills with that too.

You don't think about that.

Yeah, the dexterity is really important in the higher tech manufacturing careers now. So anybody who maybe has a hobby or sewing, knitting, anything like that...

All those could be a good fit.

Yeah, exactly.

So this person, he again, came to us with something totally unrelated, excelled in the learning community and at OCC and applied for one of the Micron internships and got it. He spent...Yeah, so he finished his first year this summer. He was at the Virginia plant and did his internship there and is now coming back into the fall to finish his second and final year in the program.

That's so great.

We have another student from the first cohort, a new American mom with a young family at home. Really that first wasn't sure if she'd be able to handle the balance with childcare and everything. Fortunately, she has a supportive home environment, but we were able to offset a lot of that through the navigation and supportive services, and she finished her first semester with a 3.7 GPA, got another scholarship for Women in Tech and some additional supports from OCC and is just really, really taking advantage of this opportunity and the communication that she's had with the navigator. She's very much credited a lot of the time that she spent in Bridge and the resources that she received. We're really excited for this cohort that just graduated the learning community as well. Six out of the nine are going in the program this fall. Three of them are going in the spring, and they're all very excited, and we're going to continue to stay engaged with them and making sure that they're getting the supports that they need.

Yeah, it is so exciting to see the second cohort come to completion. I mean, now that you're two cohorts in, I'm sure that you and Bridge is a highly adaptive program anyway. What are some of the things that you've kind of adjusted, maybe steered for the programming to make it better for the participants and make it a more effective program?

I think what makes something like this really great is that it is adaptable and flexible, and we try to incorporate as much real-time feedback from participants, from the partners, things that we're seeing along the way as much as possible, and then really trying to understand how to make it better for the next round. So for something like this that has a lot of fluidity and flexibility built into it by design, we're really able to do that and make sure that we're creating an effective and impactful program.

We are going to have more with Amelia coming up in just a moment. But first, a quick word from our presenting sponsor, NBT Bank.

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This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO, and your host for Talk CNY. I'm joined on this episode by Emilija Postolovska, Director of Workforce Innovation at CenterState CEO. Emilija, thank you for being here.

Thanks for having me.

So we've been talking about the Bridge to Manufacturing Careers program, and we are helping to support that program, but it would not be possible without all of the amazing partners that we work with. So can you tell me about the partners that are working together on this program, and how their unique expertise all come into play to make it a successful project?

Yeah, absolutely. We have such an incredible group of partners that we have brought together for the Bridge Project. It's the core group comprised of Westcott Community Center, who's housing one of the navigators. On Point for College, who is also housing one of our navigators in the college access side. Blueprint 15, Northside Learning Center, SUNY EOC, who just recently hosted our learning community and has offered a lot of educational support and tutoring. And of course, Onondaga Community College. None of this work would be possible without them and their expertise and their ability to connect students and their clients outside of this work with the kind of resources that they need to be successful.

I mean, it really is a diverse group of organizations all coming together. So do you divide and conquer the work as it sort of like, oh, you take on this thing you're really good at. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah. We very much try to leverage the appropriate expertise that each of the partners have, and then also encourage them to think a little bit more broadly as well, too. I think that's one of, again, the beautiful parts of having a pilot. It really brings about a different kind of mindset for something like this, the key is to make sure that we are still able to support the participants in the best way possible. And so that's very much just having those opportunities to come together and collaborate and understand how to support each other as organizations, but also as a team in this effort. And again, making sure that the participants and the students' needs are at the core of what we're trying to do, and then trying to divide and conquer that way as well.

Now, partnerships are a big part of a lot of CenterState's Inclusive Growth work, especially in the workforce innovation area. Why are these partnerships so important? It's something that we've put a lot of emphasis on as an organization and the work that we do, and it's something that we really strive for in our programming, but what makes it work? Why are these partnerships successful?

I think ultimately it comes down to everybody just wanting to see positive impact happening in the community that we all live in.

We all play a role, whether it's just as community members, staff at these different agencies, board members, you name it, we all know somebody who's been impacted by these various organizations. At the same time, there's an opportunity in front of us right now that very much is going to be an all hands on deck, this kind of situation, and that's where those key partnerships and the transparency that we need to be able to make these things effective. The proper communication, really just leveraging our resources and looking at things from that collective impact model is what's going to make the economy of the region, the workforce, the overall economic development would be the level that we're all striving for.

Like you said, there's a lot of energy and a lot going on in the region right now.

Lots to do look forward to, very much, very much, and we're really excited to be a part of it and have a hand in shaping the economic future of our region.

Well, Emilija, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate you coming by.

My pleasure.

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