Dr. Brooke Rice on Expanding Florida's Work-Based Learning

Rachel Ludwig: Future of Work Florida.

Narrator: Welcome to the Future of Work Florida podcast brought to you by the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida Chamber Foundation. This podcast series is dedicated to equipping Florida's business leaders with the knowledge, solutions and resources available to secure Florida's workforce talent. Today, our Vice President of Talent Development for the Future of Work, Rachel Ludwig, sits down with Dr. Brooke Rice, Vice President of Curriculum and Work based learning at NAF. During their discussion, Dr. Rice shares insights on how NAF is contributing to expand Florida's work based learning efforts through their Career Academies and nopro software helping learners build future ready skills.

Rachel Ludwig: Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm so pleased to have you on our podcast and, and speak to all of the wonderful work at naf um, regarding workforce and talent development. Um, and thank you again for your partnership as part of our board of Trustees and now getting further engaged with our Future of Work initiative. I really appreciate it.

Dr. Brooke Rice: Thank you so much for having me on today. I'm excited to talk through some things that we're doing.

Rachel Ludwig: Yeah, I'm excited. So for our listeners who aren't super familiar with naf, I know that you have a big footprint across the country. So I think it would be helpful to kind of level set and give sort of uh, an overview of naf's footprint, um, in Florida, a little bit of history and kind of areas where you have a large presence in and maybe where you're going to be moving into in the future.

Dr. Brooke Rice: Absolutely. So naf, naf um is a nonprofit organization and as you mentioned we work at the national level, really helping to build out our design, uh, typically called career academies, um, and making sure that students have what they need to be successful in the futures. Um, in you know, our 45 year history we have you know, worked and supported over 650,000 students. Right now in Florida we have about 32,000 students and for uh, 140 academies, um, and 80 high schools. So we have a pretty big footprint here um, in, in Florida. Um, and you know we do everything from providing some curriculum, making sure that it is relevant and preparing students for, for the industries that they're going to enter into. But also on the work based learning side, making sure that opportunities to really connect to industry professionals before they make college choices and post secondary choices, uh, to get some hands on experience in a variety of career fields.

Rachel Ludwig: Yeah, that's amazing. I think the more that we can do honestly holistically together to provide those real world experiences for our learners is just going to help them Just feel better prepared, but also see the modeling and things like that, that what's expected in the workforce and sometimes it takes time and careful planning to kind of weave those in. But it sounds like you guys have figured that out and how to partner with different providers and education entities across Florida. I can't remember if you mentioned sort of some major cities or areas that you are working currently in or even areas where you're kind of thinking about moving into in the near future.

Dr. Brooke Rice: Yeah, absolutely. We have a large presence in Miami Dade. Um, we have I think over 80 academies there. So a pretty big footprint there. Um, but we're also in districts like Brown, Howard County, Hillsborough, Palm beach and Pinellas. So we're kind of all over the map in, in our Florida communities. Um, and have been working like Miami Dade for example. We've been there for over 40 years. Um, so we've, we've, we've been in Florida, been friends with Florida for a long, long time.

Rachel Ludwig: Absolutely. We have focused a lot, especially in the last few years in Florida, um, but really for a while now leading efforts in work based learning and just feel you different levels of work based learning as you're aware of different levels of commitment from the employer and ways to dive in, um, as well as you know, thinking about the resource allocation and things like that, that's necessary. So I would love for you to kind of give because you know, you hear that word thrown around a lot, the work based learning and it's like, can you give an overview of what you guys view work based learning to be, um, and maybe your approach and why you feel it's important for learners and employers to really go all in?

Dr. Brooke Rice: Yeah, absolutely. So I mean I think you know, at the, at the foundation of work based learning, it's really about student and industry professional interactions. M to help bring students into some exposure to the world of work. Um, our goal with this for students is to get them immersed in um, you know, career exploration and really some hands on opportunities to uh, you know, explore a variety of different careers. The worst thing that we can do is you know, pitch college, college, college with no career opportunities behind it and then you know, have students make selections. Um, the world, the world of work is too vast now especially um, to leave it up to champs and so making sure that our students have these opportunities. So everything from you know, guest speaking opportunities where employers come in and speak to, you know, a classroom full of students about how they got to where they are, what they like about their career, how they would recommend, you know, what, what challenges they overcame in that career, um, are all very help to students and we've seen stats on how beneficial that is for students in terms of making career decisions, um, you know, their persistence in college and post secondary communications. I, um, think there's just a lot out there uh, for students. For us at naf, we really focus on an outcomes driven work based learning framework which really at the core of it is all work based learning interactions should be focused on how do students develop career aspirations, how do they develop the skills that they'll need. Um, yes, the technical skills, but also you know, durable skills, future ready skills, whatever you want to call them, they're the soft skills that students need and that employers want to see in their students and their talent. And then the connections piece, um, especially now in this world of AI, uh, connections and the human connection piece is so empowering, um, and really provides an opportunity for students to get the connections they need to help them like both navigate their careers, um, as well as just open up doors of opportunity that were never there before. Um, for employers, you know, work based learning has always been seen as a kind of like giving back to your community, which it definitely is, it's definitely pouring into the next generation, um, who are in your communities, who are going to ultimately be the talent. Um, but what we're seeing now is, is more of a shift from employers looking at it as a talent development strategy. Um, and I think that's been so kind of nice to see because it really is those employers not only are developing their own talent, but by being involved in work based learning opportunities for students, they're actually helping their own retention, um, and their own skill development for their current employees.

Rachel Ludwig: Yeah, absolutely. I think, yeah, you've mentioned a ton of things. You know, one thing I hear employers all the time talk about how it's not just, just you know, showing up to do um, you know, a classroom, um, speech speaking.

Dr. Brooke Rice: Yeah.

Rachel Ludwig: But just sort of this like overall part of the strategy in terms of brand awareness in the community and having like multi generations working at your organization. If you're a large organization and sort of what the organization means to the, to the family and the community is really, really great, especially for the larger organizations. I, um, think for smaller organizations and you know, you can add your $0.02 too. It's truly that, you know, it's a win, win because a lot of times with the smaller organizations they need to boost their capacity and we are definitely seeing with like internships even at our organization that has, you know, 50 or less employees, um, just a boost in capacity when you add internship opportunities for key areas where the students can really contribute. Um, and then you know, really across the continuum of how that weaves into their, their curriculum or whatever they're studying and that sort of thing. Um, one thing I want to ask about is tracking because data I think has changed and one of the drivers of how companies are truly seeing this as a talent pipeline strategy because they can track their effectiveness of being able to be out and visible and then how they, you know, convert some of those. Can you talk a little bit about how you're tracking participation and then also that student impact for the work based learning programs you are involved, involved in?

Dr. Brooke Rice: Yeah, absolutely. And Rachel, you mentioned the whole continuum of work based learning. You know, I mentioned guest speaking being kind of that entry level, you know, opportunity. But work based learning really runs a continuum. Um, there's you know, job shadows, which I'm sure many of your listeners have heard about. There's um, informational interviews or career conversations which are more one on one opportunities for employers and students to connect and talk about, you know, a variety of different, you know, workplace situations and career opportunities. Um, and then of course paid internships, apprenticeships, getting onto that end of the continuum where students really get an opportunity to do the work, um, and complete work of value for an organization. Across uh, across NAF and our academies in 34 states and territories, we have about 3700 um, volunteers who sit on advisory boards for those communities. But we have thousands more of employer partners who really contribute to the work based learning opportunities for these students. And you know, students are seeing a great, um, a great boost in their self esteem, their self confidence and also their skill development. But um, employers are also seeing, you know, the benefits of that. At naf, we have created this work based learning tracker, um, which helps us track on, you know, for our academy is how many work based learning opportunities are, are out there for them, how many students are participating in the full continuum of work based learning. And then as you mentioned, what are they seeing as a result of those opportunities? So when they complete a word based learning activity, they get a chance to weigh in on like how did that one specific activity impact their aspirations, their skills and their connections. So that data really helps our academy leaders. It helps our employer partners look at activities to see like is it meeting the expectation that we have of helping develop these students, um, from an employer partner perspective, they can also look at this to look at like, what are the gaps that need to be filled for our local Schools in terms of you know, career opportunities and exposure to different careers as well as opportunities to get that hands on experience for students. So that has been really unique for us. Um, we have some exciting um, reports coming out later this year about some of that reflection data to talk about like how this, how our little world, our little corner of the world and our NAF academies and the data that we're, that we're seeing there, the trends that we're seeing from work based learning participation actually help move the need. Um, and we'll be sharing that out um, later this year.

Rachel Ludwig: That's amazing for our listeners who aren't as familiar with like the idea of career academies or the NAF academies. Like can you give some examples of focus areas or like how would even a school district go about setting up something like that? And what are employers roles in setting one up or starting one?

Dr. Brooke Rice: Yeah, absolutely. So our career academies, our NAF design is really focused on. We have five main themes, um, which are finance, it, health, science, hospital, hospitality and tourism and engineering. But we have so many different themes that really are community based um, that you know, have a, have a certain geography that has a certain need for employers or um, talent development in certain uh, fields. So like in Florida for instance we have academies in agriculture, arts, audio, video production, law and public safety. We have a lot of different themes of career academies. So a career academy is itself is in a high school setting. So it's not a separate school. It really is in a, in a school, public charter um, school. And then we have the kind of supports, the wraparound supports to help them create an advisory board or boost their advisory board where employers can like weigh in on you know, what kind of curriculum are these students exposed to and how can they help support that? Um, how can they help you know, shed light on different trends that the students need to be aware of to come into those um, career areas. Um, how do they help teachers understand that? Through externships or you know, pulling the teacher in for a day to a job shadow type of situation. Um, those advisory boards also help design the work based learning plans. So what are, what is that academy of students going to can um, going to participate in, in terms of um, work based learning for a given year and for the whole academy experience. And they really nurture and guide the focus of that um, with the academy leads, with the educators. It really is a part of community, employer and educators together creating that design and what kind of outcomes they want for their students as a result of ah, participation.

Rachel Ludwig: Absolutely. That's Great. Before on moving on to no Pro, which I'm quite familiar with with, um, we highlighted on a webinar, you know, in the summer and have been learning more and more about it kind of over the last couple of years. I want to go back to. You mentioned it earlier, but I think we can't emphasize it enough because of AI and just sort of the uncertainties, um, in the labor market at the moment. The future ready skills focus. Can you talk a little bit about how you're weaving those in, what kinds of activities are lending to build those skills and what you kind of feel like the importance is going to continue or maybe shift in, in terms of future ready skills?

Dr. Brooke Rice: Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, I think, you know, we hear a lot about AI in terms of making sure that students have access to build their skills, um, in that area. And it's certainly important. But, but I think what's going to be beneficial for our students and what have employers have talked about for so long is the uniquely human qualities that we bring to the table that can, um, really make sure that our students are prepared. And so for us, our future ready skills, what we call is a set of six skills. Um, focus on communication, collaboration, problem solving, um, initiative, those types of things. Um, it's a bigger set of the durable skills or soft skills, as you mentioned. Those are the skills that really help students and people work together. Um, but also how do you use those skills to create better work environments? How do you use those skills to collaborate in different ways? And that's super important in this world of AI, um, where everything is going to be technical. We're using AI to supercharge all of our workflow. But the human part is still incredibly important.

Rachel Ludwig: Yeah, I agree, definitely. And even the organization and project management piece, I think, is even a bigger conversation because we have so much information now and there's endless amounts of data and things like that. But can you move from ideation to completion and being on time or early, you know, And I think that is going to be very, very interesting to kind of watch over the next several years. And, and honestly, the technical skills gaps might decrease a little bit because AI provides a lot of that, um, information. But still, you gotta be able to get a project and see it through and be able to manage all that extra information. So, um, yeah, I found that really interesting. Thank you so much for providing that extra insight. I couldn't, uh, move forward without asking a little bit more on that.

Dr. Brooke Rice: Absolutely. And I would say too, I mean, we build that skill through the curriculum, obviously incorporating it through project based learning and other avenues. But the work based learning is another huge piece of that. Like there's nothing like the interaction piece to actually help you build those human skills. So work based learning is more important than ever before.

Rachel Ludwig: Great now. Awesome. Well, I want to move on to no Pro. Okay. So I'm familiar with no Pro, but I don't know if our audience is all familiar with no Pro. So let's like give an overview of, you know, what it is, how it works and who can use it and then we'll kind of go a little bit deeper into the conversation.

Dr. Brooke Rice: Absolutely. So no Pro is our, is NAF's 100% free digital platform. Um, it provides access to students to create those in demand skills. Um, they complete real world projects, um, with professional mentors anonymously on the, you know, on the platform, um, as a chance to win large cash prizes. So we have daily skill builders that are five to ten minute exercises really quick to help students build like their communication skills or their problem solving skills. Um, and we give away $100 a day for those. And for our monthly challenges. Those are longer, more engaged opportunities. Um, typically last about five to six weeks. The challenges are live, but students typically take three to four weeks to do those. They can work solo or in teams or groups. Um, and we give away $10,000 a month. Um, and this is for students ages 13 to 18, um, in Florida specifically, um, in the past year and a half that we've operated this platform, we've had 29 win Florida, um, and three honorable mentions. So it's super excited to see that grow. Um, students have really, you know, talked about, uh, how important these opportunities were. They were resume building experiences, um, from the companies that create these projects, um, and has been a really great opportunity for our, our students, uh, to, to build skills across the board.

Rachel Ludwig: That's great. Are these typically part of sort of an after school club or like a CTE course or how, how are they woven curriculum so that they can, you know, especially the longer, um, term projects. Um, how are those integrated into their everyday school experience?

Dr. Brooke Rice: Yeah, so again these are available to any student 13 to 18. So they don't have to be in a NAF academy. They can be in a, you know, private school, homeschool, you know, whatever, and they're able to do that. So students can complete these challenges or skill builders on their own, um, so they can sign up themselves. They don't have to have a teacher to sign that to sign up, um, and participate. But we Find that teachers who are using this, um, they can create their own classroom and have students um, connected to that. They're using the skill builders as a daily warmup activity. So 5 to 10 minutes to start class. While they're doing attendance and doing all of the logistics, students are there building skills and have the opportunity to win um, cash prizes for the monthly challenges. We see that a lot of teachers are incorporating them into their plan. So we try to produce those, try to highlight what's coming up, what kind of challenges are coming up over the next couple of months. Um, and then they're breaking those down into like daily components of their lesson plans. But students can also do these in after school programs. They can do them at home. Like they don't all have to be done in a classroom. So it's a really flexible design. Um, and right now we have an aerospace design challenge, um, where participants think about how flying can be made safer, more efficient, more predictable. That could be cleaner engines, quieter planes, or new ways to like board and fly. Our next challenge coming up, um, here in a couple of weeks is going to be on ah, real estate investment trusts, which seem like really abstract, but it's really um, something that I think is so cool about this generation too is um, their interest in investing, um, in real estate in particular. And so they'll be asked uh, to kind of dream up new ways for them, for people to invest in real estate, um, one that makes a real difference in people's lives but also puts profits to good use. So it's a really great opportunity. But like I, I said, we have health challenges, health science challenges, we have AI challenges, a lot of different challenges, um, that we run month to month.

Rachel Ludwig: Yeah, that's excellent too. And I'm thinking from my time, you know, teaching in the classroom, and I taught middle school and high school for a while, so I'm right there. This, you know, you're always thinking about a uh, bell ringer activity or a warmup activity or what, whatever you decide to call it. But it's like I need something that's relevant, that's going to, you know, catch their attention. So you can not only get kind of the attendance and things like that part like completed, but also something that's helpful for the students so that it's, it's definitely something that they're benefiting from as well. So that sounds like a really great opportunity to leverage this tool for that, um, and then obviously weave in even more, um, some of the other things that you guys offer. So if you are you know, generating interest, which I'm sure that you are by, you know, explaining a little bit more about the things that you're, you're able to offer teachers and learners and employers, frankly. How can folks get involved more with the work that you're doing?

Dr. Brooke Rice: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, the best way to get engaged and see a little bit more about what we do is to Visit our site naf.org naf.org um, and to follow us on our social account at NAF Career Cats. Um, but for us, you know, whether you're an individual, a company, uh, a uh, community organization, a, um, post secondary institution, it's getting involved. So you can get involved with your NAF academies or, or other schools, um, in your area to engage in work based learning. This is something that we obviously really support for our own academies, but also just the greater field in general of let's make this world a better place. Um, let's get everybody engaged in providing work based learning. Um, we have a ton of different resources online to help support that. So we have a lot of free and publicly accessible resources, uh, from everything from how do I start an advisory board to how do I do a career chat or informational interview, um, both from the employer side, the educator side, how to put that together. Um, so we offer a lot of different, um, resources like that on our naf.org website. Um, also go to nopro, um, if you are, you know, a listener who, who is a teacher or a business professional, making sure that you pass this along to your schools. If you're a parent, share this with your student. Um, these are great opportunities for, for skill building and cash prizes. So, so I just encourage everyone to go to naf.org and or nopro.org for more information.

Rachel Ludwig: That's great. Well, thank you so much for sharing your expertise. It was wonderful to learn a little bit more about the work you're doing. And again, thank you for being involved as a board member at the Florida Chamber. We appreciate you all so much.

Dr. Brooke Rice: Thank you so much.

Narrator: Thank you for joining us for today's Future of Work Florida podcast. To find out more about the resources discussed in today's topic segment, we invite you to visit our website@flchamber.com futureofwork florida. Together we can champion the future of work and create America's best workforce right here in Florida. Be sure to subscribe for future content.