How To Build an Inclusive Workforce with Parina Parikh, Associate Vice President at Jobs for the Future Episode 167

Speaker A: Right now, we do have an incredible opportunity to build programs that, ah, integrate learning and work. And we must help our students build these relational skills and give them credit for mastering material that might not be mastered or developed in a traditional college classroom. As workforce leaders, as education leaders, we need to start thinking in an innovative way on where does this mastery of material happen and can students get credit for mastery if it didn't necessarily happen in that traditional classroom setting?

Speaker B: The workforce landscape is rapidly changing, and educators and their institutions need to keep up. Preparing students before they enter the workforce to make our communities and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an education. But we need to understand how to change and adjust so that we can begin to project where, where things are headed before we even get there. So how do we begin to predict the future?

Speaker C: Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cumo, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City

Speaker D: College and host of this podcast.

Speaker B: And I'm Christina Barci, producer and co host of this podcast.

Speaker C: And we are starting the conversation about the future of work. We'll explore topics like how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our highest goals, more internships and PCC students in the workforce. We at Pasadena City College want to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us, you, the employers, the policymakers, the educational institutions, and the community as a whole.

Speaker B: We believe change happens when we work together, and it all starts with having a conversation. Hi, I'm Christina Barsi.

Speaker C: And I'm Salvatrice Cumo. And this is the Future of Work.

Speaker D: Hi, welcome back to the Future of Work podcast. I am your host, Dr. Salvatrice Kumo. Today we're joined by Parina Parikh, Associate Vice President at Jobs for the Future, where she leads statewide strategy and partnerships for California. Parina brings over two decades of experience across the private and nonprofit sectors and including her former role as VP of Programs at the San Diego Workforce partnership. Perina leads JFF's strategy across California, guiding a team of more than 20 people who are working toward one big building a more inclusive, equitable future for workers and communities. Her work bridges the gap between policy partnerships and the people most impacted by workforce challenges. Today, we'll explore how inclusive workforce strategies can be scaled regionally, the evolving role of community colleges, and what it takes to build a future of work that leaves no one behind. Parina, it's so Great to have you here. Welcome.

Speaker A: Thank you for having me.

Speaker D: You bet, you bet. Let's get started. I am always curious about the journey and how you got to where you are today with Jobs for the Future. So if you could share a little bit about your current role there and how you came across it.

Speaker A: Yeah, thank you for asking. So my journey was pretty unconventional. I actually started in the for profit world and spent about 17 years working in finance and honing my skills in the energy and utility industry. Actually, I pivoted in 2019, right before COVID hit and became sort of interested in the nonprofit sector and in workforce development more specifically. I do have a degree in economics and wanted to think about how can I leverage that into working with nonprofits. As you shared. I was the vice president of programs at the San Diego Workforce Partnership where I had the opportunity to build some pretty innovative programming in that organization that focused on information, uh, technology, energy, construction, utilities, healthcare and behavioral health, advanced M manufacturing, public administration roles. We stood up, uh, the country's first income share agreement and outcomes based loan from a workforce development board and just had a really consequential time building programming for youth and adults in San Diego County. Based on that experience that I had had, I wanted to have an even broader reach. And that's when the opportunity at Jobs for the Future presented itself to really lead JFF's impact in the state of California. In thinking about how can we bring sort of the full suite of services and offerings that JFF has to offer, which we are a national organization based in Boston, but how can we bring that to California and really have an intentional strategy and impact in the state to build regional and inclusive economies, to really foster workforce and economic development. So I have the opportunity to oversee all of our strategy, all of our partnerships, all of our impact in the state with the benefit of a national organization. But to be able to do it with people that are local to California and really impact our regional communities, that's

Speaker D: very difficult to do. I'm going to pause and acknowledge that because regional work is difficult work, let alone across the state. So when I read things like inclusive workforce solutions, scaling those inclusive workforce solutions, I personally know what it takes and it looks like. But I'd like for you to kind of give your perspective and your experiences and maybe some real time examples on what that looks like to scale those type of workforce solutions for those who

Speaker A: are listening in, it is a challenging order. What I will say is that in order to achieve these inclusive outcomes, you really need to start with an inclusive process. And that really means thinking broadly about who is invited to sit at the table or when you're designing these solutions. So do you have a broad and diverse cross section of employers, regional economic coalitions, workforce agencies, voices of the underrepresented, voices of youth, small businesses, community based organizations, neighborhood, uh, advocates? The community college is the community college in that region at the table. Chambers of commerce, business associations. Until you get the investment and buy in from all of these stakeholders, including unions, if that's relevant, you're not going to get the scale and the reach and the inclusivity that you're looking for for that region. And so it's really important to think about what was the process to develop these, uh, solutions and design these programs to be able to achieve the inclusive outcomes that we're looking for. And that's something that JFF really excels at. California as a whole is something that we are thinking about how to intentionally impact, but really diving into Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, the Central Valley, the Bay Area, coastal communities, really thinking about how can we sort of take the whole of California and really divide it up in ways that are manageable, starting with regions where we have deep, uh, partnerships and represent what JFF would call its North Star population. So people without degrees, women, people of color, people who might be formerly incarcerated. These are the populations that we are focused on and those are the areas that really represent those populations.

Speaker D: So you have the inclusive process, which is instrumental in designing inclusive programming. And even just to kind of go through that process is a lift, and it takes time, let alone designing the program itself. And you have been impactful in designing programs across the state, from tech to construction. So can you walk us through a program in which it went through this inclusive process and now you've designed this program and what are its impacts and the impacts that it had?

Speaker A: Yeah, I can give, uh, one really great example. When I was at the San Diego Workforce Partnership, our local utility, San Diego Gas and Electric, came to us and said, hey, we're having challenges diversifying our pipeline into gas operations. They didn't have as many women going into their apprenticeship program. They didn't have people of color represented in the trades. And so they came to the workforce Partnership to help them diversify their talent pool. And so we designed a program with the employer at the table. So San Diego Gas Electric was the employer. We partnered with the Electrical Training Institute, which was a part of our local building and construction trades union, to design the training. And so the workforce board, the training institution and the employer all came Together to design a four week pre apprenticeship construction program that helped people gain entry into the building and construction trades. They were able to gain hands on experience and build those foundational skills such that they could thrive in the construction industry. Over the course of a year, we would have about 100 people going through this program in cohorts of about 10 to 12 each. And I'm proud to say that by the time that we got around to 2023, 2024, we saw about 17% of our graduates identify as female. And if you look at the nationwide average of people entering the construction trades, it was about two and a half percent. So we know that we made a difference. We know that we made an impact for women getting into the trades and being able to thrive on the construction site and feel like they belonged and pave the way for more women to enter the building trades. So really just outstanding pre apprenticeship program that led people with the sort of skills and experience and relationships necessary to become full fledged apprentices. I'm just incredibly proud of the partnership that we developed with our local union, with the utility at the table, and with the training institution. And so it was just a, uh, wonderful program that really helped bolster the construction industry and help people that were underrepresented get into that field.

Speaker D: That's a stellar example. I think you're just thinking through even our own apprenticeship programs that we are currently fulfilling and building as we speak. It takes a big lift. And the fact that not only did you and the team carry that lift, but you had significant outcomes speaks volumes on the intentionality around inclusive process and this regional based, I mean, throughout your whole career, it seems to me throughout, throughout your whole career, you've taken this very much regional approach. I'm curious to kind of understand from you through your lens why a regional based strategy is so important when we're talking about workforce development as an ecosystem. I'd like to hear your perspective on that.

Speaker A: So if, uh, we step back, as of, I think a month or two ago, California is now the fourth largest economy in the world. And it comprises a diverse cross section of regional economies that look very different from one another. California is anything but homogenous. As you know, the Inland Empire, for example, has drastically different needs from the Bay Area. And workforce and economic development go hand in hand with community development. So in order to address the place based strategies that work, we must develop inclusive plans that invest in the local community. So understanding the local transportation, local infrastructure, local housing, what is vibrant about a given neighborhood, who are the key players that Might not have the title that you're looking for, but uh, are the movers and shakers in a given region and then evaluating how those local resources are made available to its residents will drive the efficacy of any workforce development effort. So when I think about place based regional approaches, it's really all of those factors that have to sort of support the workforce development that you're intending to do that can't be done without a real clear understanding of the region and the local players.

Speaker D: Yeah. And I think that we carry so many different assets. Right. Each one of us that are in this ecosystem carry an inventory of assets that sometimes we don't understand what each one has. And I think that to your point, why this inclusive process and this place based strategy is so important is that it allows us to kind of bring forward what we are able to fulfill and with intentional collaborations creating greater impacts. Just as the example that you shared

Speaker A: moments ago, I'll just say there you couldn't be more right on the target. One of the first things JFF does when we go into any region and Santa Barbara is a great example of this, we were working with their county office of Education and is an asset map. We developed an ecosystem map of Santa Barbara county because we wanted to know what are the assets in the region that drive education and workforce development. That is typically where JFF would start, is with that asset mapping and ecosystem mapping of what is in this region that's driving these efforts.

Speaker D: Um, I love that. Speaking of education, like to shift gears just a little bit because I would love to hear your perspective on community colleges in this space. And we know, right. That community colleges play a critical role in California's ecosystem and specifically in the space of workforce development. That's what we were designed for. And why we're here today. Right. Why we're here today. Talking about the future of work, because community colleges play an important role in that. Want to kind of hear your perspective on like where do you see the most significant opportunities for us as a system of community colleges in this space and or as partners to organizations like jff?

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I think California is just such an interesting place to be, whether you're partnering with a community college or working within the system. As you know, and as many of your listeners know, the California community colleges represent the largest higher education system in the country. We graduate almost 2 million students annually through 116 colleges. And I just think that that in and of itself represents such a ripe opportunity. 40% of students, I think, that attend the California community college system are first generation students. Right? And so that's almost half. So right now we do have an incredible opportunity to build programs that integrate learning and work. And we must help our students build these relational skills and give them credit for mastering material that might not be mastered or developed in a traditional college classroom. And so I think that as workforce leaders, as education leaders, we need to start thinking in an innovative way on where does this mastery of material happen and can students get credit for mastery if it didn't necessarily happen in that traditional classroom setting? So I think that we have an incredible opportunity to sort of blend this idea of learning and working. We need to sort of take advantage of these newer, more innovative themes around competency based education, credit for prior learning and really shake up this false divide between learning and work. Let's blur those lines. That doesn't need to be so bifurcated. Let's create, earn and learn opportunities through pre apprenticeship, apprenticeship and really think about how can we sort of create these credit based learning opportunities in a way that's more authentic to the student and let's sort of meet the students where they are at. And again, like I said, it might not be a traditional classroom, it might be happening in other ways, but I think this is the time where the community college system and workforce development can, uh, come together and think about what do alternative ways of education look like. We are working with the California Chancellor's Office and piloting with nine community colleges across the state of California this idea of CBE or Competency Based Education and helping them identify pathways and curriculum that can be converted from more the sort of Carnegie Credit hour classroom setting to cbe. And I'm really excited by the opportunity to continue to work with community colleges and the system as a whole to really sort of think about how can we graduate more students in a manner that isn't sacrificing a whole lot of time, but rather doing it in a way that expedites their education and path to whether it be an associate's or a bachelor's or a certificate and gives them the opportunity sort of to earn a paycheck while they're doing all of that.

Speaker D: Agreed. 100%. You couldn't have said it any clearer. I agree with you 100% that there's still a lot of room for us to grow in that space. You know, we're thinking about education and kind of restructuring competency based learn and earn, earn and learn and taking those experiences for credit. But what about the continuum? So I have students, we obviously we have students that are going through our pathways, our career pathways. And the end goal is a quality job, an occupation that serves its purposes, a quality occupation. We define quality jobs very differently than I think some of our employers do, many in organizations like jff. And so when you and I as practitioners in this space start to look at the trajectory of workforce development and its changes and its evolution and uh, specifically with everything that we're kind of faced with in technology, in policy, what are you seeing or what do you define, I should say, as our new quality job definition? And how can organizations like JFF help employers institutions adapt to that new definition of a quality job?

Speaker A: Yeah, that is such an important question. And I couldn't agree with you more that everyone's definition of a quality job is so different. I would say that one JFF has an entire body of work around job quality and what a job quality framework could look like. And so we have resources dedicated to working with corporations, employers large and small on helping to implement what a quality job framework could look like in their organization. So happy to dive into that. But what I would say in terms of a definition is that it's so much more than one's paycheck. And that's where we need to start, is a quality job is not just about the paycheck that you receive. It's ensuring that employers and workers alike are thinking about the broader aspects of what a job should include. Pay equity, paid leave, equitable opportunities for advancement. What does transparent career pathway look like? Do you know what the next level is? Are you able to receive the career coaching and training to be able to advance within your organization? Do you feel like you belong? Do you have psychological safety? Do you know what your schedule is gonna look like from week to week? Or does it happen to change at the last minute and then you have to arrange for transportation and childcare that you might not have secured? So there's so many elements of job quality. And what's interesting is that it means different things to different people. Not every single aspect of job quality is something that each job seeker is looking for. And it's also not something that each employer can necessarily offer. So we always say that this is something to shoot for, this is aspirational. But JFF can come and help employers figure out what is the right sort of fit for your business. I think if we were to sort of think about California, as you know, California is 90% small to mid sized businesses. That's what we're made up as. And a lot of people forget that because they think about California and They're like, oh, big businesses, Hollywood, big industry. Actually, no. Over 90% of our businesses in California are small to mid sized businesses. So how can we work with those businesses to make sure that job quality is not lost on them and that they are retaining the employees necessary to be able to drive their businesses forward?

Speaker D: Well said. I mean, part of a quality job is also equitable measures to receiving those or having an opportunity to receive that quality job. Right. You and I both know there are barriers to this work. There are significant barriers to this work. Is it getting better? I do think it's getting better. We still have a long way to go. And so when we think about systemic barriers and the obstacles in the way of equitable workforce development, what are some shifts that you're seeing that give us some hope that we're inching away, we're getting closer and closer to our North Star.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think you said it so well. The biggest obstacle is access to opportunities and this sort of perceived lack of a level playing field. We've got to be in a position that regardless of someone's race, gender, ethnicity, education level or zip code, that we have designed a system around equitable access to opportunities. And I think that, as I was saying earlier, I'm hopeful because I'm seeing these innovations in education happening where we are embracing this idea of credit for prior learning. We are open to competency based education strategies and earn and learn strategies and increasing work based learning opportunities so that people don't have to wait until they have an official graduation date to start working. And I think that all of those elements taken together is what's giving me hope for the future. I would be remiss if I didn't mention where AI is going. And I think that the responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence and thinking about how can we use it for good, how can we use it to close equity gaps and level the playing field. We've got a ripe opportunity to do that here. And I think that this is the moment to harness that. This is the moment to take advantage of our understanding of technology and, and use it in a way that advances economic mobility for everybody, such that some of these obstacles are no longer obstacles.

Speaker D: Removing the fear.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker D: There's lots of fear. And we could have a whole other episode on the fear, uh, right about AI and what it may or may not be doing to your future occupations. But well said that it's a necessary evil, if you will. It is what it is. It's here. So how do we leverage that?

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker D: For Greater returns on an equitable workforce. And you're absolutely right again. Still a ton of work to be done. What's beautiful is that you have organizations like JFF and institutions like ours who have made a full commitment to being a, uh, force in this space, being a leader in this space, testing, tinkering, trying to understand so that we can properly position our students to succeed. And let's not forget the existing workforce. Right. Sometimes I forget. I mean, I too sometimes forget that it's like, well, wait a minute, you know. Yes, we have our new workforce and we pay a lot of attention to the new workforce. We have to pay equal attention to the existing workforce. And I personally would enjoy seeing more programming around that. And I think that JFF has been instrumental in bringing that to light too.

Speaker A: I agree. I think the idea of continuing to upskill our workforce such that interruptions in technology or market forces doesn't necessarily encumber in a way that ruins someone's career trajectory. Right. We've got to be able to future proof some of these jobs. We've got to think more strategically about which jobs have a higher risk of disabilities, displacement, such that we can effectively train people now, such that they will be effective in whatever pursuit they have in the future.

Speaker D: Right. That's a great word to use, by the way. Future proof the occupation. And there's this evolution in their existing role. We'll be doing a complete disservice to the existing workforce if we didn't do that. This has been wonderful, by the way. I completely enjoyed this conversation and I'm always really curious, too, about. I'm going to put you in the spot. I'm sorry, I'm just going to say it out loud. I'm putting you on the spot. Farina. If you could leave our listener with one thing, what would that one thing be about our conversation today?

Speaker A: Be your own strongest cheerleader. As I was saying, not all education happens in a traditional classroom. Don't discount any of the experiences that you've had, whether that's a volunteer setting, an internship that paid or unpaid, a certificate you might have received. Everything counts. And there's nothing you should be holding back to a future employer. Nothing you should be holding back on your resume. Really think about the skill sets that you have and the experiences that you have and talk about how they could translate to that future opportunity that you're looking for. So I think what I would leave your listeners with is everything counts right now.

Speaker D: Well said. Thank you so very much. If our listener wanted to get into contact with you. Where's the best place that they can connect with you and we'll be sure to enter those into the Show Notes.

Speaker A: You can find me on LinkedIn at Parina Parikh. You can also email me at pparikff.org Excellent.

Speaker D: Thank you so much. Lovely conversation and I personally look forward to working closer with you in some of these efforts that we are very closely tied to. So thank you very, very much and we will chat soon.

Speaker A: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Speaker D: You bet.

Speaker C: Thank you for listening to the Future of Work podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you can easily get

Speaker D: new episodes every Tuesday.

Speaker C: You can reach out to us by clicking on the website link below in the Show Notes to collaborate, partner or just chat about all things Future of Work.

Speaker D: We'd love to connect with you. All of us here at the Future

Speaker C: of Work and Pasadena City College wish you safety and wellness.