Oct 25, 2022
00:00:00 Stephen
LA has been and will continue to
be at the center of global attention. I think we underestimate the
impact that Los Angeles has on the rest of the world. And because
of that, we need to step up and we need to be more aggressive and
assertive about our position on the global
economy.
00:00:16 Stephen
Because when we do, our workers
here and our employees here will have opportunities not only in Los
Angeles but around the world. But we need to take that place and
see ourselves as a global competitor because the rest of the world
is already looking there.
00:00:34 Christina
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.
00:00:47 Christina
But we need to understand how to
change and adjust so that we can begin to project where things are
headed before we even get there. So, how do we begin to predict the
future?
00:00:59 Salvatrice
Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice
President of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City
College, and host of this podcast.
00:01:08 Christina
And I'm Christina Barsi,
producer and co-host of this podcast.
00:01:11 Salvatrice
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.
00:01:26 Salvatrice
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.
00:01:45 Christina
We believe change happens when
we work together, and it all starts with having a conversation. I'm
Christina Barsi.
00:01:53 Salvatrice
And I'm Salvatrice Cummo, and
this is the Future of Work.
00:01:58 Salvatrice
Hi everyone, welcome back to the
Future of Work Podcast. I am your host, Salvatrice Cummo. We are
excited to bring you another featured guest of our Future of Work
Speaker Series where we learn more about some of our panelists that
will be with us at our Future of Work conference this November
8th.
00:02:15 Salvatrice
As a reminder, you can register
to attend the conference at no cost by clicking on our link in the
show notes. We hope to certainly see you there.
00:02:22 Salvatrice
Specifically, in today's
episode, we'll be learning more about the Los Angeles County
Economic Development Corporation and the World Trade Center Los
Angeles, and what their focus is moving forward. We will also gain
some insight into how we can better connect academia with industry
to create, certainly, a better pathway for our
students.
00:02:41 Salvatrice
With that, we are excited to
welcome back, Stephen Cheung, President of World Trade Center Los
Angeles, and President of the LAEDC. Welcome back, Stephen, how are
you?
00:02:52 Stephen
Thank you so much, Salvatrice
for having me back. I'm doing well, thank you.
00:02:55 Salvatrice
This is a super exciting time
for you. We're in the same kind of circles, so we get to see each
other very, very often. But this is a unique time for LA and we are
certainly proud and honored and excited to have you step into the
new role of President of LAEDC. And thank you for giving us your
time today and also, giving us your time at the conference that's
coming up on November 8th.
00:03:18 Stephen
Yeah. Well, thank you for the
opportunity. I think it's important for us to start working even
more closely together as we're getting ready for recovery from
COVID-19. There's just so much that we have to do together as a
region.
00:03:28 Salvatrice
Yes, for sure. Last time you
were here, we really kind of talked about COVID-19 impacting the
businesses' operations and sectors, and that really kind of relied
on trade. But at this point, we're kind of in a different place and
now, we're thinking about moving forward and moving away from the
pandemic.
00:03:45 Salvatrice
How do you think, like just
thinking back about what the regions and what the sectors are
really facing at the time of COVID-19 in its peak, and now, during
this recovery process; what regions do you think have been impacted
and that you see a quicker recovery?
00:04:01 Stephen
Well, I don't think there's one
single region that has not been impacted by COVID. To reverse that
question a little bit, I think what we saw was that over the last
two years, we're really triaging. We're really looking at how do we
survive the pandemic.
00:04:14 Stephen
Whereas for now, we're able to
be a bit more removed from the immediacy of COVID. So, now, we're
able to look at long-term growth. The world has changed
significantly since two years ago, and our industries and our
economy are also adapting very quickly to what this new situation
can look like.
00:04:32 Stephen
And with that said, we can't use
the same practice and the same models that we had before. And
that's why looking in the future and planning for these new
industries and their needs, and how do we make sure those
opportunities are aligned with our values here in the region, and
making sure that equity, making sure that opportunities are
provided to the most vulnerable populations and the most
underserved population become a key component of our recovery
efforts.
00:04:56 Stephen
I think those are the things
that on top of mind, and I think industries are also focusing on
that as well, because they've seen that you could not have a
laissez-fair approach and just allow things to happen without
intervention in many ways, and they need additional
support.
00:05:10 Stephen
So, I think that this is a very
interesting time where you really have a lot of willing players
that are going to be getting together. We just don't want to
squander that opportunity to be able to create those mechanisms and
those pathways forward.
00:05:23 Salvatrice
So, this new era really of
conducting business very differently, new industries coming up -
not only new industries but new needs; has the work of the LAEDC
shifted with connecting academia to industry?
00:05:37 Salvatrice
You know, LAEDC plays a very
important role here in the region, specifically for community
colleges and helping us connect employers to our students and
employers to our academic institutions. And in that space, do you
see that changing given the new needs of the industries and
industries really conducting business very differently than they
did before?
00:05:59 Stephen
Yeah, I do see that there's
going to be a bit of a change, a bit of an evolution, a bit of a
growth in terms of what those partnerships can look like and what
the work will look like. The reason why I say that is as we are in
the midst of the pandemic, I think it became more apparent than
ever that Los Angeles is really a small business and medium-size
business town.
00:06:18 Stephen
What I mean by that is in our
research, we found that 92 to 94% of all LA county-based companies
have less than 20 employees. So, even though a lot of the jobs that
were created are created by large companies, about half of the jobs
that are in Los Angeles are supported by small companies and micro
enterprises. So, as we're moving in the future, that's not going to
change. LA will continue to have a lot of small
businesses.
00:06:42 Stephen
How do we now, basically, make
sure that those small businesses are able to be part of this entire
job training talent development system so that they're not left on
their own to create these opportunities? Because if we're solely
relying on large companies to provide new jobs, that's just half
the solution to half the equation.
00:06:58 Stephen
So, I think this is where we
feel that LAEDC's work, especially with the community colleges,
will have to evolve to make sure that we are able to encompass all
sorts of different jobs that will be coming forth in the future,
whether they're large companies, small company, or medium-size
companies.
00:07:12 Salvatrice
And are the practices within
LAEDC changing a little bit, and how you're engaging with us
specifically? I know we're really kind of new into this new era of
post-pandemic, but is there anything that you can say like, "Look,
Salvatrice, we tried this and it really worked and we did this
differently?"
00:07:30 Stephen
Yes. The example is, I would say
right now, we were given a couple opportunities because of funding
opportunities that were available through the federal level and the
state level. For example, the economic development administration
released a couple grant opportunities and all the regions around
the United States are applying for it.
00:07:49 Stephen
But what they're looking for are
strategic alliances and long-term strategies so that we can work
together as a region to develop these pathways I was talking about
earlier. I think most regions, especially in Los Angeles, we have a
lot of great individual programs, whether it's workforce
development program, whether it's industry cluster development
programs, but sometimes we don't do a very good job making sure
it's all aligned.
00:08:10 Stephen
And one of the problems is
because LA is so big and so huge with 88 cities, with over a
hundred incorporated areas, with over 10 million residents, it's
not easy for that coordination. And that coordination has to be in
place over the long-term.
00:08:24 Stephen
We've seen economic crisis
happen over and over again. This is cyclical. The next economic
crisis will happen. Do we wait until then to basically start
bringing folks together to plan for another recovery plan? Or do we
basically get ready now?
00:08:38 Stephen
So, it's kind of like an
earthquake preparedness plan. We should have an economic
preparedness plan. So, in case anything happens, we're all aligned.
I think that's where the opportunities are and that's where we're
going to be working a bit differently, that we're really looking at
the next 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, and 15 years, so that that
relationship between LAEDC and the community colleges will be
long-term.
00:08:59 Stephen
And basically, we can continue
to grow on some of the things that we've worked on before, some of
the reports that we built on before - how do we take that
information and turn it into a full pathway?
00:09:08 Stephen
I think that's going to be the
focus of what LAEDC would like to see happen, because those
opportunities that were provided by the Economic Development
Administration and now, also through the state of California,
through something called the Community Economic Resilience Fund,
$600 million fund available throughout the state of California to
create these kind of structures again.
00:09:25 Stephen
So, I think a lot of folks are
really looking at that long-term structure and it's giving us the
opportunity as a region to align ourselves to make sure that we're
able to work together and create these pathways. So, that from an
industry standpoint, as the companies are growing into their
various sectors, those type of changes and their skill sets needs
are immediately available to the community colleges for them to
develop their curriculum, which we've been working very closely on
that aspect already.
00:09:51 Stephen
But as the economy's changing -
I was talking about the small companies, sometimes they have to
adjust very quickly. We also have to basically establish those
systems.
00:09:58 Stephen
And finally, the last component
of this is how do we make sure that we're able to recruit and
target the workers in terms of where they are at and what their
needs are, so that we can make sure that those displaced workers,
whether from COVID or whether from other issues, have the ability
to upscale and reskill to enter this entire
pathway.
00:10:17 Salvatrice
Right. And through that lens,
through your lens of industry and knowing kind of this evolution
that we're ... long-term solutions and long-term recovery, what
would you say - community colleges, how could we be a solid
partner, a more active partner within this long-term development of
career pathways and just long-term sustainability of recovery?
You're right, it will happen again. So, what could we
do?
00:10:46 Stephen
Yeah, community colleges have
been fantastic in terms of trying to reach out to the industry
partners and the businesses to kind of hear what those changes are
so they can create the training system that's
necessary.
00:10:55 Stephen
Another thing that's going to be
vital is that we've been working very closely to identify the needs
of the industry. I think we need to do a much better job in terms
of identifying the needs of the talent pool and the people that are
entering the community college systems, because I think we're
seeing a completely new generation of workers that have different
needs and different ways of learning and different ways of
working.
00:11:15 Stephen
So, I think this information
also needs to be fed back to the industry so they can adjust as
well. So, it's not a one-way street. I think community colleges
will become that key connector to be able to provide that
information because a lot of the industries, they don't have the
capacity, nor do they have the resources to dedicate to the
outreach to understanding the students and also, the
learners.
00:11:35 Stephen
And this is where the community
colleges are sitting in a very, very unique situation where they
have that information at their fingertips at any point that they
want. And having that information will really guide the way that
we're going to shape the future of work.
00:11:48 Stephen
Just as an example, we're
dealing right now with understanding remote work and working from
home. As folks are going back, industry need to basically figure
out how do they structure their leases, how do they structure their
cubicles and their offices.
00:12:01 Stephen
Without knowing the desires from
the workers of the future, some of them might say, "Hey, I want the
flexibility. I will work as hard as I can, but the thing is I need
the flexibility. So, I don't even need to be in the office space."
The companies then can save a lot of rents by not having a large
space.
00:12:17 Stephen
But not having that
understanding of where the workers are at, it becomes difficult for
these companies to have to make that guesswork. So, it becomes the
entire feedback loop that will be very important. And the community
colleges, again, is vital to that feedback loop.
00:12:31 Salvatrice
Do you feel like that's a space
that we should be allocating resources to as it relates to future
work? You know, we talk a lot about industry needs, but we very
rarely talk about (and I'm really glad you said it) the employee
needs.
00:12:43 Stephen
Yes.
00:12:44 Salvatrice
This is like actually, quite
frankly, the first time that you and I have talked about, but even
in the space of, in academia, we don't talk about employee needs
out there, we talk about the employer.
00:12:54 Stephen
That's exactly
it.
00:12:54 Salvatrice
So, are you seeing kind of like
where we as a community college can be allocating resources to that
work for a better understanding or-
00:13:04 Stephen
I personally think so. I think
this is a very important piece of the conversation because once the
community colleges are able to collect those voices, but it's also
about the data. Because having an individual anecdotal story is not
enough.
00:13:15 Stephen
And the reach and the size of
the impact that the community colleges collectively can have is
going to be very important. And the second thing that I think the
community colleges bring to the table as well is the
regionalization and the focus on the areas.
00:13:27 Stephen
This is also going to contribute
to the decision-making process when it comes to commuting patterns.
That's going to change. You know, as we're looking at recovery from
COVID, folks, some of them have moved out of the region. Some of
them have decided to be closer to transit orient design locations
where they're going to be in higher-density buildings that have
access to rail as we're investing more in rail.
00:13:47 Stephen
So, these are all important
decision-making processes and information that the industry will
need. And if the community colleges are able to get that
information and allocate resources to really help aggregate some of
the voices, it becomes a very powerful tool and a very powerful
resource, not only for the industry but for the entire
region.
00:14:06 Stephen
Because I don't think we've had
really good data about the employees, their needs, their desires,
and basically, what their pattern's going to look like. Because
right now, we've seen a lot of companies are struggling with
hiring. And so, they need to adjust to the needs of the employees.
Otherwise, they're just going to have vacant jobs that no one's
going to want to work for and they're not going to know how to
continue to grow their business.
00:14:26 Salvatrice
And this is perfect timing for
us as a regional consortium, the LA Regional Consortium, to work
with LAEDC on that kind of collecting that data. I'd be very, very
interested in collecting the voices of the employees of our region
of LA county. So, let's put a pin in that, Stephen, because that's
important work. And imagine having both, to your point, having
those two resources, two data points.
00:14:50 Stephen
I'll finish that thought in
terms of, it goes all the way back to this long-term strategy
that's going to be in place. We've had individual components of
industry work; how do we partner with the industry in terms of
reaching the learners.
00:15:02 Stephen
But we haven't collectively as a
region have that entire pathway, that strategy lined up. So, we can
clearly see as a region, as these industries are continuing to
grow, here are all the pieces. And so, as a region, we can
collectively get the information altogether at once and make a
collective decision with all the best data that's
available.
00:15:21 Stephen
Right now, in order for us to do
anything, we have to create an ad hoc kind of project to get a
portion of that data. And that data is only at that period, in that
moment in time. And so, you don't have a longitudinal study that
allows us to basically look at the evolution and really look at the
data in the way that helps us make long-term
decisions.
00:15:38 Stephen
Because things will change
moment to moment. But if you have LAEDC and the community colleges
collectively become that custodian of information data, then it
becomes so much more powerful for this region to be able to rely on
these two institutions to be able to provide that solid
understanding. So, we're not just guessing, we actually have
information to base our decisions on.
00:15:58 Salvatrice
Right. And that is really the
epitome of preparation, the epitome of preparing our students for
the workforce. These students that we have now, future students
that we'll have, and the current employees as our students. So,
you're absolutely right, and I'm very, very excited about
it.
00:16:15 Salvatrice
So, let's circle back to that
because I think there's a ton of work that can be done as a
regional consortium and with LAEDC.
00:16:21 Salvatrice
I want to shift gears just a
little bit, Stephen, because you're in a new role as President of
LAEDC, and everyone's very, very excited about that. Can you share
with us your vision, your outlook maybe for the next couple of
years? I like to operate in like one to three-year increments, so
tell us what that might look like for you.
00:16:42 Stephen
So, we are the same way. We're
actually looking at a three-year strategy in terms of being able to
be flexible because not just LA but around the world, the long-term
plans you should have in place, but you have to be flexible. And
that's what we're seeing.
00:16:54 Stephen
So, for us, as I'm entering this
new role, the goals and the vision that we're bringing along is
really about how do we maximize on the resources that are available
to grow the types of industries that are going to be most impactful
to our communities, and how do we make sure those opportunities are
available to the underserved communities that that's been left
behind.
00:17:14 Stephen
Because we've seen that if we
just basically grow without support, we've seen that the dichotomy
of our economy, bifurcation of our income stratus. So, that creates
a region and economy that's not healthy, and eventually, it's going
to come back to haunt us.
00:17:30 Stephen
So, with that said, in terms of
specifically how we're going to achieve those goals, it's really to
make sure that we have the ability to deliver on the five-prong
strategy for LAEDC.
00:17:39 Stephen
The first prong is about our
macroeconomic research. We really need to, as we're talking about
earlier, understand and really do data analysis to look at the
trends that are happening; what these macroeconomic trends around
the world, how that impacts Los Angeles in
particular.
00:17:54 Stephen
And with that data, start
guiding the industries that we want to focus on that's going to
create the best jobs, the highest-paying jobs, the most sustainable
and stable career path, and those that will provide pathways for
the underserved community.
00:18:07 Stephen
So, that number one aspect of
the macroeconomic research will help us then identify the
industries that we're going to focus on. In the past, we've studied
that, for example, the bioscience life industry are going to be
important to this region, is because of the enormous growth
potential and also, the wage impact it has on
employees.
00:18:25 Stephen
And it's not just going to be
for folks with PhDs and master's degree because over 60% of those
jobs within the bioscience sectors, you don't require a college
degree. And these are good jobs are going to be available for us.
So, having that information, now, we're able to focus on the
industry. What we want to do, our second-prong approach is to grow
those industry and have an industry cluster development focus so
that we can double down on making sure those ecosystem continues to
grow.
00:18:49 Stephen
What policies are necessary in
order for those industry to be successful, what programs are
available, what advocacy is needed for those industry to continue
to thrive. So, that's our second prong; utilizing researcher
guidance. We're going to develop our industry and grow those
ecosystem.
00:19:03 Stephen
But you can see how once we have
that industry cluster, that group, those councils that we're going
to be creating to guide that process, we want to create a
three-year blueprint. Where are we now here in 2022? Where do we
want to go in three years? Where do we want to go in 10 years, so
that we have a pathway forward.
00:19:19 Stephen
So, that blueprint will
basically guide our next two-prong approach, which is our business
attraction, retention growth strategy. Because we need to make sure
that we're able to continue to help these companies grow within
these sectors.
00:19:30 Stephen
What technical assistance do
they need? How do we work with the governments around LA county to
provide those assistance just so that these companies can continue
not to survive, but really, to thrive.
00:19:40 Stephen
And that's a third-prong
approach, which is a business attraction, retention growth. And you
can see that it leads to our fourth strategy, which is
international. We see that international foreign direct investment
is going to be a huge part of our recovery.
00:19:51 Stephen
A lot of companies, when they
mature, they will leave this region, but we have very strong
competitive advantage here in Los Angeles region where a lot of
international companies want to locate here and create amazing jobs
for this region. So, this is an international strategy of business
attraction, retention, and growth as well.
00:20:07 Stephen
And finally, all of that is
supported by a workforce development and talent development.
Because if you don't have the talent pool and the employees, these
industries will not be able to grow. So, continuing the work that
we've been talking about, partnering with the community colleges,
the CSU5s, and universities, to make sure that we have the talent
pool necessary to grow the sector, to help these companies to be
able to identify the talent pool to really help them be
successful.
00:20:30 Stephen
That five-prong approach is
going to be our next three-year focus strategy. And we want to use
data to identify what those industry focus areas are. But at the
same time, we've already been doing research for quite a few years,
so we know in general, some of those target industries that we want
to focus already, but we just want to make sure that as we're
getting out of COVID - the world is changing so quickly, we want to
make sure we have the most up-to-date information and identify the
best potential for Los Angeles.
00:20:56 Salvatrice
Excellent. That is very, very
exciting and I can't wait to learn more and to see more about how
this evolves in the next year or so. And that's intense. It's
intense, but it's necessary. It's absolutely necessary if we're
really being honest with ourselves, and truly being honest about
long-term solution-based recovery.
00:21:16 Salvatrice
And so, I'm absolutely thrilled
about it. I really, really appreciate you sharing that with me. And
I know that more will be shared at our Future of Work conference
coming up as you're a panelist there. So, I really look forward to
that.
00:21:27 Salvatrice
You know, I'd like to close this
session and ask an important question that I ask everyone who's on
the show, which is, if there was one thing that you would like our
audience to understand about the future of work and what we're
going to need to do to get there, what would that
be?
00:21:42 Stephen
I think for folks looking at the
future of work, is that LA has been and will continue to be at the
center of global attention. I think we underestimate the impact
that Los Angeles has on the rest of the world. And because of that,
we need to step up and we need to be more aggressive and assertive
about our position on the global economy.
00:22:04 Stephen
Because when we do, our workers
here and our employees here will have opportunities not only in Los
Angeles but around the world, but we need to take that place and
see ourselves as a global competitor because the rest of the world
is already looking there.
00:22:18 Stephen
So, I think having that
understanding shift the way that we're going to shape our programs,
because we're not going to be so insular with our approach, but we
see that by growing our employees, by growing our employers, by
growing our industries, we're now able to reach a much, much bigger
market.
00:22:33 Stephen
And so, prosperity and those
opportunities will be a lot more accessible and you also have a lot
more opportunities rather than just basically focusing on the 10.2
million population that's here; we're talking about billions of
residents and buyers and customers that we can work
with.
00:22:48 Stephen
And I think the exciting thing,
having the opportunity to also work for the World Trade Center Los
Angeles, is to see the international approach. And I wish that
those opportunities are provided to all future workers. We have so
many talented individuals here in Los Angeles, I just wish that
they can see some of the things I've seen and how they look at
Angelinos and how they envy Los Angeles in many
ways.
00:23:09 Stephen
But at the same time, they
respect the folks that are coming out of this region. So, that's
the future for us, and I think we just need to seize those
opportunities.
00:23:17 Salvatrice
Excellent. What a beautiful way
to sunset this conversation, Stephen. Thank you very, very much. We
really look forward to seeing you again on November 8th. If our
audience members want to connect with you, what's the best way for
them to connect?
00:23:28 Stephen
They can go to our website,
laedc.org, and they can find all our contact information on the
staff directory, and they can reach me directly there. My email is
just stephen.cheung@laedc.org. Please feel free to reach me
directly. I usually get back to them within a few
days.
00:23:42 Salvatrice
Very good. Thank you so much.
We'll have those in the show notes. Thanks again, Stephen. Have a
beautiful day, and we'll see you soon.
00:23:47 Stephen
Thank you, Salvatrice, I
appreciate it.
00:23:49 Salvatrice
Thank you.
00:23:50 Salvatrice
Thank you for listening to The
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00:24:01 Salvatrice
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