Transcript- Episode 92: How to Become A Lifelong Learner in an Ever Changing Industry With Carolyn Hull The General Manager at the EWDD of Los Angeles Episode 92
Apr 25, 2023
00:00:00 Carolyn
Now, you're going to have to be a lifelong
learner. Those days of getting that degree and working at one
company is probably not the future. And what is important is that
we all upskill at various points, and as a result, we need to
support the ability to utilize the latest technology like AI.
00:00:20 Carolyn
That wasn't a critical issue or a critical
skillset that maybe was needed 5, 10 years ago, but now it is. And
how do we incorporate that into our jobs so that we're not made
redundant and constantly learning?
00:00:38 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.
00:00:51 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?
00:01:03 Salvatrice
Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice President of
Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College and
host of this podcast.
00:01:11 Christina
And I'm Christina Barsi, producer and co-host
of this podcast.
00:01:15 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.
00:01:29 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.
00:01:49 Christina
We believe change happens when we work
together, and it all starts with having a conversation. I'm
Christina Barsi.
00:01:56 Salvatrice
And I'm Salvatrice Cummo, and this is the
Future of Work.
00:02:00 Salvatrice
Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Future of
Work Podcast, I am your host, Salvatrice Cummo. Today, we will
learn about the city of Los Angeles Economic and Workforce
Development Department and what the department does. We will also
talk about some of the practices and priorities for the economic
and workforce development in the city of LA and in what ways we can
better prepare for the Future of Work.
00:02:26 Salvatrice
With that being said, we are excited to have
Carolyn Hull with us here today. Ms. Hull is the General Manager of
the Economic and Workforce Development Department for the city of
Los Angeles.
00:02:36 Salvatrice
Carolyn has been with the city of Los Angeles
since January of 2020, where under her leadership, has administered
a distribution of a hundred million dollars in COVID-19-related
financial economic release programs. Some of which include the city
of LA's Small Business Emergency Grant Fund, the Los Angeles
Regional COVID-19 Fund, and the Los Angeles COVID-19 Childcare
Provider Grant Program.
00:03:05 Salvatrice
Before this role, Ms. Hull was Vice President
of Strategic Initiatives and Industry Cluster Development at the
Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. That's a lot,
Carolyn, thank you. Thanks for joining us today, you're a rockstar,
I'll tell you what.
00:03:23 Carolyn
Well, thank you, its a pleasure to be here,
it's a pleasure to see you again.
00:03:27 Salvatrice
Oh, very good, likewise, well, let's dive
right in. This is work that you and I love to talk about because
this is what we do all day, everyday. So, I'm really excited for
our audience to hear more from the city of Los Angeles perspective
on economic and workforce development.
00:03:43 Salvatrice
So, just as what I normally do on my podcast,
I'd like the guest to share a little bit more about your work and
the history, and what continues to interest you in this arena of
economic and workforce development.
00:03:58 Carolyn
Well, thank you for that. My work trajectory
certainly has been a journey. But to be honest, cities and the
linkages of the build environment: education, transportation,
economic mobility - have fascinated me since my childhood in
Brooklyn, New York and Jersey City, New Jersey.
00:04:14 Carolyn
I'm trained as an economist and urban planner,
and in the early part of my career, I was an economist with DRI
Standard & Poors, and later a land use consultant with CBRE. And
before joining LAEDC as you just indicated, I spent approximately
seven years at the redevelopment agency for the city of Los
Angeles.
00:04:32 Carolyn
Where I worked on place-based initiatives
primarily in South LA, and applied innovative financing tools like
new market tax credits to fill the void left from traditional
capital's unwillingness to develop commercial or mixed use projects
in underserved communities.
00:04:48 Carolyn
I then transitioned to LAEDC, and in that
role, I started to think about a city's economic base, the major
industry clusters and educational attainment of residents, and how
that impacts economic mobility.
00:05:01 Carolyn
I'm still very interested in all of those
areas. But in my current role at EWDD, I'm focused on breaking down
the silos of economic and workforce development. I see them as flip
sides of the same coin and I want to leverage the ecosystems of
both aspects of the department to optimize outcomes.
00:05:19 Carolyn
And what I mean by this is that the city
supports 16 WorkSource Centers, 10 BusinessSource Centers,
14-UseSource Centers and numerous incubators. I want to align the
goals of that ecosystem. It sounds simple, but it's quite a
challenge. Let me just give you an example.
00:05:35 Carolyn
We recently concluded the Meta Facebook
internship program. Over 200 youth participated in a city-funded
paid digital marketing and social media training and internship.
The youth were placed at local businesses that were being served by
our BusinessSource Centers to enhance the digital footprint in the
marketplace for these small mom and pop shops.
00:05:57 Carolyn
Facebook, our private sector partner, provided
training and mentorship to the students. It was a successful pilot
and I want to scale that up in the coming years, and scale up other
successful projects like that, that really leverage our
ecosystem.
00:06:12 Salvatrice
That's excellent and that gives us a little
bird's eye view of what your department is doing for the city of
Los Angeles. And I know there's so much more work there, there's
lots of moving parts to this engine that we have to move, which is
economic and workforce development.
00:06:29 Salvatrice
You mentioned breaking down silos and working
collaboratively with all areas within the city of Los Angeles and
we do that too. Like there's all big public entities have the
tendency of sometimes working in their siloed areas, so what might
that look like to break down those silos? I think I could learn
from you here, it'd be a learning moment for me for sure.
00:06:56 Carolyn
Well, you know what, I think what helped oddly
enough in breaking down the silos was a pandemic. A pandemic knows
no boundaries and so, hence we couldn't solve the problem with
being in our silos.
00:07:08 Carolyn
So, when the pandemic hit, we immediately
reached out to our counterparts at the county, our counterparts in
philanthropy, the private sector. We had literally daily
conversations and we put together something called the LA Regional
COVID Fund.
00:07:23 Carolyn
And that for me, was the model because
suddenly, we had to figure out what each entity could provide and
what our best skill sets were to deliver what the residents and the
small businesses in the city of Los Angeles needed. What residents
and businesses don't want to hear when they're in a crisis is when
they call for someone to say, "I'm sorry, you're in the wrong
jurisdiction, you need to be in X."
00:07:48 Carolyn
So, we decided that we would build platforms
where literally, when a business would put in their information,
even if you weren't in the city of LA, you never knew that, the
system took care of that, and sent it over to the county.
00:08:00 Carolyn
That simple technical aspect of what we did
was so instrumental in us being seamless to the outside world and
having people honestly say, "You are here to help me, it doesn't
matter what jurisdiction I'm in."
00:08:15 Salvatrice
And it sounds like because you started in
January of 2020, so right before ...
00:08:22 Carolyn
To be honest with you, I was probably
confirmed in January 2020. I don't think it started until the
second or third week of February. I didn't even know where the
bathrooms were when the Mayor said the safe red home orders. So, it
was a world win event.
00:08:38 Carolyn
But again, I have to admit, crisis brings out
the best of people, if we're lucky. And in this instance, we were
so focused on delivering for the needs of the community that it
almost didn't matter. It was nonstop 24-hour activity. But yes, I
had no idea where the bathrooms were.
00:08:57 Salvatrice
Because I was going to say, it's like you
don't really have a reference point of what it was pre-pandemic
because, well, you weren't there.
00:09:06 Carolyn
There was no pre-pandemic for me.
00:09:08 Salvatrice
You weren't there, so it did allow for
immediate creativity and immediate collaboration in a way that most
public entities have never seen before.
00:09:19 Carolyn
Absolutely.
00:09:20 Salvatrice
I would imagine that that was quite
interesting and you learned about a model that can be replicated
post-pandemic as you mentioned, like the LA regional COVID
Fund.
00:09:30 Carolyn
COVID Fund.
00:09:31 Carolyn
Like that was a model that just boom, it just
got implemented with a simple yet significant use of technology,
and everyone sees the benefits of really coming together and
solving a problem.
00:09:45 Carolyn
We were focused on solving the problem, but
also, we were really focused on equity. One of the things that I'm
proudest of, of the programs that we put together is that first of
all, it was coming out of the silos, but the second aspect of it
was looking at the fact that the original federal funding from the
government PPP really didn't hit those businesses and individuals
in underserved communities.
00:10:09 Carolyn
We developed a system that prioritized small
businesses in those communities. So, when we talk about the over a
hundred million dollars that we sent out to the community and
businesses, vast majority of that went to business owners and
street vendors and childcare providers that were people of color in
areas that had been underinvested in.
00:10:30 Carolyn
It seemed like a simple thing, but really,
kind of developing systems that really prioritize those individuals
and businesses in those areas was another great aspect of a model
that we are now carrying forward. Not that we weren't thinking
about it before, but we were very intentional about it during the
COVID Regional Fund.
00:10:50 Salvatrice
And there was certainly a sense of urgency as
well, it's not something that could have been vetted slowly or
piloted slowly, it was something that you needed to activate very
quickly. And so, fast forward, we're in 2023 rapidly fast forwarded
to 2023, let's pause here and think how do you feel about the
priorities of your area? What are some of those priorities now that
some of the dust has settled post-pandemic, where's your direction
headed and priorities headed for the city?
00:11:22 Carolyn
Thank you for that, we have several. I think
one of the top priorities for us is expanding youth employment
programs.
00:11:28 Salvatrice
Beautiful.
00:11:28 Carolyn
As in the pre-pandemic labor market, large
segments of the population continue to struggle to recover from
setbacks over the last couple of years, and youth in particular,
endured the highest levels of job losses and educational losses
during that time through distance learning.
00:11:45 Carolyn
So, we're really focusing on a UseSource
system to better incorporate career pathways. And as you know the
governor has put forward an allocation of funding for California
for all where we are, again, being intentional, focusing on the
youth, but also really looking at career pathways.
00:12:05 Carolyn
Another aspect that we're focusing on is
prioritizing supporting training programs and growth industry
sectors, whether it's youth or adult, and to develop publicly owned
land designated for job generation toward not-for-growth
companies.
00:12:21 Carolyn
And what I mean by that is looking at what the
growth industries are or what our emerging industries in the city
and the county of Los Angeles, and making sure that we have a
relationship with the private sector and supporting the development
of the facility they need so that they can remain in this area.
00:12:41 Carolyn
Great example of that is the bioscience
sector.
00:12:44 Salvatrice
Yes.
00:12:44 Carolyn
It's an emerging sector, they have specific
physical needs, and making sure that we are able to meet those base
needs while training individuals for the middle skill jobs is
really critical to the growth of the economy of this region.
00:12:59 Salvatrice
Got it, and with the unemployment rate right
now being at 4.5% and these priorities are really gearing towards
minimizing that percentage specifically around the career pathways
because I find that very, very exciting. You know, that speaks our
language, our community college language.
00:13:17 Salvatrice
Can you unpack that a little bit more with me?
What does that look like? What are some ideas that are being
generated from career pathways? And most importantly, I invite my
colleagues here at the community college to be of service to the
region and to the city of LA, and how do we become better stewards
and partners to your work so that we can assist you in pushing that
priority forward?
00:13:38 Carolyn
Well, that's great because we need
partnerships, but first let me address the comment of the low
unemployment. We rather have a low unemployment rate than a high
unemployment rate. But even prior to the pandemic, when the county
was actually growing at a very significant rate the Los Angeles
county had the highest poverty rate in the country.
00:13:59 Carolyn
So, while the unemployment rate may be
relatively low, we have to look at the number of people living in
poverty and the level of income that people probably could survive
with. And that means looking at the types of jobs we're
generating.
00:14:13 Carolyn
And so, really what we'd like to look at is
working with community colleges to upskill or reskill individuals
so they can take advantage of some of these growth occupations
which do not require a four-year college degree. And also, looking
at how do we provide childcare and other wraparound services so
that people can take advantage of these training programs.
00:14:36 Carolyn
It's one thing to say you have a training
program, but as a mother, I can tell you one of the biggest
challenges to my getting to work is childcare and transportation.
So, while we're looking at these programs, we have to work
collaboratively I think between the private sector, the workforce
system including and most importantly, community colleges as to
providing funding that will take care of the holistic needs of our
students.
00:15:02 Salvatrice
If you had a magic wand ...
00:15:06 Carolyn
I wish I had one by the way. I already love
the question.
00:15:11 Salvatrice
What could we as a community college do for
you? Specifically like, "Salvatrice, I need you to ... fill in the
blank."
00:15:20 Carolyn
I think what the community colleges could do
for us is probably strengthen the relationship with the private
sector. So, we know that we're having these certificate programs so
that we can place individuals in a job. And what I mean by that is
government doesn't do a great job of working with the private
sector to determine what the skills are that they're looking
for.
00:15:42 Carolyn
And I think the community colleges are
probably best aligned to do that and I'd like us to better work
together because these businesses are also busy. So, if I put
together a working group to call business X to find out what skills
they're needing, and then another company does it, and the
community college to do it, they're just going to be
overwhelmed.
00:16:03 Carolyn
And I'd love us to designate the community
college system with whomever you are going to work with, to be that
voice with the private sector to determine what skills they need
and then we can act on those programs. So, can you do that for me
Salvatrice?
00:16:17 Salvatrice
I sure can. Actually you know what, I think I
can.
00:16:20 Christina
Oh, see.
00:16:22 Salvatrice
And the reason why I can, I confidently say
that we can is because we are currently building that centralized
streamlined approach to employer engagement via the Los Angeles
Regional Consortium for which falls under my purview in my
division.
00:16:39 Salvatrice
So, I think we could probably pilot a few
things, and unpack that and explore that even further because the
Los Angeles Regional Consortium, the LARC is designed to do that,
is designed to be a central hub, a central focal point for industry
engagement, again in a very streamlined approach so that it doesn't
make it so complicated from our side (you and I, from the
government side), then from the employer side. And most importantly
makes it a much more pleasant experience for the student who
engages in some of these activities.
00:17:14 Carolyn
So , that's a partnership I want us to start
immediately and I would love for our team to maybe either be part
of your consortium on a regular basis or get updates. I think
that'll be a critical partnership as we move forward.
00:17:26 Salvatrice
You bet, I'm on it. As soon as we're done, as
we conclude this, I'm on it.
00:17:31 Carolyn
That's perfect.
00:17:34 Salvatrice
Thank you.
00:17:35 Carolyn
Thank you.
00:17:35 Salvatrice
You touched on poverty. So, let's circle back
to that. We touched on poverty, the Mayor has made it a number one
priority for the city from what I understand.
00:17:45 Carolyn
Yes, absolutely.
00:17:47 Salvatrice
And the job opportunities are limited for a
number of reasons: skills, willingness from the employers and
industry, et cetera - how do we better serve this community in a
way that's intentional and customized because it's not a
one-size-fits-all approach to lower the bar, lower the percentage
of unemployment.
00:18:08 Salvatrice
Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is our
approach to some of the things like career pathways or training
opportunities, they're going to be very different for this
community. And so, what could we do? How do we explore that more
and what could we do to be a partner in that work as well?
00:18:24 Carolyn
Well, that's a great question and it's a
complicated solution and if it wasn't, we would've solved it
already. But one of the areas that I want to uplift is a program
that we have here called LA:RISE. It's an innovative collaborative
partnership that unites the city and county of Los Angeles's
workforce systems with non - profit social enterprises and
for-profit employers, in order to help men, women, and youth with
high barriers to employment get jobs and stay employed.
00:18:53 Carolyn
And they particularly work closely with those
that are either unhoused or in danger of becoming unhoused. And
after working in a transitional job at a social enterprise and
leveraging training and social services from the WorkSource
Centers, LA:RISE participants are placed in for-profit
entities.
00:19:11 Carolyn
And let me say a little bit why that's
important. And when we say social enterprises, I mean the Downtown
Women's Center, Goodwill - it's really important as people are
entering this system as if they're coming back from being touched
by the justice system, that they have a support system around
them.
00:19:27 Carolyn
So , what the LA:RISE program does is it not
only allows people to get back into a rhythm of workforce while
being paid, but they're also given the support system around them
that they need so that they can become self-sufficient.
00:19:42 Carolyn
And if for example, they show up to work late
a couple days in a row, maybe if they'd went right into the private
sector, they may be fired. In this system someone goes and gives
them the support they need.
00:19:54 Carolyn
And I think scaling up programs like LA:RISE
is really critical because it allows us to give ... again, treating
people where they are in a holistic fashion, giving them a job and
working with their situation and providing them with an opportunity
to actually reenter the workforce in a systematic fashion.
00:20:17 Salvatrice
I love that. Is there a way that we can work
together in amplifying the work of LA:RISE or scaling that work? I
mean, what do you see is the need in order to scale?
00:20:27 Carolyn
We need more employers.
00:20:28 Salvatrice
Okay.
00:20:28 Carolyn
So, once we go through the transitional system
and now, they've gone through that transitional system and now
they're looking for their first job in the private sector, that
bridge is where we would love to work with your consortium to find
the right occupation so that we could seamlessly move people in
from transitional employment into private sector employment. That's
another area Salvatrice, we've got a lot to follow up on.
00:20:56 Salvatrice
We've got a lot of work to do, I'll tell you
what. I think that's the beauty of this work. I mean, the beauty of
this work is that it's so fluid and it's so fluid in that there is
always room for improvement. There's always room for creativity and
innovation, and doing things a little bit differently because at
the end of the day. We're helping sustain and get into jobs and
directly impacts our local economy.
00:21:24 Salvatrice
And so, who doesn't want a community that's
flourishing? Who doesn't want a community that is vibrant? Because
unemployment is super low and employers are engaged and colleges
are producing the talent and upskilling the existing talent that is
out there with our employers. So, this work is ever-changing and
that's what makes it exciting. So, all that to say, I've got work
to do.
00:21:52 Carolyn
We're going to do it together. Yes, you have
work to do. We have work to do.
00:21:56 Salvatrice
We have work to do. But this is the Future of
Work Podcast and this would not be the Future of Work Podcast if I
didn't ask this question to my guest, and I ask every guest this
question. If there was one thing that you would like our listeners
to understand about what we've talked about today or things that
are percolating in your world as it relates to the future of work,
what might that be?
00:22:22 Carolyn
I think one of the things that we didn't touch
on enough is the fact that obviously, it's called the Future of
Work and the landscape is changing. And I think your listeners
probably need to understand that now, you're going to have to be a
lifelong learner.
00:22:35 Carolyn
Those days of getting that degree and working
at one company for the next 20, 30 years is probably not the
future. And what is important is that we all upskill at various
points, and as a result, we need to support the ability to how to
utilize the latest technology like AI.
00:22:56 Carolyn
That wasn't a critical issue or a critical
skill set that maybe was needed 5, 10 years ago, in fact I know
that. But now it is, and how do we incorporate that into our jobs
so that we're not made redundant and constantly learning, I think
that's really important.
00:23:12 Carolyn
The other aspect is we really want our private
sector partners to understand that we want to provide people with
living wage jobs and we want to give people an opportunity to
succeed. Maybe they didn't go to the fanciest schools, but they've
had life experience. And to really look at life experience and to
give credit for that so we can move people into these middle skill
jobs.
00:23:38 Salvatrice
You make a very, very, very valid point in
that there's elements and variables to this work that forces us to
evolve, that forces us to think things differently, do business
differently, create programs that are different and I really,
really appreciate that you shared all of that.
00:23:54 Salvatrice
And I feel like there's a part two to this
conversation, both recorded on this podcast as well as out of the
podcast. But I really appreciated our time here, and listen, our
door is open, this podcast is open, anytime you want to talk about
some stuff relating to economic and workforce development, we're
here. We're absolutely here, Carolyn.
00:24:15 Carolyn
Well, fantastic, and I really mean it. Let's
get together after this and brainstorm with our teams on how to
deepen the relationship and the partnership.
00:24:23 Salvatrice
I would love it, absolutely love it. For our
listeners who would like to connect with you, hopefully, some
private sector folks, some of the private industries, how could
they connect with you, what's the best way?
00:24:35 Carolyn
Probably the best way is to go to our website,
ewddlacity.com and you'll see contact information, you'll be able
to get in touch with me personally and our staff. You'll find our
WorkSource Centers, our UseSource Centers, so please hit the
website.
00:24:57 Salvatrice
Fantastic, thank you so very much, we'll be
sure to enter those into the show notes. I look forward to chatting
with you in just a little while.
00:25:05 Carolyn
Absolutely.
00:25:06 Salvatrice
Alright, thank you, Carolyn.
00:25:07 Carolyn
Thank you, it's been a pleasure.
00:25:10 Salvatrice
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 new episodes every Tuesday. 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.
00:25:28 Salvatrice
We'd love to connect with you, all of us here
at the Future of Work and Pasadena City College wish you safety and
wellness.