�Addressing Inequity in College Retention of Low-Income Students: Collaboratively Creating Pathways to Careers in Four-Year Degree Programs��Team Leads Meeting: Data Champion Update

PRESENTED BY

Jobs for the Future (JFF)

August 22, 2024

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Agenda

1. Data Champion Role
2. Data Plan Development Goals
3. The Data Plan
4. LMI Tool Review
5. Discussion

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ROLE OF DATA CHAMPIONS

Data champions work with JFF subject matter experts to design and develop a plan to access, analyze, and use labor market data with their college stakeholders. The goal is for this data to inform instructional, advising, programming, and partnership changes to strengthen students' career exploration, development and preparedness.

The coaching sessions and community of practice support each data champion to implement the plan on their campus in a strategic, ongoing, and intentional way.

Note: we use the term "stakeholder" to mean any partner that the data champion supports, collaborates with, or engages in activities and tasks. This can include students, alumni, faculty, staff, employers, and others.

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The JFF coaching sessions support each data champion to develop and implement a data plan on their campus, to help them:

• Develop processes to support staff use of LMI data, which can include:
• Review of industries and occupations aligned with degree programs and presenting opportunity for graduates of the targeted degrees.
• Identifying key or in-demand skill needs within those targeted industries and occupations.
• Vetting of assumptions drawn from data – may include corroborating findings with desk research, employers, other stakeholders.  
• identification of current employment of previous graduates.
• Outline plan for outreach to employers and/or supporting those staff with talking points.

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• Work with staff to develop strategies for applying data to institutional decisions regarding:
• Curriculum
• Programs to begin or sunset
• Size of programs
• Career navigation/advising for students

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The DC Community of Practice will support data champions to share learnings and collaborate on strategies.

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THE DATA PLAN

The data plan is a guide for your institution to develop an inventory of current and potential tools, and a framework for stakeholder mapping to ensure the most relevant data is provided to relevant faculty, staff, students, and others.

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Part one consists of an inventory of existing LMI tools, a list of tools that you think would be useful for your institution to have or to subscribe to, and a list of your stakeholders—the people who will use the data. Stakeholders can include faculty, staff, employer partners, students, and others.

Part two of the plan includes longer term goal setting, the impact you hope to have as a data champion, and additional action steps.

DATA PLAN

DEVELOPMENT GOALS

LMI TOOLS

O*NET Online

Provides detailed occupational data including sample job titles, typical tasks, skills, educational requirements, as well as regional wage data and projections. Note: We will provide a tutorial video for this tool in the fall that the data champion can use to train college faculty, staff, students, and others.

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Census QuickFacts

Online dashboard that provides data around population demographics and characteristics by region. Includes age and race demographics, educational attainment, health indicators, typical commute time and other data useful for understanding regional populations. 

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MIT Living Wage Calculator

Provides living wages by state, MSA, and county, accounting for typical expenses such as food, childcare, housing, transportation, and other costs. Provides living wage levels for different family sizes for all regions.

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EPI Family Budget 

Provides living wage based on region and family size. The budgets estimate community-specific costs for 10 family types (one or two adults with zero to four children) in all counties and metro areas in the US.

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Please note that all the tools listed here are free and publicly available

PAID LMI TOOLS

REGIONAL DATA

Full list for all states: https://www.bls.gov/bls/ofolist.htm

DISCUSSION

• What has the experience been with your DC thus far, both in terms of role fit and their contribution to the work?
• How can you promote stronger connections between the DC and your project team, and between the DC and the larger college community?
• What are some strategies for aligning the data plan with the driver diagram, the student journey map, and the 90-day implementation plan?
• What questions do you still have about the DC role and how it can best support the work of the grant?

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