Speaker 1:
Well, welcome back to the podcast. We are thrilled today to have Jennifer Mellor, who is the Chief Innovation Officer at the Greater Phoenix Chamber. Jen, welcome back.
Speaker 2:
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:
It's been about a year.
Speaker 2:
Yes, a lot has happened.
Speaker 1:
A lot has happened, absolutely. What I'd like to do, maybe just at the stage, most people have an idea what a chamber is, but I think that given the work that we do through the foundation, it's obviously tangential but different. Can you talk a little bit about the role of the foundation and the work that you oversee?
Speaker 2:
Yes. So where a Chamber is really business focused, the foundation is actually more community focused and really trying to figure out how we can drive the economy and the people in the economy to be better suited for our business partners. So our main focus is around education and workforce, making sure that we're preparing individuals for high quality, high wage jobs for the future.
Speaker 1:
So as opposed to the chamber, the foundation is more of a charitable arm, is that correct?
Speaker 2:
Yes. So we're both nonprofit organizations, but the foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization, and so we have a different set of rules and regulations and that allows us to draw down a lot of foundation dollars and we've been very, very successful at securing both local and national foundation dollars. So that's really exciting.
Speaker 1:
It is really great news. So thinking about the last year, obviously we had a lot to talk about last year. What are some of the accomplishments from the last year that we should be thinking about?
Speaker 2:
Sure. So on the workforce side, about this time last year, we launched Connect to Work AZ, which is a program where we're actually connecting unemployed and underemployed individuals to jobs. We've been focused on healthcare and financial services this past year, and we've had some really great success. This is actually an expansion of Skills for America's Future, which is based out of Chicago, and they've been doing this work for about 10 years now, and we are actually having better outcomes here in Arizona than what they're seeing nationally. So we're really proud of that work. We're still in a pilot phase, so we have a smaller pool of candidates that we're working with, smaller group of employers, but we've been able to successfully place over 40 candidates and have several in the pipeline. And it's just really cool to see the impact of some of these individuals.
Speaker 1:
Well, it's great to watch it. It's ramping up quickly, which is really nice to see. For companies out there in these spaces, if they want to be involved, how do they do that?
Speaker 2:
Sure. I would reach out to our workforce team at workforce@phoenixchamber.com, and we'll get you connected. We would love to be able to expand. Our goal is to be able to expand into the manufacturing sector this coming year and just need some additional funding to make that happen.
Speaker 1:
Well, and we were recently at a meeting where I think it was a really interesting point made about the fact that we don't necessarily lack talent, we're lacking opportunity, and this is giving people opportunity that they might not otherwise have.
Speaker 2:
Yes. And we're working directly with these individuals to basically help them articulate their value to these employers. So these are individuals that have the right skills, but they haven't been able to get through the applicant tracking systems, through the recruiting managers to get to that hiring manager to sell themselves. When we're able to remove that barrier and make sure that they're well-equipped, they've been extremely successful.
Speaker 1:
And one of the metrics we use is the retention rate, right? The rate that people are staying in these jobs. And it's extremely high.
Speaker 2:
It is extremely high. I think our 30-day retention rate is about 80%, which is above the industry average, and we're continuing to work on making that even higher.
Speaker 1:
Good. More to come. Yes. So if anybody who's around you for any amount of time, they know that you're very data driven, you love numbers, you're thinking about outcomes all the time, and you use data to make decisions. And so one of the things that we've been working on is a dashboard. You want to speak to that a little bit and give folks a sense for what that's all about?
Speaker 2:
Sure. We launched the Arizona Economic Insights dashboard, and that is a dashboard of publicly available data that we're consolidating and making interactive. So it includes data on the economy, housing, jobs, and is just a really great set of charts and data that you can go and actually look, you can take a deep dive into an industry and see what does inflation look like for my industry or what are wages for my particular type of occupations? And it's all data that again, is publicly available, but you have to have the right skillset to know where to find the data and how to extrapolate that data. And we're making that just a one-stop resource for businesses.
Speaker 1:
And obviously there is a little bit of this that's open to the public, but most of it is for our members. But to your point, it's publicly available data. Why is it different?
Speaker 2:
It's different because you have to know what you're looking for, where to look for it, and then you have to be able to pull that data. So some of the data sets are actually things that we've requested from that organization, and then we've again, been able to pull that into a visual chart to make that understandable. And so you'd actually have to go and request some of that data, get the data, and then extrapolate what you're looking for. So we've made that really easy.
Speaker 1:
Some sort of expert to pull all that stuff and then to put it into something that's understandable.
Speaker 2:
Yes, a data guru that's much more of an expert than I.
Speaker 1:
And thankfully we have one.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
So what are some of the segments that are included in the tool?
Speaker 2:
So the key elements are the economy, housing, which is a huge, huge issue across the country, and then also workforce.
Speaker 1:
And can you give us a sense, Jennifer, as it relates to housing? What are we seeing, at least right now in terms of trends?
Speaker 2:
So the housing price index, which is not the rate of houses or the price of houses, but just the index of increases, we're actually seeing that Arizona is outpacing the country in housing prices. And obviously that varies by county. So that's one of the other cool tools or resources with this tool that you can actually go and drill down by county or by MSA and see how that varies across different regions.
Speaker 1:
And then as far as Arizona's economy, anything that stands out to you from the data that you've seen so far?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think Arizona is just, I mean, we've been booming for the last several years and I think we're going to continue to see that growth. We've obviously seen some dips in the economy in certain industry sectors, but you look at healthcare as an example, and that sector is just continuing to grow and outpacing the rest of the country.
Speaker 1:
And certainly the Fed was very tactical in terms of raising rates. Part of the strategy was to increase unemployment. What are we seeing here in terms of unemployment versus the rest of the country?
Speaker 2:
So unemployment, we continue to have low unemployment on par with what we're seeing across the country. I think one of the ways that we can change that though is by actually pulling people that have left the workforce and increase our labor force participation rate. If we're able to increase that, then we can start to close this gap on skills.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. When you're thinking about where we want to expand in terms of data sets or segments, what are you thinking about? What's being talked about as far as the dashboard?
Speaker 2:
Yes. Well, manufacturing is obviously the big elephant, I guess, in the room we're continuing to see significant growth in manufacturing, but when you actually look at the dashboard, it's not quite there yet. So the dashboard is actually looking at what has happened over time. It's not necessarily forecasting forward. Some of the data charts are, but not all. So you haven't seen that the impact of the manufacturing sector in that growth quite yet.
Speaker 1:
And certainly that's going to be an interesting component to that work.
Speaker 2:
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Now we're doing a lot of work. We've increased our team size because of the amount of work that's going on, and clearly part of that has to be, we have to think about funding. So grants, what have we seen in the past year and what's been the impact of those grants?
Speaker 2:
Yes. So we've had a lot of really great sustainable funding for the last couple of years. The Arizona Commerce Authority has been supporting Elevate Ed along with the city of Phoenix, and that has helped carry us through this past year and into next year. We've also had some really exciting grants. We got one from Helios Education Foundation that I'm really excited about, and that's laser focused on dual enrollment. So you may recall when we talked last year, we had a 40% increase in dual enrollment that we were super proud of. But we also during that process, learned that there's a lot of barriers in the way for students. One is that we don't have enough teachers that qualified to teach dual enrollment, and two is that students need help with tuition assistance. And so we were able to work through the chamber and through our policy arm to actually secure 15 million in funding for tuition assistance, which was excellent from the legislature.
Thank you. And through this grant from Helios, we were able to actually communicate that out to the community. And that's not just local to the greater Phoenix region and Maricopa County, but that's statewide. And we were really excited to have the money there, but knew that it was critically important to get that word out to the community. So we've been doing a lot in the realm of trying to communicate and get the message out.
The other side of that though, is we don't have enough teachers that are qualified to teach dual enrollment. And so the legislature also invested in an incentive for teachers who teach dual enrollment. We actually, thanks to the Helios Education Foundation this week, are launching a teacher incentive, and that's actually $1,000 for any teacher that becomes dual enrollment certified between now and June of 2025. So we really want to ensure that teachers have an incentive to get that credential, if you will, and that we can start to provide additional opportunity for students.
Speaker 1:
And what a great investment by Helios to make sure that we're, obviously, we want to make sure kids can get into these programs, but the teachers are incentivized to teach these classes and are remunerated for that.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. It's extra work. And so they should be compensated for doing that extra lift. And we also know that students that take dual enrollment courses are more likely to enroll in post-secondary education, which is important for us to get to our Achieve 60 goal. And we also know that students that take dual enrollment have outperformed their non-dual enrollment counterparts once they hit post-secondary education. So providing that opportunity to all students, regardless of if you're in a rural community or an underserved community, is critically important.
Speaker 1:
And I think for people who maybe aren't in this every day, when we say dual enrollment, what does that specifically mean?
Speaker 2:
So, great question, dual enrollment in the state of Arizona is actually a student that's sitting in a high school campus taking a high school class that is also getting college credit.
Speaker 1:
So thinking about this elevated program, we went all in, maybe give a little bit of history. I mean, we've not been doing the work in the K-12 system very long. When did it start and where are we today?
Speaker 2:
Yes. So we actually, we've been doing workforce development for a long time under the foundation, and we were working primarily with our post-secondary partners to try and fill the skills gap. So we worked with the community colleges, for example, and created two new upskilling programs in critical care and telemetry focused on nursing and upskilling that talent. And we have a couple of examples of work like that that we've done. But then we saw a need that we need to be better communicating and better signaling to our high school partners.
And so about four years ago, we launched ElevateEdAZ, and we started with two schools in the Phoenix Union umbrella. And right at the beginning of Covid, which was a really interesting time to launch a new education program, we have been laser focused on trying to get more students into high wage, high demand CTE pathways, and then trying to improve outcomes for those students. So getting them early college credit, like dual enrollment, getting them industry recognized credentials, with an emphasis on industry recognized. Also getting them work-based learning experiences like internships and job shadows. And so we started in two schools four years ago, and we're now embedded in 20 high schools across Maricopa County with a vision to be in a 100 schools across the state of Arizona by 2030.
Speaker 1:
So thinking about that quickly, make me think about how we're doing this. So are we just collaborating with the school? Are we talking to them? How do we do that in each school?
Speaker 2:
Sure. So here in Arizona, we actually have a college, or sorry, here in Maricopa County. We actually have a college and career coach embedded on each of our partner campuses, and they're working at the grassroots with students, with their parents, with faculty and administrators to try to achieve these outcomes. And then they have a district director that is working at a systems level across the school district trying to break down barriers and improve opportunity for students.
And then we're working on a system scale on how do we break down some of these barriers? How do we improve outcomes across the school system? So that's what it looks like here in Maricopa County. As we think about expansion into other communities across the state, we're looking for other chambers, other associations that we can partner with that are a trusted resource in that community that have close connections to their schools, to their business partners that can execute this work at the local level.
Speaker 1:
It's exciting to think about what could be. One thing that maybe we should chat about a little bit is when we talk about work-based learning experiences, what does that mean? Thinking back in the day, I won't mention the year, but that meant going to get coffee for folks or picking up the dry cleaning for whatever business I was interning for. What does that look like today?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so today's students, they're doing work, they're doing real work.
Speaker 1:
Not getting coffee.
Speaker 2:
Not getting coffee. They're doing really, really great work. So each of our students are matched by their program of study. So the chamber, we have a marketing intern that's in a marketing program at their campus, and that's working with us on social media and other elements of our marketing team. We have students that are in welding programs that are in welding internships that are working with equipment and things like that. So it's definitely not running coffee or anything like that. It's definitely more hands on, focused with their program of study.
Speaker 1:
And when I think about the time, so is it a week or two or what is the length of these programs?
Speaker 2:
So internships can actually last a couple of different timeframes. We have some internships that are semester long, so that might run from let's say, August or September until December. We have some that are year long, so start in August and in May along with the school year. And then we're also introducing this summer, some summer internships. And I've been really trying to encourage companies that maybe have a history of doing college internships to bring in one or two high school students into that mix so that they can get that experience as well.
Speaker 1:
So when you mentioned an internship to a company, they probably think college and then you mention, 'No, we're thinking seniors." What's the reaction?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I would say the reaction is mixed. We have some employers that are, "Well, a high school intern is going to be prepared for my environment." And then we have had some companies that have really leaned in. But the reality is these students are bright, they're really smart, they bring a lot to the table, and they also are bringing a different perspective to your organization and your company. We need a very diverse workforce in order to communicate to our customers. And so I applaud the companies that have leaned into that conversation, and a lot of those companies are having significant impacts on their workforce. One that I love to highlight is Honeywell. They've increased the number of internships. I think they started with two or three the first year that we worked with them-
Speaker 1:
Which is a nice number. We'll take that.
Speaker 2:
Yes. And next year they're projected to, I can't ever remember if it's 60 or 80, but huge growth in the number of interns. And they're bringing these students on and having really great experiences. And if the students actually are successful in the internship and can do the job and prove themselves, then they're giving them a full-time effort at the end of their internship. And I think we've got three or four students now that have already been offered jobs and we haven't hit the end of the school year. So I think really, really great experiences once the companies lean in.
Speaker 1:
Well, kudos to Honeywell to go from two or three to, I think it is 80 this year. What an incredible, I think, leap of faith. And it's paying off because they're hiring these kids who are now going to be well-prepared. They're going to be part of their culture and become members of their team permanently.
Speaker 2:
Yes, yes. And they're also backtracking it. So we're focused on internships in your senior year, but we want to take students through their high school journey. So they're coming in and talking to freshmen classes and sophomore classes about opportunities within their industry. And it's not just manufacturing, it's not just working on planes. There's a lot of different opportunities within Honeywell and other organizations, for that matter. So they're talking about those opportunities freshman, sophomore year, and then their junior year they're actually doing job shadows. So they're bringing them out to their work site and just highlighting the different opportunities, having them meet with different members of their team so that students can see themselves in these opportunities long term.
Speaker 1:
It's great to think these are our kids doing these things.
Speaker 2:
It's so cool.
Speaker 1:
Any other companies that you can think of? Any other really interesting success stories with companies here in Arizona? I know there's a lot, but any other ones that you'd like to talk about?
Speaker 2:
Yes, there are a ton. Mayo Clinic. They've been really innovative and offering internship opportunities. And I think one thing that's very cool about both Honeywell and Mayo and others is that they're breaking down barriers to employing high school students. So one of the things that we constantly hear is, well, we can't employ anybody under the age of 18 because we highly regulated. We've got federal contracts.
Speaker 1:
[inaudible 00:20:01].
Speaker 2:
You can. You just have to be open to it, and you have to break down those barriers and work through it. And what we're finding is a lot of those barriers to employment are more just internal. Hey, we want to make sure that we're not held liable for anything. And so some of these companies are moving through those barriers and it's a great opportunity.
Speaker 1:
One of the things that I think that comes up regularly is if kids, for instance, don't have a car, how are we moving interns around the Valley?
Speaker 2:
Yes. Thank you for asking that question. So students have a lot of barriers to actually taking on these internships. First and foremost is they may have a job that's supporting their family, working in retail or another area, and if they're not paid internships, they're not able to take that internship and they'll turn down a fast food job for an internship opportunity just because they have to be able to provide income to keep their household running. So paid internships are critically important, but transportation has also been a huge barrier for us. We have a number of students that weren't able to participate in internships last year because they couldn't get there and couldn't get there in a timely fashion. And so this year we actually got a grant from A for Arizona to provide tuition, sorry, transportation vouchers to students. And we're using this company called Hop, Skip, Drive. It's like an Uber, but for teens.
Speaker 1:
It's not Uber. It's different.
Speaker 2:
Yep. They use license professionals, they're doing full background checks and that type of thing. So safe for teens to transport with. And what we're seeing is just improved outcomes at a lot of our employers. So we have students at South Mountain High School that are traveling 20, 30 miles up to Mayo Clinic in North Phoenix that are participating in internships. And what we're hearing from the employers is it gets them there on time. They're focused. It takes out a lot of the barriers for those students.
Speaker 1:
Which is just tremendous and teaches them a lot along the way. And you mentioned four years, so I think we've started out at just a few interns, but this year it's significantly higher.
Speaker 2:
It is. So last year we had 75 interns. This year we're over 250, and I'm hoping we can get over 500 next year.
Speaker 1:
What a game changer when you think about this and the fact that we're expanding and the impact that's going to have on a generational basis in Arizona.
Speaker 2:
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:
So if companies want to participate and someone's hearing about this now, they might have questions. They might be a small business, can small businesses do this?
Speaker 2:
Any company can do it. So the Chamber, we're not large and we've been able to do it successfully. So yes, companies small to large can participate and we will find great opportunities for you. I think one of the values that ElevateEdAZ provides is that we're actually making those connections. So we're helping you find the students. You do all the hiring, go through your normal practices as an employer, but we're able to make those connections and support the students along the way so that you're not having to do that leg work.
Speaker 1:
And they can just get ahold us of the foundation?
Speaker 2:
Yes. So go to elevateedaz@phoenixchamber.com and you can connect.
Speaker 1:
We encourage you to do that. This is going to be good for your company and it's going to have such an impact on our community here in Arizona. What are some of the things you're thinking about for next fiscal year, Jen?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so a lot of things on the horizon for next year. I think the biggest thing is our expansion plan. And so like I mentioned, we've been doing a lot of great work here in Maricopa County, but we want to be able to expand that work statewide. So we received a planning grant recently from Bloomberg Philanthropies, and that's helping support the planning and development of an expansion plan and what that would look like. And we actually have another grant pending right now that would actually support that expansion work so that we could identify a couple of high schools in the upcoming year that we would then go into in the '25, '26 school year.
Speaker 1:
And we're starting to have sort of a national presence as well?
Speaker 2:
We are. We actually just got back from a couple of different conferences. One was, we were at ASU+GSV.
Speaker 1:
[inaudible 00:24:34].
Speaker 2:
Yes, yes. Which is a small conference of about 7,000 people focused on it's kind of ed tech, but innovations in education. And it was a great opportunity for us to connect with a lot of national funders. And I think one of the really cool things about playing a role in this national stage is being able to work with other partners in other states to be able to do this work. So as an example, right now we are working with Trevor Brown High School out on the Phoenix Union campus, and we're trying to implement a new pathway that's focused on semiconductor.
Well, that pathway doesn't exist currently, and there's not an industry recognized credential for high school students to earn along that pathway. So we're working through that with some of our business partners, but we've also been able to connect with Ohio and they're doing very, very similar work. And so we're able to collaborate and ensure that there's consistency across our programs, and it helps us avoid a lot of duplication of work and saves a lot of time and a lot of energy.
Speaker 1:
Certainly. And they're learning from us as well, which is great.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Well, Jen, thank you for spending so much time with us, and thanks for the incredible work you're doing for our community, for our kids, and obviously this also has a national impact. So really congratulations on everything. Before you go, we're going to do a quick lightning round.
Speaker 2:
My favorite.
Speaker 1:
Yes. So we're going to start with an easy one. Dogs or cats?
Speaker 2:
Oh, definitely dogs.
Speaker 1:
Why?
Speaker 2:
Cats, well, first of all, my kids are allergic to cats. So need I see more?
Speaker 1:
Okay. Nothing else?
Speaker 2:
Nothing more.
Speaker 1:
Okay. Do you have a dog?
Speaker 2:
I have a couple. Buddy is a super cool chill dog. So we decided we'd get another one, Roxy, and she is quite the opposite.
Speaker 1:
Okay. All right. First concert?
Speaker 2:
New Kids on the Block.
Speaker 1:
Do we need to say more?
Speaker 2:
Tells you a lot about my age.
Speaker 1:
New Kids. First car?
Speaker 2:
See, I actually don't have a good answer to this question.
Speaker 1:
Really?
Speaker 2:
I think it was a Thunderbird, but the old school, Thunderbird, it was my mom's car that was a hand me down, but that only lasted a month or so until my brother crashed it, and then I got the next car.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so you got to have-
Speaker 2:
No good car story.
Speaker 1:
Derek Hall was like a brown Dodge Dart. That would be exciting.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I don't have a good story there.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. Well, all right, well, we'll have to get you on something next time.
Speaker 2:
There you go.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, Jennifer, for spending so much time with us and for everything you're doing for our community.
Speaker 2:
Thank you.
Speaker 1:
All right.