Post Meeting Memo Summer Member Meeting 06.11.21

® Creating Solutions. Inspiring Action. SUMMER MEMBER MEETING CEO Key Takeaways June 11, 2021 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. e.t. Virtual Meeting © BHEF 2021 2 2:00 p.m. 2:05 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 2:50 p.m. 3:05 p.m. 3:10 p.m. 3:15 p.m. Welcoming Remarks Mike King, BHEF chair; vice president and general manager, Global Education Industry, IBM Corporation Facilitated Discussion on the PwC-BHEF Joint Report, Creating the Future Workforce Today Moderator: •Andrew Tein, vice president, Government Affairs, Wiley Discussants: •Mike Fenlon, chief people officer, PwC •Brian Fitzgerald, CEO, Business-Higher Education Forum •TraLiza King, director, PwC Facilitated Discussion with Report Exemplars Moderator: •Andrew Tein, vice president, Government Affairs, Wiley Discussants: •Julie Granger, executive vice president, Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce •Phyllis King, vice provost, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Q&A and Member Discussion Next Steps Brian Fitzgerald, CEO, Business-Higher Education Forum Closing Remarks Mary Papazian, BHEF vice chair; president, San José State University Adjourn agenda June 11, 2021 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. All Times Eastern 3 D CEO Key Takeaways 2021 © BHEF 2021 ear BHEF Members, BHEF's recent virtual member meeting focused on the themes of diversity, societal change, and upskilling. In today’s economy, there is a fundamental mismatch at a spectrum of levels—new hires, working professionals, and vulnerable populations—around needed skills. If we do not act, this misalignment could become a major obstacle in our nation’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting used the PwC-BHEF report, Creating the Future Workforce Today, as a guide, with Mike Fenlon, PwC’s chief people officer, and TraLiza King, PwC director, discussing the report’s themes. Fenlon noted that businesses are racing to transform in a post-COVID world, searching for the right talent to raise productivity and compete in the market. At the same time, companies like PwC have a broader social agenda of creating an adaptive, inclusive, and sustainable workforce. With both imperatives, upskilling is crucial. PwC has translated the social imperative for upskilling into a workforce strategy that digitally delivers these upskilling solutions, including a digital accelerator program. TraLiza King detailed the digital accelerator program based on her own experience in the program and getting a nano degree in data analytics. Although she's a CPA, she still immediately benefited from learning new skills, as did her clients. "These skills really helped us leverage technology and best practices—we automated processes, discovered insights, and i mproved value for our clients." She gave an example of designing an upskilling program for a financial tech nology client. After training the client’s staff with upskilling, the organization has saved 6,000 hours across five departments. Moreover, the learning journey and application of new digital skills has made a s ignificant difference in the client’s method of doing business. Andrew Tein TraLiza King Mike Fenlon 4 CEO Key Takeaways 2021 © BHEF 2021 To bring the report to life, the meeting shifted to focus on one of the case studies in the report, Making Mil waukee a Region of Choice. After identifying racial disparities as the biggest challenge to the region, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce launched the Making Milwaukee a Region of Choice for Diverse Talent Call to Action in 2019. With this pledge, 110 Milwaukee-area companies representing 1 40,000+ employees agreed to increase their employment of Black and Hispanic workers by 15 percent and managers by 25 percent by 2025. As part of that pledge, the Higher Education Regional Alliance (HERA) was formed. Phyllis King, vice provost, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, reported that today roughly 96 percent of post-secondary enrollment in the region is represented by HERA. Of those 142,000 students, one third are students of color and one third are Pell Grant recipients. With HERA and TechEd Frontiers, a proprietary on-demand, self- paced, on-line upskilling platform, the region is well on its way to meeting its goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. A s Julie Granger, executive vice president, Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce, put it, "When we looked at how we best compete, we have to look at the totality of our society and our citizens." Because, as she pointed out, if people don't feel like they belong and are included, they aren't going to stay. "All our ef forts won't help if we lose people in a year," she said. When asked about the most important recommendations from the report, Brian Fitzgerald, BHEF CEO, noted that a focus on skills is the catalyst for the other six recommendations. Fenlon agreed, but added that upskilling is a real solution to additional societal problems. "There is a real imperative to meet our business needs while tying to the broader themes to compete effectively in the 21st century as a society, building mor e inclusive economy, and giving more people access to the tools to secure their own futures. We can do that while also making ourselves more competitive." Dr. Brian K. Fitzgerald P hyl lis King Julie Granger Mary Papazian As the second panel wrapped up, speakers and participants spoke about their o wn successes in business-higher education partnerships, as well as how to incentivize students to participate. Indee d, as Mary Papazian, BHEF vice chair and president, San José State University, pointed out, "San Jose is not the only hub for technology. In order t o ensure competitiveness and opportunity, we must partner to create a seamless ecosystem of skills and education." 5 CEO Key Takeaways 2021 © BHEF 2021 Ne xt steps identified by Brian Fitzgerald: 1 .Inject the learnings from the meeting into the work of the ad hoc committee focused on BHEF offerings. 2.Explore and highlight how our members are collaborating with each other. 3.Shape conscious cross-project learning, such as the monthly cross-site convenings of the Workforce Partnership Initiative. 4 .Emphasizing work-based learning, especially paid internships, in all of our work as a means of furthering diversity and inclusion. Brian Napack, rising BHEF vice chair and president and CEO of Wiley & Sons, agreed that in order to create change, we must all work together: "BHEF's mission is the challenge of our time. We have to close the gap: the economic gap, the skill gap, and the opportunity gap—and we can only do it together. B HEF sits at the crossroads of the challenge." Brian Napack Brian K. Fitzgerald, Ed.D. CEO, Business-Higher Education Forum