Transcript- Episode 81: Readying Students To Enter The Global Workforce, With Stephen Cheung President Of The World Trade Center Los Angeles Episode 81
Oct 25, 2022
00:00:00Stephen
LA has been and will continue tobe at the center of global attention. I think we underestimate theimpact that Los Angeles has on the rest of the world. And becauseof that, we need to step up and we need to be more aggressive andassertive about our position on the globaleconomy.
00:00:16Stephen
Because when we do, our workershere and our employees here will have opportunities not only in LosAngeles but around the world. But we need to take that place andsee ourselves as a global competitor because the rest of the worldis already looking there.
00:00:34Christina
The workforce landscape israpidly changing and educators and their institutions need to keepup. Preparing students before they enter the workforce to make ourcommunities and businesses stronger is at the core of getting aneducation.
00:00:47Christina
But we need to understand how tochange and adjust so that we can begin to project where things areheaded before we even get there. So, how do we begin to predict thefuture?
00:00:59Salvatrice
Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, VicePresident of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena CityCollege, and host of this podcast.
00:01:08Christina
And I'm Christina Barsi,producer and co-host of this podcast.
00:01:11Salvatrice
And we are starting theconversation about the future of work. We'll explore topics likehow education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable,and how to attain one of our highest goals; more internships andPCC students in the workforce.
00:01:26Salvatrice
We at Pasadena City College wantto lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students arelearning and what the demands of the workforce will be once theyenter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us. You, theemployers, the policymakers, the educational institutions, and thecommunity as a whole.
00:01:45Christina
We believe change happens whenwe work together, and it all starts with having a conversation. I'mChristina Barsi.
00:01:53Salvatrice
And I'm Salvatrice Cummo, andthis is the Future of Work.
00:01:58Salvatrice
Hi everyone, welcome back to theFuture of Work Podcast. I am your host, Salvatrice Cummo. We areexcited to bring you another featured guest of our Future of WorkSpeaker Series where we learn more about some of our panelists thatwill be with us at our Future of Work conference this November8th.
00:02:15Salvatrice
As a reminder, you can registerto attend the conference at no cost by clicking on our link in theshow notes. We hope to certainly see you there.
00:02:22Salvatrice
Specifically, in today'sepisode, we'll be learning more about the Los Angeles CountyEconomic Development Corporation and the World Trade Center LosAngeles, and what their focus is moving forward. We will also gainsome insight into how we can better connect academia with industryto create, certainly, a better pathway for ourstudents.
00:02:41Salvatrice
With that, we are excited towelcome back, Stephen Cheung, President of World Trade Center LosAngeles, and President of the LAEDC. Welcome back, Stephen, how areyou?
00:02:52Stephen
Thank you so much, Salvatricefor having me back. I'm doing well, thank you.
00:02:55Salvatrice
This is a super exciting timefor you. We're in the same kind of circles, so we get to see eachother very, very often. But this is a unique time for LA and we arecertainly proud and honored and excited to have you step into thenew role of President of LAEDC. And thank you for giving us yourtime today and also, giving us your time at the conference that'scoming up on November 8th.
00:03:18Stephen
Yeah. Well, thank you for theopportunity. I think it's important for us to start working evenmore closely together as we're getting ready for recovery fromCOVID-19. There's just so much that we have to do together as aregion.
00:03:28Salvatrice
Yes, for sure. Last time youwere here, we really kind of talked about COVID-19 impacting thebusinesses' operations and sectors, and that really kind of reliedon trade. But at this point, we're kind of in a different place andnow, we're thinking about moving forward and moving away from thepandemic.
00:03:45Salvatrice
How do you think, like justthinking back about what the regions and what the sectors arereally facing at the time of COVID-19 in its peak, and now, duringthis recovery process; what regions do you think have been impactedand that you see a quicker recovery?
00:04:01Stephen
Well, I don't think there's onesingle region that has not been impacted by COVID. To reverse thatquestion a little bit, I think what we saw was that over the lasttwo years, we're really triaging. We're really looking at how do wesurvive the pandemic.
00:04:14Stephen
Whereas for now, we're able tobe a bit more removed from the immediacy of COVID. So, now, we'reable to look at long-term growth. The world has changedsignificantly since two years ago, and our industries and oureconomy are also adapting very quickly to what this new situationcan look like.
00:04:32Stephen
And with that said, we can't usethe same practice and the same models that we had before. Andthat's why looking in the future and planning for these newindustries and their needs, and how do we make sure thoseopportunities are aligned with our values here in the region, andmaking sure that equity, making sure that opportunities areprovided to the most vulnerable populations and the mostunderserved population become a key component of our recoveryefforts.
00:04:56Stephen
I think those are the thingsthat on top of mind, and I think industries are also focusing onthat as well, because they've seen that you could not have alaissez-fair approach and just allow things to happen withoutintervention in many ways, and they need additionalsupport.
00:05:10Stephen
So, I think that this is a veryinteresting time where you really have a lot of willing playersthat are going to be getting together. We just don't want tosquander that opportunity to be able to create those mechanisms andthose pathways forward.
00:05:23Salvatrice
So, this new era really ofconducting business very differently, new industries coming up -not only new industries but new needs; has the work of the LAEDCshifted with connecting academia to industry?
00:05:37Salvatrice
You know, LAEDC plays a veryimportant role here in the region, specifically for communitycolleges and helping us connect employers to our students andemployers to our academic institutions. And in that space, do yousee that changing given the new needs of the industries andindustries really conducting business very differently than theydid before?
00:05:59Stephen
Yeah, I do see that there'sgoing to be a bit of a change, a bit of an evolution, a bit of agrowth in terms of what those partnerships can look like and whatthe work will look like. The reason why I say that is as we are inthe midst of the pandemic, I think it became more apparent thanever that Los Angeles is really a small business and medium-sizebusiness town.
00:06:18Stephen
What I mean by that is in ourresearch, we found that 92 to 94% of all LA county-based companieshave less than 20 employees. So, even though a lot of the jobs thatwere created are created by large companies, about half of the jobsthat are in Los Angeles are supported by small companies and microenterprises. So, as we're moving in the future, that's not going tochange. LA will continue to have a lot of smallbusinesses.
00:06:42Stephen
How do we now, basically, makesure that those small businesses are able to be part of this entirejob training talent development system so that they're not left ontheir own to create these opportunities? Because if we're solelyrelying on large companies to provide new jobs, that's just halfthe solution to half the equation.
00:06:58Stephen
So, I think this is where wefeel that LAEDC's work, especially with the community colleges,will have to evolve to make sure that we are able to encompass allsorts of different jobs that will be coming forth in the future,whether they're large companies, small company, or medium-sizecompanies.
00:07:12Salvatrice
And are the practices withinLAEDC changing a little bit, and how you're engaging with usspecifically? I know we're really kind of new into this new era ofpost-pandemic, but is there anything that you can say like, "Look,Salvatrice, we tried this and it really worked and we did thisdifferently?"
00:07:30Stephen
Yes. The example is, I would sayright now, we were given a couple opportunities because of fundingopportunities that were available through the federal level and thestate level. For example, the economic development administrationreleased a couple grant opportunities and all the regions aroundthe United States are applying for it.
00:07:49Stephen
But what they're looking for arestrategic alliances and long-term strategies so that we can worktogether as a region to develop these pathways I was talking aboutearlier. I think most regions, especially in Los Angeles, we have alot of great individual programs, whether it's workforcedevelopment program, whether it's industry cluster developmentprograms, but sometimes we don't do a very good job making sureit's all aligned.
00:08:10Stephen
And one of the problems isbecause LA is so big and so huge with 88 cities, with over ahundred incorporated areas, with over 10 million residents, it'snot easy for that coordination. And that coordination has to be inplace over the long-term.
00:08:24Stephen
We've seen economic crisishappen over and over again. This is cyclical. The next economiccrisis will happen. Do we wait until then to basically startbringing folks together to plan for another recovery plan? Or do webasically get ready now?
00:08:38Stephen
So, it's kind of like anearthquake preparedness plan. We should have an economicpreparedness plan. So, in case anything happens, we're all aligned.I think that's where the opportunities are and that's where we'regoing to be working a bit differently, that we're really looking atthe next 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, and 15 years, so that thatrelationship between LAEDC and the community colleges will belong-term.
00:08:59Stephen
And basically, we can continueto grow on some of the things that we've worked on before, some ofthe reports that we built on before - how do we take thatinformation and turn it into a full pathway?
00:09:08Stephen
I think that's going to be thefocus of what LAEDC would like to see happen, because thoseopportunities that were provided by the Economic DevelopmentAdministration 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 tocreate these kind of structures again.
00:09:25Stephen
So, I think a lot of folks arereally looking at that long-term structure and it's giving us theopportunity as a region to align ourselves to make sure that we'reable to work together and create these pathways. So, that from anindustry standpoint, as the companies are growing into theirvarious sectors, those type of changes and their skill sets needsare immediately available to the community colleges for them todevelop their curriculum, which we've been working very closely onthat aspect already.
00:09:51Stephen
But as the economy's changing -I was talking about the small companies, sometimes they have toadjust very quickly. We also have to basically establish thosesystems.
00:09:58Stephen
And finally, the last componentof this is how do we make sure that we're able to recruit andtarget the workers in terms of where they are at and what theirneeds are, so that we can make sure that those displaced workers,whether from COVID or whether from other issues, have the abilityto upscale and reskill to enter this entirepathway.
00:10:17Salvatrice
Right. And through that lens,through your lens of industry and knowing kind of this evolutionthat we're ... long-term solutions and long-term recovery, whatwould you say - community colleges, how could we be a solidpartner, a more active partner within this long-term development ofcareer pathways and just long-term sustainability of recovery?You're right, it will happen again. So, what could wedo?
00:10:46Stephen
Yeah, community colleges havebeen fantastic in terms of trying to reach out to the industrypartners and the businesses to kind of hear what those changes areso they can create the training system that'snecessary.
00:10:55Stephen
Another thing that's going to bevital is that we've been working very closely to identify the needsof the industry. I think we need to do a much better job in termsof identifying the needs of the talent pool and the people that areentering the community college systems, because I think we'reseeing a completely new generation of workers that have differentneeds and different ways of learning and different ways ofworking.
00:11:15Stephen
So, I think this informationalso needs to be fed back to the industry so they can adjust aswell. So, it's not a one-way street. I think community collegeswill become that key connector to be able to provide thatinformation because a lot of the industries, they don't have thecapacity, nor do they have the resources to dedicate to theoutreach to understanding the students and also, thelearners.
00:11:35Stephen
And this is where the communitycolleges are sitting in a very, very unique situation where theyhave that information at their fingertips at any point that theywant. And having that information will really guide the way thatwe're going to shape the future of work.
00:11:48Stephen
Just as an example, we'redealing right now with understanding remote work and working fromhome. As folks are going back, industry need to basically figureout how do they structure their leases, how do they structure theircubicles and their offices.
00:12:01Stephen
Without knowing the desires fromthe workers of the future, some of them might say, "Hey, I want theflexibility. I will work as hard as I can, but the thing is I needthe 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 largespace.
00:12:17Stephen
But not having thatunderstanding of where the workers are at, it becomes difficult forthese companies to have to make that guesswork. So, it becomes theentire feedback loop that will be very important. And the communitycolleges, again, is vital to that feedback loop.
00:12:31Salvatrice
Do you feel like that's a spacethat we should be allocating resources to as it relates to futurework? You know, we talk a lot about industry needs, but we veryrarely talk about (and I'm really glad you said it) the employeeneeds.
00:12:43Stephen
Yes.
00:12:44Salvatrice
This is like actually, quitefrankly, the first time that you and I have talked about, but evenin the space of, in academia, we don't talk about employee needsout there, we talk about the employer.
00:12:54Stephen
That's exactlyit.
00:12:54Salvatrice
So, are you seeing kind of likewhere we as a community college can be allocating resources to thatwork for a better understanding or-
00:13:04Stephen
I personally think so. I thinkthis is a very important piece of the conversation because once thecommunity colleges are able to collect those voices, but it's alsoabout the data. Because having an individual anecdotal story is notenough.
00:13:15Stephen
And the reach and the size ofthe impact that the community colleges collectively can have isgoing to be very important. And the second thing that I think thecommunity colleges bring to the table as well is theregionalization and the focus on the areas.
00:13:27Stephen
This is also going to contributeto the decision-making process when it comes to commuting patterns.That's going to change. You know, as we're looking at recovery fromCOVID, folks, some of them have moved out of the region. Some ofthem have decided to be closer to transit orient design locationswhere they're going to be in higher-density buildings that haveaccess to rail as we're investing more in rail.
00:13:47Stephen
So, these are all importantdecision-making processes and information that the industry willneed. And if the community colleges are able to get thatinformation and allocate resources to really help aggregate some ofthe voices, it becomes a very powerful tool and a very powerfulresource, not only for the industry but for the entireregion.
00:14:06Stephen
Because I don't think we've hadreally good data about the employees, their needs, their desires,and basically, what their pattern's going to look like. Becauseright now, we've seen a lot of companies are struggling withhiring. And so, they need to adjust to the needs of the employees.Otherwise, they're just going to have vacant jobs that no one'sgoing to want to work for and they're not going to know how tocontinue to grow their business.
00:14:26Salvatrice
And this is perfect timing forus as a regional consortium, the LA Regional Consortium, to workwith LAEDC on that kind of collecting that data. I'd be very, veryinterested in collecting the voices of the employees of our regionof LA county. So, let's put a pin in that, Stephen, because that'simportant work. And imagine having both, to your point, havingthose two resources, two data points.
00:14:50Stephen
I'll finish that thought interms of, it goes all the way back to this long-term strategythat's going to be in place. We've had individual components ofindustry work; how do we partner with the industry in terms ofreaching the learners.
00:15:02Stephen
But we haven't collectively as aregion have that entire pathway, that strategy lined up. So, we canclearly see as a region, as these industries are continuing togrow, here are all the pieces. And so, as a region, we cancollectively get the information altogether at once and make acollective decision with all the best data that'savailable.
00:15:21Stephen
Right now, in order for us to doanything, we have to create an ad hoc kind of project to get aportion of that data. And that data is only at that period, in thatmoment in time. And so, you don't have a longitudinal study thatallows us to basically look at the evolution and really look at thedata in the way that helps us make long-termdecisions.
00:15:38Stephen
Because things will changemoment to moment. But if you have LAEDC and the community collegescollectively become that custodian of information data, then itbecomes so much more powerful for this region to be able to rely onthese two institutions to be able to provide that solidunderstanding. So, we're not just guessing, we actually haveinformation to base our decisions on.
00:15:58Salvatrice
Right. And that is really theepitome of preparation, the epitome of preparing our students forthe workforce. These students that we have now, future studentsthat we'll have, and the current employees as our students. So,you're absolutely right, and I'm very, very excited aboutit.
00:16:15Salvatrice
So, let's circle back to thatbecause I think there's a ton of work that can be done as aregional consortium and with LAEDC.
00:16:21Salvatrice
I want to shift gears just alittle bit, Stephen, because you're in a new role as President ofLAEDC, and everyone's very, very excited about that. Can you sharewith us your vision, your outlook maybe for the next couple ofyears? I like to operate in like one to three-year increments, sotell us what that might look like for you.
00:16:42Stephen
So, we are the same way. We'reactually looking at a three-year strategy in terms of being able tobe flexible because not just LA but around the world, the long-termplans you should have in place, but you have to be flexible. Andthat's what we're seeing.
00:16:54Stephen
So, for us, as I'm entering thisnew role, the goals and the vision that we're bringing along isreally about how do we maximize on the resources that are availableto grow the types of industries that are going to be most impactfulto our communities, and how do we make sure those opportunities areavailable to the underserved communities that that's been leftbehind.
00:17:14Stephen
Because we've seen that if wejust basically grow without support, we've seen that the dichotomyof our economy, bifurcation of our income stratus. So, that createsa region and economy that's not healthy, and eventually, it's goingto come back to haunt us.
00:17:30Stephen
So, with that said, in terms ofspecifically how we're going to achieve those goals, it's really tomake sure that we have the ability to deliver on the five-prongstrategy for LAEDC.
00:17:39Stephen
The first prong is about ourmacroeconomic research. We really need to, as we're talking aboutearlier, understand and really do data analysis to look at thetrends that are happening; what these macroeconomic trends aroundthe world, how that impacts Los Angeles inparticular.
00:17:54Stephen
And with that data, startguiding the industries that we want to focus on that's going tocreate the best jobs, the highest-paying jobs, the most sustainableand stable career path, and those that will provide pathways forthe underserved community.
00:18:07Stephen
So, that number one aspect ofthe macroeconomic research will help us then identify theindustries that we're going to focus on. In the past, we've studiedthat, for example, the bioscience life industry are going to beimportant to this region, is because of the enormous growthpotential and also, the wage impact it has onemployees.
00:18:25Stephen
And it's not just going to befor folks with PhDs and master's degree because over 60% of thosejobs within the bioscience sectors, you don't require a collegedegree. And these are good jobs are going to be available for us.So, having that information, now, we're able to focus on theindustry. What we want to do, our second-prong approach is to growthose industry and have an industry cluster development focus sothat we can double down on making sure those ecosystem continues togrow.
00:18:49Stephen
What policies are necessary inorder for those industry to be successful, what programs areavailable, what advocacy is needed for those industry to continueto thrive. So, that's our second prong; utilizing researcherguidance. We're going to develop our industry and grow thoseecosystem.
00:19:03Stephen
But you can see how once we havethat industry cluster, that group, those councils that we're goingto be creating to guide that process, we want to create athree-year blueprint. Where are we now here in 2022? Where do wewant to go in three years? Where do we want to go in 10 years, sothat we have a pathway forward.
00:19:19Stephen
So, that blueprint willbasically guide our next two-prong approach, which is our businessattraction, retention growth strategy. Because we need to make surethat we're able to continue to help these companies grow withinthese sectors.
00:19:30Stephen
What technical assistance dothey need? How do we work with the governments around LA county toprovide those assistance just so that these companies can continuenot to survive, but really, to thrive.
00:19:40Stephen
And that's a third-prongapproach, which is a business attraction, retention growth. And youcan see that it leads to our fourth strategy, which isinternational. We see that international foreign direct investmentis going to be a huge part of our recovery.
00:19:51Stephen
A lot of companies, when theymature, they will leave this region, but we have very strongcompetitive advantage here in Los Angeles region where a lot ofinternational companies want to locate here and create amazing jobsfor this region. So, this is an international strategy of businessattraction, retention, and growth as well.
00:20:07Stephen
And finally, all of that issupported by a workforce development and talent development.Because if you don't have the talent pool and the employees, theseindustries will not be able to grow. So, continuing the work thatwe've been talking about, partnering with the community colleges,the CSU5s, and universities, to make sure that we have the talentpool necessary to grow the sector, to help these companies to beable to identify the talent pool to really help them besuccessful.
00:20:30Stephen
That five-prong approach isgoing to be our next three-year focus strategy. And we want to usedata to identify what those industry focus areas are. But at thesame time, we've already been doing research for quite a few years,so we know in general, some of those target industries that we wantto focus already, but we just want to make sure that as we'regetting out of COVID - the world is changing so quickly, we want tomake sure we have the most up-to-date information and identify thebest potential for Los Angeles.
00:20:56Salvatrice
Excellent. That is very, veryexciting and I can't wait to learn more and to see more about howthis evolves in the next year or so. And that's intense. It'sintense, but it's necessary. It's absolutely necessary if we'rereally being honest with ourselves, and truly being honest aboutlong-term solution-based recovery.
00:21:16Salvatrice
And so, I'm absolutely thrilledabout it. I really, really appreciate you sharing that with me. AndI know that more will be shared at our Future of Work conferencecoming up as you're a panelist there. So, I really look forward tothat.
00:21:27Salvatrice
You know, I'd like to close thissession and ask an important question that I ask everyone who's onthe show, which is, if there was one thing that you would like ouraudience to understand about the future of work and what we'regoing to need to do to get there, what would thatbe?
00:21:42Stephen
I think for folks looking at thefuture of work, is that LA has been and will continue to be at thecenter of global attention. I think we underestimate the impactthat 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 assertiveabout our position on the global economy.
00:22:04Stephen
Because when we do, our workershere and our employees here will have opportunities not only in LosAngeles but around the world, but we need to take that place andsee ourselves as a global competitor because the rest of the worldis already looking there.
00:22:18Stephen
So, I think having thatunderstanding shift the way that we're going to shape our programs,because we're not going to be so insular with our approach, but wesee that by growing our employees, by growing our employers, bygrowing our industries, we're now able to reach a much, much biggermarket.
00:22:33Stephen
And so, prosperity and thoseopportunities will be a lot more accessible and you also have a lotmore opportunities rather than just basically focusing on the 10.2million population that's here; we're talking about billions ofresidents and buyers and customers that we can workwith.
00:22:48Stephen
And I think the exciting thing,having the opportunity to also work for the World Trade Center LosAngeles, is to see the international approach. And I wish thatthose opportunities are provided to all future workers. We have somany talented individuals here in Los Angeles, I just wish thatthey can see some of the things I've seen and how they look atAngelinos and how they envy Los Angeles in manyways.
00:23:09Stephen
But at the same time, theyrespect the folks that are coming out of this region. So, that'sthe future for us, and I think we just need to seize thoseopportunities.
00:23:17Salvatrice
Excellent. What a beautiful wayto sunset this conversation, Stephen. Thank you very, very much. Wereally look forward to seeing you again on November 8th. If ouraudience members want to connect with you, what's the best way forthem to connect?
00:23:28Stephen
They can go to our website,laedc.org, and they can find all our contact information on thestaff directory, and they can reach me directly there. My email isjust stephen.cheung@laedc.org. Please feel free to reach medirectly. I usually get back to them within a fewdays.
00:23:42Salvatrice
Very good. Thank you so much.We'll have those in the show notes. Thanks again, Stephen. Have abeautiful day, and we'll see you soon.
00:23:47Stephen
Thank you, Salvatrice, Iappreciate it.
00:23:49Salvatrice
Thank you.
00:23:50Salvatrice
Thank you for listening to TheFuture of Work Podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on yourfavorite listening platform so you can easily get new episodesevery Tuesday.
00:24:01Salvatrice
You can reach out to us byclicking on the website link below in the show notes tocollaborate, partner, or just chat about all things future of work.We'd love to connect with you. All of us here at the Future of Workand Pasadena City College wish you safety andwellness.
