Corporate leaders and officials from the White House, government agencies and business groups convened at the American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) offices in Washington, D.C., Thursday to discuss how employers and education leaders can work together to improve job recruiting practices.
“We are excited to welcome you to AACC,” Walter Bumphus, AACC president and CEO, told members of the Modernize Candidate Recruitment and Training Practices Working Group, which is part of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board (AWPAB).
AWPAB was formed in February to advise the National Council for the American Worker, established by President Donald Trump last year to create a comprehensive workforce strategy to ensure American workers are equipped to succeed in the jobs of today and the future.
In addition to Bumphus, community colleges are represented on the board by Sheree Utash, president of Wichita State University Applied Sciences and Technology (WSU Tech) in Kansas, and Jay Box, president of Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
“This work is critical to increasing the number of family-sustaining wage jobs and preparing community college students to fill them, “Bumphus said. “Working across sectors – education, industry and government – to ensure that our nation’s workforce is effectively prepared will have a positive impact for students, employers and local communities.”
(From left) Rosemary Lahasky, special assistant to President Trump; AACC President Walter Bumphus; and AACC Senior Vice President Jen Worth.
By participating in these discussions, AACC-member institutions will have access to new strategies and lessons learned by industry partners related to candidate selection involving artificial intelligence, skills inference and predictive profiles, and see how those technologies can best map to community college students, said Jen Worth, AACC’s senior vice president of workforce and economic development.
The working group will continue to meet in order to fulfill its charge to advise the AWPAB.
