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Unlocking Opportunity Progress Updates

Earning a Credential Prior to Transferring

  • Hosted 8 Bachelor Bound Workshop Series. (~150 students) and Hosted Transfer 101 Workshop Series. (~50 students to date).

In-Demand Living-Wage Credential Completion

  • Through her work with School Partnerships, Dr. Cicchetti has identified three UO career pathways (IT, ADV MAN, HS) in 7 districts. Each of these districts already has a career navigator through a Learn 2 Earn Grant. Leveraging the Learn 2 Earn PACE grant and Perkins funding, an ESC career navigator will visit high schools, pull students, and talk about their aptitude per the YouScience test. Estimated cost is $5K per program, and we thought we'd start the pilot with IT and HS.
  • Compression planning session to discuss Full Year Registration took place on October 14 with Academic Affairs leadership. A "viewable schedule" will be piloted by ENG, AUT, CAD starting in SU25.

Increase Number of Students Completing Sinclair's Bachelor Degree Programs

  • The BSN and IST programs will host Sinclair Bachelor Bound Workshops this fall to generate interest among current Sinclair students in related associate degree programs.
  • Bachelor's degrees will be included in the 2025 scholarship portfolio under the In Demand Jobs scholarship program.

Experiential Learning in Living-Wage Programs

  • Experiential Learning Coordinator is working on an EL track intended to train and inform faculty on how they can incorporate EL into their curriculum.
  • Grouptrail, an experiential learning tracking software, is slated to be operational by October 31, 2024.

Leverage and Build Custom Training Programs to Fill Workforce Demand

  • 9 Westown IT Fundamentals Class students completed the summer cohort; 8 plan to continue at Sinclair; 9 started the Fall cohort on September 30, 2024; working with Technology First to expand IT apprenticeship opportunities beyond MCOhio.
  • 5 students approved for 5G/Broadband Fiber Optic Certification Training by QUEST, the program funder, to begin on October 21, 2024.

Prior Learning Assessment

  • Worked with faculty to develop proficiency exams for VIS1100, BIS1230, BIS 1260 and BIS 1221.

Technology, Advising, and Student Supports

  • EAB Data Validation is ongoing; We have reached Care Unit scheduling functionality testing phase.

Earning a Credential Prior to Transferring

  • UD Sinclair Academy (UDSA) Orientation for Fall 24 Co-hort; 125 students/parents

In-Demand Living-Wage Credential Completion

  • Confirmed funding and next steps to partner with ESC Career Navigator who will work with high school districts, identifying students who show aptitude through youscience in specific programs, allowing Sinclair to host events and create marketing materials to target these groups of students for recruitment post high school.

Increase Number of Students Completing Sinclair's Bachelor Degree Programs

  • Created solid drafts of bachelor degree program student profiles: planning tool, mindful tracking

Experiential Learning in Living-Wage Programs

  • Survey distribution
  • Identifying 1-2 Living Wage programs in each division to increase EL participation

Leverage and Build Custom Training Programs to Fill Workforce Demand

  • Both the OSHA 10 Hour and OSHA 30 Hour courses will be offered as non-credit to any industry that may desire. The time of when that will begin depends on getting the new instructor up-to-speed.
  • Three new IT certification training programs launch in the Fall: 5G/Broadband Fiber Optic, Fortinet, and AWS Cloud.

Prior Learning Assessment

  • Draft webpage is live, with about 15 CRG links as of August 2nd.
  • Draft Script created for PLA Video Series.

Technology, Advising, and Student Supports

  • Delivered first draft of Road Map to Major Selection & Career Planning document

Earning a Credential Prior to Transferring

  • Outreach: Framework for Bachelor Bound Workshops with university partners finalized and several sessions are scheduled for fall semester.
  • Tracking: Plans are underway to develop an integrated referral and tracking process for transfer students with Academic Advising, ISSC staff and Transfer Specialists.

In-Demand Living-Wage Credential Completion

  • Career Connection: Progress made on establishing connection with ESC to leverage YouScience results to target students.
  • Smart Block: SmartBlock assessment of fall courses continues.
  • UO Partnerships: Program Review Rubric shared with San Antonio College.

Increase Number of Students Completing Sinclair's Bachelor Degree Programs

  • Process Improvement: Next steps in place to evaluate and refine current process by which students enroll in bachelor’s degree programs - from initial inquiry (RFI) to application, to registration, and scholarship opportunities - to make sure our processes are at parity with other 4 year competitors.

Experiential Learning in Living-Wage Programs

  • WBL: Generating Living Wage WBL baseline data and exploring the use of WBL tool for student dashboard.
  • Experiential Learning: Survey Distribution; Identifying 1-2 Living Wage programs in each division to increase EL participation.

Leverage and Build Custom Training Programs to Fill Workforce Demand

  • Plan Development: Team working to define next steps, including resource needs, to expand the existing programs and launch the new programs identified as part of the Custom Training program portfolio to fill workforce demand.

Prior Learning Assessment

  • Employer Connection: Template for PLA Agreements finalized and piloted successfully with local employer.
  • Marketing/Communication: Framework for PLA Video Series finalized. Series to cover: military, proficiency, portfolio, and articulated credit with lengths not to exceed 60 seconds.

Technology, Advising, and Student Supports

  • Student Support: Road Map to Major Selection & Career Planning document.
  • Data: Report on "Changing a major" and the impact to student completion/retention.

Earning a Credential Prior to Transferring

  • Toolkits: Created University Partner Toolkits
  • Data: Obtained metrics needed to obtain transfer info from university partners. https://www.sinclair.edu/admissions/modalities/block-scheduling/

In-Demand Living-Wage Credential Completion

Increase Number of Students Completing Sinclair's Bachelor Degree Programs

  • Benchmarking: Per Site Visit and debriefs, formed consensus on next steps regarding Connect with other community colleges who have more experience with bachelor’s degrees - what are some of their key insights or lessons learned? What did they find most helpful? How did their standard business processes or campus culture change? What advice do they have for us as we expand our bachelor offerings? We have a short list of schools with similar type programs who have been operating bachelor’s degrees for 5-10 years. We'll connect in June/July as schedules permit.

Experiential Learning in Living-Wage Programs

  • Partnership: WPAFB Follow-up to match Living Wage programs with opportunities at the base

Leverage and Build Custom Training Programs to Fill Workforce Demand

  • Prior Learning: Working with PLA Work Team to incorporate, without duplicating efforts, PLA opportunities into workforce pathways.

Prior Learning Assessment

  • Tech Prep: Identified 15+ potential PLA Proficiencies and 30+ potential Tech Prep proficiencies that could be of interest to post-secondary CTE students.
  • Mission: Created Theory of Change Document for PLA

Technology, Advising, and Student Supports

  • Student Support: Implemented Coaching to Complete new cohort-based model for summer.
  • Career Planning: Created first draft of "Road Map to Major Selection & Career Planning" a one-page workflow resource to help students and staff/faculty know the workflow for undecided students or student major selection conversations to better serve students.
A group of diverse individuals pose together and smile at the camera.
Colleagues from Sinclair Community College and San Antonio College—both proud members of the Unlocking Opportunity Network—gathered at San Antonio College to share and discuss best practices for post graduation success.

Aspen visits all 10 institutions within the Unlocking Opportunity Network, and the most recent visit to Sinclair was May 15-16, 2024. The purpose of this visit was to assist their research by having focused conversations in key areas in order to better understand our institution. This research will help them evaluate, rethink and strengthen our existing programs and develop new program models that expand career and educational opportunity for all students.

Image of four adults posing for the camera side-by-side and smiling
The Aspen Institute team during the May 2024 Site Visit to Sinclair.
A man sitting in a chair is speaking and gesturing with his hands
Faculty member Eric Renegar discusses his work team progress during the Aspen Institute May 2024 Site Visit.

What We Have Accomplished

  • Built framework for Smart Block scheduling for top 5 completed programs with priority registration and 3 semester scheduling options – Fall 2024 start.
  • Completed environmental scan of career assessment and current services and financial literacy resources to inform co-work team collaboration intent on unifying institutional career exploration opportunities and efforts.
  • Official opening of Transfer Center.
  • Career Exploration embedded into New Student Orientation.
  • Submitted student Application revision to better identify and serve undecided students.
  • Secured partnership with eLearn to use Articulate Rise to clarify and inform students about their majors.
  • Created Living Wage Resource to guide Work Team efforts

In Progress Work Team Tasks

  • Creating Value Propositions for each Sinclair BAS Degree.
  • Developing processes to capture and respond to all BAS degree RFIs.
  • Enrollment trend tracking within living-wage programs.
  • Expanding PLA options; organizing existing options; communicating and informing students “How To” video.
  • Identifying how to address in-demand programs that are not at capacity.
  • Ensuring in-demand pathways are seamless for students.
  • Identifying potential for-credit courses for consideration as complementary non-credit programs within Manufacturing, Healthcare, IT Unlocking Opportunity/Aspen.