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2021 Q4 ICT-DM Newsletter

Employer Engagement News

A key BayICT strategy for employer engagement is to identify and develop relationships with organizations seeking to diversify the tech workforce. Such organizations understand that our community colleges can fill that gap. They become advocates for our students and for community college career education as an on-ramp. As a result, we lift ALL of our students and increase awareness of the role community colleges play in tech workforce development.

The power of such partnerships is leveraging existing relationships to form new connections. Our partners at NextGen Cyber Talent and the Technology Workforce Collaborative have introduced us to a global digital transformation company and a micro-mobility unit of Ford Mobility planning to place interns as IT Project Coordinators and SOC analysts. Details are being worked out, so watch the student opportunities page at BayICT.org.

Student News

The Students page of the BayICT.org website has been updated to include information about work-based learning opportunities and other resources for gaining industry exposure and work experience. The intent of this update is to not only serve our students, but also provide employers and other partners with a space for sharing their offerings and programs.

NextGen CyberTalent Expands Completion Incentive Grant Program – Partnership Update

NextGen Cyber Talent has announced start dates for its next cybersecurity internship training cohorts. Securonix SNYPR self-paced training begins March 14th. Palo Alto Networks Foundation, Gateway, and Essentials virtual training begins April 24th.
NextGen kicked off its completion grant program at CCSF in Spring of 2021 (see the press release here) and added Merritt in Fall 2021. The program awards students successfully finishing courses in cybersecurity certificate and degree pathways. Students who complete courses with a B or better can receive $350 for a 3-unit course. To apply, students must register for the programs at https://www.nextgencybertalent.com/students/.

Sergio

Student Spotlight – Juan Soberanes

We’re excited to spotlight Juan Soberanes, a Cabrillo College graduate. His journey from ICT student to software engineer at Balbix is a great story about how BayICT collaborations support student success. 

After attending North Western Preparatory school in San Bernardino Juan was appointed to the United States Air Force Academy in 2018. But after less than a year, he decided he’d had enough of the military. He wanted a change, but wasn’t sure what, and instead of going back home to Southern California, moved to Santa Cruz in 2019 and started taking classes at Cabrillo and exploring his options. For 2 years, he took ICT courses that resulted in earning dual AS degrees in Computer Support and Systems & Network Admin along with industry certifications from Cisco, CompTIA, and VMWare. (He now has over a dozen!)

Digital Media Educators Conference Recap

WASTC was pleased to host and enable the return of the Digital Media Educators Conference!  The 2021 Digital Media Educators Conference was two virtual days of non-stop activities.  “Digital Media Student Opportunities and Beyond: Success For All” was the event theme and the three big focus areas were “Job! Jobs! Jobs!”, “Industry Speaks!” and “In Practice!”. DMEC, once again, provided a platform to network and connect with dedicated and creative people across all areas of the Digital Media sector. 

This was NOT another ZOOM seminar! We used a highly engaging virtual event platform hosted by ENGAGEZ.  With opening, DEI focused, keynotes by Crystal Berry, of 25th Hour Communications, and Diane Strand of JDS studios, 30 focus-area breakout sessions, a Screening Room and Galleries showcasing student’s Digital Media work, and on-demand access to all of the presentations for another week, the near 130 registered attendees did not have to miss anything.

Dave Carlson, Digital Media Arts/Broadcasting teacher, Chaparral High School, Temecula, CA had this to say about the event: “When I signed up for the DMEC virtual event, I wasn’t sure what it would be like, but I was treated to some top-notch information that will lead to me being a better teacher and will lead to my students getting a richer experience from my classes. Some of my favorite sessions included: “Adobe Educator Program”, “Low-lift, High-Impact Digital Learning,” “Metahumans and Livelink,” and Diane Strand’s personal story/business. I’m looking forward to next year’s conference!” 

IBM Curriculum Now Free for Bay Area Faculty

BACCC and IBM entered into an agreement over the summer that includes free licensing of the SkillsBuild catalog of lessons and courses. Most will reward students with an IBM Credly badge, providing industry validation of the knowledge, skills, and abilities learned. Over two dozen Bay Area faculty are exploring this treasure trove of instructional materials. 

Employers have told us repeatedly that we do a great job teaching tech skills, but that they want to hire people who also have the work habits and skills to be successful in the real world of work. To meet this need, SkillsBuild includes a series of badged lessons, including Professional Skills (collaboration, communication, agility, and problem solving) and Essential Skills (an overview of cloud, AI, analytics, IoT, Blockchain, and security). They’ve also developed a really nice set of lessons on Job Application Essentials.

  • Contra Costa College is among the first to integrate some of these materials. Francis Reyes has created a small course to prepare students for the work experience aspect of the IT program there. The first few students will complete the unit this Fall.
  • SkillsBuild also includes complete instructional programs in specific technology areas. For example, Manny Kang at College of Marin is planning to use the IBM Fortinet security course, which includes Fortinet system administrator certifications, as the foundation for his revised Cybersecurity course.
  • We’re also working to create a plug-n-play Canvas shell, covering workplace and job search skills, that can be included as extra credit or makeup assignments in virtually any technology class. Join us for the IBM session at the winter conference, where we’ll debut this project.

PSSST! Helpful Tip While there is a free, public-facing signup for SkillsBuild, that won’t get you access to the full catalog–don’t sign up that way! Instead, just send an email requesting access to ray@baccc.net. He can set you up with everything you need to explore and deploy these helpful resources. 

Workforce Development News

Analytics skills are no longer reserved for a few data-focused job roles. They are Industry Groups Organize Conversations With Employers

The Bay Area Council, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and Valley Vision have organized a series of conversations between major employers and colleges in the Bay Area and Sacramento Valley. The object is to work toward better alignment, preparing students for upcoming jobs.

At the second meeting on November 16th, participating colleges included Cabrillo, Calbright, City College San Francisco, College of San Mateo, De Anza, Las Positas, Mission, and Ohlone. Educators also included Regional Directors from Sacramento and the Bay Area. On the employer side of the table, we had Cadence, Comcast, IBM, and Nuru.

The major issue that surfaced was the need to incorporate more work-based learning activities into the curriculum. Companies were encouraged to invest in internships for community college students, as a way to improve the diversity of their workforce. An interesting statistic: For every engineer hired, with a 4-year degree or more, there are 5 technician jobs, requiring 2 years or less.

Stay tuned for the publication of their final report, early next year.

Program News

Given what our employer partners are telling us, we’re excited about the new certificates of achievement for IT Project Management at Merritt College, Data Analytics at Las Positas College and Technical Sales at Diablo Valley College. We’d like to hear from other colleges offering or developing similar programs to support employer engagement and awareness.

Now that the Digital Media Educators Conference is behind us, the BayDM Project is preparing a program awareness campaign to coincide with Spring 2022 enrollment. The project team of digital and multimedia chairs and faculty is also revisiting the articulation and model curriculum conversations. However, any movement in these important programs and student success issues will take significant effort needing more faculty input and involvement. If you’re interested in joining the discussion, please contact Olivia.

Introductory Cloud Computing Offerings for High School and CC Instructors Coming up in January 

WASTC and the AWS Academy program is excited to offer teacher training for the Academy’s new Introduction to Cloud course.  The course will introduce students to the world of cloud computing and prepare them to take the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner examination. The course is divided into two semesters, should be taught sequentially, and will provide the perfect introductory course for high school and community colleges.  Students can be successful without the need for any prerequisite study.

During these train-the-trainer workshops, participants will review the AWS Introduction to Cloud course material consisting of the Educator Guide, activities, labs, reading, videos, quizzes, and the end-of-course assessment all delivered in a familiar Canvas shell environment. 

Offered Fully Online:

  • Semester 1: Jan 22 – Feb 19, 2022
  • Semester 2: Mar 19 – Apr 23, 2022

Contact Richard for details: richard.grotegut@wastc.org

Tech Talk Format Update

The BayICT Tech Talks are a series of virtual talks and Q&A with ICT & Digital Media industry professionals about their roles, experience, and personal career path. The series is intended for students, faculty, and members of our community to learn from and engage with industry. Tech Talk speakers represent the full range of ICT-DM careers and levels of responsibility in their organizations and come from a variety of disciplines with diverse backgrounds.

We are currently working on a panel series. Our first quarter Tech Talks will feature a Tech Sales panel on January 25th and celebrate African American History month in February and Women’s History Month in March. Keep checking our events page for updates. https://bayict.org/events

Thank You From the BayICT Partnership

We are a collaborative of business and industry leaders, educators, workforce development boards, and community organizations in the greater Bay Area. The mission is to “Inform Bay Area community college ICT Digital Media career education and to provide work-based learning and job opportunities for students and skill-builders.”

Thank you for your interest in and support of our mission!