FALL/WINTER 2010 - PART 1

A Note from the Editor: A busy autumn – time largely focused on executing the Ultimate Home Game, which you can read more about in this e-publication – has made it necessary to combine the Fall and Winter 2010 editions into one publication. But plentiful content made this combined edition fairly bulky. Thus, we're splitting this issue into Parts I and II to make the read more enjoyable. Part I of the Fall/Winter 2010 Pittsburgh Regional Compact Quarterly is below. Look for Part II in early January 2011. Happy holidays to all.

Professional Hockey and Career Education? Engaging the Workforce of Tomorrow to Imagine a Bright Future in the Pittsburgh Region

by Ben Kamber, Contributing Writer, Pittsburgh Regional Compact Quarterly

Willing, able and engaged, career education professionals are often expert penetrators of the minds of students. Their expertise is helping young people – the workforce of tomorrow – successfully focus on futures loaded with possibility. These many possibilities, coupled with the vast amounts of messaging and other distractions bombarding today's youth, make the challenge of meaningfully engaging students perhaps more difficult than ever, but certainly not impossible.

Considering this challenge and how "getting it right" is critical to the Pittsburgh region's future prosperity, an unprecedented partnership was launched this fall between the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Pittsburgh Penguins and WestPACs (a consortium of regional career education professionals). Beginning with the Pens' "Ultimate Home Game" (see sidebar) on Saturday, September 25, this partnership aims to impart a simple, but powerful, message that the youth of the region need to hear: for the first time in a generation, the Pittsburgh region has tens of thousands of available, well-paying jobs (20,000+ listed on ImaginePittsburgh.com – half of which pay $40,000+ annually). And this is a trend that's expected to continue – if regional employers can find the talent that they are seeking.

Launched with lots of glitz at the brand-new CONSOL Energy Center – a symbol itself of our green, tech-driven region, the "Ultimate Home Game" was not a "flash in the pan." Rather, it symbolized a beginning – the tip of the iceberg for a novel "season of engagement" comprising an ongoing, focused campaign to ensure that students are made aware of the real-world career opportunities here in the Pittsburgh region. According to Regina Anderson, director of the Regional Internship Center, a program of Coro Pittsburgh, this is "truly great news." Anderson, one of many career awareness educators and influencers, is encouraged by this type of initiative and the impact it will have on our region's emerging workforce.

"I'm excited! The connection with the Pens provides great visibility for the message about jobs and careers in our region, and it helps to get the attention of the right demographic. Being a season-long initiative, there should be plenty of opportunities to keep the message fresh and routinely in front of people, including key audiences of young talent," said Anderson. "We are not just talking about career awareness collaboration these days; we're walking the talk about new and better approaches that include meaningful internship experiences. The message we have now, backed up with actual numbers about available jobs and careers, focuses on the employment realities in the region today and better illustrates what the future demand for employees will be. That can be game-changing for our up-and-coming workforce."

As the next step in this extraordinary career awareness and education initiative, 89 WestPACS-affiliated career education professionals – representing 27 college and universities from across the region – were recently hosted at a November 9 event that engaged them with a panel of talent recruiters from regional businesses and organizations. Discussions were filtered through one fundamental question: what must the region's students be doing now to prepare for and secure the careers of tomorrow?

Best Career Preparation: the Scoop from Professional Talent Recruiters

"There is such enthusiasm out there for this type of partnership. It's exciting that the region is pioneering a career awareness initiative that utilizes a powerful regional symbol, like the Pens, to get young people's attention," said Annie Livingston, director of U.S. recruiting for Bayer Corporation, whose North American headquarters are in Robinson Township. Livingston was part of the four-person panel of professional talent recruiters and other corporate representatives who spoke to career counselors and alumni directors at the November event. This excitement flowed throughout the assembly of career education professionals – counselors and alumni affairs representatives who are assisting the region's next generation in making a successful transition into the workplace.

What does Bayer, one of the world's most influential, globally oriented corporations, look for in the young talent that might become part of its materials science workforce in Pittsburgh? "We're looking for people with science or engineering degrees combined with a reasonable level of experience in the type of work we do at Bayer. For those interested in gaining additional experience in a structured environment, such as Bayer has, we offer rotational leadership development programs," said Livingston. "I'm happy to say that compared to previous years, our recent recruits have been wonderful team players, and their verbal and presentation skill sets are highly developed."

Despite good reasons for optimism, Livingston says that there are several concerns among the emerging workforce that Bayer would like to see addressed. She believes that educators and career counselors can positively influence any of the following, all of which impact Bayer and how it does business:

• Writing well - "Writing business proposals is an important aspect of what we do, and as a global organization we rely heavily on e-mail communications. For both, the ability to write well is paramount. We observe some of our young team members having difficulties with written communication."

• Prioritizing tasks - "Some young people have trouble prioritizing … figuring out what needs to be accomplished now and what can be finished later. Instilling the skill to prioritize is critical for tomorrow's workforce and its success in the workplace."

• Having realistic goals - "Once I asked a new hire at Bayer what she aspired to do at the company. She told me, 'I want your job.' It's great that students are striving to be in leadership positions from the onset, but for a new graduate entering the workforce, this is unrealistic. Impress upon students realistic expectations for those early years after entering the workforce. They need to understand that it will take time and a lot of hard work to be in a leadership position at any organization."

Overall, Livingston believes that Bayer Corporation can offer a bright future to a number of the region's young people. "I anticipate that Bayer will be finding more and more opportunities to hire younger people, particularly with the pending retirement of the Baby Boomer generation," she notes.

Got What it Takes? Pittsburgh's Entrepreneurial, Innovation and Technology Community is Expanding, Seeking New Talent

"I have the best job in the world!" said Kathy Mitchell, human resources strategist at Innovation Works (IW) – southwestern Pennsylvania's largest investor in seed-stage technology companies. "Every day I work with some of the most exciting entrepreneurs and innovators in the world." Mitchell's passion is a perfect fit for the region's burgeoning innovation and technology community. Working toward the steady growth of this community is all in a day's work for Mitchell. She provides IW companies with the human capital essential to their continued growth and success.

When searching for the next generation of promising tech-innovators and those who support them,what exactly are Mitchell and the entrepreneurial tech-startup community seeking? "Primarily, applicants with software and web development experience, marketing experience – especially e-marketing and viral marketing – or those with accounting and/or finance backgrounds. Experience in these domains is essential to the companies I work to staff."

Beyond general background experience in these areas, Mitchell says all members of an IW-supported company must have three additional characteristics common to entrepreneurs:

• Passion - "Show a unique sense of passion and true drive for innovation and the tech-startup, entrepreneurial world."

• Adaptive Excellence - "To thrive in a startup company running on a limited budget, you must constantly adapt. The ability to wear multiple hats and embrace ambiguity define those who are successful in this space."

• Risk Gene - "The entrepreneurial environment demands that you take calculated risks and absorb their consequences. No matter what your role, embracing risk is crucial to progress in any startup operation." These characteristics embody the entrepreneurially effervescent founders of Career Imp and Device Knit – two fledgling companies that have attained higher ground after receiving resources and institutional support from IW's AlphaLab, a one-of-a-kind incubator for regional innovative tech startups.

Read a Q&A with the founders of Career Imp and Device Knit

What Can Students, Businesses Expect Next from the Partnership?

Throughout the Pens 2010 – 2011 season, it's anticipated that a number of unique activities will continue to drive home the message that the Pittsburgh region has broad spectrum opportunities for the region's young people. Some of the initiatives in the works include:

• Monthly Pens ticket giveaways – available via ImaginePittsburgh.com, the Pittsburgh region's career development and awareness website
• Three upcoming private Pens' practice sessions for students aiming to enter the workforce within a year
• Raising awareness of student internships and their importance in giving students career perspective and a leg up in today's competitive marketplace
• Providing improved career resources on ImaginePittsburgh.com

With the support of career education professionals and talent recruitment specialists alike, this "season of engagement" will infuse the region's young people with hope for the future. It can also advance southwestern Pennsylvania as a vibrant and vital destination for exciting careers and a quality of life that's only imaginable in many other places. Imagine Pittsburgh. Indeed!

Reading the Raffle

What Initial Ultimate Home Game Survey Results Reveal about the Region's College Students

There's a catch to winning the Pens tickets and merchandise that are attracting so many regional college students to ImaginePittsburgh.com. Throughout the season-long Ultimate Home Game program, students interested in winning these attractive prizes are required to complete a registration survey that provides general demographic information, their areas of study and industry interests, work plans for the coming year, GPA and hobbies. "The survey results will allow us to tailor our website to fit students' needs in finding jobs and internships in the region, and also inform employers as to who will be entering our regional workforce in the coming years," said Laura Fisher, senior vice president, special projects and manager of the Allegheny Conference's Workplace program, which manages ImaginePittsburgh.com.

An initial registration survey, in which 3,240 pairs of tickets to pre-season Penguins game were given away, yielded over 13,300 survey responses. These responses revealed that 56.7% of the respondents were female. The most highly represented majors were health care, business/management/economics, education, engineering and science. Over the next year, this cohort is most interested in finding a full-time job or a paid internship, and they had an average GPA of 3.41 and average age of 23. "From an employer's standpoint, it's interesting to note that, other than salary, a flexible work schedule is the second most desired company attribute after advancement opportunity," said Fisher.

In a second raffle, with one pair of tickets to the Penguins luncheon and one autographed jersey as incentives, more than 2,300 responses were received. Questions asked of students include what they needed to improve most with respect to preparing for a job, and how the content of ImaginePittsburgh.com could be improved to help students' job and internship searches. Respondents' two highest and equally represented answers to the first question were familiarity with opportunities in their chosen field and work/internship related experience. In addition, responses revealed that many students find it difficult to translate their degrees into marketable skills. The most common answers with regard to ImaginePittsburgh.com content were Q&A with HR professionals and blogs from young professionals.

"Thanks to the Ultimate Home Game and our partnership with the Penguins and more than 50 colleges and universities across our region, we'll be able to let [students] know that ImaginePittsburgh.com is their gateway to opportunity for exciting careers across our region," said Randy Dearth, president and CEO of LANXESS Corporation and chair of the Workplace Committee of the Allegheny Conference.¹ "There will be surveys attached to raffles throughout the entire Ultimate Home Game giveaway schedule. We will maximize this high-profile partnership during the Pens' season to gather pertinent data to not only make ImaginePittsburgh.com work for regional college students, but also, increase talent retention in the region," said Dearth.

*Survey 1, Closed September 13, 2010. 13,359 responses. +/- 1% margin of error.

*Survey 2, Closed October 4, 2010. 2,773 responses, +/- 1% margin of error.

*Survey 2, Closed October 4, 2010. 2,773 responses, +/- 1% margin of error.

¹ http://www.wpxi.com/sports/24840751/detail.html

Laura Fisher - Publisher | Philip Cynar - Editor

The Pittsburgh Regional Compact is an employer-driven initiative collaboratively
sponsored by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, business
leaders, educators, students, educational institutions and workforce development
organizations across the 10-county Pittsburgh region.