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The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program and the Siemens Foundation have joined forces to raise the profile of middle-skill jobs in STEM fields and the community college programs that deliver first-rate preparation of young adults for such jobs.

According to the Aspen Institute, the U.S. higher education system is not adequately delivering the credentials needed, resulting in projected shortages in skilled workers in some fields for at least the next decade. It’s this growing shortage of tech-savvy front-line workers that threatens the growth of American businesses and our country’s economic competitiveness.

In a recent study, cited by the Aspen Institute, about half of all STEM jobs in the United States require no more than an associate’s degree and pay wages that average more than $50,000 annually.

As a way to help highlight the educational institutions that are successful in training people for middle-skill STEM jobs and the value of those jobs, the Siemens Technical Scholars Program was formed.

Among the things the program aims to accomplish is:

  • Reward current students and recent graduates — Siemens Technical Scholars — with scholarships between $3,500 and $10,000. Their stories demonstrate the enormous value middle-skill STEM jobs can bring to students and their families.
  • Tell the stories of Siemens Technical Scholars regionally and nationally using high-quality video and written profiles, helping to set the standard for young adults’ preparation for and success in middle-skill jobs.
  • Identify exemplary programs from top community colleges nationally that deliver exceptional training for middle-skill STEM jobs.
  • Develop and publish lessons about highly effective community college programs that lead to middle-skill STEM jobs.

Jermaine Gaddis is one Siemens Technical Scholar whose life has been changed through this program. You can watch his story below.

Click here to watch more stories.

 

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.