As we celebrate the New Year, WorkingNation is looking back at a new mini-documentary series from our executive producer Melissa Panzer and director Jonathan Barenboim which made its debut in 2017.
Do Something Awesome captures the spirit of a new revolution in workforce development and technological adaptation which are skills-focused and results-driven. The series features the partnerships creating the industry-aligned career paths and ensuring that workers of all age groups are prepared to enter new careers.
Our hard-working documentary crew traveled across the United States, from big cities to remote corners of the country, and found the personal stories which shape the narrative of the changing workforce in the 21st century. Our documentary subjects come from different economic classes, educational backgrounds, and careers, yet they are united by a drive to better themselves through innovative opportunities happening at the local level.
Each video is a document of the American workforce in the modern age. The rapid advancement of technology has had a direct impact on employment, but with these dynamic changes come new opportunities for the future. As technology threatens to eliminate many of the jobs we do today, there are educators, employers, and organizations preparing for this new reality. The stories of our Do Something Awesome series present their solutions which are showing a way forward.
PHI: Choosing a Path to Better Care – May
The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI) in New York is addressing a critical need for home health care providers by advocating for better wages and offering skills training to workers. By improving the lives of the people taking care of our aging society, PHI is hoping to attract more people to join one of the fastest-growing occupations in the nation.
Tri-C/KeyBank: Changing Lives, Saving Lives – June
The Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) and KeyBank Public Safety Center in Parma, Ohio trains the next generation of first-responders at its state-of-the-art facility. With many police and fire departments reporting a shortage of qualified workers, there is a nationwide need for educators to fill an employment gap. Through the story of recruit Savon Collins, this public-private partnership is an example of how institutions can respond to this need at the local level.
John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University & New Start Career Network: When Finding Your Job is the Job – August
In New Jersey, nearly half of the state’s unemployed are workers over the age of 45. The majority of these people are out of work for longer than six months. The New Start Career Network (NSCN) offered by the Heldrich Center at Rutgers University is a program that is targeted to this age group. The NSCN gave Joe Konopka, who was laid off from his job in educational administration, the career counseling he needed to re-enter the workforce.
USC Annenberg School for Communications & Journalism: The New Path To News – October
The rapidly changing media environment requires a workforce enabled with the skills to work with new technologies and create content for multiple platforms. At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, journalism students like Eli Goodstein are empowered by the Annenberg Works program to learn in a digital-first newsroom environment and gain real-world experience with today’s leading media companies.
Gateway Technical College/Snap-on Incorporated: The Drive to Succeed – October
The public-private partnership between Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Snap-on Incorporated resulted in the creation of the Horizon Center for Transportation Technology in 2007. At this facility, students Michael Wittrock and Nicholas Schick gained hands-on experience working with the latest in Snap-on diagnostic equipment and tools to gain industry-recognized certifications to enter new careers in the automotive manufacturing and repair.
Xometry/Ashby Manufacturing: Crafting a Future
The Great Recession had a major impact on the domestic manufacturing industry. For Ashby Manufacturing in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, changing with the times meant adopting new technologies. The online platform Xometry is connecting small-town manufacturers like Ashby to new business opportunities nationwide with the companies in need of quality machined parts.
Carolinas HealthCare System: Employers Salute Skills: The Value of the American Veteran – November
Carolinas HealthCare System, serving North Carolina and South Carolina, is a national leader in connecting veterans to jobs within the not-for-profit medical system. Two veterans, Aaron Harper and Benjamin Breckheimer, are applying their particular skill sets gained from their military experience to jobs with Carolinas HealthCare System. They show that veterans who have the training and real-world experience are well-suited for in-demand careers in health care.
North Idaho College: The Sky’s the Limit – November
The aviation industry has grown over the past decade and is facing a shortage of qualified and skilled mechanics and manufacturers. North Idaho College is responding to the need for these workers in the Pacific Northwest through affordable programs in aviation maintenance and advanced manufacturing. Jennifer Treman, who had no experience in aviation, changed her career and her life through her education with NIC.
College for Social Innovation: First Boston. Next, the World – December
The College for Social Innovation in Boston is offering students a different type of internship, one that enriches college students’ lives as well as providing them valuable experience in the social change sector. CfSI is giving students like Sydney Boardman and Linda Mindaye the opportunity to spend a college semester in the city and preparing them for leadership roles in this sector.
Harper College/Zurich North America: Insuring a Career – December
An apprenticeship is typically thought of as a career pathway to a job in one of the trades in the U.S., but the apprenticeship is used for a variety of careers in Europe. Zurich North America is applying the apprenticeship model to the insurance industry at its home office in Schaumburg, Illinois. In partnership with Harper College, Zurich North America is training apprentices Noelia Salgado and Dane Lyons while they earn their degree during the two-year program.
Look for more great Do Something Awesome stories in 2018 when we continue highlighting the programs that are helping close the skills gap and preparing the next workforce for the new careers.
© Copyright 2024 by Structural Unemployment, LLC dba WorkingNation
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.
