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Corporate Voices and Civic Enterprises Release "Across the Great Divide"
 Corporate Voices for Working Families and Civic Enterprises, in association with the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Peter D. Hart Research Associates, have released "Across the Great Divide," a new report which examines the perspectives of business and college leaders on the state of America's higher education, the skills gap and what is needed for the U.S. to be competitive on the global stage.
"Across the Great Divide" highlights survey findings showing that 53 percent of business leaders have a challenging time recruiting employees with the skills and education their companies need, despite our high levels of unemployment.
The report addresses two key misperceptions that will help address this "Great Divide" between the readiness of our workforce and the skills employers are looking for: the need to recognize the value of postsecondary education and credentials, and the need to shift the national focus from college "access" to the imperative for college completion. Most job openings in the next decade will require at least some postsecondary education, including programs that are two-years or less. To fill these jobs, and to meet President Obama's goal of having America lead the world in college completion by 2020, we will need to produce 8 million more graduates than are currently expected within ten years.
This report was released in conjunction with America's Promise Alliance's Building a Grad Nation Summit in Washington, D.C., where Vice President Joe Biden spoke, emphasizing the need to boost college graduation rates around the country. How can educators, businesses and policymakers work together to build more paths for postsecondary education success to bridge the great divide? Read the report's findings and recommendations on Corporate Voices' website.
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Stephen M. Wing to Discuss Successes and Challenges of Flexibility in Retail at Women's Bureau Dialogue
 Corporate Voices' President, Stephen M. Wing, will give the closing keynote speech this morning at a Dialogue on Workplace Flexibility organized by the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor in Kansas City. The Dialogue will focus on the challenges and successes of implementing flexibility in the retail industry, and will address the business case for flexibility, innovative approaches to implementation, workplace culture and employer and employee perspectives.
In his remarks, Wing will discuss taking a life-cycle approach to flexibility, emphasizing how flexibility can engage workers throughout all phases of their lives. Particularly, he will discuss his experiences with the Pathways to Pharmacy and Snowbirds program while he was Director of Workforce Initiatives at CVS Caremark. Both programs depend on flexible work arrangements to build CVS Caremark's talent pool and to engage and retain mature workers.
Panelists at the forum will include Tina Klocke, Chief Operations and Financial Bear of Build-A-Bear Dialogue, Inc., Brady Garren of Nebraska Furniture Mart and Kathy Fedman of Alamar Uniform. Retail associations, policy makers, work-life and HR professionals, academia, employers and workers in retail will participate in this Dialogue.
Corporate Voices is working with the Women's Bureau to organize these Dialogues in conjunction with its national workplace flexibility campaign, which it launched last year to create a broader awareness of the business and employee benefits of workplace flexibility. To date, 49 "Business Champions" have joined this campaign to express their support for flexibility as a critical management strategy for 21st century success. Learn more about the campaign and how to join on Corporate Voices' website.
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Learn and Earn Business Leadership Team Convenes via Web Conference
 On March 17, 2011, Corporate Voices' Learn and Earn Business Leadership Team convened via a web conference for its first quarter meeting in 2011. The Leadership Team consists of leaders who come together to share promising practices in business-led, talent development models that help entry-level workers attain postsecondary credentials for success in the labor market.
 Peggy Walton, Senior Director of Workforce Readiness at Corporate Voices, led a discussion of activities over the past year and described new initiatives for 2011, including forming a Community College Advisory Group to catalyze conversations between businesses and community colleges. Dan Montgomery, Senior Director of Learning, Consulting & Curriculum with Convergys provided an in-depth overview of the company's partnership with Bellevue University and their Professional Customer Care Management Certificate. Dorothy Martin of Verizon Wireless discussed the best way to build a national "movement" among employers to support education completion and life-long learning among employees.
The Learn and Earn Business Leadership Team will continue this discussion following a Pacific Northwest regional meeting to explore further 2011 activities, given Corporate Voices' continued support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its work to identify, document and encourage innovative collaborations between industry and education to promote postsecondary education success. Learn more and access materials presented during the web conference on Corporate Voices' website.
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Corporate Voices' 2011 Annual Partners Meeting: Registration Opening Soon
Corporate Voices Members - Please join us for our annual partners meeting and our 10th anniversary celebration June 15-17, at the Mayflower Hotel in in Washington, DC. Our annual meeting will bring together leaders from the public and private sectors as we highlight and focus on Celebrating Ten Years of Success: Shaping the 21st Century Workforce and Workplace.
Registration for the annual meeting and celebration dinner will open this week via Corporate Voices' website, so be sure to check it out.
If you have not already done so, please pay your 2011 membership dues now to ensure your seat at the Annual Partners Meeting. If your company is not currently a member of Corporate Voices, please contact Tiffany Westover-Kernan, twestover-kernan@corporatevoices.org or 202.467.8133, for information on membership.
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"From an 'Ill-Prepared' to a Well-Prepared" Report Featured as Key Resource on CompletionMatters.org
 Corporate Voices for Working Families' recently updated report, "From an'Ill-Prepared' to a Well-Prepared Workforce: The Shared Imperatives for Employers and Community Colleges to Collaborate"is the featured key resource on CompletionMatters.org this week. CompletionMatters.org, a project created by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, is a knowledge resource and an online learning community committed to college completion.
As a renewed national emphasis is placed on college completion to enhance America's global economic competitiveness, Corporate Voices' paper discusses the positive role that partnerships between employers and community colleges can play to increase workforce readiness skills and college completion rates. These Learn and Earn partnerships help young people successfully combine postsecondary education with work, which is critical today, when more than 75 percent of college students must hold down a job while going to school.
Read the report and view it as the featured resource on CompletionMatters.org.
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What's the Matter With My Flex Program?
On April 12, 2011, Life Meets Work will host the first in a three-part webinar series on "What's Next in Flex." This webinar will address the difference between adding flexibility programs and building a culture of flexibility in the workplace. While programming is a necessary initial step, this webinar will provide fresh, new ideas for businesses interested in expanding and enhancing their work-life initiatives.
Attendees will learn how one company evolved past flexibility programs to build a well-entrenched culture of flexibility, and about the relationship between culture and recruitment. Attendees will also learn about best practice examples of how businesses use their flex practices to help their nursing mothers return to work after having a child, and to help their working learners continue their education. Presenters will also highlight opportunities available for businesses to showcase their programs on the national stage.
Register for this webinar today, which will give businesses actionable ideas to further their own flexibility policies and practices for success in the 21st century.
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Corporate Voices' Partner Company Stands Up to Prepare Teen Drivers
 Corporate Voices' partner company Allstate Insurance Company recently voiced their support for the Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection Act (STANDUP) at a Capitol Hill press conference on March 8. The bill, sponsored by 2010 Best of Congress awardee Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) would institute a graduated driver licensing program (GDL) on the national level. Allstate believes that the adoption of the STANDUP Act would give parents a valuable tool to prepare their children for a lifetime of safe driving. Through their work, Allstate hopes to save the lives of the 11 teens on average that are killed every day in car crashes.
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