Project Overview
Sarah Cady
Adult & Community Education, Ball State University
EDAC 632: Organizing Adult and Community Education Programs
Dr. Bo Chang
November 12, 2023
Program Organization
Introduction
I am an employee of Ivy Tech Community College, the nation’s largest, singly-accredited community college system in the United States. Ivy Tech is in Indiana, has 19 full-service campuses and 24 satellite locations, and serves over 175,000 students annually. The college system has over 75 academic programs for learners. In addition to these academic opportunities, Ivy Tech also awards dual credit to students in high school. It has several skills-based training opportunities for adult learners seeking to upskill and gain industry certifications.
In early 2023, Ivy Tech launched a strategic plan: Higher Education at the Speed of Life. This strategic plan aligns the mission, vision, and values of Ivy Tech to create a positive impact in the State of Indiana. The four key goals of this strategic plan are Teaching and Learning, Workforce and Careers, Student Experience, and Operational Excellence.
Vision: Ivy Tech students will earn 50,000 high-quality credentials each year aligned with the needs of Indiana’s workforce and communities.
Mission: We are a diverse open-access college that fuels Indiana’s economy through excellence in teaching and proactive engagement with industry and community partners, embedded in a culture of innovation that empowers all students to learn and succeed.
Values:
· Empathy: We stand with our students, partners, and communities
· Integrity: We treat all with dignity and respect
· Accountability: We deliver on our commitments
· Agility: We innovate, iterate, and transform
· Connectivity: We connect with partners to strengthen communities and ensure student success for all
Organizational Structure
Each Ivy Tech campus offers academic programs alongside skills training courses. Ivy Tech organizes its educational programs by product. An example of this organizational division by product type can be found on Table 1.1. By looking at this chart, it is easy to view the programs organized by their home school, such as the School of IT & Business or the School of Health Sciences. However, as noted in our textbook, an organizational structure such as this does pose difficulties when looking at an interdisciplinary approach to offering educational opportunities for the adult learner. There are competing priorities between the two offerings because only one out of two sectors receive the revenue.
Table 1.1
Implications
I find it interesting that there are competing priorities within each division, academic and skills training; however, they play equal importance in meeting the strategic goals of Ivy Tech’s Higher Education at the Speed of Life. The consumer is not always focused on gaining college credit; they seek to gain employability skills to aid their career growth.
Administration and Leadership
Roles and Positions
For this week’s assignment, I am focusing on two key individuals at the head of the Ivy+ Career Link office at Ivy Tech Community College - Bloomington. Ivy+ Career Link is the career services arm of Ivy Tech, supporting the career development of our students, alumni, and local industry. Two individuals are at this department's head, including Vice Chancellor Adam Gross and Director of Career Coaching Kayla Dusseau. The organizational chart below represents the structure of reporting lines on this team.
Daily Routines and Activities
In his role, Gross is a member of the Chancellor’s Cabinet, which includes internal stakeholders (fellow administrators) and external stakeholders such as the board of trustees and advisory boards. He is also responsible for guiding the office towards meeting its strategic initiatives and setting forth metrics to track progress. With all these responsibilities, Gross is mainly in his office in the executive wing or meetings that take him away from campus. In this organizational structure, Gross is the supervisor for the external facing team, as highlighted above.
Dusseau and the remaining team members of Career Link are located on a different floor than Gross on campus. Dusseau is a team leader in this physical space, acting as the point for day-to-day operations. This includes leading team meetings, mentoring junior employees, and liaising between leadership and staff. She is also the supervisor for the career coaches, yet is not the supervisor for the external facing staff. Dusseau has been with Ivy Tech for over eight years and has the longest tenure on the career team. With her institutional knowledge, many come to her for advice and expertise.
Qualifications
After analyzing their respective duties, it is evident that Gross serves as the administrator while Dusseau has more of a leadership role on this team. An administrator organizes, leads, makes decisions, sets and operates the budget, oversees processes, hires staff, and manages stakeholders on and off campus (Schmidt, Yelich Biniecki, 2016).
In her role as Director of Career Coaching, Dusseau has the qualities of a leader. She navigates the complexity of the office and the power dynamics of the office. Her bases of power include expert, referent, and informational power. Dusseau serves as the “go-to” person on the team, especially since she is physically located in the same office suite as the rest.
Implications
These two individuals play a crucial role in the success of Career Link. Each person has their focus and drive. This week’s readings highlight the similarities and differences between administrators and leaders. According to Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki, there is a symbiotic relationship between an administrator and a leader. The leader inspires and guides while the administrator manages the process (2016). There is certainly some overlap between these two roles, which has the potential to confuse the team, given the organizational chart and reporting lines of the office. Gross and Dusseau need to keep open communication lines to help clarify directives for the office and staff.
Budget and Funding
Income and Expenses
The program I chose to focus on this week is Code/IT Academy, a free accelerated IT boot camp for Monroe, Washington, and Crawford Counties residents in Indiana. This program was born from a partnership between Ivy Tech Bloomington and The Mill, Bloomington’s center for entrepreneurship and coworking space. The goal of Code/IT is to upskill residents to prepare them for high-wage, high-demand jobs within the region.
This program receives funding from the following organizations to provide scholarships for participants.
Funding Sources:
· READI Funding: The Mill was awarded $1,370,325 in READI funds to expand Code/IT Academy across 10 Indiana counties over the next three years.
· Next Level Jobs Funding: Courses selected for these boot camps are Next Level Jobs funding eligible. State funding is available and aligned with high-priority industries and in-demand, high-paying jobs driving Indiana’s 21st Century economy forward. NLJ funds available per person per topic are outlined below:
· Amazon Web Services Cloud Practitioner: $1500
· CompTIA Security+: $1000
Code/IT Academy has several expenses each year - both variable and fixed. These are outlined below. A 35% overhead is calculated into the budget to accommodate any unplanned expenses associated with the program.
Fixed Costs:
· Program Management Fees
· Instructor Fees
· Textbooks and consumables
· Technology (OWL Camera, Monthly Zoom subscription, instructor microphone)
· Certification exam vouchers
Variable Costs:
· Catering and hospitality for end-of-cohort celebration
· Marketing expenses per application cycle
· Career workshop
· Employer networking night
· Additional certification exams for special cases
· Budget and Funding
As noted above, a 35% overhead was added to the budget to accommodate any adjustments needed. For instance, when the program went from one to three counties, the number of students enrolled doubled—the time needed to monitor grading and answer student questions after hours increased beyond the allotted time. The extra padding made it more palatable to add grading assistance while not exceeding the budget.
Code/IT Academy relies on generous funding from outside sources. This funding allows participants to enroll without any fees and goes towards the program's operating costs. Ivy Tech and The Mill also rely on their existing operating budgets for the program management staff. This budget takes input from each stakeholder to build and agree upon the terms of said budget.
The challenge regarding the Code/IT Academy budget is the unknown factor of the amount of money the state can award each year. Once the Next Level Jobs funding is no longer available, the committee must identify additional funding sources and/or topics of lesser monetary value.
Another challenge is staff turnover. The program has had three program managers over the past two years. When one member leaves, they take their nuanced understanding of the program. A new hire must review the budget before making major purchases or changes.
Implications
This assignment was very helpful in understanding grants and funding sources available for programs such as Code/IT Academy. Grants are a huge part of the success of this program, and there are parameters set in place for each grant cycle. With the uncertainty of Next Level Jobs funding, I recommend that the organizers begin to identify additional funding sources and/or grants to help offset the program's costs.
HRM: Program Planning and Organization
Introduction:
According to Schmidt and Biniecki, human resource management (HRM) is “the general term for all of the functions encompassed in the acquisition, retention, development, and administration of a company’s employees” (p. 147). These components are certainly reflected in the human resources department of Ivy Tech Community College - Bloomington. Ivy Tech Bloomington’s HR team consists of the executive director and two assistant directors serving 180 faculty and 184 staff. As noted in the next section, each HR team member's daily activities and responsibilities have cross-functional roles that satisfy the five core functions of HRM.
1. Policies and procedures
2. Recruiting and hiring
3. Orientation and training
4. Records, maintenance, and legal compliance
5. Strategic planning
Ivy Tech Bloomington HRM Responsibilities:
· Executive Director, Julie Sylvester
o Julie manages the entire campus human resources department. She implements college policies and procedures, employee relations, performance management, legal compliance, compensation, training and talent development, benefits, and human resource information systems (HRIS). She also liaises between the Ivy Tech systems office and the local campus to ensure statewide initiatives are communicated. Julie also leads the open enrollment rollout each fiscal year for the entire faculty and staff population.
· Assistant Director (Staff), Emily Nicholson
o Emily is the lead HR team member responsible for daily human resources operations for the 184 staff members at Ivy Tech Bloomington. This includes staffing and recruiting part-time and full-time staff, maintaining college policies and procedures, fostering the partnership with the payroll department, benefits, training and development, and HRIS. Emily also leads onboarding and training for new staff hires.
· Assistant Director (Academics), Heidi Giles
o Heidi is the HR point person for all HR-related responsibilities for 180 adjunct and full-time faculty on campus. Like Emily, she is responsible for daily human resources operations but specifically for academic appointments. This includes staffing and recruiting adjunct faculty and deans. Heidi coordinates a one-day orientation for each faculty member. Additionally, she maintains college policies and procedures, partners with the payroll department, and oversees benefits, training and development, and the HRIS for faculty.
Training Activities:
Ivy Tech Bloomington has a robust orientation program for new hires. This includes a one-day workshop to familiarize new hires with the benefits and policies for Ivy Tech employees. After day one, new hires have 90 days to complete a checklist of tasks, including meeting with department heads, building/updating their LinkedIn profiles, and connecting with statewide colleagues in similar roles.
In addition to the local HRM function, Ivy Tech Community College has a statewide human resources team that oversees all HR departments across all 19 campuses. Underneath this statewide umbrella includes the Talent and Leadership Development function of Ivy Tech. This department is responsible for the professional development of staff/faculty and hosts programs throughout the academic year. These programs include a leadership academy, master teacher seminar, Pathways to Peak Leadership, supervisor education, and the Visionary Board for Emerging Leaders.
Implications:
The HR team at Ivy Tech Bloomington is a small yet mighty team. These three individuals support 364 individuals daily, which will continue to grow as new faculty are added to meet the student demand. Because of the constraints put on this team, I suggest requesting one additional HR member to join the local team that focuses specifically on the talent development of the team. This individual could promote opportunities from the systems office while conducting local programs for Bloomington campus staff. This would free up space on the others' plates while providing a focus on this valuable employee retention opportunity for the local campus.
Marketing
Collaborators: Sarah Cady & Carly Pease
Introduction:
Our marketing plan is a multi-prong approach as it involves assessing the community needs, building the training (product) described below, and marketing through various channels to reach adult learners eager to be skilled in the workforce. This includes social media marketing, print materials, and word-of-mouth promotions.
The IT Academy is a scholarship-based upskilling program aimed at helping individuals take that first step in a rewarding career in information technology. Through generous funding from community partners and statewide grants, The IT Academy offers participants a low-risk, no-cost chance to build skills to prepare for web development, cybersecurity, and cloud services careers. Participants must apply and participate in an interview to secure a spot in the class. There is a maximum capacity of 30 students per cohort.
The IT Academy meets twice a week during the evenings for 1.5 hours per night. The training facility is located in a convenient location for residents to find parking or transportation to the site easily. The following certifications are offered to help residents seeking to upskill and gain entry into this growing field. These certifications are entry points to rewarding IT careers.
· CompTIA A+
· CompTIA Security+
· CompTIA Net+
· AWS Cloud Practitioner
· Software & Web Development
Marketing Strategies:
According to Schmidt and Biniecki, “An organization’s marketing strategy is the way the organization will go about reaching those customers in the aforementioned target markets in order to meet the goals of the organization.” Exposing the program to the target market is crucial for achieving the organization’s goals. This will be done by implementing the marketing mix, which creates a set of built-in customers. This involves the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.
The first step in our marketing strategy was to assess the needs of Indiana residents. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall employment in IT occupations is projected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). To meet this demand, the IT Academy provides 10-week accelerated training to prepare individuals to take certification exams, giving them an advantage in meeting this demand. To market to the young and the technologically literate, social media will be the primary means for them to learn about this program. Utilizing social media will encourage the interest of those wanting to improve these technological skills.
1. Product: Courses are offered twice a week during the evenings after a typical work day for 1.5 hours, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
2. Price: Each student receives a scholarship to attend the course.
3. Place: Classes are at the Main Library, Poplar Room (computer lab).
4. Promotion: Utilizing social media for students encourages sharing posts and word of mouth to spread the information of this program.
The second step in our marketing plan was to focus more on professional development. This may include special events where demonstrations, food, and networking opportunities occur. Providing word of mouth fosters a community among career-minded individuals. The overarching objective of our professional development initiatives is to motivate and support those seeking career transitions or skill enhancement to advance their professional growth and meet their evolving needs. There may also be exploration within partnerships with industry experts or institutions to provide specialized training and guidance.
Additionally, collaborations with libraries and community organizations to host information sessions and workshops about this IT Academy program. These in-person efforts help engage directly with the target audience and provide them with a deeper understanding of the opportunities available. This multi-faceted approach ensures that all potential participants, regardless of their digital accessibility, have access to information about the program and its courses.
1. Product: Adult learning centers and conferences demonstrating all means of courses and events offered in this IT Academy program.
2. Price: There would be no cost to those planning to attend and participate in this event. The cost for the event will come from the IT Academy, grant funding, and other possible donations.
3. Place: The training will be held at the Main Library in the Poplar Room, a computer lab on the main level.
4. Promotion: Utilizing platforms on social media several weeks before the event will encourage those to RSVP for the event date. Social media platforms will also set reminders for those planning to attend.
The third step in our marketing plan is to market more towards the older community members who may not have easy access to the internet. To achieve this, we will employ a dual approach through online and print advertising. This approach ensures that individuals with internet access can easily discover the program through online ads, while those without online access can conveniently find it through print ads.
1. Product: Catalog of courses offered by the Main Library, Poplar Room (computer lab).
2. Price: Facebook ads are around $500-$1,000 per month. Printing and mailing two printed publication advertisements annually costs $3,000.
3. Place: Sent to working professionals within Central Indiana. Leftover mailing could be sent to community centers or organizations directly.
4. Promotion: Utilizing mailing lists and catalogs generates interest in the program and the courses it offers.
Implications:
Marketing toward an adult education program requires a tailored approach that takes into account the diverse needs and aspirations of the adult learner demographic. Creating and maintaining a successful, active social media profile to share any program updates and educational content is essential. Suggestions with social media would include frequent engagement to provide accurate feedback on events and updates. We agreed that some general suggestions would be to create newer, nontraditional ways of marketing. Some suggestions we found for these programs include:
· As stated earlier, holding events to demonstrate the courses available to this IT Academy program could be a better alternative to other types of marketing. This allows participation in the event, which also increases interest within the program.
· Highlighting success stories of the program's alumni through social media may inspire potential students through the program's effectiveness.
· Considering the use of testimonials and reviews may encourage satisfied students to leave positive reviews on social platforms about the program.
· We also discussed how participating in adult education fairs and workshops could showcase the program while engaging directly with potential students.
Summary Table:
Goals | Strategies | Rationales | Possible Results |
Maximize enrollment | Determine target marketing through needs analysis | Focus on individuals who are unemployed, underemployed, and seeking career change | Maximum capacity for each cohort |
Utilize grant funding to remove financial barriers | Partner with philanthropic community partners to identify and apply grant funding | By eliminating costs, individuals are more likely to sign up for a class that otherwise would cost money | Increased enrollment of each cohort for adult learners who qualify for scholarship assistance. |
Identify adult learner goals and metrics to track learning outcomes | Research job outlook and skills needed on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website | This will ensure topics/certifications are relevant for career entry into IT field | Adult learners are prepared to enter the workforce |
Outline program goals to align with industry needs | Engage employer stakeholders in an advisory board | Match programming to meet the job demand | Participants are equipped with skills to enter the IT field |
Implement strategic marketing initiatives using multiple platforms/methods | Utilize social media, print, and word-of-mouth promotion | Reach a wider audience through these various methods | Reach wider audience |
References:
Schmidt, S.W., & Yelich Biniecki, S.M. (2016). Organization and administration of adult
education programs. Information Age Publishing Inc.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023, October 24). Computer and Information Technology.
Retrieved August 31, 2023, from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-
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