Dr. Charisse Childers: Aligning Arkansas’ Workforce Efforts

Arkansas is remaking its workforce development efforts, and Dr. Charisse Childers is in the middle of it.

Appointed director of the Arkansas Department of Career Education by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in January, Childers leads an agency in charge of the state’s career, technical and adult education efforts, including the newly created Office of Skills Development, which provides workforce training grants. She’s also responsible for Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, which provides opportunities for people with disabilities.

Childers is implementing changes created by the Legislature earlier this year meant to better align the state’s workforce development efforts with employers’ needs. The new Career Education and Workforce Development Board, comprised of leaders from 13 industry sectors, will guide Department of Career Education policies. It met for the first time in August. Regional advisory councils across the state have brought together leaders in business, industry and education to consider what skills are in demand and how better to meet those needs.

Childers comes to the job with plenty of relevant experience, having served nine years as executive director of Accelerate Arkansas, a group of business and education leaders working to develop Arkansas’ knowledge-based economy. She also served seven years on the Arkansas State Police Commission.

Where has Arkansas been when it comes to career education, and where is it going? Talk Business and Politics asked Childers those questions and more.

TB&P: What has been the big area where Arkansas’ career education efforts have been missing the mark?

Childers: I would say, one, that the biggest area is that while we have started to align our programs within our high schools and our secondary career centers with the needs of business and industry, and that started back in June of last year through the regional advisory councils, there is a lot more work to be done in that area.

TB&P: So what is the big change that’s occurring now?

Childers: We are listening to what the businesses and industries have said at our regional advisory councils throughout the state, and we’re looking at our current frameworks for each of the courses that we teach within career and technical education. And we’re aligning those … based on their needs that they’re expressing during those regional advisory councils to make sure that the students are coming away with the skill sets that they need to either gain employment or continue their education beyond high school.

TB&P: And what are employers saying they most need?

Childers: Well, one of the biggest needs is just in the area of work readiness, those soft skills, coming to work on time, showing up for work, being eager to learn, having some of just the basic skills that are needed across the board, regardless of what industry it is. And so soft skills, we’re hearing that. And then, two, just the basic math and literacy skills that are needed for technical writing, reading manuals, understanding and comprehending the processes and the math and technology behind these processes. And those are things that we can provide in foundation courses throughout our career and technical education programs in the high schools, but we definitely need to focus on those, and we need to make sure they’re aligned with what industries are needing.

TB&P: Isn’t it an employer’s responsibility to train their workers? Is the state stepping in to do a type of responsibility that ought to be carried by the employers’ themselves?

Childers: I believe we have a generational shift in the value of work and work readiness, and I think that’s what’s most effective. The students that are coming out, are they in an environment where they see what hard work is, they know the benefits of going to work every day, they see that self-fulfillment in working and getting a paycheck? … So is that a responsibility of the employer? No, I think they expect that students are going to have that when they arrive at work. And some schools are able to fill that void, and some schools because of maybe the vastness of it, they’re not able to fill that void that’s needed.

TB&P: Is there a danger that these 13 representatives will be telling you things that their own particular industry will need, leading to a little bit more crony capitalism than we already have?

Childers: (Laughs). Well, obviously, they come to the table from their own perspective, right? But what we’re asking them to do is recognize that they represent the entire industry sector, and when they’re speaking, we would like for them to have spent some time within their industry giving us a bigger scale, a bigger picture, of what their needs are within that specific industry sector. Yes, obviously, we’re all humans, and they’re all going to be a little partial to their own needs, but they were appointed to represent an industry sector.”

TB&P: So is there a danger that we turn education into something’s that kind of purely an economic endeavor rather than a process of creating a citizen, a well-rounded individual who also is economically capable?

Childers: No. (Laughs.) I think that what career and technical education does is it enhances the skill sets, the knowledge, the academic things that are required from the Department of Education. I think that career and technical education enhances that, especially when we have opportunities to integrate the academic courses into the career and technical courses. So for example, if you’re teaching a class in welding, that’s going to encompass, one, you’re going to need to be able to read a manual, to follow directions, to understand the science behind the process, and then apply that to building or creating a structure that would involve math. So I think that what it does is just the opposite. It allows a student to know why they’re being taught the things they’re being taught, and how those things apply to the real world.