Zen of Participant Counting

Matt Magnusson5/2/2013

Target Audience• Participants can only be from an audience defined

explicitly in the grant– “Advanced Manufacturing Sector”

• 18 years of age or older• Example occupations targeted in grant include : (note:

does include Engineering/Material Science)• CNC Machinist and CNC Machine

Operator• Extrude, Compact Machine Set up–

metal/plastics• Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Assemblers • Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters

• Pipe layers / Welders • Industrial Machinery Mechanics • Set-up, operate, continuous flow

equipment• Industrial Engineers• Materials Engineers• Materials Scientists

Participant Philosophy• By executing the statement of work, CCSNH influences (directly or

indirectly) ALL students enrolled in manufacturing–related programs or courses. Including:– new programs and courses created under the grant– existing manufacturing programs and courses

• Examples of grant activities benefiting students– advisory board activity, – new curriculums & programs– new articulation agreements,– new equipment, – internships,– access to partner companies, – career pathways tool, – mentoring and support services

Participant Philosophy

• We do not need to explicitly track how grant funds “touch” each student

• Instead we follow a well-defined set of rules to identify students that should be counted as participants because ALL manufacturing students at CCSNH are directly or indirectly benefiting from the grant

Participants Trained

• The metric that DOL requires us to report on is “Participants trained”.

• Training requires an occupational skill component

• Training DOES NOT include: soft skills or work ready type training.

• Must “attend the program or course more than once”

DOL Training Services Definition• nontraditional employment• on-the-job training• programs that combine workplace training with related instruction,

which may include cooperative education programs• training programs operated by the private sector• skill upgrading and retraining• entrepreneurial training• job readiness training• adult education and literacy activities in combination with other

training• customized training conducted with a commitment by an employer or

group of employers to employ an individual upon successful completion of the training.

Work Ready Skills• world-of-work awareness,• labor market knowledge,• occupational information,• values clarification and personal understanding, • career planning and decision making, • job search techniques (resumes, interviews, applications, and follow-up letters),• survival/daily living skills such as using the phone, telling time, shopping,

renting an apartment, opening a bank account, and using public transportation.• positive work habits, attitudes, and behaviors such as punctuality, regular

attendance, presenting a neat appearance, getting along and working well with others, exhibiting good conduct, following instructions and completing tasks, accepting constructive criticism from supervisors and co-workers, showing initiative and reliability, and assuming the responsibilities involved in maintaining a job

• developing motivation and adaptability, • obtaining effective coping and problem-solving skills,• acquiring an improved self image

“Soft Skills” Course Development

• Soft skills can be present as long as includes substantive occupational skill component

• For any soft skills courses you might want to develop:– Make sure it includes an occupational component– Avoid terms such as "soft skills" or "work ready" and

refer to it in some way that emphasizes job/occupation training• E.G., our FPO was ok with the term "job ready" but not

“work ready” as related to participant counting purposes

Participant Counting• Participants can only be counted once.• To count them,

1. they must be in our defined target population• all Running Start excluded no matter what age

2. they must be informed they are part of the grant3. we must request their social security number for

reporting purposes. • For SSN, they do not have to provide it, and we cannot deny

service if they do not provide it, but we do have to request it.

4. they need to be entered into Banner (this includes for non-credit courses)• Why?, because we are generating participant counts through

Cognos from Banner

Rules for identifying who to count

• Manufacturing degrees• Manufacturing courses• Miscellaneous

Manufacturing Programs

• Through an iterative process with Project coordinators a list of manufacturing programs (certificates & degrees) was identified & stored in a Cognos report

• As new programs get approved, they will be added to the list

• Any student enrolled in a manufacturing program is counted as a participant once they take any class (whether its manufacturing or non-manufacturing)

Current Manufacturing Programs ListCollege Major Degree CodeMCC Computer Aided Drafting CERTMCC Welding AASMCC Welding CERTMCC Welding PCERTNCC Adv Machine Tool Technology ASNCC Mechanical Design Technology ASNHTI Adv Manufacturing Process Cert CERTNHTI AGS/Mechanical Eng. Tech. AETNHTI Computer Engineering Tech AETNHTI Computer Engineering Tech ASNHTI Manufacturing Eng Tech AETNHTI Manufacturing Eng Tech ASNHTI Mechanical Engineering Tech AETNHTI Mechanical Engineering Tech ASRVCC Advanced Machine Tool Tech CERTWMCC Welding CERT

Manufacturing Courses

• Project coordinators responsible for making sure any course in a semester that should be designated as manufacturing-related is “tagged” in Banner. They will need to coordinate with their Registrar to do this.

• This includes non-credit courses but excludes WorkReady.

• Only students who are non-manufacturing or have no program of study enrolled in a “tagged” course are counted.

• Manufacturing program students already counted under program count.

Coding Courses with TAG Attribute• Course sections will need to have an attribute

attached. Colleges should add the attribute of TAG in Schedule Detail SSADETL

Rules on Courses

• TAG– Obvious manufacturing credit or non-credit courses (Lean

manufacturing)– Non-credit, manufacturer –requested occupational skills

(General Electric requests Excel, or Supervisory skills)• Do not TAG

– Clear non-manufacturing courses (American History)– Grey area courses – meet requirements of multiple programs

(Computer 101, English 101)– Non-credits that are not-manufacturer requested even if

occupational skills (Excel, Supervisory skills to general public)– Any soft skill-only courses(How to get along with your co-

workers). This INCLUDES manufacturer-requested.

WorkReadyNH Programs

• We need to count them, they count against the 8,799 number committed to, but they are not “participants”

• NOT INCLUDED in our broader reporting requirements for participants

• All colleges need to enter WorkReady courses into Banner with section SS, but they ARE NOT given an attribute of TAG

• WorkReady students need to be entered into Banner

Miscellaneous

• “Cherry-picking” participants• Most likely-scenario is – Grey area course like Algebra where some but not

all students in course might be counted as participants

– Depending on how core curriculum is implemented could be a factor in how many participants are counted this way.

Grey Area

• There is grey area with this. Just need to take an approach of “what would a rational person think” or if “DOL really questioned this, how comfortable would I be justifying it”.

• For example, Great Bay had manufacturer present to staff on its operations for about 45 minutes– Participants not countable for following reasons:

1. Did it meet target audience? Not really2. Did participants “return” ? No3. Occupational skill training? No, more met DOL soft-skill definition

• When in doubt, contact Matt Magnusson to talk through

Recap on counting

• Must be entered into Banner• Included:

– Manufacturing programs• Any student enrolled taking any course

– Manufacturing courses• Only non-manufacturing or no program of study students counted• Includes manufacturer-requested occupational skill non-credits

– Miscellaneous• Most likely partial class enrollments

• Excluded:– WorkReadyNH (but still entered into Banner), soft skills ONLY, non-

credit occupational skills that are not requested by a manufacturer

Informed Consent Form

• Form that informs student they are a participant in grant and that their social security number is being used for reporting purposes

• Goal is 100% coverage, however, there is a fall-back process of emailing if signature can’t be obtained.

• Project Coordinators are responsible for collecting and storage of forms, and ensuring all participants that have forms collected have an attribute added in Banner.

• Currently, project coordinators or designee visit class to collect signature, but want to move towards collecting this form (as much as possible) at admissions/registration cycle of process.

Questions

AMPed NH is sponsored by a $19.97 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment & Training

Administration TAACCCT Grant #TC-22504-11-60-A-33. The Community College System of NH is an equal opportunity

employer, and adaptive equipment is available upon request to persons with disabilities.

Zen of Participant Counting by Matt Magnusson is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy

of this license, visit, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US.

This workforce solution was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The solution

was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites, and

including, but not limited to accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability or ownership