NORTHERN BRAZORIA COUNTY
EDUCATION ALLIANCE
STRATEGIC PLAN
AUTUMN - 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ITEM PAGE
MISSION 3
SWOT SUMMARY 3
OVERARCHING GOALS 4
SPECIFIC GOALS 4
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1 ORGANIZATIONAL DESCRIPTION 7
APPENDIX 2 RELATIONSHIP MAP 8
APPENDIX 3 SWOT ANALYSIS 9
APPENDIX 4 TEAM MEMBERS & PROCESS 11
MISSION
To align industry, the education community of Northern Brazoria County through the coordination and development of a skilled and knowledgeable workforce that meets industry’s present and emerging needs.
SWOT SUMMARY
As part of our work, we performed an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to NBCEA. The following is a summary. The complete work is included as Appendix 2.
Strengths:
We are an agency that can enhance educational opportunities, enable the already strong growth in the area. We have strong relationships among our stakeholders and an efficient staff. We already have a reputation for being able to cut through the red tape and cause things to happen.
Weaknesses (Improvement areas):
The current weak state of the economy and the questions it raises about job growth and sustainability. We are not as well known as we need to be. There are a number of small town boundary issues. We need to be as effective for emerging industries in the area as we are for the established industries.
Opportunities:
We can create a state of the art technical training center (under one roof) that houses college courses, and courses requiring laboratory facilities ranging from basic sciences (physics, chemistry) to skills related courses (welding, HVAC, nanotechnology, etc.) We can enhance the goal of both retaining and attracting industry to the area due to an effective program of equipping residents with the skills required by present and future industry.
Threats:
Our primary threats are to overcome small town boundary thinking among our stakeholders. We must also aggressively pursue funding sources through every means possible. We must develop skills within our organization to rapidly demonstrate the need and collective benefit of the programs we advocate. We must also demonstrate value to the community at large.
OVERARCHING GOAL
Continue the maturation process and effectiveness of NBCEA by identifying a five year plan for services provided, partners/stakeholders in the education process. Develop funding, marketing and board governance processes commensurate with the needs of the area and the agency. Identify measures that are indicative of our value to the community and demonstrate this value to our stakeholders.
SPECIFIC GOALS
LONGER TERM AND ONGOING GOALS
STRATEGIC STATEMENT: Continue to seek opportunities to utilize the PISD Campus on Bailey Road or other facilities within PISD to provide space for CTE, Continuing Education Certification, Dual Credit Classes and College Credit Courses
The Bailey Road facility in the Pearland ISD is currently empty and provides the potential for an excellent new facility to house a number of training elements. The facility could be available from roughly 7AM to 10 PM and serve educational providers ranging from high school to community college classes.
Specifics
Phase 1 – 2010-2011
Bring the parties together, negotiate necessary agreements for facility utilization, cost sharing issues, use of common facilities, staffing.
Action items: NBCEA to gather the interested parties and begin the discussions
NBCEA staff will have the lead roles for development of a plan for implementation of the training center and coordinating that plan with PISD. Coordinate visits to other school districts that utilize multiple campuses for instruction.
Phase 2 - 2011-2012
Identify the parties who might utilize laboratory and shop space, catalyze plan for initial site use and construction plans during 2011. Assist in the negotiation of agreements with participants and begin construction during 2011. Begin actual teaching by 3Q 2011.
Action item: NBCEA to identify interested parties and begin discussions/planning
Phase 3 – 2012-2013
Depending on remaining space available, approach other education providers and propose use of the facility that would be mutually advantageous. Develop specific agreements and plans accordingly.
STRATEGIC STATEMENT: TRAINING SERVICES NEEDED
In conjunction with the PEDC and the Pearland Commerce Center coordinate the alignment of workforce and educational systems so that training programs match industry skill and occupational demands
GOAL:
Continue with our efforts to identify specific industry workforce demands and use information to develop appropriate training programs
Specifics
Utilize the results of employer surveys to bring industry and educational providers together to identify and prioritize training programs that will fill the need. Lead Role: NBCEA - 4Q 2010
Ad-hoc coordination of industry and educational providers to identify and prioritize training programs that will fill the need. Lead Role NBCEA -Resource with available staff. (ongoing)
Develop the means of serving smaller industries by assembling classes of similar content that will allow effective training for users that could not otherwise fill a class.
STRATEGIC STATEMENT: RESOURCE PLANNING
Identify the work to be done by NBCEA. Identify and plan necessary resources, including human and financial.
GOAL:
Demonstrate the value of NBCEA’s role in the community obvious and incontrovertible therefore justifying continued funding.
Specifics
Regularly report to stakeholders on our development as an agency, progress on our programs and challenges to reaching our goals. Staff and Board - ongoing
GOAL:
Develop a staffing plan that will provide the necessary skills and depth as well as a succession plan Lead role: Staff and Board - ongoing
GOAL:
Develop a funding model that will provide adequate funds to sustain NBCEA.
Lead Role: Staff and Board - ongoing
STRATEGIC STATEMENT: COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS
Develop an outreach plan that is fit for purpose in actively communicating NBCEA, its role, mission and value to the community
GOAL:
This outreach plan should have components for all stakeholders, especially, industry, sources of trainees and training providers. The outreach plan should utilize the latest in communications technology, coupled to the typical communications tools used by various stakeholder groups (it may be different for middle aged managers than for students)
Specifics
Identify individual stakeholders on our relationship map. Develop a status report on each detailing their communications partners, the status of current communications, the desired status of communications and relationships. From that data, develop a plan that will move us from the current state of communications/relationships to the desired state. Lead role: Staff and Board - complete first pass by April, 2010
STRATEGIC STATEMENT: BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Assure a board structure and membership that will provide NBCEA with a broad base of experience in the areas of industry, business practices, education and government. Proactively recruit board members consistent with our identified needs and relationships
GOAL:
Develop a preferred profile of our board including skills necessary (i.e. attorney, CPA, medical, public affairs leading business leader in industries of interest, etc)
Specifics
Develop a preferred committee structure of the Board and implement
Schedule a Board retreat in early 2010. Develop agenda to review board composition, committee structure, roles and responsibilities of board members
Specifics
APPENDICES
APPENDIX ONE
ORGANIZATIONAL DESCRIPTION
The North Brazoria County Educational Alliance (NBCEA) is a 2 year old organization that was formed under the auspices of the Pearland Economic Development Corporation (PEDC) in 2007.
NBCEA is a complex organization charged with coordinating and troubleshooting goals, activities and communications of the numerous stakeholders, providers and users of technical education in our North Brazoria service area. See attached relationship map (Appendix 2).
The objective of NBC is to cause users, providers and trainees to come together, provide the most effective technical education that results in a benefit to the entire community. NBCEA is unique in that it coordinates strategies with organizations and very selectively provides a limited number of skill certification programs. It causes communication to occur among companies, educational providers, secondary, industrial and college, municipalities, and chambers of commerce.
NBCEA currently is staffed by 31/2 people, has an annual budget of $240,000, which is provided through a grant by PEDC and donations from business partners, and is housed at the Pearland ISD headquarters.
It is important to recognize that NBCEA plays an enabling and facilitating role. Accordingly, NBCEA can not move faster than the slowest stakeholder in an endeavor. Therefore, our time targets are just that – targets. In our internal activities such as planning, funding, board activities, etc. we have more control and these targets should be more finite.
APPENDIX 2
RELATIONSHIP MAP
(insert current map)
APPENDIX THREE
SWOT ANALYSIS
Note: SWOT analysis is an acronym for an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The parenthetical numbers indicate the number of votes each item had with each participant being able to vote for seven items in each category
Strengths
1. Broad based community involvement (5)
2. Lack of government bureaucracy (flat organization) (5)
3. Driven by industries (5)
4. Solid backing by city government (4)
5. Growth in the area (4)
6. Strong partnerships with PISD and community colleges (4)
7. Staff (3)
8. Vision for the future (3)
9. Scholarship program (3)
10. Giving kids hope for their future (3)
11. Momentum of the organization (2)
12. Passion (2)
13. Adequate seed funding (2)
14. Education opportunities (2)
15. Wide range of close partnerships
16. Committed industry help (1)
17. Commitment (1)
18. Facilities – office and tech lab (1)
19. Programs adaptable to needs
Improvement Areas
1. Community awareness (6)
2. Program availability for the adult population (6)
3. Small town boundary politics (5)
4. Mind set (Stigma) of technology career path (4)
5. Expand the base of volunteers (4)
6. Catching students at an earlier age (3)
7. Coordination between schools/community college’s and NBCEA to deliver programs (3)
8. Long term stability of the business model (2)
9. Ability to identify and locate dislocated population (2)
10. Limit of facilities as we grow (2)
11. High school counselors not aware of NBCEA as a resource (2)
12. Disconnection between target industries and existing industries (1)
13. Volunteer/ Student perception of Pearland’s bedroom community - jobs someplace else
14. Time constraints
15. Clear story of NBCEA’s origins
Opportunities
1. Create a state of the art technical high school (7)
2. Program expansion (6)
3. Add value to existing/ new industries (5)
4. Partnerships on shared facilities (4)
5. Emerging technologies. E.G. Alternate Energy (3)
6. To bring industry/education together on curriculum development (3)
7. Large and growing pool of people (3)
8. Reduce High School dropout numbers and value (3)
9. Motivation to pursue alternative careers (3)
10. Foster an entrepreneurial mind set (3)
11. Flexibility for out of the box programs (2)
12. U of H Pearland Campus (2)
13. Retain businesses and workers in the area (2)
14. Training grants from W.I.B. (1)
15. Opportunity to introduce students to emerging technologies (1)
16. Maximize current momentum (1)
17. Change lives (1)
18. Partner with other school districts (1)
19. Add revenue from other school districts through magnet programs (1)
20. Reduce college education costs
21. Improve “old” industries
22. Expanded aptitude testing/ or interests at an early age
Threats
1. Funding for growth (7)
2. Turf battles (6)
3. Burnout of industry participants (6)
4. Need to sustain/ achieve regional investment (5)
5. Boundary thinking (5)
6. Legislation (4)
7. Inability to quantify value (3)
8. Sustaining scholarship funding (3)
9. Economy (3)
10. Perceptions (2)
11. Budgetary restraints in businesses (2)
12. Reduced incentive among industries for community involvement (1)
13. Divergent opinions of industry partners (1)
14. Transportation (1)
15. Whether baby boomers retire
16. Competition for sustaining resources
17. Manpower
18. Going stale
19. Less cultural value on work in general
20. Cultural bias
APPENDIX THREE
PLANNING PROCESS
The planning team consisted of:
Terrie Morgan, Executive Director NBCEA
Jim Sudela, Director of Operations NBCEA
Sheila Reed, Marketing Director, NBCEA
Adele Brennan, PISD Trustee and NBCEA Board Member
Kevin Cole, Pearland City Council and NBCEA Board Member
Kyler Cole, PEDC
Barbara Derrick, Director of Career & Technical Programs, PISD
Sharon Goodwin Brown, Chamber of Commerce Board Member and NBCEA Board Member
Maureen Murphy, President, San Jacinto College South
Drew Nelson, Dean of Instruction, Alvin Community College
Mike O’Day, Chairman, NBCEA
Ed Thompson, PEDC Board Member and NBCEA Board Member
Richard Wong, Industry Board Member, NBCEA
Additionally, Frank McGrath and Ron Swofford of ESCH provided facilitation and process support.
The team met on six occasions as a full team at the NBCEA offices
A sub team of Terrie, Kyler, Kevin, Jim and Frank met on three occasions to develop specific goals as part of the plan.
Implementation will be accomplished by the NBCEA staff and board of directors.
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