1. 21st Century Skills Collaboration
Merrilea J. Mayo
Consultant to the Center for Curriculum Redesign

2. Center for Curriculum Redesign
Charles Fadel, Founder and Chairman
“Making Education More Relevant”

3. Employers are the Motivation “We Need SKILLS!!!”

4. Response: Academia mobilizes slogans, PR campaigns, intense curriculum redesign
From the California Community College System: An attempt to develop
1. Adaptability
2. Analysis/Solution Mindset
3. Collaboration
4. Communication
5. Digital Fluency
6. Entrepreneurial Mindset
7. Empathy
8. Resilience
9. Self-Awareness + more

5. Did any of this work? No one knows. No feedback from industry.
No data.
No measurement tools.
Not even a clear idea of what the “other side” was looking for.

6. 21st Century Skills Collaboration
Our Mission:
Validating 21st century skills across the industry-academia divide
Our Focus:
Validating Measures
Validating Interventions
Why Community Colleges
Short cycle time for students between academia and industry =>
fast data turnaround
Strong industry connections

7. 21st Century Skills Collaboration
Our Skills Focus (initially)
Critical Thinking
Resilience

8. Progress to date
Identify funding opportunity (NSF ATE, $800k, due Oct. 5) and interested collaborators.
Internally propose project concepts that might address the funding opportunity
Miniproposals at
After looking at project concepts, potential collaborators self-identify as “core” or “affiliate” relative to that funding opportunity and its potential projects.
Discuss (everyone).
Non-negotiable project requirements:
Project MUST have multiple sites
Project MUST have enough subjects/data to make valid claims.
Project MUST be based on expansion of existing measures or practices, not new research (NSF grant req)
For right now, all projects need to center on technician training at community colleges
We are here

9. Money $800k total Management: Projects: People
$150-$250k off the top for “management” – whether CCR or otherwise.
Projects:
We don’t have to fund all proposed projects and probably shouldn’t.
Most of the proposed projects are structured as “accordions”: they can be expanded from the proposed “bare bones” up to $600k by adding more students/employees/data points.
People
If you can put forward an industry-academic team that can access 40+ students from academia through to industry, you’re pretty much a shoo-in for some level of funding.
People who put in the effort to propose projects will get right of first refusal for a slot on their project, but they do not get the lion’s share of money.
Evaluators and individuals without students/employees to track will have more limited slots and may end up competing.

10. Next Steps
“Core” personnel will vote on projects with their feet, by signing up to work on specific projects (next 1-2 weeks).
Projects with insufficient students/data will need to hustle or be abandoned.
Project teams write sections of proposal.
Center for Curriculum Redesign – or some other institution – integrates and submits proposal by Oct 5.
Project teams will get paid if/when proposal is funded. Industry gets paid, too.
Conduct studies, publish, proselytize.
Get more money and repeat.
Hope for an endowment or dues-paying members someday to get out of the proposal rat race.

11. 21st Century Skills Collaboration
Validated Skills
Training

13. Federal Government and 21st Century Skills

14. International research collaborative on advanced workplace skills
The 10 year goal
International research collaborative on advanced workplace skills