Daily Lumina News 031220

The prospect of boosting his landscaping company's bottom line was Erik Cooper’s initial reason for contracting to spruce up blighted, vacant lots in his hometown. But a decade spent participating in the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia LandCare program has delivered benefits beyond mere dollar signs.
Equally gratifying is how LandCare’s Roots to Re-entry project lets Cooper employ and train formerly incarcerated people.

Traditional approaches to education are being reimagined as the demand for workers with skills that match the evolving workplace continues to go unmet.
In Michigan, Dow Chemical, Delta College, and Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works have joined forces to create the Fast Start Partnership. The effort is designed to teach participants the skills needed for career success with regional businesses.

As colleges and universities move to clear their campuses of students and offer courses online to minimize the risk of exposure to or spread of the coronavirus, many institutions have urged students to go home and remain there. But those efforts are raising concerns about students who can't just easily pick up and go or may not have an actual home to which to return.
For these students, the college campus is their sanctuary—and oftentimes their only access to food and shelter.

What can employers do to prepare today’s workers for the jobs of tomorrow? Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health and a former leader in the California Community College system, offers insight about how employers, labor unions, and educators can work together to help workers learn what they need to get better jobs.
Education is not a one-time inoculation to prepare people for a lifetime of work, Ton-Quinlivan says. Frequent booster shots are needed throughout our careers.