Daily Lumina News 101521

Negative perceptions continue to dog the skilled trades, despite the fact that skilled tradespeople—plumbers, electricians, welders—enjoy rising salaries and stable careers.
In this op-ed, John Reid of Penn Foster College weighs in on why COVID-19 may be bringing skilled trades education out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

This week, IBM announced plans to educate 30 million people globally by 2030 with a new free career-readiness program. The plan builds on the company's existing skills-based work, including its P-TECH public schools and a recent pledge to train 150,000 U.S. students and workers in cybersecurity.
Industry observers say IBM’s latest strategy around tech training is worth watching, especially with a relatively new CEO at the helm.

California’s juvenile justice system is at a crossroads, with state-run youth prisons shutting down in less than two years. Many of the 3,600 youth held in county-run juvenile halls, camps, and ranches are former public school students like Kent Mendoza.
Mendoza, who was incarcerated at age 15, is now part of a growing movement to reimagine juvenile detention facilities and the education they provide.

Lisa Dirks grew up on the Alaskan island of Atka, in the Aleutian Island chain. Now a doctoral student at the University of Washington in Seattle, she focuses on reforming methods of scientific and academic research among Native populations.
Specifically, Dirks wants to ensure that tribal leaders and community members are directly involved in all phases of the work, from the design of studies to publication of research findings.

As the pandemic drags on past 19 months, mental-health experts say students are paying the price.
This week, the Education Department and the Justice Department called on colleges to step up their efforts to better support students' mental-health needs. Among their recommendations: providing mental-health evaluations and services, modifying attendance policies, and training staff members to recognize signs of distress.

Data is a four-letter word in some parts of higher education, even as many people call for colleges and universities to get better at using data and analytics to support institutional decision-making and student success.
This episode of The Key explores how faculty and staff members can use data to contribute to important discussions across their institution—whether they consider themselves “data people” or not.