VENTURA, Calif.- The Ventura County P-20 Council hosted the first-ever Ventura County Education Summit to strengthen existing ties, and establish new ones, between educators and businesses at the Ventura County Office of Education (VCOE) Conference and Educational Services
Center building, Nov. 26. Vance Brahosky, Deputy Technical Director,
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, was among four business sector representatives, including Haas Automation, Corwin Press and The Trade Desk, who participated on a special panel to discuss
strides taken to bridge the gap between education and business.
“We don’t have as strong of service as we require if we’re not reaching out to the community in events like this,” said Brahosky. “We will not miss opportunities to do that.”
During the summit, live survey questions were posed to attendees, who were able to answer on their cell phones and see the results displayed in real-time on big projection screens. These questions ranged from concerns regarding educational partnerships and external training programs to hiring practices and the importance of technical and
interpersonal skills.
“We have a series of educational partnership agreements with institutions of higher learning that stretch from San Diego to Santa Barbara,” said Brahosky. “One of the things I wanted to do here [at Port Hueneme], was to turn the heat up on the execution of tasks that we could do on educational partnership agreements.”
Educational partnership agreements are formalized agreements between employers and educators that allow scientists and engineers to work with educational institutions to enhance Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics (STEM) education. Brahosky elaborated how these partnerships would allow professors to go back into their classrooms with
information essential to what is most important for the Navy and adjust the narrative of their teachings to better aid students who share an interest in pursuing similar career paths.
“We are making great strides in reaching out in apprenticeship programs and internship programs, hiring the youth of America to come in and become something bigger than themselves,” said Brahosky.
Brahosky explained this desire to bring students to the command exists primarily to take advantage of students’ current knowledge and have it applied in real-world scenarios, and to increase exposure of the Department of the Navy to individuals who would otherwise have zero knowledge of, or connection to, the Navy.
“When they go back to their universities, they’re telling a good story of what this thing—the Department of the Navy—is all about and it’s not such a scary institution after all,” said Brahosky. “It’s actually something worthwhile to apply their skillsets for and getting the experience.”
Brahosky noted NSWC PHD is presently hiring and in critical need of a series of skillsets that range from business and logistics to engineering and facility managers, and introduced the audience to the Enterprise In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) of the Future initiative.
“It’s not just about today’s Navy, it’s what about the Navy in five, 10 … 50 years? What’s it going to look like? What kind of skillsets do we need?” asked Brahosky. “All of that requires new ideas to go after people in terms of internships, apprenticeships and partnerships.”
Brahosky expanded on the extent of the role ISEA of the Future is set to play moving forward and reiterated that being more enterprise-focused and being driven by this operational imperative means new and innovative ideas are continually flowing free-strain.
“We are very much out of the old way of doing business, which was if it wasn’t invented here [Port Hueneme] then we’re not interested,” added Brahosky. “We don’t get to live in those days anymore because if we do, we’re going to die quickly when we get into the next fight.”
Aside from the business panel, featured presenters included presidents, chancellors and directors of various Ventura universities, school districts and education centers, including California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), California Lutheran University (CLU), Ventura County Community College District (VCCCD), and VCOE Career Education Center.
The P-20 Council is a resource for businesses looking to recruit interns, find job training referrals and dig further into other education-related topics. Open meetings are held every other month during the academic year. The next meeting is currently schedule for Jan. 10, 2019.
For more information visit www.vcp20.org
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