Closing out the newsletter, this month our industry spotlight focuses on Business and Entrepreneurship. Thank you, to Xavier Nazario and Micah Merrick, the San Francisco Bay Regional Directors for Business and Entrepreneurship, who shared a few thoughts on their view of how the sector has been impacted during this time.
What comprises the Business & Entrepreneurship sectors in the Bay Region?
From a student perspective, the Business and Entrepreneurship Sector comprises two primary groups of students: 1) those pursuing an Associates Degree in Business Administration in order to transfer to a 4-year College, and 2) those pursuing short-term training to gain business skills that will help them get a job in accounting, real estate, or management. In addition, certain Colleges offer curricula in entrepreneurship to supplement the business training of students and offer them exposure to entrepreneurial ways of thinking, which are valuable for starting a new business, or working in a traditional job.
From an employer perspective, for our students that specialize in accounting or real-estate, their occupations after graduation are obviously geared towards service companies in our Region. However, for our management graduates, they work in an enormous variety of jobs and industries across our Region.
What is the state of employment in Business & Entrepreneurship right now?
The Business & Entrepreneurship Sector has demand that mimics that of the overall economy. However, small businesses have been hit particularly hard during the COVID-19 era, and this is obviously impacting our graduates. Yelp data shows that 60% of business closures due to the coronavirus are now permanent.
The businesses that will survive are those that pivot and leverage technology and innovation to perform essential business functions. For example, consultants, contractors and other service based businesses are using tools like Zoom and Skype to transition their businesses to a virtual format or to complete some of the tasks (estimates, inspections, signings, walk-throughs, etc.) that traditionally have been done in person. Small businesses must embrace social media and increase their digital marketing skills to be sustainable in today’s business environment.
Unsurprisingly, we see many of our Colleges exploring supplementing their traditional Programs, with programs in Data Analytics or Digital Marketing, to provide graduates to the job market with virtual and remote skills.
What employers (or types of employers) are hiring right now? What occupations are in demand?
If we set aside small businesses, which constitute the largest single employer of our students, from the data we can see that employers in Retail, Manufacturing, and Administrative Support industries have the highest number of job postings for graduates with Associate degrees in Business.
Some of the largest employers that have been hiring in the last six months include: Gamestop, Sherwin-Williams, Sutter Health, and Robert Half & Associates.
Common job titles include: Retail Staff, Administrative Assistants, Relationship Managers, and Assistant Store Managers.
What are some strategies the Business & Entrepreneurship sector is taking to help train students or re-train workers?
There are two strategies we would like to highlight that are geared towards helping students in our Region. The first is a partnership with NexusEdge, a company that has partnered with many large companies to provide digital curriculum and digital badging for industry-recognized skills. Even better, NexusEdge is integrated into Canvas, which allows our Faculty to add NexusEdge modules to their existing courses. The result is that there are no lengthy curriculum review processes required for faculty, and students gain the benefit of receiving both college credit AND an industry recognized digital badge for completing a course.
For example, a student that completes an Intro to Business class could also receive a digital badge from Google certifying proficiency in Google Sheets. We hope this approach will enable students who do not complete a certificate or degree to nonetheless have a meaningful experience they can add to their resumes. We also hope that faculty will be able to upgrade their curriculum, quickly and easily, to utilize this great content from NexusEdge and their corporate partners.
The second strategy is to collaborate with faculty and Colleges that are working to introduce new Programs that are aligned with new jobs that have developed over the years, including Digital Marketing and Data Analytics. We describe one such example, involving Digital Marketing below.
Can you tell us about some projects you are working on with schools/colleges?
There are two specific projects we’d like to highlight that are currently in progress. First, in partnership with the City of Oakland, Merritt College, ESO Ventures, Xavier Nazario and LaSonja Hill, we equally funded a cohort of entrepreneurs from District 6 and 7 within East Oakland. 100 people applied and 38 entered into the cohort. Out of the 38, 25 completed the program. The cohort demographic was 82% Black and 18% Latinx. The cohort completed a 10 week incubator through ESO Ventures to develop their business ideas. The entrepreneurs completed the program on November 19, 2020 by participating in a community showcase to share their developed business ideas.
Through the partnership, Merritt College agreed to offer their 3-course digital marketing certificate to anyone who applied to the cohort (the original 100) and any future ESO Ventures applicant. The first course will begin on January 26 and will conclude in the summer of 2021. Ben Wanzo has been hired as the community facing instructor. The digital marketing certificate will give these business owners an opportunity to create a digital footprint for their businesses as well as help them create an additional revenue stream by helping other businesses create a footprint as they are developing and growing their own businesses. The for-credit certificate is offered at no cost to the entrepreneur and will help create a pipeline to other courses within the business department at Merritt College. The certificate was developed in partnership with Facebook and focuses on creating a business plan, learning how to create and expand a digital footprint, and how to manage a successful digital marketing campaign. Visit ESO Ventures to learn more.
The second example is an exploratory effort to see if we can enable students who are pursuing certificates in Accounting to take, for free, an industry-recognized certificate from Intuit for their Quickbooks Certified User exam. We are working with Certiport and several Colleges in the Region to see if we can create a Regional testing center, so that students can take this exam, even if their individual College is not a Certiport testing center currently. At present, we have interest from four Colleges and are working with a fifth College to potentially serve as the host of the Regional, virtual testing center.
