Tailored Solutions for Incumbent Workers

In Philadelphia, lower-wage frontline workers have minimal opportunities for advancement and economic mobility. According to data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the top 10 most common jobs are front-line positions that pay above the minimum wage, but below family-sustainable salary, such as cashiers, customer service representatives, sales associates, home health aides, and security guards.

The lack of economic opportunity has severe repercussions. For example, Philadelphia has a 20-year life expectancy gap based on a community’s racial and ethnic composition.  We believe that talent is equally distributed but opportunity is not. Graduate was the first organization in the U.S. to align resources outside and inside of higher education specifically for adult learners to enroll in college, earn degrees, and achieve family-sustainable careers. Our target population is 179,000 adults with some college credits but no degrees. Since our founding, Graduate Philadelphia has helped 18,000+ adults earn 10,000+ postsecondary degrees.

According to research by the Pennsylvania Economy League, these adults will generate roughly $120 million in taxes and earn $461 million in discretionary income. A major component of our success was partnering with Independence Blue Cross to upskill 600+ lower-wage frontline workers, demonstrating our ability to create large-scale diverse talent solutions.

Our solution is to partner with employers to build career pathways for incumbent workers. Our model is based on our partnership with IBX that upskilled 600+ lower-wage frontline workers, demonstrating our ability to create large-scale diverse talent solutions.  Unlike traditional workforce programs that teach skills but do not guarantee employment, workers have a clear line of sight regarding their skills, credentials, and salary potential. For employers, the easiest way to find talent is to look at the payroll. In short, our program helps employers align supply (talent) with demand (jobs). The framework includes:

• Executive Steering Committee to identify the goals, scope of services, performance measures, and return on investment.
 
• Implementation Team to manage the operations, programming, scheduling, problem-solving, employee progression, and evaluation.

• Designated Stakeholders & Change Agents responsible for program communication, advising front-line workers, and data collection.

Our model can address multiple goals including:

• Experienced frontline workers who need training on evolving job needs, regulations, technology, etc., to retain their jobs.

• Accomplished frontline workers seeking promotions and advanced roles.

• Improving access to college tuition benefits and degree attainment.
 
The implementation process includes Partnership Development (Phase I), Framing and Planning (Phase II), Implementation (Phase III), and Evaluation & Assessment (Phase IV).

Our solution builds nontraditional pathways for lower-wage frontline workers to access credentials and career mobility. Many workers do not know where to turn and lack clear, relevant action steps to advance their careers.  In addition, hiring managers look for specific skills and experience required to “do the job,” making it difficult for workers to communicate how their skills apply to different positions and departments.  

Graduate Philadelphia removes these barriers by integrating management’s talent needs with their employees’ learning. We offer Career Integrated Learning Advising, to expand the pathways to learning by addressing the unique challenges associated with low incomes, such as childcare, digital literacy, finances, and access to wrap-around services. Our model includes:

Employee Advising and Coaching – Up to 20 hours per month including 30-minute or 1-hour 1:1 coaching sessions to provide employees with a better GPS to navigate their career, access resources, and professional credentials.
 
Small Group Coaching Sessions – Up to 10 hours per month emphasizing how learning connects with earning.

Six Adult Learner Sessions – 12 hours per month based on the company’s training catalog featuring customized skills.

Educational Pathways & Solutions—Provide personalized GPS systems and motivational milestones for credentials that align with the company’s talent needs.

Graduate Philadelphia has built a strong foundation to replicate our IBX partnership. In December, Bill Sasso, Esq., Chairmen Emeritus of Stradley Ronon, hosted our CEO Breakfast. Thirty-one leading employers attend the event, including 20+ CEOs, Market Presidents, and C-Suite Executives. Our guests included some of the biggest employers in the region, including the City of Philadelphia, Penn Medicine, CHOP, JP Morgan, TD Bank, and Independence Blue Cross to name a few. 

Our audience openly admits they are not finding the diverse talent they need. This challenge will escalate as 10,000 baby boomers retire every day until 2030. To succeed, companies will need creative and innovative hiring strategies. 

Their biggest obstacle is supporting workers outside of the office and classroom. In addition, there is a substantial disconnect between working adults' priorities and postsecondary education, specifically in how the student experience aligns with the university's actions. Some campuses placed relatively low priority on areas where working adult students are most adrift, including behavioral health, digital literacy, and childcare. 

Our model integrates support systems and intervention strategies to address barriers to success. Our database has 6,000 active files providing tremendous insight into the adult learner journey and real-life solutions. 

As mentioned earlier, Graduate Philadelphia was founded in 2005. Until 2020 Graduate was a program offered by the Graduate Network. In 2020, Graduate Philadelphia was spun off from the Network as a separate 501(c)3 organization. We received our nonprofit status three months before COVID-19 closed Philadelphia.  

This challenge forced us to grow to stand up the organization. Thanks to strong investor confidence, our service population grew from 400 to 1,000 adult learners. Our Board of Directors expanded from three to twelve members, including representatives from leading employers, including Accenture, Peco, Chubb, Ernst & Young, and Independence Blue Cross to name a few.

In 2021, we were among two organizations selected for the prestigious Bank of America $200,000 Neighborhood Builders grant. In addition, we received $775,000 from the Lenfest Foundation and $400,000 from the Philadelphia Department of Commerce. Lastly, our capital reserves have grown from $225,000 to $1,000,000. 

We are now in a strong position to scale and replicate our IBX model.

www.graduatephiladelphia.org

Our solution recognizes that traditional postsecondary pathways are not the great equalizer, and employers cannot create more equitable and inclusive companies on their own. For nontraditional students, education is at the intersection of workforce development, postsecondary education, and employment.

The challenges connected to employment, education, and home require third-party intervention to improve access and degree completion. Graduate Philadelphia can address challenges that employers are reluctant to address, employees hide out of fear of being branded. And fall outside the scope of services offered by colleges and universities, such as digital literacy, financial literacy, basic needs insecurity, and wrap-around services.  

Our unique model has multiple entry and exit points to accommodate their stop-and-go learning style. We leverage smartphone technology to address the digital divide. Many Hispanic and African American households do not have computers and Wi-Fi.  Our services and upskilling classes are accessible through synchronous and asynchronous learning on smartphones.

Our upskilling model addresses the gaps and blind spots in workforce development, higher education, and employment. It is often said that workers are hired for their technical skills and fired for poor power skills. Our holistic model includes support systems as well as access to technical and power skills training. In addition, our model is visible to employers to reward workers for their resiliency and accomplishments. 

Our impact goals are to scale and replicate our IBX model to partner with 3+ employers to upskill 350+ incumbent workers by December 31, 2026. We have nine new MOUs with college partners to support this work. For workers, we emphasize degree completion as our solution to upskill workers because 66% of existing jobs and 75% of new jobs require college credentials. 

We use third-party verification to confirm our outcomes through an equity lens. Statista verifies salaries based on degree completion and race. We use the National Student Clearing House to verify our adult learners' degrees. Below are the outcomes for adult learners in all of our programs in 2023.

Higher Education              Total        Percentage      Salary     Financial Gain
Enrolled in College             792            100%          $38,000             NA
Earned Associate Degrees   411              82%          $52,260            37%
Earned Bachelor’s Degrees   73              16%          $72,680             91%
Earned Advanced Degrees      8               2%           $86,920           128%

Our solution team includes seven full-time staff, one contractor, and three board members. In addition, we leverage our relationship with higher education to hire adjunct professors to serve as instructors. The full-time staff includes Malik Brown, President & CEO, Steve Evans, Vice President of Development and Organizational Advancement, Phill Brooks, Vice President for Programming and Innovation, Rachelle Coleman, Chief of Staff, Vanessa Saunders, F.T. Program Specialists, Chris Nosal, F.T. Program Specialist, Daniel Magerman, F.T. Postsecondary Navigator, and Sena Owereko, Strategic Consultant & Implementation Partner. Their bios and credentials can be found on Graduate Philadelphia’s website. The board members include Jameel Rush, Chair, Google Director of Inclusive Programs, Jordan Rambo, Vice-Chair, Accenture Philadelphia Office Managing Director, and Pat Eiding, Chairman Emeritus, Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO President Emeritus. 

We have been working on this solution for several years. The majority of work has been done with Independence Blue Cross. Attached is a letter of support from Jeannie Heffernan, EVP & CHRO, Human Resources, Independence Blue Cross (ret.), who created the program. Unfortunately, our work was disrupted by COVID-19, and frontline workers became 100% remote.

Our goal is to leverage the model to work with more industries. We are in conversations with childcare providers to reduce turnover and improve career mobility for direct care staff, financial institutions to transition tellers from residential to commercial banking, education to improve Two-Gen approaches, health care to train managers to model and promote core values, and hospitality to advance lower-wage frontline workers.

Graduate Philadelphia has a rich history of actively recruiting and placing Black professionals in prominent leadership positions. Malik Brown became the first African American President and CEO. He is a first-generation college student and was raised by a single mother. Sena Owereko, born in Ghana, was the first Vice President of Programming and Innovation. Rachelle Coleman, Chief of Staff, identifies as Latino. She represents our clients with some college credits and no degree. Currently, 75% of the executive leadership team is African American and Latino. Our Board of Directors is 55% African American, 12% Latino, and 33% Caucasian. 

In 2023, our work in DEI was nationally recognized by Salesforce. Graduate Philadelphia was one of ten black-led organizations selected for a $100,000 Catalyst grant in honor of Black History Month.

Our key partners and stakeholders include employers, incumbent workers, postsecondary education, and Accenture’s Skills to Succeed learning exchange, with 159 skill-based classes.

The key activities include professional training, support systems, wrap-around services, Career Integrated Learning Advising, and an individualized career GPS system. Our interventions cover foreseen barriers to degree completion such as finances, mental health, and childcare, and unforeseen challenges, such as unexpected expenses, and family crises.

The model includes an executive steering committee, an implementation team, and designated stakeholders and change agents. Our service delivery includes employee advising and coaching, small group coaching services, adult learner services, and education pathways and solutions.

The value proposition is the connection between learning and earning for workforce development and postsecondary education.

The cost structure is based on the executive steering committee's goals, target population, scope of services, and return on investment.

The revenue is a fee for service contracts with employers. For many positions, our work pays for itself given the high costs of recruitment, onboarding, turnover, and lost productivity.

Lastly, the segments are employers in need of diverse talent and incumbent workers seeking family-sustainable careers. 

Graduate Philadelphia was selected by Bridgespan, in partnership with Pew Charitable Trust and Harris Philanthropies, to receive 18 months of free consulting services, worth $90,000, on the theory of change and strategic alignment. One of our biggest accomplishments was creating a matrix to measure our program alignment with our theory of change including our financial sustainability. Our fiscal criteria looked at diversifying our revenue and measuring each program’s financial stability and contribution.

Our goal is to diversify our revenue to be 33% government, 33% contracts, and 33% grants and contributions. For FY 2024, our revenue mix was 57% grants and contributions, 10% contracts, and 33% government. This year, we expect to increase our contract revenue to 25% with 33% government and 42% grants and contributions. The programs with fee-for-service contracts (i.e. government and contracts) have the most stable revenue. Contributions are used to fund additional resources to boost outcomes but not to sustain our core services.

Our evidence that Graduate Philadelphia is financially successful and needed in this market is the strong investor support from leading corporate, government, and foundation funders. Since being spun off from the Graduate Network in 2020, our capital reserves have grown from $225,000 to $1,000,000. 

As mentioned earlier, Graduate Philadelphia worked with Bridgespan to create our theory of change and strategic alignment. Now that we have a strong vision and framework for our theory of change, we are ready to embark on our next chapter to turn our vision into action. Our goal is to help reimagine learning for nontraditional students.

Our upskilling incumbent workers model helps lower-wage workers, especially first-generation college students and women who work, learn, and raise children simultaneously, to align their credentials with family-sustainable careers. In addition, corporate tuition reimbursement benefits make postsecondary education more accessible, as well as leveraging technology to deliver skill-based training via smartphones.

We believe postsecondary education can be recreated for working adults who do not have the luxury of time, flexibility, and financial services for lengthy academic programs. Yor investment in Graduate Philadelphia would allow us to discount our services to engage more employers who are not familiar with the barriers before incumbent workers or who do not know how to address these barriers.  

Graduate Philadelphia would work with MIT and Truist to host a follow-up CEO Breakfast highlighting our reskilling and upskilling services for leading employers. We would leverage this relationship to better utilize technology to make our services more accessible. Lastly, we could afford research to create more customized talent solutions to approach larger employers in  finance, healthcare, and education.