Business Needs Report

Business Needs Survey Report

Introduction

Industry Growth and Employment Trends

Educational and Skill Requirements for Entry-level Positions

Job Shadowing and Internship Opportunities

Partnerships and Perception of PCC

Conclusions and Future Directions

Distribution of participating businesses across self-identiﬁed industry

Business perceptions of growth across near-term, short-term, and long-term periods

Reported factors aecting business growth

Distribution of primary reason for hiring new sta

Business perceptions of future hiring needs across short-term, and long-term periods

Distribution of educational requirements for entry-level positions

Preference between accredited training and previous experience

Distribution of businesses reporting oering job shadowing or internships

Distribution of job position types for managing job shadowing

Distribution of reported familiarity degree with PCC

Distribution of participating businesses by employment size

New employee hiring in 2018 by business size

Distribution of reasons job shadowing or internships are not oered (more than one

option could be selected)

Distribution of rated importance of beneﬁts to businesses associated with job shadowing

Distribution of rated importance of beneﬁts to businesses associated with internships

Distribution of rated agreement with reasons businesses may not oer job shadowing

Distribution of rated agreement with reasons businesses may not oer internships

Distribution of rated importance of factors important to businesses for collaborating

in job shadowing programs

Distribution of programs that would beneﬁt participating businesses

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15 - 22

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26 - 27

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

FIGURES

TABLES

PAGES

Business Needs Survey Report

The state of California is an economic powerhouse with a gross domestic product of $2.7 trillion. California’s economy is

the ﬁfth largest in the world – ahead of the United Kingdom. While California hosts a number of high-tech companies, tech

start-ups, and a vast agriculture industry, the largest share of jobs are those classiﬁed as middle-skills jobs. Middle-skills

jobs are those requiring a postsecondary education, but less than a bachelor’s degree. According to the National Skills

Collation, middle-skills jobs account for 50% of California’s labor market, but only 39% of workers in California have the

necessary training for these jobs. This shortage is expected to increase, with projections indicating that by 2025, California

will need one million additional middle-skills workers. The state of California recognizes the need and economic importance

of investing in a skilled workforce. The state has implemented several initiatives to build and support a California economy

suited for the future.

The Economic and Workforce Development Program (EWD) was enacted by the state legislature as a vehicle for the

California Community Colleges (CCC) to invest in workforce improvement activities. One of the main programs under EWD

is the Doing What MATTERS for Jobs and the Economy (DWM). This program creates a structure within industry sectors

and geographic regions to foster career and technical education (CTE) across the community college system. The DWM

program laid the foundation for California’s ambitious Strong Workforce Program.

The Strong Workforce Program began in 2016 with the goal of closing the shortfall in middle-skill jobs through training

one million middle-skills workers. This will not only meet the labor needs for the future economy, but create opportunities

to further foster economic growth by moving more low-wage workers into living-wage jobs. The program focuses on

improving CTE through increasing student enrollment in high-quality, high-demand educational programs. A key outcome

of this program is more responsive educational programs that move students to completion, thus leading to employment

and higher earnings.

Rather than a single initiative, the Strong Workforce Program focuses on regional dierences in program needs, giving

community colleges freedom to be responsive to local labor market conditions. The program goals are “data-driven”, to

drive innovation and create programs tailored to the ﬂuctuating regional needs.

Pasadena City College & Strong Workforce Goals

Meeting the data-driven goal of the Strong Workforce Program, Pasadena Area Community College District conducted a

Business Needs Assessment Survey. The PCC district is within the Los Angeles and Orange County region, serving Pasadena

and the surrounding San Gabriel Valley. This area is home to 1.5 million people and over 19,000 businesses. Identifying the

local area needs of businesses will help PCC take more steps to meet program goals.

The Business Needs Assessment Survey included several objectives. One is to identify employment trends, industry growth,

and educational and skill requirements for entry level positions within the region. Another is to identify business use,

perceptions, and acceptance of job shadowing and internships. Finally, information is collected on business perceptions

of PCC and willingness to engage in partnerships for professional development.

Elder Tree was the data collector for this survey. Data was collected in the fall of 2018 and a total of 112 surveys were

completed by businesses within the San Gabriel Valley. The distribution of industry sectors for participating businesses is

shown in Figure 1. While this reﬂects a small fraction of the businesses within the San Gabriel Valley, the data collection

eort targeted the industry sectors outlined by the Strong Workforce Program, excluding a large proportion of businesses.

The data in this report provides Pasadena Area Community College District a high-level overview for determining what

industry sectors to target resources with for further speciﬁcation of business needs.

1. INTRODUCTION

Business Needs Survey Report

Figure 1-1. Distribution of participating businesses across self-identiﬁed industry

The largest number of participating businesses self-identiﬁed as primarily information technology, followed by health,

sales, and entertainment. No respondent reported their business as energy (or energy-renewable), or utility sectors. The

overwhelming representation of information technology businesses is likely a result that participants self-identiﬁed their

business’ primary industry. The U.S. government’s ocial industry classiﬁcation, the North American industry Classiﬁcation

System (NAICS), does not speciﬁcally deﬁne information technology as an industry sector. Instead technology jobs span

a large number of industry sub-sectors and are prevalent in ﬁelds like communications and manufacturing. The industry

sectors available for survey respondents to select from were based on emerging industry areas of interest to PCC. These

constructs of interest may not have been clear to respondents who instead reported business ﬁelds that may have been

more salient to them.

According to the Computing Technology Industry Association (2017), technology employment crosses many other industry

sectors, other than those speciﬁcally focused in technology (e.g., software development), and is considered a second

component of the technology workforce and nearly equals that of the technology sector. According to the same report,

California leads the nation in technology employment and accounts for about 13% of its economy. This suggests that the

ﬁndings from this report will have broad applications across industry sectors in emerging technology ﬁelds such as additive

manufacturing, health informatics, and communication.

Business Needs Survey Report

Table 1-1. Distribution of participating businesses by employment size

Table 1 shows the distribution of participating businesses by business size in terms of employment. Large businesses (those

with 500 or more employees) represented the smallest proportion of participants which reﬂects their low incidence as a

proportion of all businesses. Small businesses were fairly evenly distributed among the remaining categories, demonstrating

good representation of dierent business sizes.

This report presents ﬁndings from the Business Needs Assessment Survey conducted by Elder Tree for the Pasadena

Area Community College District. The remainder of this report covers the three topical areas of the survey: business

perceptions of industry growth and employment trends; educational and skill requirements for entry-level positions;

business perceptions and opportunities for job shadowing and internships; and business perceptions of PCC and interest

in collaborative opportunities. The ﬁnal section of this report oers recommendations and future directions based on the

survey ﬁndings.

Business Needs Survey Report

2. INDUSTRY GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT TRENDS

Perceptions of Business Growth

Industry growth is an important consideration in determining future need for skilled labor. To determine how businesses feel

about the potential for growth, we asked each to determine whether (compared to their last year of business) production

or services would increase, stay the same, or decrease over deﬁned time periods. These periods are deﬁned as the near-

term (next 12 months), the short-term (next 5 years), or the long-term (next 10 years).

When considering the near-term, short-term, and long-term prospects for industry growth, businesses generally had a

positive outlook as shown in Figure 1. The outlook was generally more positive beyond the near-term (next 12 months).

For the near-term period, 57% of business felt business demand would increase relative to the previous year, while only

4% felt demand would decrease. Businesses reporting decreased demand were generally from within retail or wholesale

sales classiﬁcation.

Longer term projections were much more positive. For the short-term (next 5 years), 76% of businesses reported demand

would increase, while for the long-term (next 10 years), 72% of businesses reported demand would increase. Business

perceptions of decreasing demand peaked at 6% for the long-term period (next 10 years). The negative perception was

low overall and not clustered within any speciﬁc business classiﬁcation.

Overall, businesses reported that demand for their product or service will increase relative to business activity over the

past year.

Figure 2-1. Business perceptions of growth across near-term, short-term, and long-term periods

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Barriers to Business Growth

Businesses were asked to report barriers that had a negative eect on business growth. The most reported barrier was

competition from other businesses. This suggests that it will be important for businesses to maintain a competitive edge

and that competition for skilled labor may increase. As shown in Figure 2, the second most reported barrier impacting

business growth is a lack of skilled labor. Interestingly, labor wages were one of the least reported factors aecting

business growth. In the current economic environment with low unemployment, this suggests that companies will be

willing to compete for skilled labor.

Barriers reported to aect business growth were reviewed among businesses that reported the future short-term or long-

term growth outlook would remain unchanged. Approximately 20% of businesses reported unchanged sentiments. The

results for reported barriers are largely unchanged when restricted to this group, with competition from other businesses

as the most reported factor, followed by lack of demand (for their product or service), and lack of skilled labor.

Overall these ﬁndings suggest that in addition to competitive forces, identifying skilled labor will be important to growth

and may be responsible for unchanged perceptions of future business demand. The low incidence of labor wages as a

factor aecting growth, suggest that businesses will be willing to compete for labor with key industry skills.

Figure 2-2. Reported factors aecting business growth

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EWD ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

Business Hiring Trends

Businesses were asked to report the number of new employees hired for 2018. Given the timing of the survey request, this

would generally cover the ﬁrst three quarters of 2018 and full-year projections would be expected to be higher.

Across all businesses, the mean number of new employees hired was 31 with a median of 12. As shown in Table 1, the

mean number of employees hired was strongly associated with business size.

About 55% of businesses reported hiring 10 or more employees in 2018. Of this group, most reported that few new sta

were hired for entry-level positions. About 27% of businesses reported that fewer than 25% of new hires were for entry

level positions, while 40% reported that 25% to less than 50% of new hires were for entry-level positions.

When it was necessary to hire new sta, nearly two-thirds of all businesses reported factors associated with company

growth (i.e., company growth, or increased product/service demand) as the primary reason to hire (see Figure 3). Factors

associated with sta turnover (i.e., voluntary or involuntary separation, or retirement) were reported by just under a quarter

of businesses. Analyzing these results by company size reveals that factors associated with company growth remained

a majority reason, but factors associated with turnover were reported more frequently for smaller companies. Turnover

factors were reported by 36 % of small companies (1 – 49), compared to 22% for mid-size (50 – 199), and 12% for large

companies (200 – 499).

Table 2-1. New employee hiring in 2018 by business size

Figure 2-3. Distribution of primary reason for hiring new sta

RETIREMENT

INCREASED DEMAND

COMPANY GROWTH

TURNOVER

PROMOTION

TECHNICAL

Business Needs Survey Report

While these results suggest that hiring is consistent and that ﬁnding skilled labor remains a top challenge, many of the

positions ﬁlled by businesses in 2018 required some previous experience. When businesses ﬁnd a need to hire new sta,

they are usually driven by company growth factors.

Future Assessment of Hiring Needs

Businesses generally reported that in the short-term (1 to 5 years) there will be an increased need to hire new sta.

Furthermore, businesses reported that this need will be greater in the long-term (6-10 year) time frame. These ﬁndings

are in line with earlier reports that most businesses generally have expectations of future growth in business.

In the context of entry-level positions, only about a quarter of businesses reported that 50% or more of these positions will

be for entry-level employees. This suggests that while businesses expect to have a need to hire new sta, a large majority

of this need will require labor with some level of previous experience.

When there is a need to ﬁll entry-level positions, two-thirds of businesses reported diculty identifying applicants with

necessary skills for entry-level positions. Businesses also reported that these positions take time to ﬁll, with three-quarters

of businesses reporting time to ﬁll entry-level positions was greater than 30 days (20% reported 3 months or more). These

results would suggest that businesses would be expected to recruit labor outside of the local Pasadena or greater San

Gabriel Valley. In fact, 60%

of businesses reported their company recruits outside the local area for qualiﬁed labor “all of

the time” or “most of the time”.

Since most responding businesses self-identiﬁed as information technology, we examined this group separately. Reported

diculty increased to three-quarters of businesses within this classiﬁcation; reports of time to ﬁll entry-level positions

increased to 84%; and reports of recruiting outside the local area (all of the time or most of the time) were similar at 60%.

Participants were asked to respond on a ﬁve-point Likert scale ranging from “All of the time” to “Never”. A total of six percent of

businesses reported “Never”.

Figure 2-4. Business perceptions of future hiring needs across short-term, and long-term periods

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Conclusions – Industry and Employment Trends

Business perceptions about future growth expectations are an important barometer for determining the potential need

for skilled labor. This report shows that businesses around PCC have expectations for growth and forecast this growth

to increase over time. Businesses are acutely aware that competition in their industry is the leading barrier to continued

growth, with a strong need for skilled labor to fuel any future growth. This is further evidenced by the ﬁnding that businesses

generally reported factors associated with growth as the leading reason for hiring new sta.

Businesses of all sizes reported consistent hiring for the ﬁrst three-quarters of 2018 and most have expectations that this

level will increase over time with many of the remaining businesses believing this will at least remain at current levels.

However, a majority of the positions ﬁlled by businesses required some level of previous experience and expect this to

continue with future labor needs.

The fact that labor wages were generally an unimportant factor as a barrier to growth combined with the outlook of positive

growth, suggests that businesses may be willing to compete for qualiﬁed skilled labor. This is supported with ﬁndings that

most businesses report diculty identifying qualiﬁed applicants and that open positions take time to ﬁll.

These results oer several suggestions for PCC:

• Invest in programs that provide students with ﬁeld experience to support the needs of area businesses

•

Increase outreach to attract individuals currently employed in emerging ﬁelds, but lack certiﬁcation or

accreditation (i.e., those looking to transition into a more technical position, or those that are unable to

advance further)

Business Needs Survey Report

3. EDUCATIONAL AND SKILL REQUIREMENTS FOR ENTRY-LEVEL POSITIONS

Understanding the educational needs and requirements of businesses are key to developing programs that serve both

students and businesses. In this section, businesses were asked to report on the relevant educational requirements to

their businesses for entry-level positions, requirements, and preferences for previous experience and the perceptions of

local city colleges in providing these educational programs.

Requirements for Entry-level Positions

Businesses were asked to think about which entry-level positions they hire for the most and report what the minimum

educational requirements were for that position. Nearly 50% reported middle-skills requirements: certiﬁcation or education

beyond a high school diploma (or GED), but less than a four-year (e.g., bachelor’s degree). The most commonly reported

educational level within this group was an associate degree. The distribution of responses is shown in Figure 1.

The lowest educational requirement (high school diploma or GED) was reported by 20% of responding businesses. A closer

look reveals that businesses in the entertainment or sales industries accounted for one-half of these responses. Speciﬁcally

within the sales industry, nearly 40% of these businesses reported this education level, while for the information technology

sector, only 2% of businesses reported this bottom level of education.

For the highest educational requirement (bachelor’s degree and advanced college degree), only 13% of responding

businesses reported this requirement as minimum. On the other hand, this highest educational requirement was largely

reported by businesses in the information technology sector with 40% of businesses in that sector, followed by over one-

half of businesses in the health sector.

Figure 3-1. Distribution of educational requirements for entry-level positions

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Additional detail was collected on why that level of education was the minimum requirement. Responses were collected

in free-form comments with only 44 of the 112 responding business survey participants providing substantive responses.

These were reviewed and grouped into thematic categories listed below.

• Required standard or company policy

• Company policy 4

• Standard for business industry 2

• Demonstration of skills, experience, or proﬁciency

• Ensures proﬁciency in communicating with others 8

• Shows potential for learning new skills 2

• Ensures basic skills in industry 14

• Certiﬁes knowledge of regulations that apply to industry 2

• [Personnel] have more experience 4

• Based on labor cost

• Ability to pay less at this education level 6

• Seeking highest qualiﬁed personnel

• Desire for most qualiﬁed 2

The thematic category relating to skills, experience, or proﬁciency was the most frequent reason given by businesses. This

was reported by two-thirds of businesses providing a substantive response as the reason for the minimum educational

requirement. Additionally, nearly one-half of responses in this thematic category were for middle-skills education levels

(above high school/GED, but less than bachelor’s degree).

When business responses were examined across industry sectors to identify any patterns, only one pattern emerged. The

thematic category relating to labor cost was completely clustered within the information technology business sector and

middle-skills education levels. We interpret this as a positive ﬁnding. Higher-level education was most frequently reported

by businesses in the information technology sector, however nearly half of respondents in this sector reported middle-

skills education levels met educational requirements. Middle-skills education may oer advantages to both businesses and

employees. For businesses in this sector, training or specialized skills training is necessary and middle-skills education

oers a labor pool that meets many of these needs at a cost lower than those with a four-year college degree (or higher).

For prospective employees, middle-skills education oers specialized training in an advanced and emerging ﬁeld without

the need to take on the commitment or ﬁnancial burden associated with a four-year college degree.

Educational Requirements across Entry-level Positions

Educational requirements may not be the same for all entry-level positions. To assess ﬁndings reported across entry-level

positions as representative of all entry-level positions, businesses were asked to determine what requirements diered. A

large majority (82%) of businesses reported that the minimum educational requirements were not dierent across entry-

level positions. However, of the few businesses reporting the requirements were dierent, slightly more than half (60%)

reported the educational requirements were higher.

The high number of businesses reporting that educational requirements did not dier between entry-level positions

suggests that our results appropriately represent the general requirements for entry-level positions.

However, a possible explanation for this observation is that many businesses may not consider positions that have higher

CATEGORY COUNT

Business Needs Survey Report

educational requirements to be “entry-level”, or these positions may have previous experience requirements. Next, we look

at the role of experience.

Entry-level Position Need and Preference for Previous Experience

Practical experience in a specialized ﬁeld may be valued by businesses as it demonstrates that a prospective employee

possesses key industry skills and may oer a reference point for their skill level and commitment. In fact, nearly two-thirds

(65%) of businesses reported that previous experience is a requirement for entry-level positions. This increased slightly to

68% when examining the data by our largest business sector represented – information technology. While a middle-skills

education provides skills and training required by local area businesses, previous experience is still highly valued.

To determine just how important previous experience is, businesses were asked what they preferred more: previous

experience, but no certiﬁcation/degree — or — certiﬁcation/an associate’s degree, but no experience. Just over half

(55%) of businesses preferred previous experience over educational training.

When we look across both ‘requirements for experience’ and a ‘preference for experience’, we expect to see a high proportion

preferring ‘previous experience’ when this is a requirement. However, we see that the preference for ‘previous experience’

remained high even among the small proportion where ‘previous experience’ was not an entry-level requirement.

Figure 2 shows preferences by whether ‘previous experience’ is a business requirement.

The role of practical work experience in specialized ﬁelds presents a dichotomy to both businesses and students seeking

entry into specialized ﬁelds. For businesses, prospective employees with previous experience may demand higher

compensation and entry-level positions may be undesirable. Our ﬁndings show a clear preference for candidates with

previous experience. For students, businesses may consider the lack of experience disqualifying, or oer positions to

those with less formal training, but previous experience. This makes it challenging for students new to the ﬁeld to gain the

practical experience necessary to enter into the desired ﬁeld. The challenge for PCC is in not only educating students in

new emerging ﬁelds, but also identifying opportunities for students to gain practical experience that will allow them

to enter their desired ﬁelds.

Figure 3-2. Preference between accredited training and previous experience

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Perceptions of Local City Colleges and Availability of Employee Educational Beneﬁts

Local area business perceptions of city college training or degree programs are important as they oer a general assessment

of how well these programs meet business needs. Overall, more than three-quarters (78%) of businesses reported that

the certiﬁcation, training, or degree programs oered by local city colleges provide the skills necessary for entry-level

positions. When we restrict the analysis to our largest business sector represented (information technology), business

perception rises to 86%.

In the ﬁrst section of this report, we oered the recommendation that PCC invest in outreach programs to those currently

employed, but lacking certiﬁcation or a degree. This was in response to the ﬁnding that most hiring that occurred in 2018

was not for entry-level positions. Employer programs that oer tuition beneﬁts or assistance to employees would help

this investment. More than half (55%) of businesses reported oering tuition reimbursement, or other employee education

programs. This was only slightly higher for businesses self-identifying as information technology at 62%.

Conclusion – Education and Skill Requirements

The ﬁndings for educational requirements for entry-level positions show that businesses ﬁnd value from middle-skills

education (more than high school/GED, but less than a four-year degree). This education level was a reported requirement

by half of businesses, with an associate degree as the most frequently reported requirement within this group. The value

of education and skill requirements related to an associate degree that businesses ﬁnd is two-fold. One, it provides a

demonstration that prospective employees possess the skills, experience, or proﬁciency key to the business industry.

Second, businesses (within information technology sector) are able to oer more competitive wages within this education

level. We concluded this was a beneﬁt to students as well since many may be unable or unwilling to commit the time

or take on the ﬁnancial burden associated with pursuing a four-year degree program. This allows an entryway into

emerging ﬁelds where students can gain experience and take advantage of tuition programs oered by just over a half

of local businesses.

Businesses showed a clear preference for previous experience, more so than accredited middle-skills education. This

presents a clear challenge for businesses, students, and PCC. Businesses report diculty in ﬁnding skilled labor (where

previous experience is preferred); students completing accredited programs are challenged to bring previous industry

experience; and local city colleges (i.e., PCC) are perceived as having strong programs with skills training applicable to

local businesses, but need to ﬁnd ways to help students gain practical experience.

We oer several recommendations based on the results that businesses value educational programs, but have a clear

preference for previous experience:

• Invest in promotional or outreach programs targeting businesses to increase perceptions for the value of

educational programs (i.e., demonstrate that accredited training by experts in an industry ﬁeld is an education

with practical experience)

• Invest in programs that work with businesses to oer technical experience or practical ﬁeld work as part of

a program’s curriculum that help students gain industry experience

Business Needs Survey Report

The previous sections reported a preference and practice by businesses in focusing on previous experience for entry-

level positions. Recommendations centered on investments in programs that provide practical experience to students in

middle-skills educational programs. In this section, we report on business participation and perception of job shadowing

and internship programs.

Current Participation in Job Shadowing or Internship Programs

Businesses were asked whether they currently oered or participated in any student-based job shadowing or internship

programs. These programs were deﬁned as follows:

• Job shadowing is a process where students observe an employee while they perform their work duties at their

place of employment to learn more about a particular job. Job shadowing may be limited in duration and is

generally not paid.

• An internship is a program where a student or trainee works or performs the duties of a particular job in order

to gain experience or training. Internships may be with or without pay.

Both job shadowing and internship programs were reported to be fairly common among responding businesses. As shown in

Figure 1, 63% of businesses reported oering job shadowing and 60% reported oering internships. Looking at businesses

that self-identify as information technology, this increases to 78% for both job shadowing and internships. Recall 45% of all

businesses self-identiﬁed in this sector, though this may be a result of participants considering the nature of the business

ﬁeld rather than an industry classiﬁcation. Because of this, we do not extend analysis to other business sectors with low

participant counts, but present overall ﬁndings for these businesses.

4. JOB SHADOWING AND INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Figure 4-1. Distribution of businesses reporting oering job shadowing or internships

Business Needs Survey Report

Very few businesses provided details on the school, agency, or organization they worked with for ﬁlling job shadowing or

internship opportunities. When detail was provided, it was frequently vague, such as “community college,” “colleges,” or

“universities”. This may be due to the survey respondent not being the primary coordinator of these activities or working

with multiple institutions.

For businesses that do not oer these opportunities, information was collected to determine why. Since a majority of

businesses reported oering job shadowing or internship opportunities, the data on why these programs are not oered

is sparse. The distribution of reasons selected are shown in Table 1.

Overall, Table 1 shows that the most frequent reasons endorsed by businesses are those associated with business beneﬁts

or cost. About 40% feel there would be no beneﬁt to the business of oering these programs. One reason for this is that

businesses do not need a labor source for entry-level positions. This is evidenced by about a quarter of these businesses

stating that current employment needs are met.

The perception that job shadowing would not beneﬁt students was endorsed by just under 10% of businesses; the same

perception was almost 20% for internships. This is an encouraging ﬁnding, since the large majority of businesses that

do not oer these programs feel that the programs would still beneﬁt students. It is clear that the best way to increase

business participation is to demonstrate how businesses would beneﬁt.

Perceived Business Beneﬁts from Job Shadowing/Internships

Understanding how businesses perceive beneﬁts associated and generally promoted with these programs is important for

the planning of outreach or promotional eorts to businesses. Business ratings of importance to generally stated beneﬁts

for job shadowing programs and internship programs are shown in Tables 2 and 3. For both programs the ratings did not

reveal any clear pattern in terms of importance.

Table 4-1. Distribution of reasons job shadowing or internships are not oered (more than one option could be selected)

Business Needs Survey Report

Table 4-3. Distribution of rated importance of beneﬁts to businesses associated with internships

Table 4-2. Distribution of rated importance of beneﬁts to businesses associated with job shadowing

For job shadowing programs, about half of businesses generally felt all stated beneﬁts were important. Beneﬁts that

directly aect the business or provided a level of control to businesses were rated slightly higher than those focused on

students, employees, or abstract beneﬁts (such as improving the image of the business). At the other end of the scale,

only one factor was notably rated as unimportant by businesses. This was the beneﬁt of a student’s learning more about

a business’ culture – 24% of businesses rated this as unimportant.

Business Needs Survey Report

Similar results were observed for internship programs. Almost half of businesses felt all stated beneﬁts were important.

Direct beneﬁts to businesses, such as improving employee retention and assessing candidates without a formal commitment,

were rated the highest. Few businesses selected ratings of unimportant. Of note however is the low percentage for the

beneﬁt of assessing new candidates without making a formal hiring commitment, with just under 10% of businesses

indicating this is an unimportant beneﬁt. The low proportion suggests that this beneﬁt may provide the most value for

internship programs to businesses.

Agreement with Reasons for Businesses to Not Oer Internships

As with perceived beneﬁts, an assessment of general reasons businesses may not oer job shadow or internship programs

can help to identify and develop programs for addressing these concerns. Businesses rated agreement of common reasons

why job shadowing or internship programs may not be oered; these are shown in Tables 4 and 5.

For both programs, there are no strong patterns for rated agreement, but there are a few highlights worthy of additional

discussion. There are also some inconsistencies which suggest that caution should be used interpreting these results.

Businesses were asked to rate how much they agree or disagree with common reasons that businesses may not oer these

programs. Therefore these are not reasons representative of participating businesses, but common business perceptions

for why these programs may not be oered by businesses in general.

For job shadowing programs, about one-third of businesses agreed with all statements for why job shadowing may not be

oered. Another common theme emerges where statements directly aecting businesses received the highest agreement.

The statement, ‘job shadowing would be too burdensome to manage or monitor’ elicited agreement from just over 40%

of businesses.

Table 4-4. Distribution of rated agreement with reasons businesses may not oer job shadowing

Business Needs Survey Report

An inconsistent observation is the 35% of businesses agreeing that job shadowing may not be oered because jobs at this

company are too dangerous. Given the fact that almost one-half of participating businesses self-identiﬁed as information

technology, this seems high. We posit that this is likely the result that some businesses were not focusing on “this company”,

but whether this was a relevant reason job shadowing would not be oered. This statement also shows the highest proportion

of businesses disagreeing with this – a more consistent result.

Table 4-5. Distribution of rated agreement with reasons businesses may not oer internships

Business Needs Survey Report

For internship programs, levels of agreement were similar across all statements, with generally 40% of businesses

providing ratings of agreement. While the dierences are smaller, statements that directly aect businesses were again,

albeit slightly, agreed on more. These included the statements that interns require more eort to manage and that interns

would require too much training.

As with job shadowing, the statement that jobs would be too dangerous for interns had an unexpectedly high level of

agreement, although lower than all other statements. Again, we feel this is due to inconsistent understanding of the

reference for this statement (this company vs. more generally). This statement does show a much higher proportion of

businesses in disagreement, which is a more consistent expectation.

Business Interest in Collaboration

A primary objective for surveying local area businesses is to determine the level of willingness for collaborating with

local city colleges, oering PCC as an example. The context of this collaboration is job shadowing or internship programs.

Overall, about two-thirds of business respondents felt their company would have an interest in collaborating in both job

shadowing (69%) or internship (64%) programs. Restricting these results solely to business respondents self-identifying

in the information technology sector, these rates increase to 88% for job shadowing and 80% for internship programs.

Contrasting this level of willingness with earlier observations (that only about half of businesses oered strong endorsement

of perceived beneﬁts and about one-third agree with reasons for not oering these programs), yields two conclusions.

•

While many businesses did not strongly endorse program beneﬁts, the high level of willingness to collaborate

suggests businesses ﬁnd value here that may not have been captured by our statements.

•

There is signiﬁcant opportunity for PCC, suggesting outreach eorts would be positively received and valued

by businesses.

The employee positions for managing job shadowing or internship programs at businesses were collected, however, not

all businesses provided a substantive response. The most frequent positions stated were senior positions, such as Vice

President, Director, or manager positons, with “Manager” frequently provided. Positions within human resources were also

frequently reported. For small businesses, owner or CEO positions were commonly oered. The distribution of reported

positions is provided in Figure 2.

Business Needs Survey Report

Table 4-6. Distribution of rated importance of factors important to businesses for collaborating in job shadowing programs

Figure 4-2. Distribution of job position types for managing job shadowing or internship programs

Finally, businesses were asked to rate the importance of common factors key to implementing collaborative job shadowing

programs. This was collected for only job shadowing and not internship programs. Table 6 provides the results of participating

business ratings.

Business Needs Survey Report

All factors were rated important by nearly one-half of businesses, though two factors received the highest ratings. Unlike

ratings for program beneﬁts (where speciﬁc direct beneﬁts were most important), the most important factors in job

shadowing were the relevance of the educational program and student interest in the business industry. These results

suggest that businesses are unwilling to invest time with students who know little about an industry or associated

jobs. Rather, businesses are interested in students who have demonstrated interest in the industry and are already

progressing through education for related positions.

Conclusions – Job Shadowing and Internship Opportunities

A large amount of detail on company perceptions of job shadowing and internships was collected. However, the conclusions

drawn from the information collected are clear and brief. Job shadowing and internship programs can oer many beneﬁts

to students, but for businesses, these beneﬁts need to have value and beneﬁt explained. These results show that these

programs are currently in use by businesses, with approximately 60% of businesses reporting as such. When these programs

were not oered, it was generally because the business did not see a clear beneﬁt of oering them.

The importance of beneﬁts that are clear and that directly aect a business were commonly noted. Beneﬁts directed toward

businesses were generally rated as more important for these programs. Additionally, reasons that negatively aected

businesses (e.g. additional cost from management or training program participants) resulted in somewhat higher ratings

of agreement.

Businesses reported a high level of willingness to collaborate with local city colleges. However, participating students

must be high-quality, come from an education program relevant to the business, and demonstrate a strong interest in the

industry or ﬁeld.

These results oer several recommendations for PCC while considering implementing or expanding job shadow and

internship programs.

•

Since companies have a high level of willingness to collaborate with local city colleges, successful programs

from PCC must focus on the beneﬁts to businesses to get buy-in.

•

Promoting program beneﬁts to companies must be combined with continuous monitoring of business satisfaction

with these programs. This will help PCC identify and address business concerns early, increase the salience

of beneﬁts and perceived satisfaction of businesses, and show that business beneﬁts are important to PCC.

• Student quality and interest in business industries are important factors to businesses which translates

to the overarching messages to promote and head the current priority for PCC. However, messages would

have greater salience and meaning if backed by empirical results. PCC should increase student follow-up

eorts after certiﬁcate or degree program completion, to provide more concrete data on how PCC educational

programs contribute to local area industries.

Business Needs Survey Report

Figure 5-1. Distribution of reported familiarity degree with PCC

Awareness of the partnerships and perceptions of PCC are important for determining how familiar business are with PCC

as an educational institution and how PCC is recognized as a potential business resource. This section reports on how

businesses or key decision makers at participating businesses reported familiarity with PCC as well as their view of PCC

as an educational institution. Additionally, information was collected on current collaborative activities. Businesses that

are currently engaged with other training or professional development programs are expected to have the management

infrastructure in place for working with external institutions.

Collaboration Separate from Job Shadowing or Internship

Businesses were ﬁrst asked whether they are currently active in collaborative activities with colleges or training/skill

development centers that are separate from job shadowing or internships. Over half of businesses (53%) reported these

type of collaborative activities. This suggests that many businesses would be prepared and able to coordinate with other

programs such as job shadowing or internships.

Businesses were requested to provide detail, such as the organization or agency name that the business uses for training

or professional development. As occurred with previous free-form responses, very few substantive responses were

provided (less than half of those reporting provided any text). A review indicated that many business respondents may have

had diculty separating programs or excluding job shadowing or internships. Many responses were identical to results

reported for job shadowing and internships and were generally not descriptive (e.g., “colleges”). Alternatively, rather the

incidence of respondent diculty, these results may indicate there is a high degree of overlap with programs and that the

same organizations or agencies oer a variety of program opportunities.

Familiarity with PCC

Businesses were roughly split in their familiarity (i.e. knowledge/awareness) with PCC. About 54% of businesses reported

any familiarity, while 46% reported they were not familiar with PCC. Participants were able to indicate the level of familiarity

or unfamiliarity with PCC on a six-point scale. More businesses reported high levels of knowledge of PCC compared to

those with the least knowledge. 34% of business participants reported the highest level, compared to 26% for the lowest.

5. PARTNERSHIPS AND PERCEPTION OF PCC

Business Needs Survey Report

Of the sixty business participants reporting any familiarity with PCC, most reported a positive view of PCC as an educational

institution. In total, about three-quarters (73%) rated PCC as very good or excellent, while 15% oered a rating of good, and

8% a fair or ‘poor’ rating. There were very few fair or poor ratings and a review within self-reported business industry did

not show these ratings to cluster within any reported industry. Results indicate that fair or poor ratings are not associated

with any speciﬁc industry education program.

Interest in Collaborating with PCC

Businesses were asked directly about how interested they felt their business would be in collaborating with PCC. The

context for this was student focused, where in previous sections we noted that willingness to engage in job shadowing or

internship programs was directly associated with business beneﬁts. A large majority of business participants reported

some level of potential interest. A total of 82% reported some interest, while 70% reported higher levels of interest.

Only 18% of business participants reported their business would not be interested at all. As with ratings of PCC, ratings of

no interest were not clustered within any industry sector. However, within business size, ratings of no interest were much

more frequent with the smallest sized businesses (those with less than 10 employees). One-third of these businesses gave

a rating of not interested and accounted for 60% of these ratings.

Programs Beneﬁting Businesses

Regardless of stated level of interest in collaborating with PCC, all business participants were asked what programs they

felt their business would beneﬁt from. Although collaborative interest is not directly related to program beneﬁts, it may

be inﬂuenced by other factors not measured. Table 1 shows what percent of businesses reported various programs as a

beneﬁt to their business.

Overall, each listed program was listed as beneﬁcial by nearly 50% of participating businesses. Businesses could select

more than one program and all but three businesses selected at least one of the listed programs. The data was reviewed

by self-reported industry and by willingness rating to collaborate with PCC. Businesses self-identifying in the information

technology sector reported internship (52%) and job shadowing programs (56%) more than job fairs (46%) or employee

programs (46%). Business with the highest level of interest in collaborating with PCC rated job fairs the lowest (42%)

compared to other programs (internship: 61%, job shadowing: 61%, and current employee programs: 58%).

Table 5-1. Distribution of programs that would beneﬁt participating businesses

Business Needs Survey Report

There were various dierent patterns by company size and again, the smallest companies had the least interest in

collaborating with student programs. Smallest businesses more frequently rated current employee training programs as

a beneﬁt with very few selecting job shadowing. Job shadowing may be too burdensome for businesses of this size, while

employee training programs may oer a direct beneﬁt to the business. Alternatively, job shadowing was most selected

as a beneﬁt by medium and large businesses. Large businesses tended to identify more programs as a business beneﬁt.

This may reﬂect that large businesses are able to manage more programs due to their size and management structure.

Conclusion – Partnerships and Perception of PCC

Overall, PCC enjoys a highly positive view by local area businesses. However, nearly half of local area businesses lack

knowledge or familiarity with PCC. This presents both a challenge and opportunity for PCC.

Given the high positive views,

there is an opportunity to increase business resources for students by increasing business awareness. The challenge for

PCC will be in identifying approaches for connecting with businesses that are meaningful and encourage recognition of

PCC as a middle-skills educational leader.

Generally, businesses were overwhelmingly interested in collaborating with PCC. This was only not the case for the smallest

sized businesses (those with fewer than 10 employees). This is not unexpected since due to the company size, there may

be little need or availability for resources to manage any collaborative activities. This means that engagement activities

should focus on small (10 to 50 employees) and larger businesses, since they are likely to have greater ability to beneﬁt

from collaborative programs. Regarding programs of interest to businesses (in addition to job shadowing and internships),

PCC should invest in programs for those currently employed. This was the highest rated program type for the smallest

sized businesses and received a high level of interest from large businesses as well. This is an important observation

as it suggests that many employers may be hiring people that require additional training or do not possess all the skills

necessary for the industry. Businesses may ﬁnd value in related programs since they increase the skill of their employees

and do not require hiring and training new sta.

The observations on perceptions of PCC and willingness to engage in collaborative student job training activities oer a

few recommendations.

• To increase acceptance and participation in collaborative programs, PCC will need to extend outreach and

promotion so that more businesses recognize PCC. Outreach should be business-focused and, for example,

highlight student achievement in dierent industries or communicate how many PCC graduates work for

local area businesses.

• Job fairs were the least reported beneﬁt and tend to place a focus or expectation on businesses to

interview or potentially hire sta they may not have a current need for. Another approach to getting

businesses involved that shifts the focus from businesses, would be a business open-house during the

educational term. Invite business leaders to tour and visit a PCC showcase where students can explain

achievements and/or training skills.

• PCC should think innovatively about job shadowing and internship programs. These programs have clear

beneﬁts to students, but the beneﬁts need to be clear and direct to businesses as well. Businesses have a

higher preference for programs that beneﬁt current employees. An innovative approach to combining these

needs is a hybrid mentor program where students (not currently employed in industry) shadow a fellow

student (currently employed), where both are participating in the same training or educational program.

Such

an approach may do more to engage both new student interest in the industry and engage program participants

who are currently employed to participate and complete the educational or training program.

Business Needs Survey Report

The commission of this study was a ﬁrst step implemented by PCC in addressing the data-driven needs of California’s

Strong Workforce Program. The ﬁndings from this report oer a high-level overview from businesses in the local Pasadena

and greater San Gabriel Valley. `The representation of industry sectors comes largely from self-reports of information

technology, however this is not a traditional industry classiﬁcation and was a classiﬁcation based on emerging workforce

areas. We infer that business respondents may have instead reported based on their work environment or job position.

Within the state of California, technology jobs that are outside of what is considered the tech sector nearly equal those

within the tech sector. While this report cannot make conclusions at an industry sector level, we believe that these ﬁndings

present an accurate high-level overview of businesses of interest to PCC in the local area.

Throughout this report we have provided conclusions and general recommendations for PCC. This section summarizes

these conclusions and brings together recommendations for next steps.

Participating businesses had an overwhelmingly positive attitude about the future for business growth. This was reﬂected in

business projections of future hiring trends with a majority of businesses reporting expectations that hiring would increase.

The future outlook may reﬂect current trends. More than half of businesses reported consistent hiring for the ﬁrst three

quarters of 2018 with hiring needs generally driven by growth. Much of the current and projected hiring by businesses

is not focused on entry-level positions. Given the expectations for strong hiring, many businesses reported that ﬁnding

qualiﬁed applicants was challenging. However, labor wages were generally not an important factor aecting growth. This

may indicate the potential for wage increases as businesses compete for qualiﬁed labor.

Businesses value middle-skills education (more than high school/GED, but less than a four-year degree) and feel that

programs oered by local city colleges provide the training and skills necessary for entry-level positions. The value derived

by businesses demonstrates that prospective employees completing these programs possess basic communication skills

and commitment, as well as advanced skills or proﬁciencies key for the industry. The value extends to students as an

entryway into emerging ﬁelds without the burden associated with four-year degree programs. While education is valued,

businesses have a clear opinion for minimum experience.

Job shadowing and internship programs oer many beneﬁts to businesses and would help provide students with experience

preferred by businesses. Many businesses reported activities with these types of programs. However, when a business did

not engage in or oer programs, it was generally due to a lack of a clear beneﬁt to the business.

For these types of programs to be accepted by businesses, they must present a clear and direct beneﬁt and any cost or

additional management needs must be minimized. Businesses expressed a general willingness to work with local city

colleges in these programs, but have expectations that these programs be high-quality, connect with an education program

relevant to the industry, and include students with a strong interest in the industry or ﬁeld.

As an educational institution, PCC is held in high regard by local area businesses. This high view is tempered by the fact

that many businesses lack familiarity with PCC. Interest in engaging in collaborative programs, such as job shadowing

or internships, with PCC was overwhelmingly high, but not for the smallest businesses (those employing less than 10

employees). While businesses are interested in job shadowing and internship type programs, businesses have a high

interest in programs that will beneﬁt and train current employees. This suggests that the current diculty of identifying

skilled labor may have led to hires who lacked some skills or training.

6. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Business Needs Survey Report

Key points:

• Businesses have strong expectations for growth, driving hiring needs.

• Finding skilled labor is a key barrier to business growth.

• Entry-level positions are not a primary labor need for businesses.

• There are opportunities for wage growth for skilled applicants as businesses compete for labor.

•

Middle-skills education programs, like those oered by PCC, are common requirements for entry-level positions.

• Middle-skills education is valued by businesses, but there is a strong preference for prior experience.

• Job shadowing or internship programs must oer clear and direct beneﬁts to businesses.

• Job shadowing or internship programs must minimize cost or additional management resource requirements.

• For job shadowing or internship programs to be accepted, the education program must demonstrate relevance

to the industry and students must show interest in the industry.

• Businesses have a high regard for PCC, but many businesses lack knowledge of or what PCC can oer.

• Interest in collaborative programs is high, though businesses have a high interest in programs for current

employees.

Recommendations for PCC:

•

Think beyond entry-level – in tight labor markets, those with certiﬁcation or accreditation will be able to compete

for mid-level or higher positions.

•

Develop outreach programs targeting businesses to highlight and increase the perceived value of education over

experience. Business-focused programs are student-focused programs. This outreach will show students PCC

is tuned into the needs of businesses and increase business familiarity with the institution.

• Create non-committal opportunities for businesses to view student achievements. Events like job fairs are

generally student-focused and place expectations on businesses to interview students. A program where burden

is placed on students to demonstrate course work and business visitors have freedom to tour dierent subject

areas should be explored. This will show businesses that students are gaining practical skills and experiences

and that PCC is a leader in providing training for emerging industries. Likewise, this will show students that PCC

is connected to and involved with key industry opportunities.

•

Invest in and develop programs to provide students with practical experience such as job shadowing or internship

programs.

• While businesses reported a high level of willingness to engage in these programs, successful programs must

focus on presenting tangible and clear beneﬁts to businesses.

• Not all students will be good candidates for job shadowing or internships. While businesses will reap many

tangible and intangible beneﬁts, these programs will incur a cost or the use of management resources. PCC

must ensure student commitment and interest so businesses have positive experiences with these programs.

• Increase outreach and programs to those currently employed or those lacking certiﬁcation/accredited training

to transition to more technical positions.

•

Innovate – businesses have an interest in programs geared toward students, but may prefer programs that focus

on current employees. Investigate the potential of hybrid programs that pair employed students with students

lacking experience or who are new to the ﬁeld. This may increase engagement and satisfaction of both student

groups and businesses.