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One year ago, the Maine Employers’ Initiative (MEI) began a campaign asking employers to take one more step in educating their workforce. Today close to 100 Maine employers have done just that.

“We’ve hit a hundred in about a year, and it goes to show you in these tough times that employers see the value of training and education and are willing to do that,” said Patricia Hart, Senior Program Director for the Maine Development Foundation. “We’ve had great success in working with employers. We’ve met with over 200 employers and have been able to work with 95 to take specific extra steps to support their employees.”

This past spring, MEI conducted a survey of those employers who partook in the program and those who only completed a needs assessment. Of the 170 invited, 57 employers responded. “We were able to conduct formal evaluations with employers this spring, and the employers think that what they’ve done is worthwhile and that employees are going back to school,” said Hart. “We’re finding that employers are mostly taking low cost or no cost steps, so it’s not a financial outlay for them. What they’re doing is highlighting and reminding employees about their existing education benefits and working with them to encourage them to go back to school. So it’s coaching and mentoring and just raising awareness of the value of education, and that’s effective.”

According to the survey, 67 percent of respondents report that employees have enrolled in education or training as a result of their extra step. Employers estimate that 271 employees have enrolled in education or training as a result of MEI (a 25 percent increase in the number of workers studying for a degree or certificate as a result).

Overall, employers felt there has been some effect on their workforce due to MEI. Nearly one quarter (23 percent) of respondents rate their extra step with MEI as “very effective,” and 67 percent rate it "somewhat effective;” 10 percent rate it “not too effective.” No respondents rated their extra step as “not at all effective.” “I’m very impressed with how much education employers do on their own,” said Hart. “I think it’s the untold story that employers are providing their own education, they need to educate their own employees and give them training.”

The outside resources employers rate most important to their ability to support employees pursuing higher education and advanced training were:

• Funds for tuition reimbursement;
• Funds to support developing a formal program;
• Availability of customized education training; and
• Opportunities for employees to receive college credit for experience.

“We’ve been able to work with folks who set up the Lifelong Learning Accounts for the employee. These accounts allow employees to save for education through payroll deduction and include an employer matching contribution,” said Hart. “Employers are offering their employees different kinds of options to support education.”

The top reasons why some employers did not commit to take “one more step” with MEI were:

• Not enough manpower to implement “one more step;”
• Bad timing for my organization; and
• Top management is focused on other priorities.

“I think time is an issue for either the HR professionals we’re working with or the officers that we’re dealing with,” said Hart. “They just don’t have time to take a meaningful step. People are taking this seriously and they really want to make a difference. The ones that are really committed to it are changing a policy or changing a practice, and that takes some time.”

Moving Forward and HR Volunteer Opportunities

MEI is working with the university system to put together a grant and change the program a little to bring in more university resources. “What we’d like to focus on is connecting the employers to the university system’s prior learning credit offerings, to include either prior learning assessments or ways of certifying training for college credit. What we’ve found over the last year is that employers are offering
an incredible amount of training to their employees. They still need to provide training to keep their employees’ skills where they want them to be. We’d like to build capacity with employers so that employees going through their employer training would automatically be eligible for college credit once they complete a course.”

About one out of every two responding employers (48 percent) reported in the survey that less than 40 percent of their workforce holds a Bachelor’s degree. The survey also states that 42 percent report that less than 20 percent of their workforce holds no more than a high school diploma; another 22 percent estimate that 20-40 percent of their workers hold a high school degree or less. The survey also provided verbatim answers for why employers committed to MEI, including:

• “Consistent and complimentary to our existing education assistance programs, and with our perception that further education enhances employee productivity and flexibility.”
• “Demographics in industry demand more education.”
• “Keep young people in Maine to help stop the Brain Drain!”
• “The education that our employees receive is not only going to help them professionally and personally but also is a huge benefit to our company as well.”

“We’d also like to set up more regional groups so employers are more connected to resources in their area rather than having us in Augusta going out statewide,” said Hart. “We’d like to concentrate efforts.”

The regional groups would link employers to resources using existing programs. “We would love to have HR professionals involved in these regional groups because those are the people who understand the link between education and a well-run, well-functioning organization.” said Hart. Those interested in volunteering with MEI can contact Patricia Hart at pathart@mdf.org.