Post-Meeting Memo: BHEF Member Meeting (Summer 2014)

At this year's summer meeting, we marked three noteworthy successes in BHEF’s National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative (HEWI) expansion strategy:

• BHEF and the Business Roundtable (BRT) joined forces to launch the Financial Services Industry Project, and will host a CEO convening in New York City on September 3rd.
• BHEF received a grant of nearly $1M from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to support expansion of its cybersecurity efforts throughout the Washington Metropolitan area and Tidewater region of Virginia.
• BHEF member Parsons and the Greater Washington Board of Trade announced their support of an undergraduate cyber leadership program and summer internships with companies in the Washington metropolitan area.

Just over two weeks ago, members and special guests discussed HEWI’s rapid expansion of existing programs as well as expansion into new geographic areas. Sessions spotlighted HEWI’s advancement in the fields of data science and analytics; risk management; social and mobile technologies; and cybersecurity. Through BHEF business and academic members’ regional partnerships, new undergraduate programs are preparing students with the necessary skills to meet demands in key industry sectors. Members and guests had robust discussions that affirmed how BHEF’s model of strategic engagement can meet the goals of students, higher education institutions, and businesses.

Data science skills are needed across industry sectors. However, it is critical students understand the industry and the context of how to apply those skills. Opportunities exist to expand the talent pool through the selection of candidates interested in a wide array of academic disciplines for careers in these emerging fields. Other key takeaways include:

• For most businesses, data is the capital of the 21st century. Using this capital is imperative to innovation.
• Increasing workforce diversity remains a challenge. A greater effort must be made to attract a workforce that represents America’s demographics.
• Business and higher education can work together efficiently to develop or strengthen undergraduate programs that integrate data science and analytics, risk management, cybersecurity, and social and mobile technologies. 

On Thursday, BHEF Vice Chair Roger Ferguson moderated our opening program, Diversifying the Talent Ecosystem in the Financial Services Industry which showcased HEWI’s next strategic priority—the financial services industry. John Engler, president of BRT and former Governor of Michigan, announced that BRT and BHEF have joined forces to create undergraduate pathways to high-demand, high-skilled careers in the sector. The efforts will focus on four critical fields: cybersecurity, data analytics, risk management and analytics, and social and mobile technologies. Participants discussed how the complex regulatory environments, new technologies, and consumer demands have led to not only a need for greater skills and gender, but also racial and ethnic diversity in the financial services industry.

Friday’s sessions focused on data science and cybersecurity. BHEF Chair Barbara R. Snyder moderated a keynote discussion which highlighted (i) the value of aggregating and analyzing consumer data to both organizations and consumers, and the impact of such practices on health care costs, patient care, and treatment protocols; (ii) patient record privacy; and (iii) the impact of data science on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The data science conversation continued in a session with academic institutions and industry partners:

• The Ohio State University (OSU) and IBM highlighted the new data science undergraduate major at OSU and the efforts to infuse data science throughout the undergraduate experience by adding 60 new faculty members who will introduce the discipline in a wide variety of fields. This responds to IBM’s need for a data science-enabled workforce from a variety of academic backgrounds.
• Bellarmine University and Humana focused on how liberal arts colleges are well-positioned to offer data science, as their core curriculum develops skills such as critical thinking, logic, and rhetoric. Humana supported this point, emphasizing the need for enabled professionals to bring the data science view to numerous fields in a variety of industries. 

In a rapidly changing field like data science, curriculum must be refreshed in close collaboration with business partners. All concurred that a workforce that combines skills in data science and subject matter expertise adds value to an organization.

After, the conversation turned to HEWI’s cyber expansion strategy, which is comprised of five elements: (i) strengthen existing programs with a focus on diversity; (ii) deepen existing networks; (iii) expand networks to broader regions; (iv) replicate the strategic engagement model in new locations; and (v) strengthen the national network.

Common threads bind BHEF projects: strategic partnerships with business, hands-on experiences for students, and BHEF’s process to scale through national networks. Together, ONR, Parsons Corporation, and the Greater Washington Board of Trade committed to continue these practices in their announcement to apply the learnings from BHEF’s success in Maryland and broaden its cybersecurity work throughout the Metropolitan Washington area and to Virginia’s Tidewater Region.

The expansion includes Massachusetts, where workforce cybersecurity needs cut across multiple industry sectors—financial services, retail, and aerospace and defense. BHEF’s partners in this effort are the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership and the University of Massachusetts System. BHEF completed a needs assessment for the Commonwealth earlier this year; next, it will establish a taskforce on the System’s response, and launch a regional network anchored by unique programs across different campuses.