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Across disciplines and programs at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, we are implementing new workforce-related initiatives to keep current with the rapid pace of workforce needs and changes.

For example, this fall our College of Business and Economics is launching a new degree pathway, certificate program, courses, and concentrations that teach the technical skills needed for the use of artificial intelligence in business, governance, and science fields. AI is no longer an emerging technology, it’s how work gets done across almost every field.

Another example is the College of Arts and Sciences, where a faculty working group last academic year produced new career readiness materials. Clear definitions are now honed with career readiness meaning students develop the skills, experiences, and mindsets that enable them to adapt and grow in different work environments.

Holistically, this means courses, campus and community relationships, and personal and professional growth position students for long-term success in an unpredictable and dynamic future.

In Hawaiʻi, that success also means honoring our local and global communities, practicing cultural respect, and contributing to the well-being of Hawaiʻi and the wider world.

The core focus is on developing five primary skills in every student, often called “soft skills” or “durable skills” that include analytical and critical thinking; teamwork; ethics and professionalism; digital literacy; social, cultural, civic and global responsibility; and oral and written communication.

The college’s dean, Michael Bitter, notes that all college faculty have been asked to incorporate as much of the material as possible into their syllabi and class materials starting this fall. The focus is on our students developing these “competencies” not only for their major but also so that they can be successful in a variety of careers. These are the things that employers tell us they are looking for in our graduates, and, in fact, we’ve already been doing most of this work as part of our normal teaching.

What’s new is that we just haven’t always been describing our assignments and course work in terms of “career readiness.” This new focus is intended to change that by providing our faculty and students with a career readiness vocabulary that makes the value of the competencies more evident and intentional.

In addition to these types of changes, we are also reviewing all of our certificate programs across campus to ensure they are targeted toward preparing students for the careers of the future.

On this topic of career readiness, I’d also like to share that UH Hilo’s workforce-related initiatives are not limited to campus, there is also a strong community outreach component.

For example, Associate Professor of Communication Colby Miyose developed the Hawaiʻi Island Chamber of Commerce’s first-ever Student Speed Networking event that has become a bi-annual gathering, connecting students directly with local business leaders.

This chamber initiative, supported by the Office of the Chancellor, leads to internships and job offers for students, and we are currently in partnership with the HICC Young Professionals group to host the next speed networking event.

As we shift and strengthen our workforce development initiatives, we look to our past and current strengths while simultaneously staying not just current, but one step ahead of a rapidly changing workforce.

I mua,

Bonnie D. Irwin
Chancellor, UH Hilo
President-Elect, Hawaiʻi Island Chamber of Commerce

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As an anchor institution of the Hawaiʻi Island community, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is first and foremost a trainer of the workforce. The term “anchor institution” was coined 25 years ago by the Aspen Institute, a global convener of changemakers seeking to build a better world. The term is now widely accepted and used within the United States to understand and describe the role of place-based institutions, particularly institutions of higher education, as a driving force behind the development of successful communities, and in our case, Hawaiʻi Island as a whole.

We take seriously our kuleana as an anchor institution, and in fulfilling our part – in partnership with many private and public organizations and agencies – in developing academic and community-based programs geared toward building a diversified economy, a well-trained workforce, and vibrant island communities.

On May 6 I attended a workforce summit headed by the county’s Project Pilina, convened by Mayor Kimo Alameda with the goal to unite economic and workforce development across the board. I spoke to the group about how the current pace of change in the workforce is mind boggling, and it’s not just here in Hawaiʻi – it’s a global shift in workforce development.

This was brought home starkly during the recent presentations by UH Mānoa chancellor candidates. One candidate, who currently serves as a university president in Taiwan, cited some research that should give us pause: 50 years ago, a college education provided most of the skills and knowledge to see a person through their entire career. Now the knowledge of new student graduates will become outdated within three years!

So, while UH Hilo currently provides skilled labor for eight of the 10 sectors identified in the County of Hawaiʻi Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, all of these sectors will be changing and evolving in the lifetime of our current students, and we owe it to them to prepare them as best we can.

One way for us to achieve this is through understanding that a university education now must also include the soft skills, but in this context, I prefer the new term of durable skills. These are the skills that should transcend the rapidly changing world of work: problem-solving, communication (both oral and written), ability to work in teams, and perhaps most importantly, the ability and willingness to learn new things. Because we are a university, a lot of this learning happens in class, but it is also important to recognize all the out-of-class learning where knowledge is applied and durable skills honed.

Programs addressing this at UH Hilo are our Bonner Program, a privately funded program that coordinates paid positions for students in local organizations; our Study Abroad program that provides international education for our students, assuring they can be successful future leaders in an increasingly global society; collaborative research projects that include students, giving them a hands-on boost into scientifically-based inquiry whether they decide to further their education or enter the workforce after graduation; and community-based internships that develop real-life skills and give our students the jump at networking into our local workforce.

When I ask in the community about economic development, a lot of people pin their hopes on the university, and that is a kuleana I take very seriously. Universities are generators of knowledge and research, and of the people who can provide those life-affirming necessities of benefit to local communities. We use the term anchor institution, not because we weigh the community down but because we provide stability through our work.

But stability in and of itself does not take us into the future. We need a stable core to build upon (and that has been a lot of my focus), but we also need to reach outside our comfort zone. We need to look to our past and current strengths but also dream about our shared future.

UH Hilo stands ready to work with all our stakeholders to co-create that future.

I mua!

Bonnie D. Irwin
Chancellor

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