SUKANTA NAG | ADDA COFFEE & TEA HOUSE OWNER AND ONETEN CHIEF INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Are there family-sustaining jobs in technology, sales, manufacturing, health care and other professions that can be successfully filled by workers without four-year degrees?
Yes, according to OneTen, a relatively new national coalition that aims to hire, promote and advance 1 million Black workers without four-year degrees over the next 10 years hence the name, for 1 Million in Ten Years by urging companies to focus on skills and competencies rather than just academic credentials.
This coalition of employers, talent developers, education partners and community organizations says the focus should be on creating pathways for Black talent to enter family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement.
Pittsburghs Sukanta Nag, an entrepreneur and owner of Adda Coffee & Tea House and other local businesses, recently was tapped to be the coalitions chief information and technology officer. He says Pittsburgh, with its wide range of industries, is an ideal city for OneTen.
We got a lot of strong support from local leaders, including the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, Vibrant Pittsburgh, The Andy Warhol Museum and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, he said about an October presentation Downtown about OneTen.
MAURICE JONES | CEO ONETEN
The coalition came out of 2020, says OneTen CEO Maurice Jones, who is based in Norfolk, Virginia. You had a pandemic with disproportionate impacts on communities of color. You had a recession that had the same disproportionately adverse impact on the same populations.
Those events, combined with the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others, spurred business leaders into action, he says. The business community knew it had good, quality jobs, but those jobs werent equally accessible. And, in their inaccessibility, they were contributing to the countrys racial wealth gap.
If you look at jobs that pay $60,000 and above, on paper, 79% of them require a four-year degree, says Jones, the former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. If you look at jobs that pay $40,000, on paper, 71% of them require a four-year degree. Then, if you look at the labor force, what you find is among Black talent ages 25 and above, 76% of us do not yet have a four-year degree.
That is a systemic barrier to earning your way into the middle class, he adds. So they picked that problem. They said, We can solve that.
According to the Census Bureaus 2019 American Community Survey, 53.6% of white Pittsburghers have a bachelors degree or higher, whereas only 18.5% of Black residents hold the same.
Sabrina Saunders Mosby, CEO of Vibrant Pittsburgh, says theres already a significant base of employers here, from the financial industry to the health systems to the new tech startups that are gravitating to the region.
SABRINA SAUNDERS MOSBY | VIBRANT PITTSBURGH CEO
Our country is becoming more diverse from a racial and ethnic perspective, she says. The talents of today and tomorrow will be more diverse, and so, if you cannot as an employer, as a region attract and retain diverse talent, then youre going to consistently be understaffed and have an inability to be productive in your industry.
As with other cities in the country, Mosby says, Weve seen significant disparities among communities of color that span back decades that are directly [tied to] systemic inequities and racism that we are still trying to rectify today.
OneTens mission, she says, creates an opportunity for our regions businesses who have already made a commitment to diversify in the workforce a goalpost that they can strive for.
The effort is also directly in line with [Vibrant Pittsburghs] mission and my professional goals as CEO to make Pittsburgh a destination of choice, she says.
According to Mosby, being a destination of choice doesnt just involve bringing new talent into the city; it is also about lifelong residents being able to say, I am not bound to the region because of lack of opportunity. I choose to stay here because of the opportunity.
Within the creative community, Nag says The Andy Warhol Museum on the North Shore is launching a workforce development program centered on the creative economy. He says, If you look at some of the emerging marketing techniques that people are using through Instagram, TikTok amazing talent [and] a lot of them never go to college if theyre working independently. But if you look for the same kind of job in a corporation, theyre looking for 10 years experience and college degrees.
While the coalition has already begun partnering with large, national employers such as Bank of America and IBM to urge them to reduce the number of jobs requiring four-year degrees, Nag says it will eventually expand to include mid-sized companies and small businesses.
Nags team is responsible for what he calls the technology ecosystem of the coalition, specifically the online career marketplace the beta version of which launched in July 2021 where employers, talent and training programs will be able to match with each other.
Making the magic happen, says Nag, a native of Bangladesh who came to the region to attend Slippery Rock University 26 years ago and stayed here.
Businesses that want to get involved must commit to four things, Jones says: providing jobs right now that dont have a four-year degree; removing the degree requirement where its unneeded; learning from other business best practices for recruiting, retaining and advancing Black talent without four-year degrees; and staying with the coalition for 10 years.
As Mosby saw with local diversity and inclusion efforts in 2020, Those organizations that were intentional in their efforts to build policies or change or shape policies that focus on inclusion and equity the action and impact will outlive those promises and the sentiments that were made as well.
In order to reach Black talent, OneTen is tapping into established, trusted relationships in communities such as the Urban League, the NAACP and faith-based organizations. Jones says there are also nearly 1,000 community colleges throughout the country with an estimated total of 350,000 Black students who can be reached through direct marketing and Black media.
The potential impact of OneTen goes beyond salary.
The Brookings Institute reports that 30% of Pittsburghs families earn below the $21.62-per-hour family-sustaining wage benchmark. They estimate that there would need to be more than 80,000 family-sustaining jobs to bring those families out of that category of struggling.
Family-sustaining wages will allow [individuals] to advance in a variety of other capacities: home ownership, perhaps even entrepreneurship, education, many of the areas that are connected to social determinants of health, says Mosby. This is a pivotal shift in the way that were thinking. That will and can change communities, specifically communities of color for years to come.
Says Nag: Its a win-win-win. Its a win for the talent. Its a win for the employer because they could get amazing talent. And its a win for our city and our region for economic growth and prosperity.
Amy Whipple is a part-time writer, part-time church secretary and full-time awesome. In addition to Pittsburgh Magazine, her work can be found in PublicSource, HuffPost and VICE, among others.
Excerpt from:
- Intentional Community and Capitalism - Shareable - April 10th, 2024 [April 10th, 2024]
- How alternative communities have evolved from pacifist communes to a solution to the ageing population - The Conversation - March 12th, 2024 [March 12th, 2024]
- Georgia Power Announced T. Dallas Smith named to Georgia ... - All On Georgia - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- CSRWire - Thought Leaders Gather for Critical Community ... - CSRwire.com - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- EPA centers diversity with first-ever environmental youth advisory council - Yahoo News - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Rigor, Relevance, & Reality: Education Collaboratory at Yale ... - Yale School of Medicine - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent ... - ReliefWeb - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Fathering Together Announces Acquisition of City Dads Group - PR Web - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Company to pay over $50 million in largest environmental lawsuit settlement in D.C. history: Health risks to the public - Yahoo News - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Student death is now part of the routine at Middlebury - The Middlebury Campus - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- We welcomed an abandoned dog into our family. But dog dumping ... - Kansas Reflector - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- The National Climate Assessment Goes Woke - Dallasweekly - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- A Conversation about History, Race and the Meaning of True ... - Philanthropy Roundtable - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- The color of community | WORLD - WORLD News Group - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Kindness has good benefits | News, Sports, Jobs - The Review - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Georgia Power Foundation awards grant for BIG Edge ... - Georgia Southern University Newsroom - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- "Chilling": Maryland lawmakers threaten to cut aid to immigrants ... - Salon - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Three water options come with high cost | News, Sports, Jobs - Evening Observer - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Welcome to the Team, Kintan! | Office of Immigrant Affairs - Philadelphia Water Department - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Fannie Mae Recognized for Its DEI Efforts - DSNews.com - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Fannie Mae Named 'Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion' and ... - Fannie Mae - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Focused on progress - Weekly Challenger - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Good Ancestors and Messengers of Hope - Digital Journal - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- 'Make it intentional': 3-N-1 Trinity Services helps young ... - Longview News-Journal - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- 'Latinistas' is the World's First All-Latina Fashion Doll Line - hiplatina.com - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- CSU Releases Findings of Three-Year Research Study on NAVA'S ... - InvestorsObserver - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Press Ganey's Physician of the Year on a cardiology 'game changer ... - Becker's Hospital Review - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- City Officials Join Summer Campers and Local Artists to Kick Off ... - Philadelphia Water Department - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Merrill and Linda Hutchinson on Communication for a Summer of ... - Digital Journal - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Feathers installed as Rotary District Governor | News, Sports, Jobs - The Inter-Mountain - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Theatre at St. Luke's: All Shook Up to The Little Mermaid - Orlando Sentinel - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Culture wars rage on, forcing marketers to decide whether to ... - Marketing Dive - July 11th, 2023 [July 11th, 2023]
- Some thoughts on governance of the local variety - Resilience - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- 988 is saving lives, but more awareness and support needed - Alton Telegraph - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- The Limitations of Eco-Anxiety | Atmos - Atmos Magazine - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Welcome Back: How JAPER Becomes Real for the People in Brazil ... - Just Security - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Now Is the Time to Go All In on Heat Pumps - Rocky Mountain Institute - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) celebrates 40th ... - Elizabethton.com - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Discrimination or bureaucracy? A Jewish community in Germany ... - The Jerusalem Post - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- AAP Rules And Guidelines For How To Keep Kids Safe From Cars - Fatherly - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Pine County Sheriff's Report and Jail Roster | Communities ... - Pine City Pioneer - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Is a Hanan Ben Ari concert the solution for Jewish divisions? - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- What the LGBT wedding website Supreme Court ruling means for ... - The Atlanta Journal Constitution - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Out at CHM hosts its first 2023 event - Windy City Times - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- 'The time is now': Longtime friends launch support organization for ... - The Lawrence Times - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- La Vergne Receives Municipal League Award for Excellence in Fire ... - rutherfordsource.com - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- UW System offers status update on its five-year strategic plan (day 1 ... - University of Wisconsin System - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Hawaii Native Krystal Ka'ai Tackles Equity And Anti-Asian Hate For ... - Honolulu Civil Beat - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- News & events / News - Diocese of York - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Businesses that address social or environmental problems often ... - The Conversation - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- EFOC: Is This Happening To Me Because I'm Black? Combating ... - Essence - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Stations Telling Diverse Stories With Sponsored Segments from ... - Next TV - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Ex-Prisoners Face Headwinds as Job Seekers, Even as Openings ... - The New York Times - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Bungie weighs in on the current argument raging through the ... - PC Gamer - July 6th, 2023 [July 6th, 2023]
- Myanmar: Dire humanitarian and human rights situation ... - OHCHR - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- Invest in our public schools - EdNC - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- N.Y. stands up for LGBTQ equality: Having Pride 12 months a year - New York Daily News - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- NASCAR, Bubba Wallace bring 'Bubba's Block Party' to Chicago - Daytona Times - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- Fifth Third's 2022 Sustainability Report Shares Progress on Priorities ... - InvestorsObserver - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- Top LGBTQ+ Financial Influencers to Learn from in 2023 - Investopedia - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- 'Retirement is so traditional,' try periodic retirement to figure out ... - Morningstar - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- Crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people brings federal ... - New Mexico In Depth - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- The Astounding Power of Intentional Productivity (And How You Can ... - The Good Men Project - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- What SCOTUS ruling on affirmative action means for UL schools - Louisiana Radio Network - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- Community managers find the path for developers and players to ... - VentureBeat - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- The EPA was ready to clean up 'Cancer Alley.' Then it backed off. - Grist - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- What Bidenomics Means for Workers and Families - UpNorthNews - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- The vital link between a healthy press and our republic - The Fulcrum - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- Death, Drag, and Decadence shows off the queer joy of DnD - Wargamer - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- Israeli Expats in the U.S.: 'I Speak English, but I Don't Speak American' - Tablet Magazine - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- NTSB hearings end with talks on tanker conditions, fire's aftermath - Marietta Times - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- Can 'Friendship Clubs' Cure the Loneliness Created by Remote Work? - The San Francisco Standard - June 4th, 2023 [June 4th, 2023]
- 'Men in Blazers' Podcast Comes to Higher Ground to Talk Vermont ... - Seven Days - June 4th, 2023 [June 4th, 2023]
- Mindfulness, breathwork expert preaches value of slow living to Black and brown communities - Yahoo News - June 4th, 2023 [June 4th, 2023]
- Idaho's physician shortage is here. Here's what we can do about it. - Idaho Capital Sun - June 4th, 2023 [June 4th, 2023]
- Awards Ceremony Shines Spotlight on Caltech's Trailblazers in ... - Caltech - June 4th, 2023 [June 4th, 2023]
- The African American Museum of Iowa Announces Juneteenth ... - River Cities Reader - June 4th, 2023 [June 4th, 2023]
- US Supreme Court Rules Against Striking Drivers Who Abandoned ... - Engineering News-Record - June 4th, 2023 [June 4th, 2023]
- The Future of the Thomaston Green is Green (or should be) - PenBayPilot.com - June 4th, 2023 [June 4th, 2023]
- The Elephant in the Ethernet Port - City Journal - June 4th, 2023 [June 4th, 2023]