Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1108006
APRIL 2019 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 67 Chi: After that, we took them to the Silicon Val- ley Water District where they toured the facil- ity and learned about the complicated process of water purification. This was really helpful because most students probably think clean water just comes out of the faucet like magic. Seeing the entire range of activities involved in water purification not only helped them understand how complex this process is but gave them good ideas for their own product concepts. Matties: How many people are currently at NextFlex? Parmeter: Right now, 31. Matties: How many students are involved in the programs at any given time? Parmeter: We're approaching 3,500 students who have completed the program since we launched in the fall of 2016 with our pilot cohort. At any given time, there are approxi- mately 200–300 students in various stages of the program between our local program and the national expansion. By this time next year, we'll triple or quadruple that number. Johnson: That's quite a reach. Parmeter: Yes, it's done in a very scalable way. Through our supporting materials and training process, adopting FlexFactor into a given eco- system is turn-key. For any industry that's hav- ing trouble finding local talent, this program is a comprehensive solution that can help recruit students into the pathways where they will become the talent you are looking to hire in the future. Matties: How are you funding all of this? Parmeter: We started using a combination of sweat equity and investment from Next- Flex. After a few months, we realized that the program was creating a spectrum of value, including education, workforce development, economic development, talent acquisition, and social responsibility for a wide variety of stakeholders across the labor market. Once we identified the groups the program was creating value for, we used a cost-share approach where each of the partners helps resource a bit of the program, and the result is far larger than any one entity could create or support on their own. Matties: Did a group of people want to form an organization or what was the impetus? Parmeter: The program started with the work- force development team at NextFlex. We were interested in creating a program that achieved strategic talent acquisition objectives for our industry partners, but we were eventually able to do so in a way that generated enough rev- enue to support itself. A program is only able to do that if it solves problems for the actors in the ecosystem. We worked hard to align the program to the needs of multiple stakeholders, including K–12, higher education, government, nonprofit, and industry partners. The program is supported on a cost-share basis by all of the entities who benefit from it. Matties: And is it zero cost for the individual students who go through the program as a part of their classes? Parmeter: Correct. Matties: That's fantastic. Johnson: Where do you want to see this pro- gram in five years? Parmeter: I would love to see FlexFactor in as many ecosystems across the country as needed. I don't want to say we want to have five mil- lion kids, though, because we don't want to create a workforce that exceeds the needs of various industries. But if we need 20 million employees in the workforce, I hope we're able to put 20 million students through. We want to meet the demand of the market in a way that effectively allows a lot of different groups to work together to fire up young people about their futures in advanced manufacturing.