Raising the Bar Call for Proposals September 24-26, 2024 Live! Hotel in Hanover, MD
Workshop Solicitation
The Maryland Workforce Association’s, “Raising the Bar” Conference is returning once again. The conference is a great opportunity for in-depth conversations and networking for workforce and educational professionals to discuss innovative workforce development solutions for job seekers, youth, and businesses. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act challenges our system to be creative, flexible, and innovative in the delivery of these solutions. Additionally, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future calls for a deeper collaboration between workforce, k-12 education systems, and community colleges to prepare Maryland’s students to be college and career ready.
Bring your challenges, ideas and evidence-based solutions and join us as we explore promising practices in developing the best workforce system in the Country.
The conference will focus on the development of front line workforce, employment, and training staff, identify innovative practices in workforce development, including sector partnerships, the resurgence and evolution of apprenticeships, industry trends, and in-demand jobs. The conference draws attendees from the entire state of Maryland and nearby states.
Workshop Proposals
Of significant interest are proposals that address innovation, effective delivery of services, and workshops that provide information, tools or ideas that are practical and easily replicated.
The 2024 Raising the Bar Conference will include workshops organized around six tracks and workshops selected will reflect content for beginner, intermediate, and expert level professionals.
- Program Support – Workshop topics may include, but are not limited to, emerging trends in fiscal management, best practices in braiding of multiple funding streams, best practices and/or emerging issues in HR, and innovative strategies for outreach and sharing the impact.
- Apprenticeship – Workshop topics may include, but are not limited to, pre-apprenticeship to Registered Apprenticeship pathways, how to build apprenticeship opportunities for business, how to talk to job seekers and youth about registered apprenticeship.
- Business, Industry & Emerging Trends – Workshop topics may include, but are not limited to, providing customized training, responding to changes in the labor market, ensuring impactful job fairs, and designing employer-focused services.
- Special Populations – Workshop topics may include, but are not limited to “good jobs” principles, working with long-term unemployed, working with special population(s), TCA and SNAP recipients, opportunity youth, assisting individuals with disabilities, ALICE populations, and working with older job seekers.
- Leadership – Workshop topics may include, but are not limited to, succession planning, retention of staff, creating impactful partnerships, ensuring diversity and equity at all levels of the workforce system, and public policy.
- Foundations of Workforce – Workshop topics may include, but are not limited to best practices in work-based learning, pre-apprenticeship, internship, work and learn models; managing new service delivery during the pandemic and beyond, and strategic K-20 initiatives.
We are also collecting proposals for our Post-Conference on Thursday, September 26th.
- Career Counseling for Youth – Promising practices for career counseling for youth, integrating career counseling into the school day, tips and tools that can be use by career coaches in opening the world of work to students.
- Blueprint Implementation – Workshop topics may include, but are not limited to, how providing quality childhood education plays a role in building a pipeline for tomorrow’s workforce.
- High School Level Registered Apprenticeship – Workshop topics may include, but are not limited to, how to integrate the Registered Apprenticeship model for youth, and what role does pre-apprenticeship play in creating Registered Apprenticeship opportunities.
Submission
Workshop audiences will include people interested in learning about innovative methods to serve clients in all aspects of the workforce development system, public policies that support the effective delivery of services, and workshops that provide information, tools or ideas that are practical and easily replicated.
Workshops are 75 minutes of content, with an additional 15 minutes for Q&A; and should encompass best practices, which have demonstrated measures of success. All proposals must be submitted online and must be complete. Required information includes:
- Workshop Title (10 words or less)
- Workshop description in 200 words or less
- Intended Outcomes and Learning Objectives for the Participants
- Workshop Track/s
- Presenter contact information and bios, include a one-minute video describing your workshop
- Explanation of how the program, initiative or strategy was proven to be effective.
Workshop titles may be edited to prepare the conference program. Workshop proposals must be submitted online at https://marylandworkforceassociation.org/call-for-proposals-2024/ no later 5:00 PM on May 1, 2024 – extended date.
Content must be informational and educational, not commercial. Presentations that are sales pitches for products or services will be eliminated from consideration.
Review Process
Raising the Bar’s Conference Committee will evaluate proposals based solely on the information submitted. Presenters, titles and content are expected to correspond to the proposal and substitutions of content or presenters require prior approval. Once a workshop has been accepted, no changes of speakers or workshop content will be allowed without prior approval. Presenters selected will be asked to complete a “Presenter Agreement” form.
Principal presenters will be notified whether their workshops have been accepted by the end of day, May 10, 2024.
Other Information
Raising the Bar does not subsidize travel expenses.
- Presenters will receive FREE conference registration the day/s they are selected to present.
- AV equipment will be available, however, presenters should bring their own laptop.
For more information, please contact: MDRTB@MarylandWorkforceAssociation.org and include RTB Call for Proposals in the subject line.