In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stavan Corbett, the Executive Director of the Division of Workforce at the College of Southern Nevada. Stavan, a Las Vegas native, shared his personal journey and insights into workforce development in Las Vegas.
The conversation delved into Stavan’s background, growing up on the east side of Las Vegas and his experiences working with marginalized communities. He highlighted the importance of empathy, systemic thinking, and amnesty in leadership, emphasizing the need for inclusive and supportive leadership styles.
Stavan discussed the shift towards skill-based hiring and the importance of bridging the gap between education and employment. He shared the innovative programs offered at CSN, focusing on healthcare, manufacturing, business, and IT, to meet the demands of the evolving workforce landscape.
The discussion also touched on the challenges of engaging individuals in educational pathways, with a focus on building relationships and providing services to support talent development. Stavan highlighted upcoming workshops at CSN, including resume writing and CPR courses, aimed at fostering connections and empowering individuals to explore career opportunities.
Full Transcript
DIEGO TRUJILLO:
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today. This is Diego Trujillo, the CEO of Las Vegas Heels. And I’m here to interview a very special guest that is a Las Vagan that has been working in Las Vegas for quite some time. He’s currently with the College of Southern Nevada’s Department of Workforce. And it is Stevan Corbett that is joining us today, the Executive Director of the Division of Workforce. How are you doing today, Stevan? I’m great. How are you, Diego? Excellent. How’s everything been going so far?
STAVAN CORBETT: So far so good, as you know, a lot of opportunities here, so we’re all busy.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, a lot of work for us to develop. So we want to unpack your story a little bit, and a little bit about your program, to know what you guys offer, and, you know, kind of delve into that a little bit. But we want to find out a little bit about you, you know, your background. How long have you been here in Las Vegas?
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, well, my whole life I was actually born here. I love it. I know I felt good about you. So, you know, in my age bracket, there’s not as many. When you probably get into the 30s, there’s even more. And so, yeah, I’ve been here all my life, born and raised, and it’s an amazing place, and it’s why I continue to be here.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: For the other locals, what side of town did you grow up on? I’m curious.
STAVAN CORBETT: Well, not only grow up, but still live on the east side. East side. Went to Eldorado High School and still within probably about two and a half, three miles of that high school.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Okay, no kidding. So I was Chaparral. Oh yeah, okay. So I’m born and raised here. I did Woodbury and Chaparral. And when I meet people, and you are correct, so I’m 39, and yet you don’t meet a lot of people our age. And then when you do meet the other people that are born and raised here, they’re like, yeah, fourth generation. And you’re like, wow, my God, you got me beaten heavily.
STAVAN CORBETT: 100%.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So, Eastsider also, though, you know, growing up here in Las Vegas, what was your experience? What were you aiming to when you were growing up? Did you see yourself as an executive director of workforce development?
STAVAN CORBETT: No, not at all, right? And so growing up, my stepfather was a carpenter and worked on projects like Cashman Field and Thomas and Mac, and of course, several of the casinos. My mother up until a couple of years ago worked in the casino and was in the cage, going way, way back into what is now Main Street Station, which was the International. She just retired a couple of years ago, and so my first job out of high school was a dishwasher, and I thought I was in heaven making eight bucks an hour. Everything else kind of just happened and here we are.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: $8 an hour. I think I was at $5.15 at Peter Piper Pizza. And then I would choose to wash the dishes because I could listen to the music in the back as I would do it. Absolutely. You did better than me. You did better than me for your first job. Well, that’s excellent. So what brought you to that? Where did you see yourself growing up? What did you want to work in? What were things that gave you passion that kind of make the connection to where you are today?
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah. So, you know, growing up, it really wasn’t a future orientation that, you know, it was more like, hey, this is what I do. This is life. And, you know, first generation in terms of going to college, first to even graduate high school in my family. And so some of that territory was uncharted. It wasn’t until later on that I got into youth development. and start making the connections about social enterprises and talent and working with marginalized or disenfranchised communities and then looking at what are the resources that are available that not everyone is always accessible to or has access to nor has a knowledge base of it.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So did you always see yourself in workforce or then that was more from the employer side that you saw the challenges that existed?
STAVAN CORBETT: I think it’s an and, right? It’s definitely from the employer side and also working with communities and recognizing the different disparities of generational progress, social mobility, and things of that nature.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: That’s really interesting, you know, as you bring that up, I remember working with young people, so my degree’s in theology, right, and I wanted to serve the community, I’d always felt that calling in my heart, I always was like, man, I want to change the world. And when I got out of school, I was working with young people, and a lot of them, it was a Hispanic church, a lot of them would end up here, right? They were either first-generation or they were brought very young, and it was very interesting to talk to some of these kids and see their their vision would go as far as their parents. And what I mean by that is I would ask them, like, so what do you, uh, what do you want to do? Well, you know, my dad’s a carpenter and I want to be a carpenter. And it would blow my mind until it kind of clicked one day. And I would say, Hey, what did it take for your dad or your mom to get here? And they would tell you the story. Oh man, they had to do this and this and take the train. I mean, really terrible stories, overcoming a lot of obstacles. And I would tell them, so after everything they did, you want to do the exact same thing they did, they do now? It seemed a little low effort to me. And when I worded it that way, there was always an aha moment. I was like, if they push this hard, why don’t you advance the flag? So it’s great hearing your story, right? Those first steps that you take. And then seeing the disconnect. I went through CCSD as well. And I always tell people when I talk about workforce, it’s very interesting. I’ll always ask the question in meetings, did anybody grow up here? Because I always want to know, well, who went through CCSD? There was a lot of frustrations that I experienced. And seeing what they do now is incredible. I didn’t have that back then. So you met with the school counselor like once a year, quick, what do you want to do, boom, here’s a sheet, and then that was it. But I’m watching the community kind of take a more focused look at this. And I think the program that has impressed me the most has been your program at CSN. I was very excited to do this interview. And I’m not just saying this because you’re in front of me.
STAVAN CORBETT: No, absolutely.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Um, but really the, how quickly, when I first started hearing your programs and saying, well, what if we need this? Oh, we can deploy it in a month and a half, two months. We could just put it together. And just, uh, how quickly you can, you can move into the needs of the community and the needs of the employers to develop that. Do you feel that there is a change in Las Vegas and the mentality of, of what jobs should look like, what workforce should look like? I mean, having grown up here, you probably have the same experience I have, if not something similar. Mm-hmm.
STAVAN CORBETT: No, I, I would agree with that, Diego. There, there’s, You know, 20 years ago, diversifying our economy was a buzzword that nobody really could explain or define. It was just something cool to say. And I would say it’s probably only within the last 10 or 15 years that we’ve actually begun to see some of that implementation, where there are different industries coming to Vegas. You know, we’re a very tax-friendly, business-friendly structure, which has somewhat inadvertently created the demand, and rightfully so in terms of economic development. What does that look like for the city? How do we broaden our portfolio? How do we broaden our city’s personality of what it is that we offer? And so in the last 10 or 15 years, you know, I’ve been in workforce since about 2006. And back then it was just WEA, W-I-A, and it was a Department of Labor program. It isn’t until probably the last 10 or even five years where there’s more understanding about workforce development, how does that support economic development, and then how do you deploy those as a equitable strategy across the communities and to ensure that there is a concert of growth and a concert of opportunities for not just those who have always engaged in those practices, but also again, as I shared earlier, this diversification and workforce is bringing possibilities to communities that maybe not have been thought of in the past.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah. And where did you see that disconnect? You mentioned having worked, right, seeing it both on the employer and on the workforce side. What was your first step, right? So you graduated. What is your degree in? Educational Leadership and Management. Okay. So you already had your side on that, right, and the educational side. What was your first aha moment in thinking, hey, something has to be done here?
STAVAN CORBETT: Well, it was even before that, right? I’m a late bloomer in terms of going to college and achieving that. And so I already had been in the space. And so really, my experience perpetuated my choices in education. And so what that did for me is now just be able to have a credential to be able to move within the space, right? And so it really was first the experience with the families, with the employers, within the education space that really inspired me to push and go on with my education.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And what was your following step as you were connecting these dots? It’s very interesting, because I’ve never met anyone. And when you talk about these abstracts, like workforce pipeline, well, I work on workforce pipeline. What does that mean? And so having to explain that to people. And it was something, when I stepped into Las Vegas Heels, I had never thought about workforce. It had never been something that had crossed my mind. When I took over Las Vegas Heels, I had to start surveying the community. I’m like, OK, what are the needs in the community? And that one just jumped out. And it’s very funny, because I get invited to speak on workforce development now, and I’m thinking, like, oh, man, I’m the expert, right? Which I don’t consider. Within my small space, I have learned quite a bit. And, you know, being able to find partners that have helped to educate me and explain things. For you stepping into that, what were the huge gaps that you, when you took this step, right? You wanted to move forward. What were the steps that you saw, the glaring gaps where you were like, you know, this needs to be closed?
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, again, sounding like a broken record. The drive was really identifying that there were workforce development opportunities, that there was diversification of our economy, but there was still a large community that was not being brought in to participate in those pipelines.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And where were you working at the time when you started seeing these things?
STAVAN CORBETT: At the time this was, I was at actually Nevada Partners. Okay. And I was a youth workforce development specialist and work with adjudicated youth and out-of-school youth. And so that’s kind of when it was like clear that going back to what you had shared that there are these young individuals with phenomenal talent, transferable skill sets, but weren’t being guided or provided the opportunities of how to connect those and develop that future orientation. When we talked to the employers, The employers had already a fixed mindset on certain groups and talents and what they could or could not bring. And so that was just seen as a challenge. It was kind of like an opportunity to play this matchmaker where it was building and taking a systemic approach of making connections for individuals, employers that would have a macro impact. in terms of the workforce and the diversification of it, along with the economic development.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So you were heavily involved, right, looking at all the dots, starting to see how to connect it. And for those people that didn’t grow up in Las Vegas, it’s kind of automatic, just gaming and hospitality. Correct. I mean, when I talk about workforce here in Las Vegas in different meetings, it’s incredible to me how many people will bring it up. maybe because they haven’t gone through the system here. And, you know, the first thing I mentioned in healthcare, I think even when we met, was, you know, I can name 15 jobs at a casino. I can name two in healthcare in high school, right? Nurse and doctor. I don’t want to do either of those things. And I think there is a lot of career options that are left unexplored. So at what point did you transfer to CSN? When did you take that role on?
STAVAN CORBETT: So it’ll be three years in April, and there was a long journey in between, always in the space of education or workforce I at one point had worked for and actually served on the local workforce boards board going back to about 2011, 2012. And then in about 2019, 18, I transitioned off the board and became an employee with Workforce Connections. And so from there, had a, what do they say, a offer I couldn’t refuse when Dr. Zaragoza reached out and said, hey, I’d really like you to consider, you know, to come work for CSN and serve in a capacity at the Division of Workforce. And so that was in April of 20, 2021.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Was that the first step towards an educational institution?
STAVAN CORBETT: No, I had previously actually worked at, I actually worked at UNLV in their, what they call gear up. So after school programs, math and science, STEM. I also worked at Nevada State University and built FYE programs, first year generation programs in that space. And so all those were components of workforce, but this going into the workforce board and then CSN is much more intentional about what that looks like.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, and it seems that now this time you got the reins. So instead of building out a program, it’s overseeing the build out of programs. Is there a huge, you know, HEALS stands for, the L in HEALS stands for leadership. Yeah. How big of a transition was into that leadership role?
STAVAN CORBETT: You know what, so I’ve been very fortunate, right? One of the things I’ve had the opportunity to do is served in an elected capacity as well back in 2010. And so served on a state board, served on a local elected board. And that’s my response when you talk about leadership. Sometimes it’s not always there in those spaces, but that is the first thing that comes to mind. And I’m very fortunate. Do I have the reins? I think that’s open to interpretation, but do I have the responsibility? Absolutely.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: That’s what I was going to, you know, I always say that to people when I took the title of CEO. And people would always tell me like, oh, wow, Mr. CEO. And at first I was like, oh, you know, and then I realized very, very early on, you know, I, I have kind of landed in this position. My life has guided me to this. I very much see it as a responsibility. It’s not a position of privilege. It’s just, we need outcomes for our community. That’s right. I see the nursing community and the way they struggle. I see the hospitals trying to staff and the different facilities and all of the companies in between. And then I see that the healthcare failures that working in healthcare, you hear about quite often, right? Um, when there’s a horror story big enough, you’ll hear about it on the outside, but within healthcare even, um, you see the burnout rate, and it, you know, I see a maelstrom forming that is even more terrifying. I mean, I don’t know if we, when you look over the numbers that Dr. Packham releases from UNR, and you look at the needs of what our community actually needs, just to meet the, the average, nationwide, it’s very intimidating. I also have a nursing group with about 5,000 nurses and I tell people, I mean, it’s almost at this point about every two weeks someone will post, I’m just burnt out being a nurse. I’m just tired. I feel overworked. I don’t, I feel underappreciated. I’m ready to just leave nursing in general. And those posts really scare me because, you know, not only do we have a shortage, but the ones that we do have that are carrying the load are starting to kind of give up. And I think that, uh, As we see the diversification, I think this is where, you know, as I took over, you know, we started setting out goals as a city. How do we want to grow as a city? And right, the two pillars that came up, education and healthcare. And so I was the only one in the room where everyone’s looking at me like, healthcare, what are we going to do? And I was like, ah. Let me become an expert real quick.
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, of course.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So looking to fill those gaps, as you stood over, right, this position that you assume now, what do you think are the greatest lessons that you brought to that position? Where do you feel that you had learned? I mean, we all have good leaders and bad leaders in our life. I say they’re only bad leaders if we don’t learn, right? Yep. So there’s people that have said in our lives, I’ve worked in kitchens with old French, French chefs where it didn’t matter how they spoke to you. If they made fun of your mother or your family, all you could answer was yes, chef. Absolutely. So you learn to bite your tongue, but you learn about how you don’t want to be. What leadership lessons do you feel that you bring? What experiences informed you and how you wanted to build this out?
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, you know, the first thing that comes to mind in a sounds textbook is going back to what you were saying about individuals who are burnt out. And I think what that shares about you is your empathy. And empathy is a significant ingredient when you talk about leadership. It’s a significant ingredient when you look at using empathy to look as a filter when you’re looking to solve problems, when you’re looking to support individuals. And so that’s probably been one of the greatest lessons is empathy. Also, you know, for more of a technical piece, it’s always also, what’s the big picture? How do you take a systemic approach? We can all build things individually and then you put them together or you can put them together and then go into, you know, different iterations and design thinking and making sure that you’re an inclusive leader, right? That’s significant. And also, I think the biggest opportunity when you talk about how to move these mountains, so to speak, right, that we’re all kind of pushing towards, it’s also amnesty, and how do you practice amnesty for yourself? How do you practice amnesty for others? How do you make sure there’s a support system? So as you talk about looking at mistakes as lessons learned, not taking a punitive approach, taking more of an asset-based, mind-based approach to those opportunities, going back to again, because it’s our responsibility.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, I always, I think it’s Marcus Aurelius in Meditations that wrote, be strict with yourself and be forgiving with others. And I always take, you know, early on as I was practicing leadership in different roles, I remember speaking to somebody and saying, hey, Try to be the type of follower that you would want if you were a leader. And that person’s attitude completely shifted. They used to come over all the time and say, hey, sorry, I can’t be here on Wednesday. And then I had to solve a problem. After that conversation, they began bringing the problem and saying, hey, I can’t be here Wednesday. But I spoke to, you know, John, he’s going to cover for me. And then as you lead, and I will say this, and fail in leadership, right? Because it’s happened to me. Every time someone walks away, you could blame them, but who’s the one in charge, right? The leader is the one, and if they’re not following, then you didn’t lead right. So I take a lot of responsibility in that, but when you start looking at it that way, I think you start becoming more forgiving of people underneath. And I think the world has kind of shifted to where instead of demanding perfection, it becomes letting people grow, right? And learning to feed them and learning to say, hey, what do you need? What do you need to succeed? And my job as a leader is to make sure you have all those tools and the guidance to be able to kind of self-actualize and to grow into your position. Do you feel that you’re able to do that in the position that you’re serving in now?
STAVAN CORBETT: You know, it’s interesting you say that. I think yes, right? The reaction is yes. The balance is how do you do all that, but then also recognizing the critical points of success and the critical points of integration and support that come in line, right? And so when you talk about the burnout, yes, you want to practice all that that you talked about. You want to deploy empathy, and then you want to balance that with how can you still drive the talent? How can you drive and support the solutions that are team-based and take a team approach to address those opportunity gaps. Because somebody’s being affected by them, right? Yeah. So you really have to kind of take this multi-dimensional vision of where you deploy yourself, where do you deploy the team, where do you allow yourself to be deployed based on managing and supporting the system that’s to address all these opportunity gaps. but for it to be optimal. And it’s kind of, you used the word failure a couple of times. It’s so much of an important ingredient. I would say it’s almost like not adding salt to a meal. That’s how important failure is sometimes, right? It may not seem like it at the time.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: It’s miserable. I talk to my children. My son goes, dad, have you ever failed? Are you kidding me? And I could still, my late father, I could still hear his voice saying, son, you need to be consistent. You need to be consistent. because you want to give up. But yeah, that failure really becomes a part of your recipe.
STAVAN CORBETT: Right, right. And so, you know, as you know, you know more than most, you’re balancing the internal and the external opportunities. And you have to sometimes come to realization, you may just be a baton passer. You may not finish the chronicle. You may not cross the finish line. Maybe your role is just to pass the baton so that the next person that takes that work is not starting where you started, but you’ve moved the starting line.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah. And I think it’s leaving that the legacy of systems, right? Yep. Where you have figured it out, because what we’re trying to solve here is extremely abstract. Yeah. There’s no clear, like, one, well, here’s the template. Just follow this template and you’ll succeed. Um, if not, that person would be teaching all over the United States.
STAVAN CORBETT: 100%.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Because I don’t think any workforce board has quite figured it out. No. And even if they did, the challenges would shift, you know, decade to decade. And again, seeing it here in Las Vegas, you look at the push 15 years ago, 20 years ago of what Las Vegas was versus what we’re trying to be now. I think our goals are ambitious and aggressive, and I’m really proud of the city and the way people are coming together. And I think, you know, you mentioned, right, driving these teams. For me, it’s always making people feel like they’re included, right? even in my other businesses, it’s always letting people know, hey, I don’t view you as you work for me, right? There was this old attitude that kind of existed, and you should be very grateful that I’m giving you a check. And I think that mentality has really shifted. People want to buy in to that vision. And when you can provide that vision, they start becoming creative. They start coming out with solutions. If you’re expected to take that leadership role and say, all right, Stevan, give me the 25 things we need to do to succeed, that’s a lot of pressure. But when you start putting it on your team, That’s where I think things begin to flourish. And not just that, regardless of who you are, after a length of time, your vision is going to start kind of getting honed in and you’re going to miss out on new ideas. 100%. And I think recently I was listening to Jeff Bezos, who was being interviewed. And as he was being interviewed, he was like, yeah, I’m typically the last one to speak at a meeting. And I thought they were going to say because, you know, If you have two ears and one mouth and give the typical the answer that we already know and one of his things was we always start in order of seniority and what he meant by that was in reverse. He goes we start with the most junior engineers because if I come into the room and speak. as the leader, they’re all going to change their opinion and say, oh, yeah, what he said. But if we let them speak first, not only do they feel like they’re a member, they’re contributing to the ideas. But in response to that, they’re able to get their ideas out and sometimes bring some very fresh perspectives. I don’t know if you’ve seen that where you’re at in your position.
STAVAN CORBETT: Oh, yeah, most definitely. Right. And, you know, one of the things that comes to mind is, again, it’s an and not an or. Right. And when you talk about situational leadership, You’re flowing through all those different, you know, sometimes you have to be directive. Sometimes you’re collaborative. Sometimes you’re more hands-off, right? And it’s going back to what are you doing? How are you leading yourself first? What is your self-leadership look like? Ooh, I love that. There you go. What does your own self-leadership look like? And that’s based on the investments you’re making to yourself is going to be evident in terms of what you’re putting out.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, you have to, it has to flow through you. And as you build yourself as a leader, you build those around you and the team underneath and allow them to function and to flow. I think the idea of, again, one person having the solution and needing 30 people to execute, that doesn’t happen. And if it does happen, it’s not quite as successful as when you let an entire group of people flow. And to be honest with you, there’s a beautiful thing. I don’t know if it’s ever happened to you. So for me, I kind of battle with perfectionism a little bit. And everything that I do, I want it to end up good. I want to do well. And sometimes I would kind of pass that on. And I noticed I would intimidate the people working on it. Well, I don’t know if I should do that. And then I eventually became, just do it. Do whatever you can to the best of your ability. And if it comes around, we’ll just have a conversation and see how we can do it better. And then all of a sudden I see my team start coming together, even recently with my podcast team, because putting these podcasts together, there’s three podcasts I’m recording. What is that workflow? What about the cover art? Where are we uploading? How are we getting the show notes and all the scripts? How are we, right? All these different steps that was a tremendous amount of work that was on me. And then we just had one meeting with the team. Next thing you know, I’m watching them get published on their own. I get excited when my team starts, you know, working and working excellently.
STAVAN CORBETT: Absolutely.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And putting things forward. There’s a really proud moment, right? Don’t disagree at all. So you see that coming together. So tell me a little more about CSN, right? So you stepped into CSN’s role. Where do you feel the strengths are in your program? Again, I’ve identified different strengths as I’ve kind of engaged, but I’d love to hear your feedback, right? Leading the organization, what would you say you’re most proud of that you’ve been able to put together, or the direction?
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, the direction is significant, right? You know, our current president, Dr. Zaragoza, has an international reputation and workforce. He built probably the, I’m not going to say probably, he built the workforce system at the post-secondary level in San Antonio. It’s one of the reasons why they brought him here. And so his vision for the college in the last five years has been significant where he’s been ahead of his time. and him focusing on, listen, going back to it’s an and, not an or. One of the biggest things we’re most proud of is recognizing that there are training opportunities for individuals who are not thinking about a degree. They are economically not in the space they want to be. They’re working two jobs. They’re burnt out just by surviving, right? And so the divisional workforce is really built for that community that says, listen, I may at one time wanted to go into a degree pathway, but I have a family to feed. I’m barely surviving. And so what the divisional workforce offers is, hey, come take this short-term training. It’s taught by, it’s developed by subject matter experts. It’s nine times out of 10, we have employer input. into the curriculum and design. So it’s meeting the needs of the employer. And I can testify to that firsthand.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: I was blown away when your team, I gathered like 10 employers. Yeah. And they gave immediate feedback and they said, okay, we’ll change it. So yeah, that was incredible.
STAVAN CORBETT: And that ecosystem is so important, right? And so we recognize that our main two assets are the student and the employer. We’re there as a bridge to connect them. And so we work with the student on their customized learning styles. and we work with the employer on their customized training needs and connect the two. And so again, going back to Dr. Zaragoza, he’s really put a significant emphasis on recognizing what is called the one college model. And this one college model is something that’s emerging across the United States where there’s no longer an academic affairs and a non-credit. Everything is integrated because it’s a systemic approach of how do we get folks into a space where they’re being engaged in and experiencing generational wealth, generational progress, breaking those barriers that potentially they resided in before and get them into a space where they can think differently and look differently about their future. and be proud about the skills that they didn’t know they were capable of. And now they’re in a position to say, you know what? I do want to go on and get a degree because I took this PCA class. I took this dialysis technician class. And now that I know I can do it, I’m going to get into the nursing program. I’m going to get into XYZ program.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, and I feel you’re right, right? So a lot of people, when you speak to them, I notice with education, and this can go even as simple as learning to use new cell phone features, people’s minds tend to shift in adulthood where they don’t like learning anymore, or they don’t think, or they become intimidated. And sometimes when you spark that little switch, even if it’s a 16-hour course, it doesn’t matter. Once they reach that accomplishment and get their brain in the right mindset, then the sky’s the limit. That must be incredible to be able to witness. I’m sure you see that in students all the time.
STAVAN CORBETT: Oh, 100 percent, Diego. You know, it’s, you know, to see individuals who are exactly in that mindset sometimes because their lives are stress-induced. They’re just trying to make it. And so, you know, it’s that part of the brain that some of us have the opportunity to explore because we’ve worked our behinds off and now in a place where we can get downtime, where we can enjoy life. A lot of these individuals are not really enjoying life. They’re surviving, right? And so their brain doesn’t allow them to develop these type of thoughts. And so they lock in. to, hey, I’m just going to go into this pattern. And so to your point, absolutely. It’s an amazing opportunity to be a part of a team and to be a part of a college that is looking at everybody and wants to make sure that there is social mobility, not just for some, but for all, and that there’s a system in place in collaboration with the employers to make that happen.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So tell me, because I know the playing field has kind of changed, right? Where there was a heavy emphasis on four-year degrees and in those different areas. Even then, we’re seeing a lot of changes now. I speak with employers and, you know, things that were required previously now become, hey, I just need them to do what I need them to do. Right. Yeah. As long as they could do that. I don’t care what degree they have. Like the piece of paper doesn’t matter. Can they get the job done?
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, absolutely. So I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, the paper ceiling, right? The paper ceiling referring to employers traditionally saying, listen, if they don’t have this degree, I’m not even going to look at them. And now what we’re seeing is really a migration of employers. because there’s so many tremendous talent gaps, saying, we’re going to go on to a skill-based hiring arena. What does a competency-based approach look like? What are the assessments out there that are going to allow me to know that this potential team member can do the job. And what does that look like? And it’s, again, it’s not an or, it’s an and. The four-year degree, all of our data tells us, is still very important. There’s still higher socioeconomic success, right? There’s still higher quality of life. And so the skill-based hiring, what it does is just an equitable approach on how to widen the net make sure that we’re taking into consideration everybody’s skill sets that are sometimes not documented by a piece of paper.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Right. Right. And sometimes, like, sometimes you need to unlock people’s potential for growth, like you mentioned. So while their priority may have never been a four-year degree, they find themselves with a 16-hour certificate, they’re working in a new field, and then thinking, huh, I wonder if I could move to the next step and and you’ve kind of again unlocked that that idea that maybe I should maybe I should push on yeah that is very much my story to be honest with you as for me as I went to a school that was you didn’t receive college credits for it because it was a seminary but I remember finishing that and saying well I did two years here right You know, I learned all these, but none of this is transferable to university. I might as well finish off. I’ve already started. Right. And so by that point, next thing you know, I had done another two and a half years and, you know, um, I had finished off my degree and now all of a sudden, yeah, I can enter a graduate program and I can, and I can use those skills. Back then I was very motivated. I was like, all right, I’m going all the way to my PhD or my master’s of divinity. And then I was like, yeah, I’m good with my bachelor’s, right? At this point it’s time to work. But I think again, it’s, it allows people to know what they don’t know and what they’re capable of. Yes. which sometimes, and more often than not, they very much underestimate what they’re actually able to achieve. Absolutely.
STAVAN CORBETT: So what programs do you offer specifically? So right now our programs, predominantly we pull from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. We pull from, you know, the workforce, LVGEA, Chamber Blueprint, Workforce Blueprint. We know that healthcare, manufacturing, business and professional services, CIT, IT. These are all our major in-demand occupations. These are the occupations that are going to bring a diverse economy into fruition, right? And so right now, our two most robust, I would say, is healthcare manufacturing in terms of the short-term training. We have over 60-something degrees, two-year degrees that we offer, about 13 to 14 four-year degrees that the college offers. And it still varies, right, from liberal arts We have a robust, we’re building a robust CTE program to meet that, to meet those talent gaps that exist. And CTE for those that… Yeah, Career and Technical Education, right? So when you and I were in CCSD, I forget the name of it, but it’s now… I think they call it now SECTA, but that was the only school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was Votek. Votek, right. Back in the day, yeah, on the Hill. Exactly, right. And so now, you know, you can say what you want or think what you want, but our CTAs, you know, within the Clark County School District are some of the top in the nation.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: It’s incredible what they’re doing at the school district.
STAVAN CORBETT: Top in the nation, yeah.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And I think sometimes it’s overshadowed when people look at the school district, because I hear a lot of criticisms. And I’m, listen, I always think before I criticize an organization, would I want to be the leader? And if the answer is no, that seems like a very difficult job, then I’m very careful with my criticisms, because it’s, you know, that’s like me watching a football game on a Sunday and saying, well, I should have done that. Like, hey man, can you run as fast as he can? Yeah, you can’t even do the basics of what he can do. No, 100%. So maybe you’re not calculating. But with CCSD, I hear that. I mean, even for me, I think it wasn’t until I was like 25 that I realized how large our school district is here. But that is something that I am very proud of when people bring it up. Now our magnet programs, our career and technical education, I mean, they really are putting some incredible efforts into it.
STAVAN CORBETT: Absolutely. I mean, yeah. And so that that’s a support system. And so at the college, we’re always that’s talent, like that’s talent that is being produced at its highest levels. How do we maintain that? A lot of those individuals go on to other states. And so we lose out on a lot of that talent, that brain drain. Right. And so what is it that we’re doing as a college system to recruit individuals that have been homegrown and come into the workforce, go into the training force, and contribute to these opportunities.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: See, and that’s one of the things that I examined when you look, right, Las Vegas, and we always tell people this, in healthcare, is very different. Because companies will come and say, oh, we dominated Texas, and we dominated, you know, New Mexico, and then Arizona, and now we’re moving into Las Vegas, and we’re here to set a name, and then they’ll last two years, and then withdrawal. Yeah. Just because Las Vegas is so unique, and when it came to workforce, Um, so a while, when I first started getting into this, I, I formed a think tank. There was someone that was very, very smart when it came to workforce, and I knew I didn’t know about workforce, but I knew about healthcare. And so, we would grab coffee once a week, and I, you know, as we were exploring ideas and challenges, um, he would kind of guide me, and we identified one huge magnet here. And it was, for me, A little frustrating because you have kids that are graduating. I’d go speak at Desert Rose. Yeah. So I’d speak to the kids coming out of the CTE program. I would ask them, okay, so you want to be, you’re going to graduate as a medical assistant. And all these kids would raise their hand. So where do you want to work as a medical assistant? And they would just kind of shrug their shoulders. And I realized right then there was a problem, right? Well, in a doctor’s office. Well, that’s kind of obvious, right? That’s where you’re going to end up. But what kind of doctor’s office? If you end up at pediatric oncology, and you have a younger brother and sister, and now you’re watching children die all day, it starts becoming very depressing. It’s not a very fulfilling job or one that might make you happy. And so you think, you know, I’m going to get another job. And you get one at a wound clinic, thinking that you’re going to put Band-Aids on cuts. And it turns out wounds can be very, very disgusting. Yeah, sure. And so next thing you know, you turn 21. What just opened up for you? Right. So I was like, we invest all this time and all this effort into training the young kids. And we have this gigantic magnet sitting right there that offers immediate gratification. Do you want to make $400, $500 a night? And so it’s very hard, especially as a young person, to say, no, you know, I really want to, you know, put off all the nice things I can own right now and look forward to the future 20 years from now. But that’s a goal. How do you reach out to those kids? How do you kind of incentivize them to not focus right at what’s right in front of them?
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah. So, so great. Well, I don’t think anybody’s figured that out yet. Yeah. Right. I know I’m on it.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: I was hoping you would share that with me because I need to apply that.
STAVAN CORBETT: No, right. So, you know, you, you, you know, you always work one. It’s you. When I was in, uh, when I started out in workforce and I was a case manager, right. We would go door-to-door in communities, and knock on folks’ doors, and leave flyers, and hold info sessions.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Do you feel that gave the results that you wanted? Not criticizing, I mean, you have to do something, right?
STAVAN CORBETT: So it evolved it, right? Now, was it optimal? No, of course not, right? And so there was definitely some, you know, there was definitely evidence that what we were doing was, one, different than what we had always has done. had done, and we did see an increase in our enrollment. So that was… There was an impact. Right. And so even now, one of the things, going back to outreach, going and tabling for us, the conversion rate is very low when we table sometimes. And so what we’ve begun to do is switch to a workshop model. And so in March, we’re going to be deploying mental health, free mental health workshops, free CPR courses, free resume writing, in an opportunity to say, listen, let us provide a service. Come and let’s start building a relationship so that we can have those conversations. Oftentimes, you know, somebody said something to me a long time ago, and they said, hey, rules without a relationship equals rebellion. And so when nobody’s coming to your program, it’s because there’s no relationship in place, right?
DIEGO TRUJILLO: That’s a really good saying.
STAVAN CORBETT: Rules without a relationship equals rebellion. I love that. been fortunate enough to have a team to say, let’s move in this direction. Let’s start the relationship being service-oriented and offering a support, offering knowledge, offering a service. And now when we get individuals who attend those workshops, we have a space to talk about career and educational pathways. We get a space to begin the conversation that didn’t begin before. And so, you know, that’s kind of how we’re pivoting. to make sure that we’re recognizing and securing and developing relationships with all that talent that’s untapped and doesn’t know how to connect their talent to the resources and the opportunities that exist.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, and I think you’re right. That was a great expression that you used right there because while everyone at the college might not have the right heart, People on the outside might not have been around those environments, so they may say, well, yeah, of course you want me to go to your school, because you charge a tuition, or you want, you know, you want people in seats. But that’s not necessarily the case. And so the relationships are what’s going to help to bridge that gap and let them know where your heart’s at, saying, hey, look, we have this for you, whether you choose it or not. We’re still going to be here to serve you and to help you.
STAVAN CORBETT: The opportunity for us is, it’s kind of like knowledge, right? If somebody chooses not to go on that path, we want to make sure it’s not because they didn’t know.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, that’s really good. Yeah, it’s an actual choice, but not a result of ignorance. So you said these programs are launching in March.
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, we’re starting out with resume writing, you know, how to do a cover letter. We’re supporting some mock interview workshops for individuals to come in. And, you know, we’ll have a strategy on how that goes out and how that information is shared.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And we’ll have that in our newsletter as well, working at CSN. So if you get the HEALS newsletter, you should be seeing information. Keep an eye out for that in March.
STAVAN CORBETT: And that’s exactly right. It’s a service that we want to offer going back to responsibility, right? We’re the third largest community college in the nation, 33, 34,000 students. And there’s no community college as well positioned as CSN to support the opportunities that are before us when it comes to workforce and economic development.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: It lets you set the template. Yeah, 100%. I think it’s always very exciting when we look at, you know, sometimes bad news can be somewhat intimidating. And so when people will talk about health care, for example, the 48th in the nation, right, as far as primary care, and you look at these very negative numbers, and my thought’s always like, yeah, but with a very little effort in the right direction, we can really move the needle. Going from 48th to 30th is probably a lot easier than going from, you know, 6th place to 3rd place. And so I always get excited at those daunting tasks and those negatives, because I think we’re in a very unique position to turn them into positives. And like you said, right, we’re not going to figure this out.
STAVAN CORBETT: No, not overnight.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, not overnight. But we can get started in the right direction and leave this for younger generations that could start figuring it out more. But I do like the perspectives, right? When you talk about serving leadership, when you talk about connecting with the community and being a resource to people, as opposed to, here, we need this, right? I think people begin to respond differently. And culturally, our attitudes towards these things begin to shift. We become more accepting to it, right? Because when one of the people that have gone through your program, when they speak to their kids, who might not see a way out, it’s a very different conversation because they’ve been in that area. That’s right. And so it’s kind of like when you were a kid and you’d have a friend or a relative that, you know, their parents would be an expert in one area and they’d help to break it down. Everyone needs that gateway in. Oh, yeah. Right? And removing those barriers. Right. And so it’s incredible to be able to speak with you today. I want to thank you very much for coming on and sharing and, you know, sharing your story, finding out that you’re a Las Vegas native as well.
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, right.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Not wanting to exclude anyone that wasn’t born and raised here, but it’s very rare when we run into each other.
STAVAN CORBETT: No, it is.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So we always get excited, right? Indeed. That’s excellent. Well, thank you very much for coming on. How can people find out more about your programs? How can they get engaged?
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, so, you know, definitely going to the CSN website. We have a plethora of information on there. You know, we can do the old school 6514747 is the number to reach. That’s a catchy number, right? That’s a catchy number. So that’s there. But, you know, it’s with today’s technology, always just reach out, right? Call, email, go onto the website. We have social media channels as well. We have partners that we collaborate with that you can track through to us. But, you know, we want to make sure that we’re out there. If there’s opportunities that we’re not in a space or that resources can be provided, let us know. You know, again, we haven’t figured it out completely, and we always keep an open mind.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And just to let everybody know that’s listening at home, it’s not just for people wanting to go through these courses. If you’re an employer that is really struggling with employment, correct?
STAVAN CORBETT: Correct, yeah. So we do have a business development team who goes out and meets with employers, and we literally just look over, hey, where are your talent gaps? We can customize a training for you. We can serve as your pipeline, right? If there are gaps in there, we work with Blue Bunny Wells. We work with even the school district, where we’ve taken customized training, embedded it as part of our ongoing portfolio of courses, and recruit for those employers to make sure that the talent and the curriculum matches the job description and matches the needs of the employers.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, the lines have to meet. Otherwise, you’re just training people that can’t get hired anywhere, right?
STAVAN CORBETT: No, these are not cookie cutter out of the box, right? 95% of the time, if not more, is our subject matter experts working with the company’s subject matter experts. And they’re exchanging drafts of the curriculum. And until the employer says, that’s it, that’s what we end up delivering.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So as an employer, you can jump in to help shape the programs the Department of Workforce is developing.
STAVAN CORBETT: 100%, right? That’s a service.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: I think sometimes people don’t know that. They don’t know that they can, I wouldn’t think that you could just call a university and say, hey, can you please teach this? I need this.
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah, no. But that’s very much what you do. That’s exactly what we do. And that’s what the division, that’s why the division of workforce exists is to take those customized, personalized, just-in-time training approaches and make sure that what’s being delivered, the SMEs on the employer side, has their handprints all over it.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Fantastic. And I want to finish off today. I want to ask you a question. What is one leadership lesson that you’ve learned that is the one thing that you pass on to every person that you lead?
STAVAN CORBETT: Yeah. I mean, the first thing that comes to my mind, so I’m going to trust it, is that empathy. It’s so important, right? And balancing what is in this work. We’re in some mission-critical work, right? Like, there’s a lot of stuff that’s happening, and it’s impacting lives. And you still have to practice that empathy with your team, with yourself, and again, going back to balancing and meeting that critical mass, what’s needed, but making sure that you’re supporting the team that’s going to get it done. Otherwise, it’s just not going to get done. It’s not going to happen. No.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Well, Stevan, I want to thank you for coming on today. That’s Stevan Corbett, that is the Executive Director at the Division of Workforce at the College of Southern Nevada. Sorry, when I was younger it was the Community College of Southern Nevada.
STAVAN CORBETT: I knew what you were talking about. It’s still in my head.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: I want to thank you for coming on today. It was really interesting, and I think we do need to do some quarterly updates on what’s happening on workforce. I think it’s important that people understand, because I think as employers hear this, and they understand that there’s people that are listening to their feedback and pivoting to their needs, we get more engagement from employers. And really, to solve this problem, it’s not going to be just your department. We need the employers. We need the different conveners. We need everyone working together on this. Um, which has been somewhat of a challenge in Las Vegas in the past, but I think our mentality is changing and I’m very excited to see that. I think we realize all that now that the growth is coming. Yep. Um, it’s right here. If we fumble the ball, this is on us. Yeah, a hundred percent. I, uh, I’m very excited to have you in. Thank you very much for sharing your experience, um, and how you got where you are and the leadership lessons. Thank you very much. And thank you to everybody that’s listening at home. You have listened to another episode of The Heels Pod with Stevon Corbett from the College of Southern Nevada.
