Voting Open for Proposal Co-developed by Belk Center Executive Director Audrey Jaeger For SXSW EDU 2025

A proposal submitted by NC State researchers, including Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research Executive Director and W. Dallas Herring Professor Audrey Jaeger, is up for consideration for inclusion as a panel at SXSW EDU 2025 as part of the event’s PanelPicker public voting process. 

The proposal, entitled “Connecting Working Learners to Jobs of the Future,” will highlight interdisciplinary and multi-sector efforts to address the multifaceted challenges working learners experience when connecting to the workforce. The panel will also highlight promising practices and lessons learned in areas of instructional innovation, statewide public policy, transformative leadership and effective approaches to engaging adult learners.

Those who attend the proposed panel will:

• Learn the strategies for developing non-degree credentials for working learners and the challenges in the field
• Learn how partnership strategies and credentials of value are being exemplified at community colleges
• Learn strategies to connect underrepresented workers to jobs, developed by those with systems expertise and those with lived experience

Members of the public have until Aug. 18 to vote and share input on session ideas, including the one submitted by Jaeger, Senior Vice Provost for Instructional Programs and Professor of Computer Science Helen Chen and Institute for Emerging Issues Director Sarah Hall.

Public voting accounts for 30% of the score for all submitted proposals, with evaluations from the SXSW EDU advisory board and SXSW EDU staff comprising the rest of the score that determines which presentations are selected for inclusion at the event, which will be held March 3-6 in Austin, Texas.