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| navigate: home: magazine: winter 1999: article | |
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Educaton and training summit Penn State and partners address workforce development issues By Celena E. Kusch | ||||||||
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Between 1985 and 1990, 70,000 young adults left Pennsylvania to live and work in other areas. Of these, more than 40,000 were college graduates educated within the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, this flight of knowledge workers comes at a time when the economy increasingly demands their skills, and Pennsylvania is not alone. At all levels, national, state and local economies have faced an increasing crisis in workforce development, the process of identifying and developing the skills needed by businesses, individuals, communities and other institutions. Technological advancements in all economic sectors have accelerated the need for improved technology and business skills in the labor pool and the lifelong learning necessary to attain them. According to Geoffrey L. Davis, executive director of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry Educational Foundation, educating knowledge workers should be one of Pennsylvania’s chief priorities. “We are, in fact, in the midst of one of our greatest challenges with this problem of workforce development,” Davis said. “How do we produce knowledge workers in alignment with the consumers? Our goal is to address the issue of workforce development from the perspective of educational enrichment.” At Penn State, a variety of outreach resources have been mobilized to meet this need. Penn State’s current workforce development strength is in support for small businesses, management and executive development, and continuing professional education. In the past year, across all Penn State locations, through Cooperative Extension offices and within Pennsylvania businesses, there were approximately 1,250 workforce development outreach programs and services offered. Of these, 270 focused on information technology and more than 800 involved continuing professional education. “While Penn State has been a leader in workforce initiatives for more than 100 years, we recognize that we can significantly enhance our capabilities to extend the University’s expertise to address critical workforce issues,” Dr. James H. Ryan, vice president for Outreach and Cooperative Extension, announced. “Outreach initiatives are driven by community needs, which can then be linked to University expertise. The creation of Penn State’s World Campus, for example, enables us to deliver courses, certificates and degrees on-line and provide anytime, anywhere access to the 120 million people in the workforce nationwide who will require continuing education in the next five years.” Both Davis and Ryan made their remarks during this year’s Pennsylvania Workforce Development Summit, held in November at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel at the University Park campus. At the two-day summit, more than 240 state and local policy makers, business leaders and educators gathered to discuss, build and shape Pennsylvania’s response to workforce needs. They identified and developed the components of a successful system and composed a collaborative action plan for linking customers and suppliers of workforce development. “Although academia, the business community and government have all begun individually to meet the challenges of developing knowledgeable workers of high skill and ability levels, only by working together can we meet this challenge. This conference establishes a common ground to begin that collaboration,” said Floyd Warner, president of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. Penn State’s College of Education and Outreach and Cooperative Extension, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and the Pennsylvania School Study Council sponsored the summit. They have made a five-year commitment to address the causes of nationwide problems with worker preparedness and promote innovative solutions for the Commonwealth’s economy. This conference launched their project of community involvement and leadership in workforce development, with the support of Bell Atlantic and the H.J. Heinz Co. Foundation. Discussing the responsibility of educators in developing knowledge workers, Dr. Edwin L. Herr, interim dean, College of Education, remarked, “The United States has launched a phase of educational reform that acknowledges the needs of new learners who must set personal excellence as a goal rather than just getting by. As schools help each student to develop literacy in reading, math, technology and teachability, they must become more career-minded. The College of Education has been a leader in developing the programs that make curricula and support effectiveness in the schools.” Dr. Robert N. Pangborn, associate dean, College of Engineering, also addressed the summit. He said he enjoys a dual perspective both as a consumer of the products of K-12 education and as the producer preparing the students to enter workforce and graduate school. He observed, “Many of these students have little awareness of the demands and opportunities within today’s workforce and have unrealistic expectations of both education and industry.” He applauded the summit’s efforts to help align the demands of industry partners, education providers, government policy makers and the students who will become workers. Summit participants will reconvene annually to chart progress and design strategy for future workforce development successes.
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