APP & LEAD host breakfast
Officials with the Aroostook Partnership for Progress (APP) and LEADers Encouraging Aroostook Development are holding a joint breakfast meeting on Wednesday, May 1 at Northern Maine Community College to discuss connecting business people with educators to explain future workforce needs and eventually show students, armed with the right skills, job possibilities exist in the region.
“Education to industry is important because our 18- to 44-year-old workforce has been diminishing for more than 20 years,” said APP president and CEO Bob Dorsey. “It has gone down from 42 percent in 1990 to 29 percent in 2010. “That is significant because it is now unsustainable. We need to get that back up over 30 percent and our goal for 2017 is 32 percent.”
Dorsey added the initiative calls for more County businesses to work closely with education to provide job-shadowing opportunities for high school students and internships, hopefully paid, for college students.
“This will give the young adults a look at what the jobs are like in the region, what skills are needed and maybe encourage them to stay in the region after they complete their formal education” he added.
So far, a tiger team, which is comprised of educators, business leaders and others, has been formed and will be meeting and developing a path forward in advance of a planned “Education to Industry” summit, tentatively planned for August.
“The campaign is going to take participation from all the communities, all the high schools and colleges to be successful,” said Dorsey. “We want businesses to understand the sense of urgency and we will be spelling it out at the breakfast meeting May 1.
“We want to make sure educators are hearing from the businesses and vice versa the businesses hear from the educators about what the issues are to make sure everybody is on the same page,” said Ryan Pelletier, LEAD executive director.
Pre-registration, for local business people and LEAD/APP members, for the May 1 meeting, which will be from 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. at the Edmunds Center at NMCC, is required. To register electronically click here or at www.appme.org.
