KEDCo Praises Tippy Valley
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Robertson said the Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. was doing some things really right. He said he met with Superintendent Brett Boggs and was super impressed with what the school corporation was doing.
People who hear the phrase “economic development” don’t really know how it works, Robertson said, so he started with the basics.
“It amazes me with how quickly we can get lost with the peripherals and forget the basics,” he said.
Robertson said 70 percent of all jobs created in the U.S. are by companies already in the community. KEDCo., he said, spends 70 percent of its time on business retention and expansion.
Twenty percent of jobs come from people in the community who start a new business. It’s one of the areas where KEDCo. really has worked to improve.
The last 10 percent is business attraction. The biggest number of prospects KEDCo. talks to is foreign corporations to attract them here.
But without real estate and a work force, Robertson said, they can’t attract businesses to the community. He said KEDCo. is really pushing to have real estate available. Seventy percent of businesses are only looking for shell buildings.
Creating a viable work force is a little bit harder, he said. So what can schools do to better prepare kids for the work world?
Robertson said the U.S. has one of the weakest work forces in the world. Along the way, schools lost career counseling. Schools and students need to be given information on where to work and what jobs are actually out there.
“A lack of career guidance means kids are making a lot of bad decisions,” he said.
Last year, 12,600 bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering were earned for 60,000 jobs. However, more than half of those were by foreign exchange students who went back to their country.
Schools’ failure, he said, is they’re not discussing where the jobs are and what skills students need to get them there.
Among the 35 industrial nations, the U.S. has the highest number of kids going to college, but also the highest number of students not finishing. They go to college and drop out after a year because they discover it’s not for them.
“One of the great myths we foist on young people is a college degree will get you somewhere,” he said.
Robertson said they need to do a better job with pointing the kids in the right direction.
He also talked about two-year degrees being beneficial, and how trades and manufacturing are unfortunately bad mouthed in America.
“There are no loser jobs,” he said.
Robertson said the U.S. spent the last 50 years in a resume-based economy. “We are moving really rapidly toward a skills-based economy,” he said.
There are good school corporations in the area, but the question is how do they move from good to great.
“Without the work force of the future, the county doesn’t have a future,” he later concluded.
Upcoming school board meetings are: July 9 and Aug. 13, TVSC administration office; Sept. 10, Mentone Elementary School. All meetings are at 7:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]
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Robertson said the Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. was doing some things really right. He said he met with Superintendent Brett Boggs and was super impressed with what the school corporation was doing.
People who hear the phrase “economic development” don’t really know how it works, Robertson said, so he started with the basics.
“It amazes me with how quickly we can get lost with the peripherals and forget the basics,” he said.
Robertson said 70 percent of all jobs created in the U.S. are by companies already in the community. KEDCo., he said, spends 70 percent of its time on business retention and expansion.
Twenty percent of jobs come from people in the community who start a new business. It’s one of the areas where KEDCo. really has worked to improve.
The last 10 percent is business attraction. The biggest number of prospects KEDCo. talks to is foreign corporations to attract them here.
But without real estate and a work force, Robertson said, they can’t attract businesses to the community. He said KEDCo. is really pushing to have real estate available. Seventy percent of businesses are only looking for shell buildings.
Creating a viable work force is a little bit harder, he said. So what can schools do to better prepare kids for the work world?
Robertson said the U.S. has one of the weakest work forces in the world. Along the way, schools lost career counseling. Schools and students need to be given information on where to work and what jobs are actually out there.
“A lack of career guidance means kids are making a lot of bad decisions,” he said.
Last year, 12,600 bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering were earned for 60,000 jobs. However, more than half of those were by foreign exchange students who went back to their country.
Schools’ failure, he said, is they’re not discussing where the jobs are and what skills students need to get them there.
Among the 35 industrial nations, the U.S. has the highest number of kids going to college, but also the highest number of students not finishing. They go to college and drop out after a year because they discover it’s not for them.
“One of the great myths we foist on young people is a college degree will get you somewhere,” he said.
Robertson said they need to do a better job with pointing the kids in the right direction.
He also talked about two-year degrees being beneficial, and how trades and manufacturing are unfortunately bad mouthed in America.
“There are no loser jobs,” he said.
Robertson said the U.S. spent the last 50 years in a resume-based economy. “We are moving really rapidly toward a skills-based economy,” he said.
There are good school corporations in the area, but the question is how do they move from good to great.
“Without the work force of the future, the county doesn’t have a future,” he later concluded.
Upcoming school board meetings are: July 9 and Aug. 13, TVSC administration office; Sept. 10, Mentone Elementary School. All meetings are at 7:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]
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