‘Education to Industry’ breakfast attracts 60
PRESQUE ISLE — The future Aroostook County workforce is sitting in classrooms in Houlton, Ashland, Presque Isle, Van Buren, Fort Kent and other communities in the region, but can more be done to educate the students about what jobs are available in The County and what skills will be required?
Photo courtesy Jon Gulliver/NMDC
APP President and CEO Bob Dorsey kicked off an APP-LEAD breakfast meeting at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle by outlining the sense of urgency and why an “Education to Industry” is needed. He encouraged municipal and business leaders in Aroostook County to continue to look for ways to prevent out-migration.
That is a question that was discussed as 60 educators, businesspeople, economic development officials and other concerned individuals met at the Northern Maine Community College May 1 for an overview of a new “Education to Industry” initiative, spearheaded by the Aroostook Partnership for Progress (APP).
“Collaboration is the future of education,” said Tim Doak, SAD 27/AOS 95 superintendent and member of the APP working group developing the Education to Industry strategy.
Doak was one of four featured speakers, which included APP President and CEO Bob Dorsey; Mark Wilcox of Dead River Company and chairman of Junior Achievement in Aroostook County; and Ryan Pelletier, executive director of LEADers Encouraging Aroostook Development.
Dorsey opened up the breakfast meeting outlining the sense of urgency and why an “Education to Industry” is needed.
“The 18- to 44-year-old population in Aroostook County is at 29 percent, down from 42 percent in 1990,” he said. “Economists tell us this is unsustainable from a business standpoint. We will not have enough young people to fill future jobs. To increase our future workforce, we will need to retain and attract people to our area and, from a retention perspective, the best way to start is to better link businesses with educators.”
The foundation of the initiative is to encourage more mentoring, job shadowing and internships for students to get them more aware of what is available in the region, but that will not happen without assistance from employers and willing high schools in Aroostook, according to Dorsey.
Wilcox’s presentation focused on how Junior Achievement (JA) is expanding and how it could play a role in assisting in the effort. JA is volunteer-delivered, kindergarten-12th grade programs to foster work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills, and use experiential learning to inspire students to dream big and reach their potential.
“We never say no to anything,” said Wilcox. “If an educator calls us with an idea we will work with them to bring this training to their students.”
JA also has an already established job shadow curriculum, which can be adapted to fit specific school and business requests.
Pelletier said after the meeting, “I believe this is the first step in a process to provide sustainable and meaningful change with our business and education leaders working together. This campaign to grow our 18- 44-year-old population is critical to our future economic survival in Aroostook County and it was fantastic to see educators and business leaders sharing and collaborating on how we move forward.”
Dorsey added this initial meeting is just a precursor to a larger summit on “Education to Industry” tentatively planned for early August. He said over the spring and early summer an agenda for the summit will be finalized, a strategic plan/action plan identifying county-wide objectives and goals will be crafted and a review of the JA job shadow program to see how it can be adapted to meet expectations and needs. Other work that needs to be done includes gathering suggestions and information from businesses on a suggested approach and possible constraints. Dorsey said the two superintendents on the working group, Doak and Frank McElwain of RSU 39, will also have to be engaged with their counterparts.
“Above all we need to set realistic expectations for this initiative, make it simple for both businesses and school and enduring,” he said.
For more information on the “Education to Industry” initiative, call Dorsey at 498-8736 or e-mail rdorsey@nmdc.org.
