Connecting Business and Academics at the State Level

College programs, students and employers aren’t the only beneficiaries of shrinking the gap between what schools teach and businesses need. In Georgia, it could benefit the entire state.

In April, Georgia’s Department of Economic Development held its first meeting of the High Demand Career Initiative, a program launched by Gov. Nathan Deal and led by the department’s commissioner, Chris Carr.

“Whenever I talk to a company, workforce development somehow pops up in every conversation,” said Carr, who started in November 2013. The same happened when he talked with public universities and the state’s technical colleges, so the governor tasked Carr and his department with bringing together the private sector and public higher education systems.

Similar to the Business Practices Council set up by the international Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, Carr’s initiative focuses on finding out what companies in Georgia will need their employees to know to be successful. They do so by holding meetings where business leaders present their skill requirements to the heads of the state’s university system and technical colleges. 

Ron Jackson, commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia, said he learns from businesses involved in these meetings what his programs need to teach students now and in five to 10 years. “It’s important for myself and the chancellor of the university system for our post-secondary systems to understand where they’re having challenges with their workforces now and what kinds of jobs they’re going to need in the future so we can make our plans for programming,” he said.

For example, the Kia Motors Corp. plant in West Point, Georgia, does most of its welding using robots. Therefore, in the next few years it will need more employees with knowledge of robotics and mechatronics, skills that Jackson’s schools can start providing.

More on-point education at all levels, including technical and business schooling, helps the state in two ways, Carr said. First, it makes Georgia residents aware of the way state-run learning institutions prepare students for the future. Second, it makes the state more attractive to companies because it shows people taught there have the skills needed to succeed in business.

“We’re doing this to find out what the state can do in a proactive and constructive way,” Carr said. “That’s going to be our big challenge … showing the long-term commitment that the state will make toward workforce development.”

This article appeared as a sidebar to Chief Learning Officer's September feature, "Shrinking the Business School Skills Gap."