It is a pleasure to be here today for this important meeting of the Executive Advisory Board on Higher Education. The EAB is a wonderful example of the kind of collaboration and partnership that is fueling our renaissance and reinvigorating our County with a spirit of optimism and opportunity. This partnership of educators, business, and government creates momentum that is critical to remaining competitive both at home and abroad.
The development of a quality workforce is the first priority of any business community in today’s economy. In Baltimore County we are working tirelessly to achieve this goal. The EAB is an invaluable resource in reaching this objective, and I would like to take a moment to thank Dr. Kevin Manning and all the members of the EAB for your participation in this endeavor.
The EAB is an important tool for economic development in Baltimore County. This group serves as a forum for business, education, and government to meet, consider, and develop solutions to the challenges of today’s economy—solutions designed to ensure success for our students, success for our businesses, and success for our neighborhoods. By bringing businesses, educators, and government together in a single forum, the EAB is able to try to work out the needs of tomorrow’s workforce and collaborate with our County’s educational institutions to create and support curriculum and programs that will prepare today’s students to be tomorrow’s workforce.
In 2001, the EAB collaborated with the local Interactive Technology Industry to discuss how higher education could support their workforce needs. Through a partnership formed by the EAB, the Community College of Baltimore County and the University of Baltimore were able to combine courses at both schools to establish a program that would begin with two years of community college and finish with two years at UB culminating in a Bachelor’s Degree in Simulation and Digital Entertainment. Thanks to this partnership, the very first graduates of this innovative program are now coming out of UB armed with a very marketable degree.
This past October, the EAB and Baltimore County’s Department of Economic Development followed this model again and organized a focus group of five area pharmaceutical companies to discuss in depth the skills needed for their workforce and possible curriculum that would prepare today’s students for those jobs. These suggestions were sent out to local colleges, and through communication with both educators and employers, the EAB is able to show the pharmaceutical companies what courses are already available and show educators what courses are still needed.
As technology continues to become more important in our society, careers related to Science, Math, and Engineering require skills that are essential for success in the job market. Recognizing that students must begin learning those skills well before college, the EAB has taken an interest in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Academy at Chesapeake High School that began this past fall. Following a presentation to the EAB by the principal, the Education Subcommittee of the EAB is now formulating some proposals for supporting this innovative program that will be presented for consideration in March.
The EAB is currently working with businesses throughout the County to meet the challenge of anticipating the needs of the BRAC realignment. By working together with the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board, local colleges, and businesses, the EAB is working to create the educational preparation and courses needed to prepare our workforce for this tremendous opportunity.
The EAB’s workforce conference last summer featured guest speaker Thomas Friedman, author of the groundbreaking book The World is Flat. That conference sought to make the educators and employers of Baltimore County understand that Baltimore County’s workforce exists in a global community and must be prepared to react to it.
As Mr. Friedman noted in his presentation last summer, our workforce no longer competes with workers in neighboring states like New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia, but with the global workforce from distant locations like China, India, and Russia. The advance of technology is making our global community an increasingly smaller one, and policies must reflect our understanding of the flat world that Mr. Friedman spoke about so eloquently. President Bill Clinton once said, “Globalization is not something we can hold off or turn off ... it is the economic equivalent of a force of nature—like wind or water.” It is not a question of whether or not we prepare our workforce to compete in this global community, but how we go about preparing both the workforce of the future and the workforce of the present to compete in the global community.
In short, preparing for globalization is no longer a choice, but a requirement for economic survival. And the preparation for a competitive workforce begins early—in grades K-12. Baltimore County is home to some of the most educated employees in the state, thanks to its outstanding public schools. To keep up with the demands of the global economy, we must ensure that our school system prepares our students to compete with the best and brightest in the world. Our schools need state-of-the-art facilities and resources. We must continue to offer innovative programs, such as the STEM Academy, that prepare our students for the jobs of today as well as tomorrow.
Baltimore County must also continue to support our colleges and universities. Outstanding post-secondary educational opportunities are invaluable tools for attracting, developing, and retaining the best workforce possible for our County. We must ensure that we work with our business and education communities to develop innovative additions to institutions of higher education, such as the UMBC Research Center and the new Towson University business incubator—programs that promise to prepare our students for the challenging jobs of tomorrow and provide our businesses today with the resources they need to grow and expand. The challenge is to meet the immediate needs of our economy with full recognition that those needs are constantly changing in response to new technology and global events.
That challenge is what makes the EAB so important. By bringing the businesses, government, and educators of Baltimore County together in this forum, we work together to create innovative and comprehensive strategies that will maintain the momentum necessary to energize Baltimore County’s thriving economy. I look forward to hearing your ideas and working with all of you to create a better Baltimore County in the months and years to come.
Courthouse 