Four local political leaders gathered at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Colonie on Wednesday, Feb. 11, to discuss ways in which their communities can join forces to stimulate the workforce in the Capital District.
Albany County Executive Michael Breslin, Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino, City of Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings and Chairman of the Schoharie Board of Supervisors Earl Van Wormer gathered for the panel discussion, moderated by WMHT-TV’s New York Now Host Susan Arbetter.
Arbetter asked questions about what is being done to promote a better workforce that attracts non-Capital District residents to relocate to the area, as well as keep those who are ready to leave here in place.
The beginning of the hourlong panel discussion was focused on Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, a global computing circuits and communications company that is planning for its Malta facility to be operational by the year 2012. The company expects to employ nearly 1,465 and will be receiving about $1.2 billion in state funding.
Arbetter asked Jimino how she would keep big companies, like AMD, attracted to the area despite other local businesses crumbling before them.
`If we can help our existing businesses to succeed, they will know that we can provide them with what they need,` Jimino said.
Jennings emphasized the benefits of having a company like AMD in the area.
`We want new development, we want new jobs,` he said. `We don’t want to take any from any other community.`
Arbetter, addressing Breslin, also asked, `What are you doing to ensure workers in Albany County are ready to work in big companies like AMD?`
Breslin focused on the training of the workers in the county, talking about a bridge that needs to be built between the educational realm and the employment realm.
`[We need to] get our companies and schools hooked up to one another,` he said. Breslin also said that, `the high-tech jobs don’t resonate with a lot of people,` and that by training workers to be prepared with big companies like AMD, they will be more successful in their positions.
Arbetter followed up with questions that pressed the panel to consider whether the region’s students are mostly aware in areas of technology, and whether the officials think there needs to be a stronger push for students to be educated in a more technology-geared way.
Do you think many students, she asked, drive past the Nanotechnology College and ask, `What the heck is in there?`
Jennings replied, `This state needs to be more competitive ` bottom line.`
Jennings said there are two major issues in urban America: the first being how to change the template of urban education, and the second being how to revitalize urban communities.
`We’re not like suburbia,` he said. Jennings also said he is hoping some of President Barack Obama’s 2009 Stimulus Package will be able to help Albany in these two areas.
Van Wormer, who answered Arbetter’s next question, which asked what he was going to do to attract younger generations to the area, first responded to Jennings’ response, saying that the distance between the Capital District’s suburban and urban areas is minimal and that it is important that that thought is taken to mind so that the urban and suburban areas can bind together to achieve workforce development that will help all of the area’s residents.
We have a lot of residents that work over in Albany, he said, and a lot of them work in Schoharie County.
`We really will do much better if we begin to partner together,` he said.
Switching gears, Arbetter asked Breslin, `How can we leverage downstate immigrant populations to help us upstate?`
Breslin said that this is something he has not given a lot of thought to, but that if there was skill and talent that exists in the immigrant population downstate, `I would try to do my damnedest to get them here.“