Thursday morning at the Portage University Center in Portage, IN, a group of people gathered. It was the first ever Business Education Panel hosted by the Education Committee of the Portage Economic Development Corporation (PEDCO). Business owners, educators, and prominent members of the Portage and surrounding communities sat in a classroom and discussed the future of educational success and issues of the current workforce in Northwest Indiana.
The goal of the panel was to have an open discussion between the educational and business leaders to find ways to prepare the community’s youth for their futures. Talks were lead by Linda Woloshansky, President and CEO of The Center of Workforce Innovations and Diane Thalmann, Manager Economic Development at NIPSCO and the PEDCO Education Committee Chairman.
In attendance were faculty and staff from the Portage Township Schools such as Superintendent Dr. E. Ric Frataccia, Mary Tracy, David Harman, Caren Swickard, and Jennifer Sass. Principal DJ Knotts from New Vistas High School and Jon Groth, Director of Career and Technical Education at the Porter County Career and Technical Center were there as well. From the business community came representatives from Fronius USA, Carmeuse Lime and Stone, PYRO Industrial Services, PSC Machining, Trans-United Hauling, Monosol, NLMK Indiana and several members of PEDCO’s board of directors.
“Our goal is to have students prepared so that when they go out into the real world they know how to fill out a resume and they know what’s required in the job market,” James Fitzer, Executive Director for PEDCO said. “So today the educators are sharing information with the business community, and the business community is sharing with the educators. Today we’ve had a great dialogue between both sides to discuss steps that we can take to better prepare our students.”
The panel talked about ways that the teachers in schools can be better informed about outside businesses, ways to remove the negative stigma about vocational classes and other related topics as well.
October 4, 2013 is National Manufacturing Day. Manufactures from all over the country participate in this day with the purpose of highlighting the importance and of manufacturing to the nation’s economy and draw attention to the great jobs that are offered within the manufacturing industry. The ultimate goal for the panel is to tie what they are doing now with National Manufacturing Day. There will be an event taking place at the University Center on October 4, 2013 that will bring businesses and manufacturers from all over NWI under one roof to create a combined effort to reach out to students and community members.
“We want to show that there are great things being manufactured in Portage and that there are career opportunities for them within our community. There are good paying jobs right here,” Fitzer said. “This was a great start for our program and hopefully we’ll learn from this and more forward throughout the year.”
For more information on PEDCO and their plans for the bright future of Portage, IN visit www.portagein.org or call 219-762-9761.