Governor's Technology Workforce Summit

Top Priorities Identified at Summit

1. Encourage cooperation and articulation between universities, colleges, and school districts.
Improve articulation between the state's community colleges and universities. Build a clear system of articulation between skills standards-based programs, technical degrees, Associate of Science, Computer Science and Engineering Degrees. Promote cooperation and articulation agreements that allow for multiple entry points into high tech education programs and careers. The system should be flexible enough so that every citizen who wants a high tech education can have access to the educational system. Provide funding incentives for innovative articulation agreements and cooperative arrangements between educational institutions at all levels.
2. Create a faculty recruitment and retention fund to give community colleges and universities greater ability to recruit and retain top faculty with technology education and experience.
Develop a mechanism for allocating resources from the fund based on the institution's ability to meet demand for technology education.
3. Dramatically expand Bachelors and graduate capacity in technical fields. Establish graduation goals for each education level/skill group.
4. Develop K12 career pathways in technology fields.
Strengthen and expand the K-12 pipeline of future high tech professional development by increasing interest and competency in science, math and fluency in information technology in the k12 system.
5. Faculty training and professional development.
Bring business people from technology industries into classrooms. Provide internships/fellowships for faculty to work in technology companies.
6. Establish internship, mentoring programs to provide experience and educational opportunities for students in high tech companies.
7. Expand distance learning opportunities for certifications and degrees.
8. Expand market based program development grants (grant requiring a private sector match) for infrastructure needed for starting up new university and community college courses.
Utilize high demand FTEs to expand capacity in high demand fields. Give high demand FTEs to universities who redirect a comparable number of FTEs to high demand fields from other fields.
9. Provide financial aid to students who wish to enter high technology fields.
Ensure that every citizen who wants a high tech education can have access. Improve outreach programs to interest -students in high tech careers and retention programs to help them continue high tech programs when they run into problems.
10. Leverage the bully pulpit.
Take every opportunity to help the state's citizens understand how a knowledge-based economy benefits them, and what their children need to do to prepare for it.
11. Outreach to students

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