Local group launches new $3 million STEM education initiative

(September 25, 2007)

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — An education initiative called “Future Jobs,” costing more than $3 million in its first phase, will help increase significantly the number of local applicants qualified for new technology jobs in Clark and Greene counties, the initiative's organizers said Thursday.

An innovative collaboration of colleges, secondary educators and employers created Future Jobs. It focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. Funding comes from $1 million appropriated by the Ohio State Legislature this year and another $2 million being raised by Future Jobs from the private sector.

The employer-driven program is the first of its kind in Ohio. Leaders in state government hope it will be a model for other communities where there is a mismatch between the available workforce and job openings requiring technical or scientific education. Bill Pardue, chairman of Future Jobs and chief executive officer of Qbase, added that Future Jobs will coordinate closely its highly focused STEM effort with more regionally based STEM efforts being led by EDvention and the Dayton Development Coalition.

Students at five colleges participating in the first phase of Future Jobs will work toward certificates and undergraduate and graduate degrees in information technologies related to healthcare and also imaging diagnostics, such as topographical mapping.

Clark State Community College, Wittenberg University, Central State University, Cedarville University and the University of Dayton are the initial higher education partners. The City of Springfield Schools and Clark-Shawnee School District also are participating.

Employers leading the effort are Qbase, a data management and analytics company based in Clark and Greene counties; Woolpert, an engineering and geo-spatial imaging firm headquartered in Greene County; the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association; the Sensors Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory; and YSI, a Greene County company with solutions for the life sciences and protection of natural resources.

Before Thursday’s announcement, Future Jobs already had raised almost $1 million, or about half of the private fundraising goal, said Pardue. "The community has rallied strongly behind this initiative," he said. Contributors include The Turner Foundation of Springfield.

Qbase will move its Clark County operations early next year into a new technology park, NextEdge. Finding enough qualified software engineers, statisticians and research scientists in the Dayton area for Qbase’s specialized needs is proving tough, Pardue said, despite offering total median compensation of more than $90,000 annually. Future Jobs will help expand programs with the University of Dayton Research Institute and others to place graduate students, scientists and interns at NextEdge, he added.

The situation is similar at Woolpert. “This program will help us fill such positions as 40 jobs in imaging production for which we currently can’t find qualified applicants in our region," said Shane Imwalle, Woolpert executive vice president and a member of the Future Jobs Board of Directors. “Right now, those jobs are going more often to our offices in Denver and Orlando.” Woolpert will collaborate with Clark State to design new coursework next year in geo-spatial imaging.

Future Jobs also expects to help finance Central State coursework that includes environmental engineering, with a focus on issues affecting human health, Imwalle said. A second phase of Future Jobs, not yet funded, would expand the program elsewhere in the Dayton Region, he said.

Earlier this year, the group that became Future Jobs worked with state legislators to design and initially finance the program. Sen. Steve Austria and Reps. Chris Widener and Ross McGregor, from Clark and Greene counties, spearheaded the efforts.

Other Future Jobs leaders include its vice chairs, President Mark Erickson of Wittenberg and President John Garland of Central State. At a conference at Wittenberg on Thursday, attended by more than 200 people, Rep. Jon Husted, speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, shared details of other STEM initiatives under way across Ohio.

Lt. Gen. Terry Gabreski, vice commander, Air Force Materiel Command, and the highest ranking woman in the U.S. Air Force, spoke to a group of 70 school children attending the event and stressed in her remarks the importance of STEM education at the earliest levels, as well as encouraging students to pursue those goals. The future workforce in the Air Force needs expertise across a broad range of technologies, including the fields targeted by Future Jobs, she said.

Future Job’s education partners will design their own coursework and curriculum, after consulting with employers. The Future Jobs Board will lead fundraising and track the initiative’s progress against metrics and milestones established in collaboration with legislative leaders and the Ohio Board of Regents.

Jim Leftwich, Chief Operating Officer of the Dayton Development Coalition, highlighted Future Jobs’ sharp focus. “The jobs we need to fill today and in the future are critical not only for rapidly growing businesses,” Leftwich said, “but also strategically. In conjunction with our regional programs, Future Jobs will help build this region’s workforce in targeted growth sectors such as advanced data management, human sciences and aerospace research and development.”