A Message from Chamber President Dennis Goldstrand:

Chamber's education forum is big success

MARCH 2009  - On February 4th, the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce convened a Vocational Education Forum for the express purpose of bringing together the diverse groups who have a keen interest in furthering vocational education in our county. There were 80 representatives in attendance from public school districts, public and private colleges and vocational schools, agencies involved in employment and training, industry associations and many business leaders.

I thank all of the participants, especially our business leaders, for taking their time on this important endeavor. During the breakout sessions, the business and educational leaders discussed how we can provide more effective career and technical education to students so they are prepared for productive careers. This forum was critical to the Chamber’s goal of strengthening our partnerships with our educational institutions for the betterment of our workforce.

As you may know, the issue of vocational education is one of my main initiatives during my year as your president. I had heard from the business community that one of their critical needs to operate successfully in our community was to have access to a sufficient number of educated, trained and responsible employees.

The educational community and public agencies had a strong interest in further developing vocational programs and a desire to know how they could work with employers. However, there was no connection or communication between all the interested parties. This is the reason we had the forum.

At the beginning of the program, we had self introductions by everyone, in which they not only gave their name, title and the organization they represented, but also stated their interest in being there or the current programs they have in place. It was valuable for all to not only see but hear who was there.

The tables during the breakout session were diversified by all areas and districts and always had at least one business leader. The exchange of ideas was remarkable. We asked each table to address one of the following questions:

 What can be done to better connect education with business and manufacturing?

 What should educators know about your industry’s employment needs?

 What key strengths do you look for in new employees?

 What can be done to better prepare today’s students to become responsible employees?

 What can be done to help educational instructors better prepare students for future employment?

 What opportunities can be provided for educators to gain knowledge of your business’ employment needs?

 What can the BEA (Business Education Alliance) Committee do to enhance the relationship between business and education?

 What should the next step be for the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce in terms of facilitating communication between education and business and industry?

Our Vocational Education initiative will continue under the Chamber’s Business Education Alliance (BEA) committee, lead by co-chairs, Dr. Hazel Hill and Mr. Bill Harr.

With their strong leadership, this process will continue to develop, resulting in stronger partnership between education, agencies and business. If you are interested in participating, please let myself, the co-chairs or Frank Ferral know.