PA Embarking -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 7/13/2001
Last Visited: 7/13/2001
Recently , I had the great fortune of speaking with two people in Pennsylvania who remove obstacles and barriers from our technical progress : Kevin Lane of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and Paul Roos of the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania.
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Moving a little closer to home , ( my home anyway ) I spoke with Paul Roos , the President and CEO of Harrisburg's own Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania.The immediate issue Paul sees facing central PA is work force development.We need to build a larger and stronger work force.Together we need the cooperation of business , government and academia to define and execute a three tier plan to ensure the right curriculum is offered and at the same time make sure that government is enabling those businesses to thrive..Paul sees combating the loss of technology workers to other states as a high priority for the government.He also spoke about new state-funded scholarships for technology graduates that either stay in Pennsylvania after graduation or move in from out of state upon earning a degree in a technical discipline.Paul added , We need to grow from within and from outside Pennsylvania.We need to demonstrate a strong technology workforce to attract technology companies..
To place central Pennsylvania in a more competitivearena nationally , Paul and his organization have developed a similar path and agenda to Pittsburgh.
Paul said , There are four things we need to focus on today to become world leaders in technology : We need to hold regular , technology-specific job fairs as frequently as we can.We need to raise the awareness of technology companies and people in the area.We need to promote as many internships in the technology sector as the community can bear and , we need to start younger to build an awareness of what technology careers are available in PA!.
The Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania has been hard at work to make all four of the above mandates happen.There are sub-committees in place to heighten the awareness of the general population of PA by focusing on the image of technology in Pennsylvania.There is also a committee that has been focused on bringing the possibilities of a career in technology to the school children ( K-12 ) throughout central Pennsylvania.