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Conference discusses need for skilled workers to develop knowledge-based industry Thursday, Feb 14, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Incentives recently helped Arkansas retain a business in the knowledge-based industry that economic development officials are working to develop, but skilled workers will be necessary to hold on to and attract other businesses in the industry, experts said Wednesday. Money preliminarily approved for dispersal from Gov. Mike Beebe's quick-action closing fund last month enticed a nanotechnology firm courted by other states to stay in Northwest Arkansas, state officials said. Beebe's office said the due diligence is not yet complete. Neither Beebe's office nor state economic development chief Maria Haley would release the name of the business. "Other states have come to them offering them free lab space and offering them all sorts of incentives, and when we found out about it, that's when we decided to go and get some moneys from the governor's quick-action closing fund to help," Haley, director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said Wednesday in an interview following a panel discussion at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's fourth annual conference on regionalism. This year's conference focused on developing a knowledgeable and skilled work force to not only replace the retiring baby boomer population, but also to develop higher-paying jobs in Arkansas in an effort to boost per-capita income. Arkansas currently ranks 49th nationally in per capita income. To raise earnings for Arkansans, Beebe, Haley and other officials say the state must better educate its people. The state has historically ranked at or near the bottom nationally in the percentage of college-educated adults. Without an educated work force, knowledge-based and technology companies don't have a pool of job candidates from which to draw, official said. "Right now, in Little Rock, (Dassault Falcon Jet and Hawker Beechcraft) need 150 skilled people and we cannot find them in the state," Haley said. The two companies are part of the state's aerospace and aviation industry, which is the state's largest exporter. The jobs pay an average starting salary between $50,000 and $60,000 a year, Haley said. "If we don't try and take care of the needs of existing industry, then yes, we can always be in danger of losing them," Haley said, although Arkansas is in no imminent danger of losing the businesses, she said. The problem is indicative of the state's overall struggle in transitioning from an economy centered on manufacturing to one focused on better-paying technology and knowledge-based jobs, she said. The solution will be a combination of a number of initiatives, ranging from extending the school day and school year as well as boosting educational requirements for students to instilling a better work ethic and improving "soft skills" among Arkansans, panelists said. "This transition period is already started and it will continue until 2020 because you need to reinvent the education-to-employment system," said keynote speaker Edward Gordon, an internationally recognized writer, researcher, speaker and consultant on the future of America's and the world's work force. "You need to now reinvent that system so that you'll produce more, better educated young people as well as retain older workers in these different areas of service, manufacturing and industry that revolve around technology," Gordon said. But just building a work force prepared for knowledge-based jobs does not mean those jobs will come to the state, panelists said. The state also will have to invest in and grow those businesses to allow them to start-up in Arkansas. "We're going to have to invest in growing our own if we're ever going to be successful in trying to catch up in this business of knowledge-based and technology-based businesses," said Jay Chesshir, president of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. Last week, Beebe announced $4 million in state funds each for UALR's Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology building, and for research and facilities for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville's College of Engineering and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Those programs train students in information technology and systems engineering in computer, construction and other high-tech fields, as well as nanotechnology. "I think we need to begin to shift our balance of investment more towards (those) kind of investments," said John Ahlen, president of the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority. |
