Guest View - 5/29/2010
Newport Daily News 06/14/2010, Page A01
GUEST VIEW
Career mentoring helps economy
Newport County initiative will link high school students, businesses
By Chris Semonelli
Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and Keith Stokes deserve to be commended for the direction that was articulated in their Guest View column, “Entrepreneurs need a boost,” in the May 26 Newport Daily News.
The honorable Gov. Carcieri and Mr. Stokes, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp., identified three critical initiatives to accelerate the state’s economic recovery: improving access to capital, aligning our workforce development efforts and removing regulatory burdens. I am in total agreement with their recommendations and commend them on the identified positive actions that they and their administration have taken to turn the corner and pull this great state out of its economic doldrums. I also commend Mr . Carcieri’s choice of Mr.
Stokes as executive director of the RIEDC.
I would like to offer a tool that would enhance the “alignment of our work-force development efforts,” item No. 2 of their three suggestions. I feel this would be vital to the long-term growth of the great state of Rhode Island and necessary to grow technological and relevant jobs and careers in our state. This tool is in the process of development in Newport County and also could serve as a model for the rest of the state. A co-op/mentor program is in development that will align businesses in Newport County and the four area public high schools as well as the East Bay MET School. Monthly meetings have been attended for a year by representatives from the Rogers, Middletown, Portsmouth and Tiverton high schools and the MET School. In addition, representatives from Salve Regina University and the Naval Station Newport school liaison officer have been in attendance. I am a member of this co-op group.
Overview presentations have been given to the Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth and Jamestown Rotary clubs and the Newport County Chamber of Commerce. The purpose of these meetings was to obtain business feedback on the program while it is in the design stages.
The program also has been presented to the state Department of Education, which has provided great feedback.
Currently, Rogers High School students are developing a Web site that will be used as a portal for communication between businesses in Newport County and our area schools. The mentor concept actually exists in Pennsylvania; the Web site is www.there gionalinternshipcenter.org/.
The theory behind the program is to educate the juniors and seniors of the area high schools to a basic level of proficiency to allow them to contribute to businesses, work with businesses to identify co-op/mentor opportunities and provide a direction for their future studies. These studies could lead to the college level or they may just as well lead to a highly successful technical or vocational skill.
The educational study aspect of the program will be modeled after the governor’s greatly successful WOW (World of Work) program supported by the state Department of Labor and Training. I understand that this program will be discontinued, but I feel it should not be discontinued but expanded across Newport County. The speed at which our knowledge base is expanding necessitates the need to better link our business environments with our school systems. We must integrate our high school students into the available business opportunities and allow them to identify fields of interest, which will perhaps alleviate the burden on our schools and already-overburdened teachers, as a student with a direction is much more productive.
It is extremely important to develop and integrate our high school students into the present arena of business opportunities and at the same time allow them to start to identify future careers.
Chris Semonelli is president of the Middletown Town Council.
