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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 22, 2013
Strategic Workforce Development Summit on Friday (4/26)
Norman Augustine, retired chair of Lockheed Martin, American Red Cross and National Academy of Engineering, to deliver keynote at RI STEM Center’s annualconference at Rhode Island College. Sen. Jack Reed and Rick Brooks of Governor’s Workforce Board also to speak
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The RI STEM Center at Rhode Island College is hosting a Strategic Workforce Development Summit onFriday (April 26) to discuss how best to prepare today’s middle and high school students for the workforce of 2020 and beyond.
“Issues and action steps for workforce development in Rhode Island have been identified,” said Mary M. Sullivan, director of the RI Stem Center. “Short-term proposals are underway. This summit addresses the workforce of 2020 and beyond, an overlooked population.”
This summit will allow representatives from business, education, government and other communities “to take advantage of a unique opportunity to collaborate about preparation of future employees while they are in middle and high school,” Sullivan said.
The keynote address will be presented by Norman Augustine, the retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, former chairman and principal officer of the American Red Cross, former chairman of the National Academy of Engineering and former under-Secretary of the Army.
Augustine was chairperson of the committee that produced the “Rising above the Gathering Storm” report in 2005 and the committee that revisited the report in 2010. His background in STEM supported an extensive career in education, business and military endeavors.
An update on current efforts by the state will be given by Rick Brooks of the Governor’s Workforce Board.
Sen. Jack Reed and others also will speak during the summit.
One section of the conference will be devoted to an interactive breakout session called “Defining and Developing Workforce Competencies.”
The summit will beheld Friday, April 26, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Rhode Island College, 600 Mount Pleasant Ave., Providence, in Alger Hall, Room 110.
