Educational Resources for Stark County Businesses

Business

Education is key to future business success

Business leaders are able to see a return on investment when they get involved in education. They need schools to help prepare students for an ever-more-sophisticated work future, a future driven by technology that is advancing at an amazing rate. Schools, colleges and universities need businesses to help them direct educational programs for 21st century learners and workers. Schools, colleges and universities in Stark County have shown a willingness to respond to the needs of business.

The social investment: Creating more haves than have-nots

Enlightened business leaders, as citizens and taxpayers, also have a high level of concern for the success of our schools because education determines the future shape of society. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan described that concern in an interview for the Feb. 1, 2010, issue of New Yorker magazine. He said, in part:

“Education predicts disparities in life chances, outcomes, life income, and the disparity has never been starker. … Educational opportunity increasingly divides the have and the have-nots, who’s contributing to society and who’s a weight on the society.”

Get involved in your schools

Businesses throughout Stark County take time to become partners with schools, colleges and universities. They do so through service on advisory boards. They participate in career days that help students understand the world of work. They emphasize the development of “soft skills” such as teamwork, individual responsibility, punctuality, dedication to a job and a company, professional appearance and behavior. Often schools turn to their local or regional Chamber of Commerce to help them connect with businesses willing to help. School districts can and do build these connections for themselves by looking around their community and identifying the businesses that have a stake in the success of their students. One good way for a business to take the initiative is to contact its local school board or superintendent and offer to help.

One example of business involvement

Business leaders also help schools, colleges and universities understand the kinds of talents that future employees need. One way that schools use this information to change curriculum is through the Stark County College Tech Prep Consortium. The consortium helps schools to offer curriculums of rigor and relevance as they prepare students for college through a course of studies that emphasizes technical education. This technical education covers a wide range of subjects, from business and finance to engineering, from medical technology to information technology. The consortium’s participating schools rely on a network of employers to advise them.

Involvement in public colleges, university and workforce development

Statewide, The Ohio Skills Bank is attempting to identify critical talent needs in business and find ways for state colleges, universities and workforce development organizations to help meet those needs. This effort is targeted to specific markets throughout Ohio. The Skills Bank effort that serves Stark County is centered at Stark State College of Technology, and it is directed from the Ohio Department of Development Region 9 office in Akron.

Stark Education Partnership and P-16, a forum for collaboration

For 20 years, leaders of business and charitable foundations in our community have reached out to work with educators on improving the educational system in Stark County. This effort created the Education Enhancement Partnership 1989, later renamed the Stark Education Partnership and its P-16 Compact. The three major goals of P-16 today are:

to encourage the rising rates of high school graduation

to push for more high school student involvement in dual credit and other programs that will allow them to earn college credit while still in high school

to monitor the rising rate of college attendance in Stark County.

Retaining talent through involvement in the community

Once businesses have identified talented people to help their companies succeed, businesses need to retain that talent. What factors, other than job opportunities, are helping young professionals to integrate themselves into this community? To see an answer to that question, take this link to ystark!, the young professionals networking and service organization that now communicates with nearly 1,000 YPs in the area. Better yet, send the ystark! link to the young professionals in your organization whom you value the most.