Developing Local Talent

Published in the Culpeper Star Exponent
Monday, February 6, 2012

A few highlights from the Chamber. As I mentioned in an earlier column, meetings at the Chamber can be good, sometimes great, and other times amazing.

Our Major Industry Council met last week and discussed what was on their mind as business leaders in Culpeper. Most of them are globally positioned and yet very focused on helping the local community. The message of their efforts is often unseen and yet there is a special quality about our business community leaders. They are very generous in time and resources to help Culpeper shine as a community.

The group opened with the question, how was 2011? We went around the room and each leader indicated positive results for 2011. More importantly the outlook for 2012 is also positive. We hear reports of economic challenges and yet, it seems that Culpeper has chosen not to participate in the negative news. This is great news on the job front as well. There seems to be stability in jobs for the larger employers and possibly new jobs in 2012 and 2013.

On the subject of jobs, there was a discussion about the need for vocational training for jobs that may not necessarily need a full college education. There is an opportunity for high school students to work with Germanna Community College in vocational training aimed at working for local manufacturers in maintenance, machine operators, and other technical manufacturing job fields. These are usually well paid positions with large companies.

The subject of vocational education seems to be coming up more and more in my travels. There is a return to the thinking that career paths do not all need to lead to a traditional four year educational degree. Rather, there are tools today that help identify skills and talents early in order to reveal options that may be more interesting and productive for this workforce of tomorrow. Our business leaders are interested in seeing local talent develop and find jobs locally. Germanna is a critical educational bridge from local High School to local employment.

On another note, we have been planning the Professional Development Conference. The program is set for this Thursday February 9th from 8:00 am – 4:15 pm @ Germanna’s Daniel Technology Center. Our Non-Profits and Small Businesses are in for a great conference. The sessions and tracks are lead by local and regional subject matter experts on some very unique topics. I hope that you will join us to take advantage of CEU’s offered by Germanna as well. Go to www.ProfessionalDevelopmentConference.com to register.

Finally, there is a special FEMA Town Hall meeting hosted thru the Chamber of Commerce for Business and Community regarding Earth Quake Relief Resources. The program is free and will be held at the Depot at Noon today Monday February 6th. Please go to CulpeperChamber.com and click on FEMA for details and downloadable information.