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Welcome Putting the Business Back in Business Retention SmartBusiness – The Smart Way to Help Halifax Businesses Relationship-Building and Business Retention Making the Most of Statewide Business Retention, Expansion, and Modernization Efforts Chicago’s New Direction: Leading the Race in Global High-Performance Manufacturing Five “Musts” for Business Incubator Success Growing and Keeping Your Region’s College-Educated Workers Learning to Learn: What to Do Different in the New Modern World Competing in a Global Age: New Skills for Our Nation’s Students Business Retention on a Budget: Billings’ BEAR Program Leverages Volunteers  Subscribe
About Economic Development America
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Competing in a Global Age: New Skills for Our Nation’s Students (cont.)
While improving math and science skills among U.S. students remains critically important – and has been the subject of wide public attention – just as important, according to the report, is the need to promote international knowledge and language skills for all students, not just a select few. The report calls on business leaders, educators and policy makers to expand public and philanthropic investments in international education and language programs. Leadership from the business sector is needed both for the sake of our students and for the future health and competitiveness of American business.
Major global companies based in the U.S. have long been supporters of school reforms based on standards and accountability. In today’s economy, cities and municipalities, regional economic development authorities and states can no longer look only at their neighbors to judge whether they are making the grade. Our educational and training systems must be benchmarked to world-class standards. Until recently, the need for global competencies was not part of the debate over leadership skills. In the past, complex international transactions were the domain of diplomats and international policy and business experts. But a new trend is emerging as policy and business leaders focus attention on the link between their local, state or regional economies and international trade, and the growing demand for workers who can approach problems with a broad worldview. As the business sector recognizes its growing and necessary role in ensuring that our students have the skills they need to thrive in an international economy, they will contribute to the growth of a globally competent workforce.
Leadership from a diverse range of sectors is an essential component of an urgent national educational and workforce response to globalization: • Governors, economic development leaders and state legislators must play a leading role. As states and regional trade groups seek to position themselves for success in the global economy, governors, commerce and state education officials should work together to integrate knowledge of other world cultures, entrepreneurship and global affairs into education standards, assessments, teacher preparation and lifelong training system requirements. Trade initiatives must include careful analysis of how students can meet new demands for international, entrepreneurial and inter-cultural skills. • Business leaders and philanthropies should ask policymakers to emphasize the importance of international knowledge and skills and help schools to scale-up innovative programs. Corporate philanthropy is well positioned to play an essential part in encouraging giving that supports international studies, world languages and technology-enabled exchanges which link students in the U.S. to peers throughout the world. Model educational and skills building programs such as the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship are trying to fill this gap by preparing young people from low-income communities to work with peers from around the globe while enhancing their business, academic and life skills. The International Studies Schools Network, a group of urban secondary schools in eight U.S. cities funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is preparing students for college and competition in the global marketplace by integrating international learning and “projectbased” performance outcomes across the curriculum. It is another example of a fresh approach to education that economic development leaders can point to as a new way to prepare for globalization. • The federal departments of State, Defense, Education and Commerce should work together to create effective K-16 pipelines in the major world languages, especially in shortage areas such as Chinese and Arabic. Last year, President Bush proposed the American Competitiveness Initiative, an investment plan primarily focused on an R&D tax credit and on developing a new cadre of engineers and scientists to keep up with India and China.With less fanfare, the administration announced a new national language program designed to increase the numbers of Americans fluent in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and other critical languages – an important undertaking for obvious security reasons that will also sharpen the country’s competitive edge. Recognizing that a new combination of skills instruction is a national priority, Congress recently enacted new SMART grants – $4,000 a year for juniors and seniors who qualify for Pell Grants and major in math, science, technology or critical foreign languages. • Universities should retool preparation programs to ensure that all students know the international dimensions of their majors, and that business education is aligned with global market and entrepreneurial opportunities. Schramm’s review of higher education’s weaknesses in business preparation centers on a global imperative: to create wealth in every country as a means to make the world more stable, even as we encourage more competition for America. Some universities are taking note. The central question a Harvard committee sought to answer as it examined its core undergraduate curriculum recently was, “What does it mean to be an educated person in the first quarter of the 21st century?” The committee focused on critical global skills, perspectives and encouraging entrepreneurial work teams. Yale recently introduced the first business program that requires its students to study abroad, in response to criticism that MBA programs don’t teach useful skills. A new Stanford University curriculum requires students to pursue “global experiences.” Action must extend beyond the fledgling response of America’s elite institutions.We must modernize educational systems across the board. The stakes involved in meeting the challenges of our flattened world could not be higher. For today’s students and tomorrow’s business leaders, knowledge of the rest of the world is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity.
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