Four years ago the Maine Community Foundation and Maine Development Foundation created the Maine Compact for Higher Education, a broad-based coalition to increase the educational attainment level of all Maine citizens.
Educational attainment is a key predictor of community vitality. If we want to increase the number of Maine citizens who have education beyond high school, we need to get more high school students to college, for sure.
We also need to look at ways to get more adults back to the classroom since in the next ten years, 90% of all jobs in high growth sectors will require training beyond high school.
MaineCF has secured funding from two national foundations for the Employers’ Initiative, a program of the Maine Development Foundation, which asks employers to take one more step (52kB PDF) to encourage employees to think about college. It doesn’t necessarily mean spending more money.
We are one of 23 employers to sign on to the program, and we encourage your involvement. There’s no better gift you can give to your employees, your organization, or your community.
Contact Program Director Pat Hart at pathart@mdf.org for more information and sign-up materials. Help us reach our goal of having 500 employers commit to making Maine the best educated state in the nation.