Welcome to Real Time, a community building blog that seeks to provoke thought, encourage conversation, and help our friends and colleagues understand what goes on "behind the scenes" at the Maine Community Foundation.
Aug
9
Written by:
Meredith Jones
8/9/2010 9:15 AM
John Dorrer, director of the Center for Workforce Research and Information at the Maine Department of Labor, has a unique ability to tell riveting stories using data, and his comments at a meeting I attended the other day were no exception.
In spite of gloomy unemployment figures, between January and June of this year, according to Dorrer, there were 38,000 job openings in Maine in a variety of occupational groups. These ranged from the arts, sports, and media (735 openings) to office and administrative support (4,712) to healthcare practitioners and technical workers (7,850). About 45% of the 38,000 openings require a bachelor’s degree or higher, but, Dorrer went on explain, the skills of the currently unemployed don’t match up to the skills and education required in the jobs available.
Between 2008 and 2018, there are projected to be 196,000 job vacancies in Maine, including new jobs and openings due to retirement. About 115,000 of these vacancies will require postsecondary credentials and 70,000 a high school degree, while 11,000 openings will be available for high school dropouts. In other words, by the year 2018, 59% of jobs in Maine will require postsecondary education (Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce).
We know that community vitality is linked to economic prosperity and that economic prosperity is strongly correlated with educational attainment. Interestingly, Maine has the lowest postsecondary degree attainment in New England and the lowest per-capita income. More sobering still, Maine’s population is projected to stop growing by 2020, and our population of traditional age high school and college students is projected to decline by 20% over the next decade (Mitchell Institute).
The mission of the Maine Community Foundation is to build strong, vibrant communities. It’s a daunting task made even more challenging given our educational attainment levels. For the last several years MaineCF, in partnership with the Maine Compact for Higher Education, has been working to raise those levels. The Compact’s goal is that, by 2020, “the proportion of Maine workers who have earned a college degree or postsecondary certificate will exceed the New England average.” It’s an ambitious, but not impossible, undertaking.
On September 28, the Maine Compact for Higher Education has invited the five gubernatorial candidates to talk about what they will do to help achieve the goal. What would you ask them related to higher education in Maine?
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3 comment(s) so far...
Re: Forging the First Link
The cost of a college education, even within the University of Maine System, is high and rising. Students, especially lower income students, have to depend on increasing amounts of loans and still may have large, unfunded gaps. Given the high number of lower income and first generation students in Maine who seek a college education, how would you, as governor, increase financial aid and make a college education affordable again?
By Alan Parks on
9/22/2010 7:54 AM
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utilizing local producers
Hi I heard Meredith on NPR at Noon today (10/26/10) talking about local producers. I`ve been trying to get our hospital (Midcoast in Brunswick) to recognize that good, healthy food, locally produced, should be a priority budget concern. Instead it`s the old "bottom line", ie. Sysco Systems: vegetables from out of state, ice cream from Harrisburg, PA, milk from Mass., etc. Other hospitals are in the same position, while some, like Maine Med Ctr, are out in front. Schools too should be a target for local producers. I`d appreciate any feedback.
By Peter Haughwout, MD on
10/26/2010 2:22 PM
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Re: Forging the First Link
Peter: I'm delighted to learn you heard the plug on NPR and my thoughts about local producers and eating locally. There are a number of groups in ME that seem to have gotten around the "bottom line" issue -- at least in the public school system -- and my sense from talking to Doug Michael at Healthy Acadia (a group that has done a lot of work in this area) is that a lot depends on the school cook's willingness to do things a little differently. I am not sure what the relationship is between Sysco and the hospitals, but I suspect introducing local foods, working either with Sysco and/or the director of nutrition might begin to move things forward. I'm sure Doug Michael would welcome a call. If you want his phone number, call me at 667.9735. Meredith
By Meredith Jones on
11/1/2010 8:20 AM
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