By snoadmin
California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi visited Cal State Long Beach on Tuesday as a part of his California State University “Listening Tour” to address possibilities of California companies partnering with state colleges and communities to facilitate employment of grads.
Garamendi discussed the issues of California’s lagging economy and the issue of there being thousands of available jobs without enough qualified workers to fill them.
“All levels of education remain on a starvation diet that is sapping the strength of tomorrow’s workforce and leaving California employers with insufficiently skilled workers, ill-prepared to compete in the world’s economy,” Garamendi stated in a Sept. 16 press release regarding the state budget. “We can and we must do better — for our future and our children’s future.”
Attempts to fix this dilemma will require more investments in higher education programs to fill the shortage of educated workers in the fields of science education, engineering and nursing, Garamendi said.
Representatives from universities and community colleges suggested collaboration between universities and California companies in offering internship programs, new courses and aid in job placement for graduating students and unemployed Californians..
Garamendi says he expects these programs and higher education institutions to better prepare its students once they graduate, but doing so will inevitably require more funding from the state budget.
“The industry has to step up and call for more revenue on the state level,” said Lt. Gov. Garamendi, “We can’t be cheap when it comes to higher education. This year’s budget is a good example of decreased revenue: that means cuts.”
Garamendi said unemployment in California increased from 7.4 percent in July to 7.7 percent in August.
Karleen George, Bargaining Director of the California Nursing Association says the current nursing job market is short 40,000 nurses.
“If nurses have adequate wages and pension, they will stay in the profession. The state needs to invest in nursing,” said George.
Although they do receive enough state funds to run nursing programs, there is not enough left over to cover the costs for infrastructure or to educate professional nurses. Not only do they need classroom space, they are also lacking clinical space.
“There is a failure to recruit professionally prepared nurses at the baccalaureate level,” said Sherrie Schuldheis, assistant director to the systems redesign VA Long Beach health care System, “there is a huge shortage of faculty to teach.”
Allowing students to integrate within the California workforce while they are at school would ultimately increase their chances of entering their chosen fields upon graduation.
“We feel it’s really important to know how to keep students excited about math and science,” said Laura Kingsford, Dean of College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. “We must provide outstanding programs in health-related fields.”
The representatives, community leaders and state colleges also discussed programs like “Seamless Education,” a partnership created in the 1990s that involves Long Beach City College and Cal State University Long Beach to work together to improve student and teacher achievement starting from K-12.
The program includes college outreach and career preparation beginning in the sixth grade and continuing through college, establishing student benchmarks to galvanize admission to CSULB for students who complete the minimum college preparatory requirements and to associate these higher education efforts through joint commitment to make college an achievable goal for students of all backgrounds and class divisions.
“The Seamless Education program is where we ought to be going,” said Garamendi.
