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March 19, 2010

UMS summit aims to match state's higher education to future labor needs

By Beth Quimby bquimby@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

A daylong summit aimed at matching the University of Maine System's academic programs with the work force's needs of the future is scheduled across Maine next month.

click image to enlarge

UMS Chancellor Richard Pattenaude expects hundreds of participants in a statewide discussion about tailoring education to serve the job market.

John Ewing/Staff Photographer

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Advancing Maine: Aligning Academic Programs to Meet Future Work Force Needs

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Students, employers, faculty members, business groups, elected officials

WHERE: Wells Conference Center, University of Maine, Orono

WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., April 6

FOR MORE: Call Rowena Clukey at 973-3230or visit www.advancing.maine.edu

The event will feature speakers from the public and private sectors who will help assess Maine's future labor needs and identify ways to create academic programs to meet them.

It's part of an effort within the seven-university system to reach long-term financial sustainability, keep higher education affordable and increase the system's service to the state, said Chancellor Richard Pattenaude.

The summit on April 6 will be based at the University of Maine's Orono campus and broadcast at university campuses across the state and on the Internet. Pattenaude said he expects hundreds of employers, business groups, students, faculty members and elected officials will join the discussion.

Among the speakers will be John Dorrer, director of the Maine Department of Labor's Center for Workforce Research and Information, who will look at how to tie the universities into the labor center's information gathering system.

The center can analyze employment needs with software that scans 1,900 employment boards and job lists such as Monster.com and JobsinME.com.

Other speakers will be Gov. John Baldacci; Laurie Lachance, president of the Maine Development Foundation; and Doug Hall, founder and chief executive officer of the Eureka Ranch consulting firm.

Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:

bquimby@pressherald.com

 

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