Workforce growth, economic impact top biz expectations of universities

BYLINE: Haley Wachdorf

If the business community were a cheerleading squad for the state's universities, their cheer might be:

"What do we want?"

"A high quality workforce!"

"When do we want it?"

"Now!"

Perhaps it's a silly scenario, but workforce development is unquestionably one of the key things businesses expect from the state's universities. Businesses are the direct consumers of universities' college graduates. Particularly in industries that require highly educated workers, the consensus seems to be that there are never enough college graduates to go around.

That's good for graduates, but bad for those trying to foster a high-wage in the state.

State Secretary of Economic Development Rick Homans says even the perception that a company will be unable to find the workforce it needs can result in a loss for the state.

"About six years ago, there was a biotechnology company that moved to another state and had been funded with New Mexico money," Homans says. "We asked them why they moved and what we could do to bring them back.

They said they were ramping up from 75 employees to hundreds of employees and they needed to be some place where they felt confident about their access to a skilled workforce."

About a third of executives surveyed for the recent TechIndex survey conducted by Next Generation Economy Inc. and the New Mexico Businesss Weekly said the ability to recruit technical talent is negative or very negative in the state. Many of the polled executives listed the ability to hire qualified people as one of the top three challenges they face in doing business here.

Business leaders such as Bobby Sachs, CEO of Team Specialty Products, say if New Mexico is going to grow a high-wage work force, it must place greater emphasis on math and science, at all levels of schooling.

"I think the school system has gotten a bad rap, but we do have to push our kids a lot more in math and science at the K-12 level and in the universities," he says. "We need to inspire people to get into technology. There [are] a lot of smart people in the state, but we may be losing our edge to other countries."

The business community also increasingly expects universities to participate directly in economic development. It's a controversial idea in academia, but Sul Kassicieh, the University of New Mexico chair for economic development and a professor at its Anderson Schools of Management, says forward-looking universities recognize that to have a real impact on the economy, they must put their research to use.

"The old view was that we just produced the skilled labor and the semi-skilled labor," Kassicieh says. "I personally believe that is no longer sufficient. We really need to help create business, to enhance business, and help attract new business to the area."

As far as how the state universities' graduates perform once they are hired, most businesses seem happy.

Victor Chavez, principal engineer at Chavez-Grieves Consulting Engineers Inc. says 20 out of the 25 engineers in his firm are graduates of either UNM or New Mexico State University, and students from both schools are "extremely well-prepared" to work for him.

"It's more than just having enough employees," he says. "The success of the schools provides the feedstocks for the company. Their success brings new business to the community, which, in turn, provides us with work. Any time a business moves here because of the environment UNM helps to create, it supports what we do with our business."

But even more graduates would lead to even greater success for the state's businesses and economy, which is exactly what businesses are asking universities to produce.