As the recession starts to wane, Fairfield and Westchester counties are again focusing on keeping their young professionals in the region.
“This is something that we identified ten years ago, said Jack Condlin, president of the Stamford Chamber of Commerce. “It”™s a primary reason we started and continue to do the internship program in the high schools. It”™s very important to get the students familiar with the corporations that are here.”
Condlin said after returning home from college, the hope should be that the county-based corporations are considered alongside those in New York City as first-step career options.
“It”™s exactly what needs to be done,” he said. “We need to keep our work force local, but that”™s not an easy task when you”™re so near New York City.”
Making an investment in introducing students to the business community would simply be finishing and benefiting from the investment already made in them, he said.
“People leave where they grow up for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest driving forces is always employment.”
Condlin said it is understood that Fairfield and Westchester draw from the same pool of young professionals.
“It”™s hard to draw a border line between the state,” he said.
Two years ago, the U.S. Census Bureau released information showing America”™s work force was aging and baby boomers were retiring with insufficient pools of prospective talents to fill the needs of businesses. Now more than ever, business leaders are concerned about the droves of college graduates leaving the area to begin their career paths.
“We”™re at a low point in the cycle right now, so it doesn”™t seem like much of a problem,” Condlin said. “But it will pick back up again and we”™ll have the same issue of having a very low unemployment roster and not enough talent. We need to have them build their lives here. It”™s the perfect investment that”™s not cashed in on.”
Paul Gross, principal of the Academy of Information Technology & Engineering, a public high school in Stamford that encourages early entrance into chosen fields, has seen internships dwindle.
“They were at one time all paid internships,” Gross said. “Those have dried up and have become mostly unpaid internships.”
Gross said when high school students have to choose between an unpaid internship and a paid part-time job, they choose the job. Gross said the availability of paid internships has decreased over the last five years.
“We”™re also going up against the college internships that are closer to joining the work force,” he said.
Gross said because many companies have downsized they could probably use the internship programs, but don”™t have the people to structure or supervise them. He said he sees many former students looking farther west in the state for jobs.
Deborah Davis, president of Davis Education and Career Consultants, said she is seeing businesses to take it upon themselves to encourage students in college and even high school to come and shadow in the work environment.
“One student that is at Western Connecticut University approached GE and Boehringer Ingelheim and she is taking an internship with Boehringer,” Davis said. “That”™s not rare; I think smarter companies see the benefit of having a relationship with schools in the area.”
Davis said area hospitals have encouraged high school and college students to enter into the workplace.
“It would be great if that was applied by businesses,” Davis said.
Laurence Gottlieb, the director of economic development for Westchester County, said encouraging a birth-to-death environment for young business people and future entrepreneurs is vital to coming out of the recession in building strong business communities. Gottlieb said the cost of living is a major factor in the issue.
“It”™s all of it, it”™s making the connections to academia, it”™s the housing issues,” he said. “It starts in the discussions with organizations that were at one time one- and two-person operations and asking them what it was that they needed to grow.”
Gottlieb said one of the best ways to find out what up-and-coming talent need in order to consider setting roots, starting a career and possibly later starting businesses, is by talking to the businesses that have been started in the same manner.
