there's hope that a new workforce development effort at a university in the Utica-Rome area will encourage more students to put down roots in central New York.
State University of New York Chancellor John King visited the campus of SUNY Polytechnic Institute in the town of Marcy on Monday, to take part in a roundtable discussion that included members of the education and business communities.
King got a demonstration of some of the technology being developed at SUNY Poly with the help of the university’s president, Winston Soboyejo, as they viewed software designed for the financial services sector and other work going on at the university.
A big emphasis of SUNY Poly’s new Office of Workforce Development is promoting and supporting internships with local companies, and King said New York state is also behind that effort.
“We’re now putting in over $14.5 million a year to support internship opportunities across the system,” said King, who also noted that Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed additional funding for the programs in her proposed executive budget.
Soboyejo said that on-the-job training is extremely important to get students ready for the world of work.
“It's the soft skills of how you succeed and flourish in the real world, that really is very critical to how we prepare our students,” said Soboyejo.
And King agreed, saying that the SUNY system is committed to growing the partnership between higher education and employers throughout the state.
During the roundtable discussion the education officials heard from SUNY Poly students who talked about the need for support services so that they could carry out their internship responsibilities, including things like housing and transportation to job sites.
King said providing those services not only benefits the students, it can also be a big plus for the local economy.
“One of the things we heard from a student today was how important it was to have housing on campus during the summer so he could do an internship at one of the major employers here in the region,” King said. “That's a student who's likely to potentially stay in the region and work with that employer in the future, and that wouldn’t have been possible if not for access to housing.”
Shawna Papale, the President of Mohawk Valley EDGE, a key economic development agency in the Utica-Rome area, said that local businesses also benefit from a beefed up internship program.
“It’s such an easy connection to make, because our businesses are struggling to hire people, and the colleges are so responsive from SUNY Poly all the way to MVCC (Mohawk Valley Community College) and our other institutions,” said Papale, who suggested that “every business should take an intern, and more than just one.”
