Keynotes Talk the BEST Potential for Leveraging Home Grown Student Development and Drawing Talent From Other States.
During a break from the Engaging America’s Talent Conference at the Peabody Hotel, Keynote Speakers John Martini and George Blanks sat down to talk about preparing students for the future workforce of America.
Martini, who is the President of the Board of Directors for the BEST Robotics Program at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, sees a clear vision for his program in the state. “What we’re really looking at is taking young middle school to high school students and developing them into the future workforce of America.”
This is being accomplished by involving students in robotics competitions that are held all over Arkansas. So far, the endeavor has been extremely successful. Enthusiasm for the events have generated community excitement akin to state basketball competitions as friends, family and community leaders pack gyms to cheer student teams racing against each other to build and demonstrate their robots. Not surprisingly, the program has grown quickly.
“It started as a local hub competition in 2003,” Martini explained. “It was so successful we really needed to expand to a regional level, and that’s how the process evolved into Frontier Trails Regional BEST. Last year we had 40 teams and this year we’ll have 44.”
Martini foresees a profound impact on Arkansas’s talent pool as a result. Not only by developing home grown talent, but through attracting students from outside the state.
“We had one young girl who got a 36 on her ACT. She could have gone anywhere. She decided to come to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith for engineering, and the reason was her involvement in BEST.”
Of course, our greatest resource are the kids right here at home, and Martini hopes to see Arkansas BEST evolve into the kind of program that leaders like George Blanks has developed in Alabama.
Blanks, who is the Executive Director for BEST at Auburn University, has established a program that ties education, workforce development, community involvement and industry together.
One of the objectives of the program, which is linked with Alabama’s Office of Workforce Development Regional Counsels, is to keep students in the state career pipeline by harnessing career potential through mentoring partnerships and community support. It’s set up so that the kids are interacting with local government, community programs and industry leaders.
Of the many potential benefits, one big advantage is that the program is targeted at rural areas where kids are more apt to leave after high school.
“By recruiting those industry partners, we have an opportunity to match a child with a potential career within their part of the state; we can reduce the likelihood of them leaving the rural areas that need them. We do this by matching them with an industry mentor in each county.”
This establishes a unique professional mentoring opportunity for the industry leaders who get involved. “They can be teamed with students as early as 5th or 6th grade,” Blanks explained. “It prepares each child for the needs of that specific field by working with the mentor ll the way through high school.”
While Blanks cautions that this is not an overnight solution to the problem of preparing students for the high-tech, high-paying jobs of the 21st century, he does anticipate accelerated change within a decade.
“After seven years in the program, we anticipate that the students will either go straight into the workforce, into a two year system to learn a technology trade applying to that specific industry, or to a four year engineering technology program like the one being offered through John’s efforts at UAF.”
This not only ensures a successful career for the student, but the possibilities for state-wide economic growth. Still, the key, he warned, is getting everyone involved.
“This is an intentional community based effort designed to surround these kids, so that they understand the value of what’s available, so that they don’t’ leave. Or if they do leave to go to college, they return to reinvest in the community by working in that industry, even growing a business out of it, thus boosting the state of economic growth for the region.”
