Orange County Economic Summit Explores Local Workforce Development Strategies

Third Orange County Economic Summit at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., on Sept. 20, 2024. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

NEWBURGH, N.Y.—A dozen panelists at the third annual Orange County Economic Summit shared insights about preparing the local workforce for emerging careers.

The summit covered topics ranging from trendy career and technical programs to the cultivation of soft skills.

Additionally, panelists discussed possible solutions for the county’s shortage of housing and child care services to support and expand the local workforce.

Orange County Economic Development Director Steve Gross, who spearheaded the annual summit, said during the opening remarks that forward-looking workforce development initiatives would bring the county’s economic development to new heights.

“It is our human capital that continues to be our biggest asset in economic development,” Gross said in Aquinas Hall at the Mount Saint Mary College campus on Sept. 20.

Robert Reardon, state labor commissioner and summit keynote speaker, said the cultivation of future workforce starts in elementary schools and continues into higher-ed institutions.

Reardon highlighted, among several state initiatives, a new program to train sixth to 12th grade teachers and counselors about career-readiness curricula. Six educators from Orange County school districts have participated in the training so far.

Pine Bush High School Principal Aaron Hopmayer talked about his school district’s career-oriented summer academies. In the past summer, he said, about 300 students enrolled in seven job pathways, including aviation, medical science, and advanced manufacturing.

“When you talk about career exploration, the summer is an untapped resource for a lot of educators,” Hopmayer said. “We are exposing kids to career opportunities in the summer, and at the same time, they are earning meaningful credits.”

Gilbert Guaring, global head of marketing and communications at Urban Art Projects, said his art manufacturing and consulting company partners with Pine Bush School District on guided student tours and that several district graduates work at the company’s local factories.

“Our youngest maker, Derek from Pine Bush, is 18 years old,” Guaring said. “If we want to make sure we have the next generation of makers, let them come and see the place.”

New York Labor Department Commissioner Roberta Reardon at the Third Orange County Economic Summit at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., on Sept. 20, 2024. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

Jean Leandre, vice president for workforce, strategy, and innovation at SUNY Orange, shared three guiding principles behind workforce program development at the county’s sole community college: in-demand careers, industry-recognized credentials, and self-sustaining wages.

“You can have something that is in demand, but when you get a job, you can’t sustain yourself,” Leandre said at the summit. “For all our workforce programs, when you graduate, you should make, on average, roughly about $40,000 a year.”

Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus discussed the county’s recent purchase of the old Chester High School building and its potential transformation into a high-tech training center where students can learn advanced skills at the expense of sponsoring companies.

“I paid off my student loan eight years ago, in my 40s, and I want to do better for my kids than that,” Neuhaus said. “I want my kids to have better opportunities when they graduate.”

Soft Skills

Several panelists at the summit said soft skills are just as important as technical skills in the development of a successful future workforce.

“We call them employability skills,” Kathleen Smith, career and technical education director at Orange-Ulster BOCES, said. “Things like, if you need to call out for work, please do so in advance and be mindful of how that impacts your team.”

Smith said Orange-Ulster BOCES just created a new position with the help of a government grant to help students at the regional education center improve such skills.

Cornerstone Family Health CEO David Jolly said that as medical technology and associated technical skills grow, so does the bar for soft skills in patient care.

“Sure, we’ve got all this wonderful technology here, but at the same time, we have patients who need to understand what that means for them,” Jolly said.

Aquinas Hall at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., on Sept. 20, 2024. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

Housing, Child Care, Diversity

At the summit, panelists also discussed tackling the shortage of housing and child care services in the Hudson Valley region to sustain and grow the local workforce.

Donna Conklin, owner of Pattycake Playhouse, said she currently has the longest waiting list in her 20 years in business and that her case is not an isolated one. She said that reasonable state law changes in caretaker-to-child ratios would help ease the demand.

Orange County Human Rights Commissioner Inaudy Gil Esposito talked about engaging minority communities to diversify the local workforce.

John Cappello, a land use attorney and partner at J&G Law, said there needs to be a mindset shift regarding the value of housing developments. Although housing units might yield lower property taxes than commercial properties, they lead to population growth and increased spending in the local economy.

He also said that high-density housing near villages or city vicinities provides affordable units and is a more environmentally friendly development concept than most people think.

Adam Bosch, president of regional think tank Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, disputed a common notion that more housing developments will burden local school districts.

“That is the biggest myth going on in the Hudson Valley,” he said. “In Orange County, every single school district has shrunk except one—so we should be on our knees praying for more children until they fall from the sky because they are going to be our future workforce.”