December 2, 2009

Panel Participants:

Margaret Moree, The Business Council of New York State, Inc. (moderator)

Lawrence Bulman, Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 773

Victoria Derbyshire, The Wadsworth Center – NYS Department of Health

Lawrence Durante, National Grid – Smart Grid

Emily Reilly, GLOBALFOUNDRIES

Panel Discussion

The theme of this year’s conference was: “Career Pathways Showcase: The Emerging Technologies.” The focus for the panel is the highly skilled technicians careers. The primary audience will include career and technical educators, science and math educators, school counselors and administrators representing 77 school districts and their respective BOCES partners located within a 12 county region of the Tech Valley.

We had approximately 100 individuals who were very eager to learn about the skill requirements in the modern workplace. The majority of secondary level educators are individuals who go into teaching directly from college and quite often do not have a lot of exposure to the world of work and/or research. Add to this the rapid rate that high tech/technical workplaces are changing and educators are at a distinct disadvantage if attempting to incorporate contextual learning into their everyday classrooms. The Panelists’ role was to tell it like it is in the everyday work world.