BHEF Members Headline and Spotlight the Need for Strategic Business Engagement with Higher Education at Upgrade America

Washington (April 18, 2013) —Members from the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF), as part of the Business Coalition for Student Achievement (BCSA), joined Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other luminaries for a two-day event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. There, the group called upon policy makers to reform to the U.S. education system.

Global economic integration places a premium on innovation and the demands innovation places on organizations and workers, fundamentally altering the workforce, and the skills needed to thrive. But an essential, often undervalued ingredient is a highly educated and skilled workforce, because innovation in turn requires increased emphasis on learning organizations where employees are lifelong learners. Workers must possess exceptional technical skills, the 21st century workplace competencies (critical thinking, effective communication, global perspective), and be able to develop new skills while maintaining existing ones.

The innovation imperative requires virtually all workers to possess at least some postsecondary education, yet too few high school graduates are adequately prepared and too few complete a certificate or degree, particularly in the fields that drive innovation.

Less than 17% of high school students are interested in these fields and are college math-ready; and for those who are, nearly half migrate to other majors during their freshmen and sophomore years.

To address this, BHEF Chair Wes Bush, chairman, CEO, and president of Northrop Grumman Corporation, Bill Swanson, chairman and CEO, Raytheon, and Brian Fitzgerald, CEO, BHEF, joined other CEOs for a closed-door roundtable session on Monday. Speaking directly to the misalignment between higher education and business, each articulated how BHEF's unique model of strategic business engagement with higher education is enabling students to persist in emerging fields, such as data analytics, water and materials science, engineering, and cybersecurity.

The following day, BHEF CEO Brian Fitzgerald joined BHEF member Brit Kirwan participated in panels which highlighted the role of higher education. When asked how students learn where the jobs are, Fitzgerald noted that BHEF business and academic members are signaling the key clusters through the National Higher Education Workforce Initiative. "BHEF launched its first cohort of 12 regional workforce projects in June of last year," he explained. "Specifically designed to create educational pathways to jobs in emerging fields, these efforts include suites of courses co-developed by BHEF business and academic members. They are designed with high-impact interventions to increase completion and connect students with openings in critical fields such as cybersecurity, data science and analytics, and materials science, and engineering. We are delighted to share that several of these projects will enroll the first students this fall and that a second cohort is in development for launch this summer."