1. Economic Development

The following questions are related to economic development and the economic drivers of your region.

Question Title

* 1. Your regional economic development partnership recently concluded a vision plan. The plan identified Alternative Energy, Distribution & Logistics, Military Contractors, Biotechnology, Advanced Textiles, Agribusiness, and Food Processing as economic development clusters vital to your local economy. Do you believe their findings are an accurate portrayal of the region’s economy?

Question Title

* 2. In thinking about the economy in your region and the clusters above that have been identified as vital do you believe your region is producing the required workforce to fill these needs? Please describe the workforce needs in each cluster in your region.

  1 Needs completely being met 2 Needs somewhat being met 3 Needs not being met 4 Don't know / not sure
Alternative Energy
Distribution & Logistics
Military Contractors
Biotechnology
Advanced Textiles
Agribusiness
Food Processing

Question Title

* 3. In this region, members of the education and business communities work together to prepare the local workforce?

Question Title

* 4. In order to facilitate an increased working dynamic between the education and business communities do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

  Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know No Opinion
High School students participating in internships in local business would help better prepare the workforce
Teachers would be better prepared in the classroom if they participated in summer externships through business partners
Technical leaders from important local companies involved in one of the key clusters have some volunteer obligation to help teachers and students
Students are supplied with real world case studies and problems from local companies that are integrated into classroom work. For example, the local engineering firm has students submit ideas for building designs for new buildings or the local bank has students submit model investment portfolio’s based on their own research.

T