Here’s where internships, apprenticeships, and other workplace learning experiences become so important. The demographic data reveals that Virginia’s talent loss is greatest in this group. And the negative impact extends out far longer when the departing Virginian is a young person with his or her whole career ahead. Second, we should all be able to agree that informing and shaping the employment choices of young adults must be a core strategy for retaining talent in the Commonwealth. In the near term, the exodus of talent impedes the growth of existing enterprises. As the Virginia Chamber of Commerce found in its most recent Blueprint Virginia strategic planning process, a top factor already inhibiting business growth and job creation in the Commonwealth is the inability to find qualified workers. Over time, this will give those states a decided advantage in attracting new business investment, since companies locate where they can count on access to an ample and capable workforce. North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and Texas all have many more people coming into their states than are leaving them. While some Virginia regions have been experiencing net out-migration and others have seen modest in-migration, our Commonwealth is far underperforming the states with which we compete most vigorously for new business investment. There are, of course, a range of competing views about the causes of Virginia’s net out-migration and what to do about it. There are regional differences and other complexities – many of them highlighted in this news organization’s coverage – that deserve close examination as policymakers fashion strategies to reverse this destructive trend.īut it is always important to start with the things on which we can agree. Here are three.įirst, the statewide out-migration numbers are deeply disturbing from the standpoint of Virginia’s economic competitiveness and should create a sense of urgency among governmental, business, and education leaders across the Commonwealth. Therein lies a big gap … and an opportunity to help reverse Virginia’s talent loss. Yet, the Chamber also found that only about 10 percent of students hired by Virginia employers actually possess that experience. More than 70 percent of Virginia businesses, according to the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, would prefer to hire students with relevant workplace experience. More than just sounding the alarm, our statewide partnership of business and higher education leaders has been urging educators and employers in the Commonwealth to mobilize behind an all-out effort to dramatically expand internships, apprenticeships, and other work-based learning opportunities with Virginia employers.Įxperience and data strongly suggest that students who make workplace connections with Virginia employers while in school are more likely to stay in the state for full-time employment after graduation.Īccording to the State Council on Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), more than 50 percent of Virginia college graduates report that an internship helped them receive a full-time job offer. This is very encouraging to us because our organization, the Virginia Business Higher Education Council (VBHEC), has been sounding the alarm about this disturbing out-migration trend for the past five years. Dwayne Yancey and Cardinal News have rendered an invaluable service to the Commonwealth by shining a spotlight on Virginia’s continuing loss of talent to other states. The issue has gained the attention of decision-makers in the State Capitol, and the search for solutions seems to have begun in earnest.
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