The New Orleans Times Picayune – Leslie Jacobs
“The greater New Orleans region is home to some of the nation’s most improved educational systems. Our teachers take pride in preparing today’s students to become tomorrow’s leaders and excel in an ever-evolving professional landscape. However, students continue to struggle as they transition from school to the world of work, especially into the highly technical jobs of today and tomorrow. We have a unique window of opportunity to deliver on the promise of education: to help our students elevate themselves out of poverty and excel in an increasingly competitive and technological world, as well as to advance regional economic growth. Students must be supported in leveraging their academic gains into economic opportunity, and it starts within our community. Over the next 10 years, our region is projected to have more than 60,000 job openings, due to both expansion and an aging workforce, in industries such as energy, advanced manufacturing, information technology, healthcare, biosciences, digital media and international trade. The common denominator of these industries and jobs is science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, which also contributes to the industries’ strong wages and great potential for advancement. For example, the oil and gas industry employs skilled laborers with high-wage jobs in refinery operations, electrical and maintenance activities, pipeline operations and many more.”(more)