President Steven Knapp and Dean of GW’s Business School Doug Guthrie joined Mayor-elect Vincent Gray and approximately 60 local leaders Dec. 13 to discuss how to boost employment in the District at the mayor-elect’s Job Creation and Economic Development Summit.
Chaired by D.C. Chamber of Commerce President Barbara Lang and D.C. AFL-CIO President Jos Williams, the summit served as a forum for ideas to reduce the city’s unemployment rate and was convened at the local law firm Arnold and Porter, LLP in Northwest D.C.
Dr. Knapp and Dr. Guthrie weighed in on how GW and universities can create jobs and better prepare students to join the workforce. Universities and hospitals are 13 of the 20 top job generators in the District.
Although the university must abide by an employment cap as part of GW’s Foggy Bottom Campus Plan, Dr. Knapp said the university continually seeks to hire local residents. GW collaborates with the D.C. Department of Employment Services to find District job seekers, and Dr. Knapp said GW is looking into hosting a large jobs fair to “identify the university jobs that might be matched up with D.C. residents.”
At the summit, Dr. Knapp also announced that GW would like to host a follow-up symposium looking at job creation in the District, with a focus on the role of higher education in preparing and developing the local workforce.
“This is a conversation that I have not yet seen take place in the city,” said Dr. Knapp, “looking at all levels of education and tailoring programs to the needs we know are here, as well as looking at ways education can prepare students for jobs and get them engaged in addressing real-world problems that directly bear on their education. There are many models for this kind of educational approach around the country that I think is very exciting. We’d be happy to have that serious conversation at GW.”
Dr. Guthrie talked about the “limitless opportunities” higher education can provide in terms of training and certifying potential employees, especially in the area of technology, and said universities have an opportunity to be “thought leaders” on job development. He discussed several obstacles to growing employment in the country, including a decline in vocational education and a lack of skills training to leverage employees’ productivity.
“We are suffering in jobs because of a lack of long-term thinking on education and policy,” said Dr. Guthrie. “It sounds like D.C. could be a real leader in thinking about these kind of issues. I would really like business schools—and universities more generally—to play a role in helping to fill these gaps.”
Trent Crable, chief executive officer and managing director of the George Washington University Hospital, also participated.