U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo visited Syracuse Thursday to participate in a roundtable discussion about Micron’s pilot program. With its semiconductor fab in the town of Clay on the way, the program intends to prepare students for the opportunity to work in the high tech industry.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, Micron officials and American Federation of Teachers representatives also participated. The group discussed why teachers are vital to building the right workforce for Micron.
“We’re creating the CHIPS jobs and they will go to students who can learn in a hands-on way the skills that directly lead to a job," said Raimondo. "That’s what this is about.”
The focus of the roundtable discussion was Micron’s pilot program that will teach students in middle school and increase the skills they need to work in the industry.
“Education is a way of out-competing, and we have to innovate," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. "It means that our kids need, they need to understand relationships and problem-solving and critical-thinking and resilience.”
Hochul has talked about how important it is to build a viable workforce with thousands of jobs available in the future. The jobs aren’t going to be filled by New Yorkers without a strong group of teachers who understand what Micron does.
“It starts with the educators, and they’re the ones who are going to help make this happen," said Micron Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer April Arnzen. "So the more we invest in our teachers to give them this framework, to give them the tools, to give them the lab, they're the ones who are really going to do the work.”
The New York Advanced Technology Framework was announced last December and launched this fall. It'll train middle and high school students with a curriculum focused on providing practical experience. Micron sent the technology teachers involved to their facility in Virginia to see it firsthand.
“You have to really see it with your own two eyes to understand the scale of what we're talking about," said technology teacher Alexis Williams. "And it wasn't until I went there to see that, that everything else started falling into place, and then I could kind of conceptualize what needed to be done.”
Williams is teaching one of the first Micron pilot classes.
“We learn by doing," she said. "So once I allowed my students to experiment, working with their hands, everything else kind of started to fall together into place. And you do that two ways. We’re gonna focus on design thinking, and then you also should be focusing on hands-on, experiential learning.”
It’s about giving students everything they need to succeed and accomplish their dreams.
“I’m excited to give them a why of when you go to school now, you're potentially getting ready for a career and a good career," said technology teacher Sarah Loudon. "You can take care of yourself. You can take care of your family.”
The pilot program is available in 10 schools for the next three years. It’ll expand to more schools throughout the state in the future.