Published: June 03, 2009 01:32 pm      

Wired65 promotes regional focus in Southern Indiana

Education a talking point during press conference with Indiana, Kentucky leaders

LOUISVILLE — Southern Indiana and the Louisville metropolitan area are again making a collaborative effort to rebuild and develop a strong and sustainable economy.

Wired65, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Labor, presented findings from a Talent Innovation and Place report along with the HIRE education forum, to build a sustainable economic region that includes seven Indiana counties and 19 in Kentucky. The report is designed to put the region on track to succeed economically. The “65” portion of the title references Interstate 65 and the communities stretched along the north-south freeway.

The areas that need to be addressed, according to the report, are the pipeline — referring to the area’s early-educational system through college; preparing for 21st century jobs by transitioning from a manufacturing to a service based economy; and creating a talent magnet to draw and keep skilled people in the region.

“While Wired 65’s approach is not necessarily unique,” Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said, “it is enthusiastically tackling a complicated issue that will greatly affect the future of not just all of [Kentucky’s] counties, but the counties across the river.

“It’s going to affect the future of two states,” he said.

Beshear and other area leaders spoke about the initiative at a press conference at the Brown Williamson Club at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on Tuesday.

“Part of the answer,” Beshear said of the region’s economic future, “is ... ignore government-designated boundaries and work together on mutual interests.”

“If my friend Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana, were here, he would probably call this metro Jeffersonville or metro Clarksville,” Beshear said, again supporting the idea of economic regionalism.

One of the primary points is that teaching and learning will be paramount moving forward.

“[Education] is one area if you make an investment in over the long term, it’ll pay dividends more than any other thing,” said Tom Stellman, president of TIP Strategies Inc., which prepared the report for Wired65.

A tuition reciprocity agreement between the metro Louisville area in Kentucky and Southeast Indiana was cited by Sandra Patterson-Randles, chancellor of Indiana University Southeast, as an important start to regionalism.

“Of our graduates, nearly 90 percent stay in this region,” Patterson-Randles said. “When the kids, as part of the learning experience, are tied to the community, when they graduate they tend to stay here.”

IU Southeast is searching for new areas of growth to help drive the local economy, including an informatics degree, a master’s degree offered in strategic finance, a human resources concentration in business and an honors program.

“One of the things that IU Southeast is really focusing on is applied learning initiatives,” Patterson-Randles said. “We’re beefing up our internship programs, because our kids who go out and do internships with local businesses, 65 to 72 percent of those kids end up getting jobs from those businesses.”

“You know that the jobs of tomorrow in many cases have not yet even been defined,” said James Ramsey, president of the University of Louisville. “We live in a new economy, a knowledge-based economy, an economy where human capital and brainpower are more important than they’ve ever been.

“Why is it so important?” Patterson-Randles asked. “Indiana is 43rd in the nation in terms of having a educated populace at the baccalaureate level or above; Kentucky is 48th. Both of these states have got some serious work to do and it’s best we do it together.”

The previous investments in the region of logistics, life sciences and health care are a good base for the area, Stellman said. His suggestion of where to take the work force into the future, however, was to move to human resources and capital management and invest in energy concerns.

“This report is primarily about paying attention to what is over the immediate horizon, what’s over the long term, as many of the recommendations we have made are about making sure you have the talent to support the next-generation economy.”

Strides have been made in the area to address energy concerns. Stellman cited the new news of General Electric’s next-generation water heater being produced in the Louisville plant as an example of taking advantage of energy efficiency, but reinforced the region needs to maintain one of its building blocks, the coal industry.

“It’s not a game where if Kentucky gets, Indiana loses,” said Dustin Stohler, Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s general counsel. “In fact it’s quite the contrary. What matters here is ... Kentucky can’t succeed without benefiting Indiana and Indiana can’t succeed without benefiting Kentucky.”



SO YOU KNOW

Resources to building a regional economy from the Talent Innovation and Place report:

• A strong pool of talent to allow businesses to flourish.

• An environment that supports innovation and entreprenuership

• A quality of place that draws people and companies to the area while meeting the needs of current residents.

— Wired65