Evening Exchange; Rhetoric or Reality: Redefining the Workforce through Technology

Technology will provide all the jobs we need or is that just the hype. We'll discuss that next on a special edition of evening exchange. Good evening and welcome to this special edition of evening Xchange leadership Washington in cooperation with W H U T. Howard University television presents rhetoric or reality redefining the workforce through technology. You've all heard of the phrase the information superhighway or the new information economy.

But some people wonder what this means what they wonder will this mean for the agricultural economy. Will we somehow be consuming less food. What does it mean for the industrial economy. Will we somehow be driving fewer cars or is the information economy supposed to integrate with the agricultural and industrial economies in some way. And even if we understand the answer to that macro economic question how about the micro and economic question what does will this mean in terms of jobs and career for you and members of your family especially if you happen to live in the Washington area. Well here to answer that question this evening please meet our panelists. First Ernest Boykin is the founder of Capital commitment Incorporated. Good to have you here. April Young is the executive director of the Potomac Knowledge Wave project. Good to have you. Archie Prioleau is the president and CEO of the foundation for educational innovation. He's also chair of the Washington technology initiative.

Lena frescos Dubbs is the executive director of wow wider opportunities for women. And P.J. Rokia formerly known as Pedro Jose or Kia is a student and instructor here in the Washington area. I'd like to begin by first asking you to describe briefly exactly what it is the company or the organization with which you are affiliated does this boycott. I know you and Laverne Boykin are the founders of capital commitment and corporate governance is a seven year old almost non-profit entity in Southeast Washington that trains individuals in the Washington metropolitan area in telephone installation maintenance repair. We feel that on the parochial level we can get more and more minorities and women into this nine hundred billion dollar a year industry that only has about 1 percent of the population of the workforce at this point is Baillargeon women. So we feel that we can make an impact in terms of getting them jobs over the course of the seven years that we've been

doing is we've got probably about 95 percent of the people who've been through our program jobs started about $25000 per year. So tell us a little bit about how you and your wife Laverne came to start this organization. You were both working in high tech industries being paid very well presumably to do that. Yet you decided to take off on this initiative. Why. Well I come from a little background with my cousins with the Calvin Calvin Rullock and William and relic with the tiny black fund. Give me strong foundation in terms of ones that need to actually put something back. And one of the things that we often noticed both Laverne and myself was that when we go out to speak of a number of different conventions or different telecommunications gatherings you'd find that there were a whole lot of people who looked like us out there. And then when you go to the next level and you start to consider in most colleges and universities people always talk about well communications and we think about radio and TV whereas in

other communities it was always a situation where you talked about satellite fiber optics variable no topography things that translate into dollar signs and it felt as if our population was being left out of the Potomac knowledge we project introduces some of our viewers to another term part of the new lexicon that they may be unfamiliar with and that is the knowledge industry knowledge. What is the knowledge in this. First of all you have to grasp that it's not about technology it's about communications. The phenomenon of digital communication will change the way we do everything the way we work the way we play the way we get our health care the way we go to school maybe even the way we worship presumably not how we do some other things but a lot of things that will acknowledge I was created about three years ago to be a catalyst in the metropolitan area to help the region emerge from this period of change as a global leader in what we call digital information products and

services. Those are the services and things that you began to see in terms of the intersection of the Internet with what all the other things we do how many of you know Amazon.com I bought my first car from autobio tell this share you see the alphabet numbers we start alphabet companies the MC eyes they you you that's the AOL's and changes in some of our older companies Lockheed Martin IBM some of our longtime corporate citizens. Our goal is to do two things. One is to create a deeply entrepreneurial culture in the greater Washington area which will allow citizens in the region to create and grow companies in what we call to use another of those words the net centric space companies that would not exist were it not for the now. Our second interest which is no doubt why I'm here today is in in growing training or recruiting the workforce that will be needed by

the information products and services company in the region. And as a sort of sub theme making sure that at the end of the day we have engaged people in that workforce that for whom the revolutions you've talked about agriculture and industry Industrial Revolution didn't work out as well. Archie what is it that your organization does. It's interesting in listening to this discussion the FBI is the foundation for educational innovation primarily takes a look at children and youth and how do we move them to a point of entry into this marketplace a marketplace that is changing radically daily. And as we begin to survey the marketplace especially in the District of Columbia we're kind of sitting on a goldmine with second only to the Silicon Valley the number of jobs being offered. Number one in the world in a number of high tech companies represented yet we don't produce the

citizenry to serve as the entry point to those jobs. And as we begin to survey that and look at the next five 10 years and we try to get folks to become self-sustaining members of the community. We have to ask ourselves How does that occur. And it hit us basically when we are. Working at Roper middle school and the child had to work through our program and earn a computer she a brother a youngster with her one day and she said Mr. Prioleau I'm showing my friend. How to use the computer. Well I have. An eighth grader at home and she and I thought she was showing off. I said I don't understand baby but I've got a little work to do. And she said Mr. Creeley you just don't get it. I'm getting pay you understand why she be getting me do use the same language that the drug dealer was you. You say that what discerned her was that she could earn a living because she was getting paid by sort of a program that was money she was earning simply

because she could show people how to use this computer. You took a program from Roper and you spread it out to Ballou Senior High School. How's that working out. It's a challenge and the. Glory. Is both. I mean I wish I could give you something that was it is it is to raise that question because you whenever you read about Ballou High School in the newspaper it's usually associated with something of a violent nature that happened in the community or something of a disruptive nature that happened in the school and then I read about the kind of program that you had blue eyes. You know read a great deal about this in the newspaper or see it on television even though there has been some publicity for the program. Well. Let me tell you the violence didn't stop technology didn't stop one of the bullets from going over the heads of our kids. What it did do is move some kids we had no idea where they were going to $28000 a year. What it did do is

give some folks an idea that they could be self-sustaining members of the community and if they wanted to and that's a big if they wanted to they could earn as much as anybody else that they dreamed of or saw when that boob tube that they looked at every. It was a way of transforming the way they lived. The moon is an interesting example because it brought all the factors of living together in one place. And we will pursue that. Cl. you used if they want to later on during the course of this discussion. The first guest Dobbs the Washington Washington opportunities for women has traditionally been involved in providing educational programs for women to help them improve their lives. But now we know that with welfare reform in place the thrust as to how to get people off of the public dole and into the kind of work that will be meaningful for them and their families. Natalie this comes to technology in the minds of a lot of people. What's wrong with doing about it.

Well wider opportunities for women has been around for 34 years. And we are very happy to be here tonight and thank you for the opportunity to share with you a little bit about housework while was mentioned is very simply economic justice for women and our work we work on a national basis to address issues that have to do with employment employment training education and literacy. What distinguishes those from other national nonprofits is that in the District of Columbia we provide services to the women of the district to help women private. Primarily women with limited basic skill attainment level say fifth sixth grade education. We provide them with the tools and the resources that they will need to make better decisions for themselves and their families and the whole goal being to achieve self-sufficiency for their families. How is it working out. Well we're very proud of the work that we are doing in the District of Columbia in the district.

We've run a number of programs we were programs we run the work skills program where we help women improve their basic skill level while at the same time exposing them to non-traditional employment opportunities in the District of Columbia. Jobs like Metro mechanics union apprenticeships. We also have a women's college assistance program where we help women mainly welfare recipients who are attempting or trying hard to complete their college education. We give them support to help them complete their college education. We are also in the process of starting a new program called constructing avenues to self-sufficiency. We're very proud of this program. This is a new program we're getting ready to kick off where we will take welfare recipients and non-custodial parents and train them in a pretty apprenticeship program and help them go into work in commercial construction work and jobs like the new convention center in the district the Springfield interchange

and the new Wilson Bridge. We're hoping to work with the contractors in these projects. But we're very excited about our work in the district because like you mentioned it's more important than ever to help those folks making the transition from welfare to work make those transitions be meaningful and that will lead to self-sufficiency. A lot of our discussion this evening will focus or some of it on the quote unquote uniqueness of the Washington region because of the location of the federal government in the District of Columbia and around it. You came here last year from El Paso Texas. Do you find the Washington region significantly different from the region from which you came in Texas. I think that the Washington D.C. community can serve as a model to any community in the United States. I think that a lot of the issues that we face are the issues that Anytown USA is facing. And I think that the solutions and the lessons that we learn can help

everybody in this country that's attempting to go through the same issues that we are. I think a lot of folks are looking at us and want to learn from us. You're a key. You took some time off from your college education to come here to establish a program a technology program at the calvery bilingual multicultural learning center. Why do you do that. I felt I've had experience with computers all my life from you know elementary school I worked in college. Why did you go to school. Haverford College in Pennsylvania. I was an apprentice to a computer technician on campus and I worked with the academic community center. I gained a lot of skill both through personal experience and working with repairing computers in clusters and seeing you know what goes on you know how how computers you can use a university or college setting. I came to work at Calvary basically as a summer counselor to help the transition of their technology program in between employees and I up saying taking on their responsibility. And now we

run a number of training programs in partnership with Howard University and George Washington University where we conduct the Americorp PC specialist program which trains nine community you have to be PC specialists so they can go out and you know train children you know work with you know other communities you know teach their friends you know so giving them the skills that I had in a more you know gift giving them a formal opportunity to gain these skills. We work with our staff training you know teaching you know early childhood teachers how to use online encyclopedias to develop lesson plans for their kids. We work with mothers who are in healthy families D.C. program who you know family support programs teaching them you know Microsoft Office Microsoft Windows basic fundamental skills. You know one should have in the workforce. And we also work with children ages 5 to 16 during after school work on the computers educational software and creative software.

OK. Now we've heard what everyone has done let us go to the more controversial issue is missing rhetoric or reality or myth or reality. April to what extent do you feel that the communications technology jobs can in fact form a significant employment block in the Washington area the way some people talk about it. Information is the economy of the future and that most of the jobs will be coming from there. The reality is that in the Washington area now somewhere between maybe 10 and 15 percent of the jobs are involved in communications technology. Do you see it getting any larger than that. And if so why. Yes we get a lot larger. It would not surprise me if by 2005 it was 30 35 percent of the economy. You ask a question in your introduction about what's happened to the agricultural economy are we eating less. Same about industry. You need to start your understanding by understanding that we still eat as much as we did 100 years ago.

It takes Well a lot of us and a whole lot more than we did or should. But at the end of the day we produce it with instead of 80 percent of our of all of our working people in the country. Now less than three percent of the U.S. population works on a farm. Similarly our industrial output as a nation is now greater than it has been at any time in our history and yet we have reduced the industrial workforce by down to about 10 percent of its former size. What is happening with information is information is the only raw material of economic growth that can be used by more than one person at a time. So unlike capital or labor or iron or information grows abundance. So that what we're seeing is it's not just the people who create information technology those jobs. The Department of Commerce estimates that there are some 2 million jobs that will be empty in the I.T. creation side of the economy by 2003.

It's really in our region about the rest of the economy the way information is used in medicine. A colleague of mine has a business in Springfield that manages HMO is all over the world for the Army. He said April you have to understand without I.T. there is no managed care without managed care. There's no Chesapeake which is his company. What's happening in this region is we are seeing a kind of coming together a coalescence if you will permit me of communications technology bandwidth the pipes the wires. Bell Atlantic you you get all of these guys who provide you with access computing which is not mostly done here. Hardware and software and content. We are the single largest concentration of pure content pure knowledge of virtually any place in the country and I would warrant in the world. I mean think of it the Library of Congress the National Institutes of Health the Department of the treasury. There are there are these incredible banks of things that people want to know not to mention the

stuff that's in the Smithsonian that's in the National Gallery things that now because of digitizing you can make available to anybody any place in the world. We're seeing a move to this and it isn't just that we're going to have a world full of computer scientists God forbid what we are. Excuse me. My father would be would be appalled me to say that what we are going to have is is a community where everybody needs a core literacy. Well 30 years ago Washington used to be known as a town whose major industry was the production of paper. What you seem to be saying is that all of this paper will now be replaced by digital technology. Here's one of the problems because Archie is beginning to shake his head already. So let's move back to the first problem. I don't. Agree with you premise. If you were to suggest that everyone wanted to be a Nobel certified administrator maybe it's 5 percent but if you wanted to say someone wanted to work in a hotel or someone wanted to work in a restaurant.

Or someone wanted to work in the government I would say your number is 90 percent. There is nothing you do today that doesn't touch technology in one face or another. So I'm going to ask you what do you mean by the I.T. industry. It is pervasive. The reason was all gathered together is because some of us are being left out of it and the chasm is growing. So it's not a matter that is just a little bit over here. All of it is technology that content changes from place to place application changes from place to place. But all I can remember the day when there were telephones in cars and we knew not a soul would ever use them or that the only person who would carry a paper or pager were dope dealers or doctors. And now it's everywhere. So. I have to make sure we understand. What do you mean by I.T. industry that Novell certified administrators.

OK I don't actually want to jump on that because what Archer said. I've got to draw a basic line. There's a big debate in the K through 12 fraternity about technology in the classroom. Understand technology in the classroom doesn't mean Dick if you don't read and write at it at a 12th grade level. The core issue here I just finished chairing a task force on under-represented population groups in the I.T. workforce which is shorthand for how come there aren't more blacks women you know Native Americans Hispanics et cetera. The bottom line is too many kids don't come out come out of high school without without basic skills. You can't turn them into I.T. workers in the hotel business the restaurant business to or put men on the moon if they don't have core skills. Once they've got those core skills and computers can help them learn it better once they got the core skills you can do some other things. Let's talk about access for a second because I see Ernest Boykin getting ready to jump onto this because he is he is located in the District of Columbia and it would appear that as the as the communications technology grows that we are

experiencing the phenomena phenomenon of its cities in which in a place like the Washington area it's compared to a doughnut and the suburban jurisdictions or the city so to speak are around the doughnut and in the middle. Apparently there's a great deal of starvation going on because in the case of capital commitment incorporated what it has been able to receive funding from private businesses it is being virtually start by the federal and local government. Very very true. One of the situations that we've noticed is that. Most of the people that we tend to place are placed outside of the District of Columbia where we look. I think we flood Northern Virginia in terms of the actual population or or the people there where they were being employed there last year for example we sent about 20 people out of the District of Columbia. I mean we had folks who moved to Oklahoma City we had folks moved to St. Louis off into Dallas Texas and places like that. And this was to pursue careers

within the industry. One of the interesting things that we found also is that there seems to be a severe need for basic life skills training. So when you stop and develop all this some of the inadequacies that happened relative to the foundations of the educational system we have experienced thus far. We have to prepare them a bit further. So when you talk about information technology at the parochial level when you talk about introducing things to the children some of the things I can see with that mesh comes in because if you recall there was always in vocational education and shop that shop was wonderful because shop created an opportunity for you to have a hobby some direction as to what you might want might want to do in your life you might want to go into into the trade you might want to go on to college or one of the least you had some options. I see my. 19 year old son here and even though he doesn't know what options you know are except what he he's been driven towards you know. So you have to go to college. But in terms of the hobbies

or doing something that you might want to do it's fun. It's not available to them. And so what we have to do is try to reintroduce that foundation to let people understand hey this is an industry that that not you shouldn't just be honest because the money involved or whatever but because it's something that you can grow the opportunities and dimensions are so broad that all you need is enough to get your foot in the door. Maybe as an appropriate level as a technician where you're doing basic insulation because it's always funny when they talk about you know that every household in America will be wired you know with information about how well who's going to do it. You know and it's going to maintain it when it's broken. Very true. P.J. I want to get to the question that both earnest and art you raise having to do with your generation Archie talked about the young woman who said I'm getting paid Ernest to start by talking to young people about the fact that it's not only about getting paid. It's about giving yourself more options in life. How do you feel about that.

I mean I think computers are a life skill that goes along with reading and writing math fundamentals as you go through your schooling it's something that's going to be essential that every high school and college student in the coming years if you can check your e-mail you know your first day of freshman college you're going to be out of luck when the professor sends you the homework. Or you know a paper assignment or last minute class cancellation if you don't know how to access the Web you're going to be you're going to be sure up on scholarships college information. These are essential tools that kids don't have. I mean when I say kids I mean kids in D.C. kids in public schools. I know personally the same computers that I worked on in the third grade when I was in school. I see them today in elementary school. You know HD Hook Elementary School the same 286 as you know 386 is XTi is stuff that I'd rather use as a doorstop in a paper way than to throw one in every every classroom. And when you hear people with you know running their mouth about putting a computer in every classroom they'll see what computers they put in their computers that people in industry and tech and technology firms. So

we don't want these we don't want throw away let's not be a chance. You know given to some public school they sit there they collect dust. You know there are paper paperweights endorsements. So what is your feeling about those 286 This others that those forms that give them to those schools feel that at least these young people will have something to be starting out on they can learn the fundamentals on these machines. You can put a box anywhere you know anyone can plug in a computer you know you can plug in any war. But if you don't have a you know the heart the what's really limited under that it doesn't matter. You can you know people can open up a training you know training site anywhere. Throw in 10:46 is that doesn't make you know you're not teaching the central computer and life skills when you just put up on the computer not attached to the net. It's basically a very sophisticated adding machine and typewriter issue is there's a big world out there. It's not a television. Vint Cerf said oh great you've just taken your $5000 out workstation and turned it into a lousy black and white television.

I mean it is it is the connection to the rest of the world that makes it it makes it significant leader of the population you're dealing with is a largely adult population women most of whom have children. How do they approach this issue. Is there an intimidation factor especially when they listen to people like P.J. talk and understand that the technology is constantly changing and they are at a point in their lives where change is a little more difficult to adapt to than when they were younger. I have to agree with what the folks are saying and the problem that we're finding is people don't really know how to access this information and don't know where to turn to to get as much information as possible to make the best decisions for themselves. And we're finding for instance while just did a study with George Mason University Research Center and the Urban Institute to survey the area survey local employers to see where the jobs are

as well as a survey of welfare recipients to see if they knew about these jobs and what strategies they were using to connect to these jobs and we found that there was very little connection that the job openings do exist. But the folks looking for work don't know that these job openings exist. And worse we find that a lot of folks aren't putting too much thought into what it takes to be self-sufficient. For instance the folks who are going to have to move off of welfare into the world of work think oh well I'll just go to the corner drugstore and put in an application there and hopefully I'll get a job and you know I'll meet the work requirement. Unfortunately they're not putting any thought into how much they need to make to not have to rely on any form of subsidy. And how much it takes to pay for childcare to pay for housing to pay for transportation to pay for food and clothing. And when you add it all

of you need in the District of Columbia you need to make about $11 an hour. To be totally self-sufficient which is a little bit more than minimum wage. So you know our folks really getting as much information as they need. You know there's an interest once I get I'm my name is Marie Johns and I worked for Bell Atlantic and certainly in that industry. We have a great interest in this topic I think April you spoke earlier about the K through 12 experience aren't you. You made a comment about the need for Lifescan LifeSkills training I know you've been involved with that as well. There are so many issues so many ways we could branch off on this topic but one of the fundamental issues that I think is that education public education and its contract if you will with the rest of society is going to have to fundamentally change and we're going to really have to begin to involve businesses and employers more in the education process almost in an apprentice type of

relationship that that used to exist years ago that we had gotten away from now because if the school system can produce a young person who has the basics that PJ talked about who has done the math skills the verbal skills et cetera that the employer may be in a better position to then take that that deliverable and give it the specific skills that are needed to make it in. In this new economy. There's been a long debate in industry across the board not just the information industries about the school to work transition the National Alliance of business suggests that about 50 percent of the new jobs being created as we speak and into the future can and should be occupied by people who have more than high school and less than college. What that suggests is there is a partnership opportunity that allows that that should be created a much more aggressive one and you see it in some communities where kids go out to work because they want to buy a car. They want to you know go camp for the summer or something.

What's interesting I think at the end of this is that is the divide is that as in the city particularly you have kids who have no exposure to the economy. The bigger economy. And we're you know we're asking a child at Ballou High School they can send our children at that age to go to work at edX in Herndon. You might as well be asking him to go to work on Mars. So I think there are there are a series of levels. But what we found when we looked at how you engage kids the two things need to happen. They need to take the gatekeeping courses which is a basic issue but they need a mentor. They need an involved they need a relationship with an adult who can show them the options we talked about earlier. And for many of them particularly boys you guys will forgive me the sooner they go into the workplace and figure out why they ought to know this the better feedback they get into the school situation why particularly boys. I think it's testosterone poisoning.

What's wrong with this. What is wrong with us. I was slow. No you just are distracted. Well at certain ages we do tend to think that some things are more important than others. I don't mean to be sexist but boys particularly are seem to start thinking about making a living and needing to have money a lot faster. And if they can experience algebra as applied in a workplace it has a lot bigger. That's the issue that I wanted to get back with Archie about in reference to the comment you made earlier about young people wanting to do things if there is if you have an understanding that the agricultural agricultural economy or the industrial economy cannot move move forward at this point without the knowledge economy or the information economy or the communications technology. How do young people who live in the city find that instilled in their lives if it's not something they're seeing in their homes in their communities all the time.

How do you instill that in one of the things that has occurred. And I don't want to go back to one of the things we talked about the changing educational system is huge. One of the things that has occurred is that industry is partners in this whole process. Come to the table not at the graduation of the 12th grade saying when they are ninth graders and eighth graders. I worked for IBM for nine 18 years excuse me and it was all state statement a salesman would always say Make sure your dogs eat dog food. In other words make sure you give people the subjects that industry will hire. We sometimes have a disconnect and the only way you can make sure that connection occurs is if those who are going to hire a part of the process are shaping the curriculum during the training process. We started that balloon that balloon we had in May

showed no Vail came in. But it spawned this organization. Literally lived in about it in Excite for the past years. Now we're getting ready to step off. So do a lot of us like something that we got built for it at the end of every month. From now on we will tell. But but we're now able to move into a larger facility which will be able to bring all of these things into one central location. The key is is that a child in the ninth grade should be aware of technology and exposed to the benefits of technology from to the 12th grade they should be entering into a process of gaining the skill the real we will know that the question is when we have succeeded. When I graduate from the D.C. schools go across the state with a diploma certification and a job if you can get every student as a goal to get to that point you're talking something because you see if every

child had a certification in something in Novelle in some industry based and a degree and a job they could go to college and be able to pay their way through at least earn a decent living. They would be able to work full time and that's where they want it to go. Well go to a junior college and get an associate degree. You're talking about the kind of integration between the public education system and the corporate world or the world of work or these specific corporations or companies that most school systems seem to be having a very difficult time putting together. He is doing it. And the reason why is that question is because I suspect that is the basis of Ernest Boykin not being able to attract local and federal government officials into funding his program. Interesting. We the original concept originally with capital commitment one of the things within

our partnership was with the blue. And today over in southeast also. So as a result we were able to take this process that you that are just trying to talk about a little bit more with what some of the high school or younger groups and we would we were using as an incubator I guess you'd say some of the older folks who were being reintroduced into the work world as well as I'm trying to get their diplomas high school diplomas and so on because the state program was not necessarily a GED but a high school diploma. For people who were dropped that were going back. And so we were able to introduce them to a different population. Some of the needs that were that we felt had to be addressed and that was everything from the life in LifeSkills there was public speaking that was conflict resolution before it became so popular. But you know it became something that you had to really address because when you when you have a situation where you were getting their first employee evaluation and you would have been used to get mad. You want to come across that's because someone you'd have to address that and think about that

you have to think about how people dressed in terms of the whole the whole demeanor and so on. So all these issues were pretty much thrown into this little glass bowl that we were using there. And I concur with Archie. You know to the degree that you have to introduce all this or incorporate it all into whatever the educational process might be because we have always tried to do is what is was to be driven by industry as opposed to be driven by the educational standards. Let me get to P.J. because he pointed out that computers have been a part of his life from elementary school onward. What was your understanding. Hill Elementary School of what this would ultimately mean in your life. I mean it was another it was something else to do. You know it was like just there you know. And when they took us to the room we sat down on Apple to ears and did what they told us. I mean we didn't have a vision of what this would become how it was something new know we didn't really understand much of it you know. But I think a point that needs to be made is what needs to happen is that these companies

Microsoft Intel Apple these technology companies need to come to the realization that they need to get into those classrooms and public school system needs to stop going to Pepsi and Taco Bell and KFC and getting them inside the schools. You know how many there there's so many school cafeterias that are sponsored by these fast food chains to brainwash the kids and they eating Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. Why is that. Somebody is already being sued because. Because of maligning food products it's speed of speech. Who's talking here. Go ahead. Go ahead. I mean why aren't Microsoft and Intel pushing as hard to be you know these corporate sponsors for public education. You know why. Why. And where isn't the interest. And it's from both sides it's from the public schools as well as the technology firms. You know if public schools want to have technology they need to go to these corporate entities instead of trying to scrounge up old old machines from somebody who doesn't need them anymore.

Archie says just this while on one hand you could not manufacture fast food. I'm not so sure I'm I'm against it. Microsoft is the largest corporate giver in the world. If you look at it as a percentage of what they give and they earn it about one of the right in the middle of the pack. They just happen to be bigger than everybody else in the world. The fact of the matter is that this industry is growing faster than any of us can imagine. And if when you say work that the school system and I said India is doing it you see when you make a decision of this caliber you have to go to great lengths India countries are deciding they want to end this ballgame. Pakistan makes a decision not a school system in Pakistan. The country makes a decision. This city needs to make a decision. This is the direction we want to go in

because it impacts all of the city. And when you put the burden on just the school system then you force them into an isolation that they can handle the way everybody in the world. Well well Archie sponsors I mean because what happens here. Like for example the Atlantic has been very supportive are in deficit as has Nortel and loosened. But what about those other fringe companies that like for example some of the smaller minority companies or the big companies. I haven't seen them belly up to the plate to do what they have to do as a country. We all know that when you look at the from the entire process it is the we have to have all of corporate America to work towards bettering whatever the situation is because everybody if all of us were caught. I mean this is the original pay me now or pay me later but that goes both ends because corporations are just as important as always. So is the hospital system the education system. Pepco in what we're saying is you guys go out here and each of your companies you can't

even agree on what day it is you all are going to agree to funds computers in the schools. I just think it's unrealistic. But it does work and I think our where even shows that we have fierce competitors. When you look at the Nortel Lucent and the elections in situations that these people compete every day. But the process is is tight. The situation is one of the hey they're out for the betterment of the community. And so it's working. It's only a small level but I'd like to see it expanded beyond that. But if that can happen in this situation it can happen in all situations. Please allow me and Barbara Boedi to work. I think we have a real generational problem and I think you're putting the burden in the wrong place. It's not. Why doesn't the corporation belly up. The question is Why don't the people in charge know enough to ask the corporations to invite them to come and give. I think one of our major problems is that the people leading our city don't know about the Internet don't understand how to use computers don't know enough. I mean Mario Marino talks about creating a supportive environment creating an environment in which

teachers know enough to tell kids they could find scholarship information on the Internet. That's not happening. So until the leadership in the schools and the leadership in this town know enough to invite in. So you're saying this is the difference between leadership in the private economy and leadership in the public sector in particular those elected and appointed officials of federal and local governments and that those people are themselves intimidated by technology and computers. And that's what they did or they don't even know it at all. And right now is a disconnected process and it needs to come together I think is is the big problem. And going back to what Maria said a lot of them a lot of employers in this region are willing to train employees. It's not enough to say that you have a JD or that you have a high school diploma. That is not enough anymore. Number one because a lot of times just saying that you have it doesn't mean that you have the skills.

So a lot of employers are willing to take folks and train them on the job and provide the training. But we should be asking and thinking why isn't the process connected. Why why aren't the schools putting out the finished product. You know that it's ready to go to work. Stand up please. Jessica Franklin. I'd like to know what is the how does this idea that you have to have basic skills to make these computer valuable. How does that sit just juxtapose with the new welfare to work practice of sending people to work first and then training. I mean you just mentioned something about people getting on the job training. But in terms of how do you get the technological experience that you need if you're going to work first and you really don't have the basic skills.

Well and what we're saying is that it's enough to go to to just get a job and go to work. I mean we're saying that you need to think beyond that job. And is that job going to lead to self-sufficiency and so we want the women for instance while once the women that we serve to put some thought behind the job search process we have a wonderful success story a woman Tracey who came through our program had a first grade education had three little children with a mother on welfare. She went through her work skills program and decided that what she wanted to do was start install cable line. So after our program she went through capital connections program and she now works for Bell Atlantic installing cable and it's wonderful because this was a person with very limited options very limited experience and she now making over 30000 a year and is clearly providing for her family. And

our point is that if folks know what their options are and what each path leads to then they will be better able to make decisions for themselves that ultimately will lead to self-sufficient is really a system that takes people where they are. I mean you know you want to start with a kid who's three and four and 10 and 12 is an innocent a different situation. Adults after about 16 people learn better in stature they learn. They learn basic skills even better applying them than simply sitting them down in a classroom. It's I think it's an. It's the system has to be flexible enough to take people at whatever place they are and bring them along and find the skills and passion and the boys and girls clubs the greater Washington for about two and a half years. I'd like to respond to some of the comments about donated equipment. We've seen an explosion in the technology I feel when I first came to the agency we were happy to get 286 as the kids loved them we put them in our

homes group homes we put them in our clubs and then we found that we were taking a hodgepodge of equipment. So we finally said no more to 86 as we establish a baseline of what we wanted to do. We formed a technology committee of some very very sophisticated people and we looked at where we are where we're trying to get to for both the kids and the staff. And what we found often was that a lot of people would accept technology who were not technology knowledgeable themselves. So you have a lot of corporations will say Would you like some 286 or some 386 486. And everybody says yes and they go back and you got a van load of this equipment. You go back to your office and you got a lot of staff that really don't know how to use it or don't know how to use it with the kids. So I think without maligning the corporations that have been very benevolent to us I think we as a community whether the public school system whether it's a non-profit community

we have to decide what our technology needs are and we have to plan it carefully and know where we're trying to get to because we can put 286 or 386 as opinions. But if you don't have the staff that knows how to use the Pentiums knows how to train the kids to use it. Then you've just got a pile of equipment sitting on a desk. So I think we've got to find a way collectively as a community to decide what our technology needs are and what we need to prepare the people with in order to be able to access it. We were trying to take a stab at that. That's you're right on target because what has occurred for the most part has been a lot of theory what we really need to see happen is to bring it all together in a physical dimension. One of the things that we're trying to take a stab at is a new place called workforce readiness Institute. And the purpose of it is to bring the workstations bring the technology partner with groups like

Tech Corps and other voluntary organizations give them a home in one location ask community groups if they would like to participate in this world. We'll give you the technology if you will to get trained and hold the classes for them. And at the end of getting the classes give them a workstation to join the citywide network. The citywide network would be called the same link. I share that with you because Commerce Department has given given us a grant to start to pilot this. It would be the first time in the country a city has been brought together. The city will allow us to bring it to high schools community locations and university of District of Columbia with the hub location being in the southwest with that as the feeder arm will be able to bring in classes that will give through some technology allow us to do distant learning so that the classes

will be held not only in southwest but simultaneously in classrooms throughout the city. So the welfare work folks on welfare can come and get classes without having to travel across town to receive it. So yes you I agree with you wholeheartedly. Claire question Archie in April it's my understanding from reading the Washington Business Journal over the summer that there was about ten to fifteen thousand fifteen thousand jobs going wanting in the Northern Virginia area technology related jobs and when just pose this with the district school system and the way you were talking about a lack of commitment there towards this industry. It seems almost startling and I know here you have some efforts under way with the school system what are the things that are going on now to institutionalize the information industry in the school system. Well I'm I'm not going to say that we're jumping on the schools as well. I want to be real clear on that because I think that they have a burden. I mean this is this is a tough task this

school to work effort is being championed and I personally know that they give a strong shot when some work is going on. What I'm trying to say is we need to augment it. We need to add to it. We're working with Baloo and now we're moving in the Woodsen and into to now Joy. Roosevelt. And then Roosevelt we try to look at the house the travel and tourism industry and Woodsen we're looking at business business management and the bulu we're looking at networking the school system as part of this effort. But their effort to move 160 schools is Hercules and we're trying to do is create a pilot show a possible success and then allow the school system to join with us to move across the school system. Coach let me just comment on that. The number actually is 19000 jobs in Northern Virginia. Part of the problem is that the vast majority of those jobs are not entry level jobs.

The joke around the office is you know somebody has got a problem when they're looking for a webmaster with 10 years experience. Part of the problem is the jobs they're trying to fill. There just aren't enough of those people in the population. Having said that the issue is not that we don't know how to train people for these jobs or any other jobs. We don't have the will to do it. There are programs Archie's program the Baloo program worked with Nathaniel poller the president of Bowie State has a summer program where they take 9th 10th 11th and 12th graders in for the summer they teach a math geometry trigonometry philosophy how to function. He's got room for a thousand He's got money for 500. The country were littered with programs that work. The problem is we we either we collectively the public system the private system individuals we're just not paying for it. This is not creating rocket science. This is not rocket science. It's about early early commitment. It's about mentoring. It's about getting into the schools early it's about basic skills it's about advanced

skills. It's about all of us moving people into this mainstream economy. It's also about where these jobs are to be found if there are 19000 jobs going begging in Virginia. What's wrong with the District of Columbia. All of the jurisdictions are talking about how do we tap into this job market. How do we create the kind of corporate environment that will make those companies want to locate in our jurisdictions. And one of the problems it seems with Regional Planning is that this donut is getting larger and larger a hole in the District of Columbia. You know what do we do about this. One of the things that has to happen is there isn't there is an inherent information industry in the city that nobody's paying attention to. I was telling some of us some of the group earlier I'm doing a survey every time I walk in an office in the district Columbia I say who maintains your network who installs your cable across the board. It's a company in Virginia or Maryland. We need we need to be growing local companies that are here. We need to be figuring out how to service the federal government with companies that

are located in the District of Columbia. We need to make the district come a lot more attractive to these kinds of companies. We being whom all of us. I mean I don't I don't mean I'm not a voter in the district but I spend a lot of time in the district working with Archie where everybody on this panel except P.J. who I just met who I plan to get dragged into my head. It's going to have to be a regional solution. But again we come back to those elected and appointed leaders who according to Barbara don't just seem to get it now. And I would share with you that the process that we've just gone through which I don't again I don't believe because we're rocket scientists. Right. It was a function of GSA. We started with Bell Atlantic launched into this GSA. GSA donated the space because EPA was moving over to the Reagan office building. So all that space was Southwest was going just sitting there. So we decided why not build a dream.

And that's how this thing started literally started last month. We've been running at a. Pace that I can't even keep up but the process says we can do it. And what I've learned from politicians is you got to show them something you've got to show them success before they jump on the bandwagon. Well we have some success now and I think that we have enough success to at least start saying to folks that if you if you build it they will get it right. And that's one out of the process. Falls Church no article in the paper the other day that's also getting ready to entice more business in the coming year by having various tax incentives and things like that for businesses that I just don't see happening in the district. Again it goes back to government working in concert with here in the Tysons Corner We have one of the largest cities in the country already existing but it interests me that you decided to stay after the summer because one of the things that make adults move is when children demand and one of the points that she made earlier is when these children indicate that they want to do something

does that have anything to do with the fact that you decided to stay beyond the summer. The young people that you yourself have been working with I'm definitely going to work with kids to see them perhaps from having no knowledge of the computer or being afraid of turning on to seeing them you know in an extremely comparable situation and producing you know artwork and music on the computer. It's something that that was what kept me here. You know besides the fact I needed time off from school. I mean I wanted to share an anecdote with everybody here. One of the. A fourth grader I worked with came to me and said I have to do a report on Navajo Indians. So I said Do you know where the CD ROM is. You know I'll help you if you need it. So he went got the CD ROM and the encyclopedia turned on the computer loaded the CD ROM search for Navajo Indians went to print the printer wasn't working he added paper checked the plugs got the whole thing set up printed it out and came back to him the next day and said you know let me see the let me see the paper shows me this paper had a beautiful cover he did you know Navajo Indians he used all

different color fonts whenever I turned on the first page and it was the exact page I printed out from the encyclopedia said Grolier multimedia encyclopedia on the bottom and he was going to go to this and the next day it didn't. He knew how to turn on the computer or fix the printer do it all himself. He didn't know how to process research information doesn't matter. He could have gone to the library. You know it doesn't matter it doesn't matter that we have these computers CD-ROMs and people who can show them how to do it. If they're not learning how to do research. Indeed what does matter is that people have to want to have just time for one more comment would you stand up please. I just like to say that mass solutions just aren't going to work anymore and that it's all of us individually doing our individual part that will bring about a collective change whether it's for our young people or people that are trying to go from welfare into the work force and I think that we can't lose focus to that because once we do we go right back to where it was. And the problem is that we.

Bertrand Russell once said for every hard question there's an easy answer and it's wrong. We keep looking for an easy answer and particularly a one size fits all answer. There isn't one. Indeed we began this broadcast by saying this is a co-operative venture between leadership Washington and Howard University television. W H U T. The question was rhetoric or reality. Redefining the workforce through technology after viewing and listening to our panelists during the course of the last hour or so. I think we would all come down on the side of reality. We have just got to adjust to it and so we would like to thank all of our panelists for joining us. All of the members of our studio audience. Most of all. Thank you. John