The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) hosted the first Issue Forum in the Roadmap for Growth campaign at Temple University’s Morgan Hall last night. The topic was workforce development and the steps that the next Mayor of Philadelphia should take to keep the city competitive on a global scale. The speakers included Rob Wonderling, President and CEO, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Neil Theobald, President, Temple University; Gregory M. Anderson, Ph.D., Dean and Professor of Higher Education, College of Education, Temple University; Daniel K. Fitzpatrick, President & CEO, Citizens Bank of PA/NJ/DE/NY; Paul Kihn, Deputy Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia; Mary T. Krick, Vice President- Human Resources, PECO; Gabriel Mandujano, Founder & CEO, Wash Cycle Laundry; and Jim Rosenfield, Anchor, NBC 10.
The speakers were asked to comment on the challenges that face Philadelphia’s workforce as well as what they think could help improve things. Comments and suggestions included:
- Encouraging more universities and companies to create co-op work experiences for students;
- Investing in early childhood education so that kids are proficient in math and reading by third grade;
- Helping the School District of Philadelphia execute on its core functions;
- Challenging businesses to be more involved in the neighborhoods they serve; and
- Changing economic development strategies to help small businesses that will create jobs.
“This Issue Forum allowed people from various perspectives to share their ideas about how we can improve Philadelphia’s workforce, and the ideas reflected the many different approaches that the next mayor should consider,” said Rob Wonderling, President and CEO of the Chamber. “There is no one right answer to the challenges that face Philadelphia, whether it is improving early education to providing work opportunities for students to helping the functionally illiterate adult population. We expect this discussion to continue well into 2015 and beyond.”
Audience members also offered suggestions and questions, such as encouraging businesses to do more volunteer work in communities that can help show residents the opportunities in their own cities and asking how can we incentivize smart people to choose teaching as a career path. Mayoral candidate Ken Trujillo and Councilman Ed Neilson were also in last night’s audience. To see more details about what was said, look at the Chamber’s twitter account, @phillychamber, and the Roadmap’s hashtag #PhillyRoadmap.
The next Issue Forum will be “Improving Philadelphia’s Competitiveness” in late January 2015. Details will be released shortly.
The Chamber is encouraging all citizens to engage in the online conversation about Philadelphia’s economy at www.roadmapforgrowth.com. Users can answer questions, participate in polls and provide what they think the next Mayor and City Council should do to grow the economy. People can also join the conversation through #PhillyRoadmap and on the Chamber’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr pages. The current sponsors of the Roadmap for Growth are Comcast NBC10 Telemundo62, PECO Energy, Dilworth Paxson LLP, ACE Group, Brandywine Realty Trust, Temple University, Econsult Solutions Inc., AT&T, Citizens Bank, United Bank of Philadelphia and Walgreens.
