"How does a guy who wants to grow up to be a fighter pilot wind up working in economic development for the state of Oklahoma?"You may ask "what is economic development and why is this important"?
Let's start with you. Unless you win The Lottery or are wealthy beyond measure, it is highly likely that you will have to work for a living for a fair amount of your adult life. Harsh reality, get over it.
You will want to work in a job you love and that pays you handsomely. Your employer will want a highly-skilled associate that can bring positive results on a regular basis. This is where CareerTech comes in. We help Oklahomans become "highly-skilled" so that they can get a great job and grow in it over the course of their career.
So, what is the payoff?
You get skills from CareerTech and you go to work for a company who pays you well. You take that wage; spend it on a house, taxes, groceries, a righteous vehicle and so on and, in the end, all Oklahoma benefits from a steadily improving standard of living. That is economic development.
So, what does Scott Smith do in Economic Development? Some of the work I do involves meeting with companies that are considering either moving to Oklahoma or expanding their existing operation by opening a facility in our state. I help businesses understand how they can create a highly-skilled workforce in Oklahoma by using CareerTech technology centers.
What makes it interesting is that we are competing with 49 other states. We work to reveal their filthy lies ......well, not really, because America has some great places to build companies besides Oklahoma.
But, in the end, it is our job to present the incredible value that Oklahoma brings to business and then work to bring great companies, who pay great wages and offer great jobs, to Oklahoma so they can hire great folks like you.
Scott is CareerTech's Cordinator for Economic Development and can be reached at ssmit(@)okcareertech.org
No comments:
Post a Comment