ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — To attract new high tech businesses and jobs to New Mexico, the state’s business, government, and academic institutions must collaborate to develop an educational infrastructure and workforce that offers the right engineering skills and manufacturing expertise.
That’s the premise behind a conference this week in Albuquerque: the High Desert-High Tech Workshop on Forging Critical Development Partnerships in Manufacturing, Tuesday and Wednesday (Oct. 19 & 20), at the TVI Workforce Training Center (5600 Eagle Rock Ave. NE).
The purpose of the conference is to establish partnerships that will lead to new workforce development programs that provide the needed skills to New Mexico’s workers.
New Mexico has many competitive advantages in attracting high tech industry to the state, says Lenny Martinez, VP for Manufacturing Systems, Science, & Technology at Sandia National Laboratories. “As new manufacturing businesses form, grow, and locate here, new and exciting high paying jobs are becoming available,” he says. “This conference is about bringing together educators, government agencies, and others to share ideas and find ways to prepare our young people for the high-tech manufacturing future that is becoming a reality.”
The two-day conference will include presentations, panel discussions, group discussions, and tours of several participating institutions.
More information, including an agenda, is available at http://hightech.sandia.gov.
Sponsors for the event include Sandia, the National Nuclear Security Administration, New Mexico Association of Community Colleges, New Mexico Public Education Department, Sandia’s Regional Alliance for Manufacturing Program, Technology Ventures Corporation, TVI, and the University of New Mexico.