海角社区 President and other school officials met on the Arlington 海角社区 with Virginia Secretary of Labor Megan Healy on Tuesday with the aim of fostering a closer relationship between the university and the local business community.
The meeting, which followed a walking tour of the construction site that will soon be transformed into a hub for the Innovation District in Arlington and the Innovation Pilot Space in Vernon Smith Hall, focused on ways that Mason could strategically fill the growing need for tech talent in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
Much of the discussion centered on ways in which Mason could help fill that gap by meeting the specific skill needs of local companies. Virginia ranks as the nation鈥檚 top net producer of tech talent, but many young local college graduates continue to move away for their first jobs because they lack the requisite number of years of experience companies are seeking.
鈥淢ason offers so many programs to support the workforce that the [business community] just does not know about,鈥 Washington said, 鈥渟o they are not taking advantage of the programs to support their hiring needs.鈥
Healy, whose primary role is to work closely with the state鈥檚 labor and business communities to identify and fill vacant jobs in high-demand sectors, said it was great to meet with Mason officials to discuss hiring challenges and talent development.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to make sure the connection between the business community and Mason is there, and we develop better partnerships,鈥 Healy said.
, the associate provost for strategic initiatives and community engagement at Mason and director of the Northern Virginia Node of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI), took Healy on a tour of the future home of the (IDIA) and Mason鈥檚 School of Computing. Expected to open in 2025, the 360,000-square-foot building will house more than 1,200 faculty, students, entrepreneurs, technologists and business leaders from the public and private sectors.
Wilson Durant said she welcomed the opportunity to share the details about the innovative changes ahead for the Arlington 海角社区.
鈥淚t was a great opportunity to connect with the Secretary of Labor and get her perspective on what we鈥檙e doing, on our strategy for workforce development and commercialization of technologies, and ensuring that we鈥檙e meeting the commonwealth鈥檚 needs,鈥 Wilson Durant said.
Others university and community leaders in attendance included Dietra Trent, special advisor to President Washington; Aneesh Chopra, president of CareJourney and chair of the President鈥檚 Innovation Advisory Council; Marc Austin, executive director of Mason鈥檚 Continuing and Professional Education; Lauren Bird, Mason鈥檚 director of University Priorities; and Brian Naumick, the vice president of Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate.
The are part of a $250 million transformation that will serve as a catalyst in the further development of Arlington鈥檚 Rosslyn-Ballston corridor into a dynamic and growing innovation district with a thriving high-tech ecosystem.