Virginia Futures Forums
As part of its ongoing commitment to long-term goals and the exploration of high-priority issues, the Council on Virginia’s Future has launched a series of Futures Forums to discuss some of the critical questions facing Virginia. Thought leaders from government, business and the community will come together to discuss and help clarify ways we might enhance the Commonwealth’s quality of life. These Futures Forums complement the Council’s signature initiative, Virginia Performs, which tracks the state’s progress in reaching its long-term goals.
Educational Attainment
Perhaps nothing plays a more vital role in securing Virginia’s economic competitiveness than educational attainment. That’s why this new forum series will start by examining the many factors affecting higher education in Virginia.
The first forum in this series -- Economic Competitiveness: Aligning Higher Education with Long-term Workforce Needs -- was held August 28,2009. Dr. Chris Chmura of Chmura Economics and Analytics presented a wealth of data outlining the relationships among education levels, income, business needs and gaps or "misalignments" with degrees produced. Craig Herndon followed with a demo of the Virginia Community College System's award-winning Virginia Education Wizard, a Web tool for students to explore potential career paths, their post-secondary education requirements, salary expectations, and a host of other related data. Forum attendees followed with a lively discussion of the many issues raised.
Forum 1 materials are below:
Post-forum Documents
- Forum Summary (DRAFT) -- 1.3 mb, PDF
- Forum Whitepaper (DRAFT): Enhancing the Alignment of Higher Education with Long-term Workforce Needs -- 1.3 mb, PDF
Forum Documents
- Introduction (Jane Kusiak, Council Executive Director) -- 880 k, PDF
- Enhancing the Alignment of Higher Educatio with Long-term Workforce Needs (Chris Chmura, Chmura Economics and Analytics) -- 6.5 mb, PDF
- Explore the Virginia Education Wizard (website developed by the Virginia Community College System)
- Check out photos from the Forum
Other forums on educational attainment are being planned and may cover the following topics:
- College Readiness
- Retention and Graduation
- Finances and Productivity in Higher Education Institutions
- Affordability and Access
- Timely Student Completion
Best-managed State
Another forum is being planned around maintaining
Virginia's "Best Managed State"
status, which the Commonwealth has held
since 2005. This
forum will examine Virginia's current standing
in terms of people, money, information
and infrastructure, as well as ways to
enhance the state's progress on high-priority
outcomes.