NEWARK – Intel’s chief global operations officer, Keyvan Esfarjani, accompanied by Intel’s executive leadership team in Ohio, visited the Newark campus of Central Ohio Technical College (COTC) and The Ohio State University at Newark (OSUN). The main goal of this visit was to discuss Intel’s interest in workforce development in the central Ohio region. He was keenly interested in the activities of educational institutions to attract and develop students in STEM programs.
Present at the meeting were John Berry, Ph.D., president of COTC; Joyce L. Malainy, EdD, superintendent of C-TEC, based in Licking County; and Sandy Furterer, Ph.D., professor of practice, The Ohio State University. Intel executives discussed the importance of high schools, technical colleges and universities in developing different levels and types of workforce that they will need in the years to come.
The infrastructure in central Ohio, the history of manufacturing and private-public partnership and the potential for workforce development, Esfarjani emphasized, are the things that make Ohio attractive to Intel as well as other advanced manufacturing organizations.
Intel executives were also keenly interested in the efforts made by educational institutions to attract women and underrepresented minorities to STEM programs. They were very impressed with the program offerings and strategy developed by the institutions. They promised to fully support any marketing activity, to showcase and highlight the career opportunities at Intel.
The meeting concluded by reaffirming our mutual commitment to work collaboratively to build a robust and sustainable workforce pipeline for the central Ohio region’s semiconductor industry and the larger advanced manufacturing sector.
