June 2, 2019 2:15p
(WGTD)---A two-year-old initiative that’s aimed at squeezing as much marketable talent out of the region as possible will soon be headed by Carthage College’s president. John Swallow, in his current role as vice-chair, will become chairman of the Higher Educational Regional Alliance.
The Alliance, or HERA for short, is made up of the leaders of 18 colleges and universities in a seven-county region of southeast Wisconsin.
HERA came about after worker-starved employers started wondering what the effect would be on the labor market if Foxconn's hiring projections of needing “up to” 13,000 workers would become reality. While that number has since been questioned, the concept of higher-education working together more closely for the betterment of students and employers alike stuck.
Much of HERA’s work takes place at the committee level, where members are focusing on improving graduation rates, correcting racial inequalities, beefing up articulation agreements and making sure the schools offer well-defined career paths. "if we succeed in all of this," says Swallow, "we will have students who are able to find the college that fits them faster, move through it faster, graduate faster to get to a job faster with great value all along the way with fewer obstacles."
Gateway Technical College President Bryan Albrecht and UW-Parkside Chancellor Debbie Ford are also heavily involved in HERA, and are just as enthused about it as Swallow.
The three spoke about HERA during a Morning Show taping last week. The program will air Monday morning, then be available at wgtd.org.
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