Columbia leaders discuss the future of city workforce development

Columbia leaders discussed workforce development and community contributions Friday at a meeting that brought together officials from Columbia Public Schools, the University of Missouri, business and city and county governments.

Representatives from the Boone County Commission, the Columbia Area Chamber of Commerce, Columbia Public Schools, the University of Missouri and the City of Columbia were all in attendance to talk about topics including workforce development, elementary school additions and city/county partnerships.

“We get together twice a year and this is a great opportunity for each one of us, whether it’s the community in terms of like the schools, the city, the county, the Chamber of Commerce, the University of Missouri to show the work that we’re doing and also to demonstrate that we work together,” CPS Superintendent Peter Stiepleman said.

Leaders discussed ways to help foster future community leaders with ideas such as early, no-debt college education for high school students.

Most of the conference time was taken up by discussion of job opportunities as Columbia continues to grow.

“We talked about what does workforce development look like for Columbia and for Boone County — how are we making sure that working with our education systems, making sure our students are college and career ready, and then have different avenues to make sure that they’re ready,” Columbia Chamber of Commerce President Matt McCormick said.

KMIZ