Open letter advocates apprenticeships and diversity

To help steer the greater Washington region towards a more innovative future for entrepreneurs, local business owners penned an open letter to future area politicians.

James Quigley, founder of coworking space Canvas and one of more than 40 co-signers, wants talent growth to be boosted.

“There’s currently well over 40,000 open jobs, just in the cyber industry… we need more talent,” said Quigley. By increasing awareness of jobs to young learners, Quigley hopes the jobs will someday be filled more easily.

He says efforts to attract big companies to the region may be misguided.

“This area has a history of bringing whales to the area… the reality, though — in this wave of ‘new collar jobs’ — is that the jobs we need and the jobs that are going to allow us to attract a whale in the future, are the ones in the beginning and the middle of the economy,” he said. In other words, the region needs a strong entrepreneurship ecosystem.

“These large-size companies, there’s a war on talent, and they don’t just need people right out of school, they need people who have three to five years of experience,” Quigley told What’s Working in Washington.

The letter’s signatories want governments to encourage businesses to take on more apprenticeships and internships. “The idea of apprenticeships, the old school apprenticeship, may be coming back,” he said. Since graduates may not have the skills required for a career, nor real knowledge of the local economy, an apprenticeship could level the playing field.

Quigley and the other business leaders are pushing for more diversity in hiring practices.

“What we’ve found was, the companies that are more diverse are more successful,” he said.

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