This program targets the disadvantaged and underrepresented populations within Rochester’s urban center to provide access to skill-based careers. Participants receive intensive developmental education to improve their literacy and math skills before transitioning into one of MCC’s accelerated certificate programs. There are many other good examples of cooperative workforce development programs in the New York Fed’s District. In Buffalo, the Overhead Electric Line Worker training program at Erie Community College (ECC) was created in conjunction with National Grid to address the critical shortage of overhead line workers and technicians. To date, the program has graduated 132 students, including 42 who are currently employed at National Grid. Another example is OnForce Solar, which sells and installs solar energy packages for commercial and residential customers. In 2010, OnForce Solar CEO Charles Feit moved his rapidly growing company to a then unoccupied building in the Port Morris area of the Bronx. After struggling to find skilled workers, OnForce Solar partnered with Bronx Community College to create a $ million technology hub which will be paid for by the company. The partnership was made possible by the Governor’s Start-Up NY Program, which was launched in 2013 to spur job growth in distressed areas by designating tax-free zones at various colleges and universities. OnForce Solar also developed and taught a newly designed technology course at Bronx Community College. Another example is Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. When I visited Stevens in April, I learned how they are preparing their students to meet local workforce needs.
Many of my friends in the real economy say that the Czech Republic is a country where everything is produced, from wings for Airbus and Embraer aircraft (we are also the biggest producer of ultralight planes in the world, for instance), through turbines, cars, buses, locomotives and guns to bearings, brushes and semtex. Whatever you need to produce you will always find at least one factory capable of making it, the anecdotic evidence seems to be suggesting. As exports obviously feed this country, and as we are so close to Germany and the Germanspeaking world, you won’t be surprised to learn that Germany is by far our biggest trading partner, with more than 30% of our exports going there and with the biggest proportion of foreign investment in the Czech Republic coming from Germany. (The UK is roughly the tenth or eleventh biggest source of investment for this country.) But you might be surprised when I tell you that the Czech Republic is one of the few countries in the world that has a trade surplus, not a trade deficit, with Germany. This is also quite unique. But it’s not all about the economy, so let me turn to a couple of small curiosities which might be of interest for this audience. I believe some of you use contact lenses, which were invented by the Czech scientist Otto Wichterle, as well as nylon, for instance. The Czech scientist Jan Jansky was the first to classify blood into four groups.