© 2026
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

NY education, business leaders tackling skills gap

New York education and business leaders will brainstorm this week to address the conflicting problems of unemployment and unfilled jobs. WAMC’s Dave Lucas reports.

A conference planned by the state Education Department will focus on how to prepare students to land jobs at companies like IBM, whose leaders describe a "skills gap" separating the availability of workers from good jobs waiting to be filled.

IBM and the Business Council of New York State are co-sponsoring Friday's conference in Albany. It comes as New York is moving toward adopting two alternative high school diplomas, one focused on science, technology, engineering and math, collectively known as STEM, and the other on career and technology education, or CTE.

Education Commissioner John King says it's hoped the conference inspires collaboration between education and the business community.

© 2012 AP

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.