It’s not every day that Snohomish County business and community leaders have an opportunity to spend time with one of Boeing’s top executives to hear about the importance of international business on the county’s economy.
Thanks to arrangements by Everett Community College, more than 40 community, education and economic development leaders spent more than an hour last month with Laura Peterson, vice president of international relations for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, as she shared her insight on a topic she knows exceedingly well. Afterward, she also held informal discussions with several classes at the college.
She modestly suggested that her audience might have as much or more experience in international trade as she does. Being immersed in world trade daily, she no doubt still had the edge on the topic, but it was nice recognition for a group that included such veterans of trade journeys as Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Bob Drewel, global trade traveler Bob Anderson, Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson and Port of Everett Manager John Mohr.
Top focal points in her presentation included the importance of “metropolitan cooperation in promoting international business and investment interests” as well as “the importance of Boeing” as the nation’s leading exporter and the impact that has on Snohomish County. Currently, with Everett being the center of production for the company’s 747, 767, 777 and 787 airliners, Boeing’s global sales naturally have a major impact on the local and state economy.
But Peterson offered an education message as much as a trade message. She sees a need to educate globally prepared American students, not just attract international students to our college campuses. Her emphasis soon turned the group’s discussion to education deficiencies in the state.
Drewel noted that “Washington state employs more engineers per capita than anywhere else in the country,” yet it ranks 38th among the states in producing college graduates. Future job growth, he said, “will be in high-tech, information technology, aerospace and international trade” areas, yet students with high grades in high school or community colleges can’t even find room in four-year colleges.
“The number of U.S. graduates in technical and engineering fields compared to the rest of the world’s leading countries is sobering,” Peterson said. “It’s important to be able to train and develop the best of our talented people.”
Even Boeing is training pilots in India, she said, because it needs to go where it can find large numbers of well-educated people. There’s no way for America, including Washington state, to compete when many high schools are seeing 35 percent dropout rates, Drewel added.
Many in the audience echoed those same laments and warnings, recognizing that many of the opportunities for Washington state and Snohomish County to fully participate in world trade will be lost unless more is done to ensure an ample supply of engineers, technology experts and college-educated, globally minded citizens.
For more background on what the region is doing about being involved in world trade, it’s worth taking a look at the Web site of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle (www.cityofseattle.net/tda). The group’s membership includes Snohomish County, the city of Everett and the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, as well as Seattle, Metropolitan King County and Pierce County government, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and union leadership.
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