“It’s not just about graduating,” Randy Gardner, chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, told host Mike Kallmeyer. “It’s about retaining [graduates] to be a part of our workforce.”

Gardner said Ohio’s institutions of higher learning and other training programs respond to the needs of employers, so that Ohio has a pipeline of skilled and available workers, both to keep human capital, and lure businesses to Ohio.

For example, Intel, which announced plans to build a multi-billion dollar semi-conductor manufacturing facility in Licking County. Billed as the largest single private-sector investment in state history, the project suggests an initial 10,000 jobs, both for Intel and its construction. 

“We’re confident and Intel is confident that Ohio will have the education quality and education focus to meet their needs and the needs of their suppliers and literally hundreds of other business that may be a part of Ohio’s new dynamic economy,” said Gardner.