Fredericksburg Free Press: ‘Lift as you climb’: Spanberger holds event on workforce training

FREDERICKSBURG FREE PRESS, JONATHAN HUNLEY

The immigrant story may sound familiar, yet it’s no less meaningful.

Babu Brar came to Stafford County in 1995 from Punjab, India, with only $200 in his pocket.

He needed a job, so he filled out an application at a gas station and gave it to an assistant manager, who was working behind the cash register.

“And she threw the application in the trash right in front of my eyes,” Brar recalled Wednesday, “and told me, ‘We do not hire foreigners.’”

The Sikh electrical engineer and Indian army veteran ended up getting that position, though. He later got other jobs, and 22 of his relatives followed him to America. When some of them wanted to obtain driver’s licenses, he decided to start his own driving school.

Brar also started taking classes at Germanna Community College in 1999, and he used skills he learned there in building a livelihood. He now has an operation on Routes 2 and 17 that features the driving school, a commercial driver’s license school and a repair shop. He and his family own trucking businesses with 40 vehicles.

“Now we’re creating the jobs,” he said.

Germanna has used Brar’s story in marketing material, and the institution’s president, Janet Gullickson, asked him to speak as part of a workforce training summit Rep. Abigail Spanberger hosted at George Mason University’s Potomac Science Center.

A host of panelists from the Fredericksburg area spoke at the event, as Spanberger’s 7^th Congressional District includes the region.

One of those was Daniel Hornick, a former North Stafford High School principal and the current superintendent of the Orange County schools.

His presentation featured discussion on the Academy of Technology and Innovation at the University of Mary Washington, which opened last month. It’s a College Partnership Laboratory School, which the state Education Department defines as being designed to stimulate the development of innovative education programs.

The ATI program focuses on combining computer and data science fields with innovative, interdisciplinary teaching practices and learning experiences for high school students. The lab school partners with the school divisions in Fredericksburg and in Stafford, Caroline, King George and Orange counties.

“ATI UMW is going to provide our students an innovative experience merging the high-tech skills needed in today’s economy with robust critical thinking and the liberal arts education,” Hornick said. “Our students are actually going to be on campus on Route 17 in Stafford.”

Another speaker was Ernisha Hall, president and CEO of the Fredericksburg-based Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce.

She praised UMW’s participation in an internship program called the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership, a joint effort of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the Virginia Chamber Foundation and the Virginia Business Higher Education Council.

“They have been instrumental in forging connections between students and businesses through strategic internships,” Hall said.

Stafford resident Gavriel Legynd, CEO of the technology company VisioneerIT, attended Wednesday’s event. He noted that internships can benefit businesses and their interns. It’s a “lift as you climb” scenario, he said, in which both scale the ladder of success together.

Internships are particularly helpful for students who are taking a path other than in academia, he said.

“A lot of kids are not going to traditional colleges anymore,” said Legynd, who is on the Virginia Black Chamber’s board of directors.

Spanberger, a Democrat, also has introduced legislation on workforce training issues. In April, she unveiled the Digital Skills for Today’s Workforce Act alongside U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA). It expands digital skills training within postsecondary education, adult education and workforce development systems.

Last year, she reintroduced the bipartisan Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act with Rep. Rob Wittman (R-1^st District) to give individuals the freedom to use their 529 savings plans to cover the costs of certain workforce training and credentialing programs.

Spanberger decided to run for governor instead of seeking re-election this year in the 7^th District.

When asked about a statewide economic development strategy, she said the way to attract businesses is by saying there’s a “pipeline of a workforce” here that is “top-notch.”

“And that starts at the earliest of levels,” she said.