POCATELLO — The connection between the future health of Idaho’s economy and the effectiveness of its higher education system is critical, according to experts at Wednesday’s State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting held on the ISU campus.

    Idaho businessman John Glerum and Gynii Gilliam, chief economic officer for the Idaho Department of Commerce, provided board members with an overview of economic conditions in the Gem State and a frank assessment of the job institutions of higher learning are doing.

    Glerum, who is director of the Technical and Entrepreneurial Center (TECenter) at Boise State University and former coordinator for the governor’s Idaho Science and Technology Advisory Council didn’t mince words.

    “I know we’re all concerned about the economy,” Glerum said. “We need to grow talent here in Idaho.”

    He said places where talent is cultivated are universities and colleges, especially if they work in concert with the business community.

    “I think universities are too expensive,” Glerum said about the cost of obtaining a degree. “I think universities are ineffective in a lot of ways. There’s a disconnect between student enrollment numbers and the needs of industry.”

    Glerum suggested universities make a concerted effort to determine valuable college majors and tailor programs to give students real world experience so they become valuable in the real world.

    “I think we need to make higher ed all about providing students who are valuable in the marketplace,” the businessman who once headed up Ore-Ida and was an executive with H.J. Heinz Company.

    He didn’t place all the responsibility on the state’s learning institutions.

    “Students don’t work very hard,” Glerum said. “And they don’t learn a lot. It’s a minority of students who graduate on time.”

    To be successful, Glerum said college students must embrace the concepts of academic rigor and hard work. If they combine that with real work experiences, future success will come, according to the businessman.

    Gilliam also encouraged more cooperation between industry and academia.

    “We are really pushing working at the speed of business,” she said.

    That means when an industry representative or business owner contacts a university about securing and placing interns, the institution needs to react quickly, “not on university time,” Gilliam said.

    The state’s leading business recruiter said currently the 22 to 30-year-old age group is suffering the highest unemployment in Idaho and that is a shame since it is the time in a person’s life when major goals are shaped.

    “Economic development and education must be in step with each other,” Gilliam said.

    She echoed the three main business growth priorities previously outlined by Glerum. They are, in order of importance: business retention and expansion, business development and business attraction.

    According to Glerum, startups and expansion of existing businesses in Idaho are responsible for about 90 percent of economic growth with an even split of 45 percent each. However, attraction of new outside businesses is only responsible for the remaining 10 percent.

    “We need to focus on expansion,” he said.

    Gilliam said this will require renewed efforts to work with higher education.

    “We need to partner with the state board to make sure our graduates have jobs,” she said.