What we're doing to help close the skills gap

Connecting the Dots Between Promising Students and Forward Thinking Employers

Future Focused Internships are Helping High School Students Gain Professional Skills

Future Focused Eduction is working with local employers who want to access Albuquerque's talent by connecting them with promising high school interns. Our goal is to help both Albuquerque's businesses and young people thrive by creating an opportunity to grow relationships between talented young people and employers. This month, Future Focused Education met with healthcare employers across Albuquerque to begin creating a pipeline for students interested in healthcare careers. The internships will help students develop the professional skills and attitudes needed for a successful career. Thank you to Presbyterian, Lovelace, United Health Care, First Choice, EleValle, Casa de Salud, Centro Savila and Albuquerque Urology Associates for helping us in our vision to connect 250 interns to 50 internship sites by 2021.

Building a healthier and more prosperous community starts with cultivating the talents of our young people. Host an intern to help strengthen opportunities for local business and talent.

More About Future Focused Interns

"As an employer deeply invested in our community, we are keenly aware of the need for skilled, qualified workers in Albuquerque. Over and over we hear of companies that are reluctant to relocate here because there are not enough skilled workers to meet their needs...[The Future Focused Interns] embraced our values, inspired us and made real contributions to our success."

- Marv Procter, Improve Group

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Ideas in Education

New Mexico's Skills Gap: How Relationships Can Help Employers, Workers and the Economy

By Jason Espinosa, New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry, Future Focused Education Board Member
While there is no doubt that there are significant workforce development challenges in New Mexico, the topic proves to be more complicated than just a lack of skilled workers. Good jobs and qualified workers do exist in New Mexico, but our young people don’t have much knowledge about the jobs available in our community, and there are few relationships between educators and employers. We need a new strategy if we are going to connect the students in our schools to the employers that are looking to grow their companies...

A 'Miscalculation' On Our Standardized Tests Negatively Affected My School's Letter Grade

By Jeff Tuttle, teacher, Monte Vista Elementary School
When the school where I work received an “F” this year, a later apology from the PED said that a miscalculation had artificially driven our school grade down. The “school grades” news article in the Albuquerque Journal was long since to press, and our entire community was affected by the misinformation. The announcement of our miscalculated "F" to the public was not just demoralizing and bad public relations, it could potentially keep people from coming to our school, which relies upon transfers for 50% of our student population...

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Future Focused Education’s mission is to create healthier
and more prosperous communities by advancing the best education
for the students who need it most.

Learn More About What We Do