APA in 2010: Successes, challenges, and reflections

This past year has been an eventful time for Austin Polytech. Our program is attracting media attention locally and nationally, and we’re seeing tangible progress preparing the next generation of manufacturing leaders. In 2010, APA achieved a number of great successes, academically as well as in our career program: APA placed in the top 20 [...]

How economic development is made in Germany

The Renaissance Council has always drawn from international best practices — particularly those of industrialized European countries. A recent article by Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post inspired me to take a new look at Germany. Germany’s economy is as strong as ever — with rising wages, low unemployment, and export rates second only to [...]

It Still Begins With Education

This week, Salon Magazine went into the science fiction business, sketching out several bleak near-future scenarios ( “How America will collapse (by 2025)”) in harrowing detail. And while the fictional futures the article outlines are just speculation, the sobering reality behind them — that America needs to take swift action in certain key areas now [...]

The Renaissance Council in Crain’s Chicago Business

Twice this December, Crain’s Chicago Business turned to the Renaissance Council for expert opinion on manufacturing in Chicago. Check out executive director Dan Swinney’s comments in the December 6 article “Skilled labor in peak demand at precision firms” and the December 8 edition of Chicago Business Today, “Home-field advantage“:

Rumors of Manufacturing’s Death

Have been greatly exaggerated. So what’s the real story of manufacturing? From Tranport Topics: Chicago Manufacturing Index Improves 11/30/2010 10:20:00 AM Manufacturing activity in the Chicago region improved this month, showing continued expansion, the Institute for Supply Chain Management-Chicago said Tuesday. ISM-Chicago’s monthly index rose to a reading of 62.5, from 60.6 in October. Figures [...]

Austin Polytech on PBS NewsHour

In October, WTTW’s acclaimed current affairs show Chicago Tonight aired a feature segment about Austin Polytech, spreading the word about our program to viewers across the Chicago area. Last night, audiences throughout the United States learned about Austin Polytech as our local story aired on the acclaimed national news show PBS NewsHour. If you missed [...]