On Tuesday, January 26th from 7:30am – 10:30am at the London Convention Centre, Mayor Matt Brown gave his second State of the City Address (SOTCA). The London Chamber of Commerce’s SOTCA is held annually and is a one of a kind event to mark the beginning of a new year. It sets the tone for both Mayor and Council as they set out to tackle the important issues that face our municipality. It has become a must-attend event for the London business community, drawing an audience of over 1,200 people.
The Mayor discussed new investments, job announcements, budget information, as well as the growing tech sector in London and recent medical innovations. The speech provided updates about the rapid transit initiatives and next steps to adding more fibre optic connectivity in the downtown core.
One highlight from the announcement was that Ramsden Industries, an aluminum casting industry leader since 1946, are expanding their facility on Oakland Avenue and adding new capital equipment and news jobs over three years. This expansion will service domestic as well as export customers in the automotive, general industrial, and defence industries.
To read Mayor Matt Brown's Speech from the State of the City Address 2016, please visit https://www.london.ca/city-hall/mayors-office/Pages/State-of-City.aspx.
Memorandum of Understanding
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be commencing between Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology and the London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC). The strategic partnership aims to strengthen their relationship, streamline activities and create better employment outcomes in London.
This MOU sets forth the framework to a strategic alliance between Fanshawe College and the LEDC to pursue their shared goals of developing a skilled workforce and contributing to the sustainable economic prosperity of the City of London and the region of south-western Ontario:
- The mandate of Fanshawe College is to offer a comprehensive program of career-oriented, post-secondary education and training to assist individuals in finding and keeping employment, to meet the needs of employers and the changing work environment and to support the economic and social development of their local and diverse communities.
- The LEDC’s mandate is to provide economic development services, including attracting new businesses and foreign direct investment to London, retaining existing businesses and assisting with expansions, advocating for improving the business environment in London, providing workforce development leadership to connect businesses with education institutes and employment sector agencies, establishing business support partnerships throughout the community, and assisting the City of London in the development of strategic plans such as industrial lands strategies.
Increasingly, the attraction, retention and growth of employers requires access to a highly skilled and dynamic workforce. Successful education programs, in turn, require the active participation of employers to inform, stimulate, and engage in the development and support of students by providing experiential learning opportunities.
This alliance will address the following mutual strategies:
- Talent retention = support for job fairs, career consultation events, LEDC’s Student-2-Business initiative, Co-Op and internships to engage and retain Fanshawe students
- International Student and Business Attraction = Collaborate on initiatives in global markets for the attraction of international students and the promotion of London as a destination for higher learning and business attraction
- Entrepreneurship Services = Cooperative efforts to foster entrepreneurship in London including developing business incubation programs and support services
- Business Engagement = Collaborate to engage London employers to participate on Fanshawe PACs and in other modes to help ensure a dynamic and job-ready graduating talent pool, as well as share real time market information to provide “near field job matching”.
- Research & Development (R&D) = Support local development of new products and technologies by connecting industry with Fanshawe’s growing applied research capabilities.
- Visibility = Marketing and promotional support to raise the profile of Fanshawe College and London.
