UW system launches OpportUWnity Tour

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) - The OpportUWnity Tour is an effort to spark connections and collaboration between the uw system and business and community partners across the state. The tour began with an early morning meeting at the Cleary Alumni and Friends Center at UW-La Crosse. UW system president, Jay Rothman, says that the tour will help spread the word of the importance of the university system.

“The purpose of the university is to serve the state and try to touch every corner of the state consistent with a Wisconsin idea. Certainly connecting with the business needs and helping the state win the war for talent so that our employers can continue to employ great people in the state is certainly one of the main purposes of this,” says Rothman.

Rothman says if students can find jobs and opportunities, it can also help local businesses that need the employment.

“...so that we can have the number of nurses that we need, that we have, the number of engineers that we need, that we have the number of data scientists that we need, that we have the number of business and financial people we need. That we have the number of teachers. That list goes on and on,” says Rothman.

Idella Kangas, the UW system director of employer & economic management says the tour will help students connect to jobs.

“I never had anybody to help me understand about career trajectories. And now the world of work has changed so much. Being able to navigate it, being able to advance into new technologies is the work that we’re trying to do. It’s the work that I am trying to do. And I think that is the opportunity in this whole campaign,” says Kangas

The next stop on the OpportUWnity tour will be at UW-Oshkosh this Thursday. Over the next few months, the tour will stop at all 13 four-year universities within the UW system.

According to Jay Rothman, this is the first year of increased enrollment that the state has had since 2014. He also says Wisconsin is ranked 42nd in the nation in terms of public support of the university system.

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