Vermont Offers Annual Incentive of $1,500 to Tech Grads; Here’s How to Apply
Posted by erik devaneyYour parents were right: you should have gotten a degree in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) at your bazillion-dollar-per-year school, not some arts degree in new-age poetry. If you’re job-hunting in New England, a STEM degree could — quite literally — pay off nicely, but only if you’re willing to work in Vermont.
Vermont’s governor, Peter Shumlin, recently announced the launching of an incentive program deigned to attract tech-savvy workers to the Green Mountain State. The program awards annual payments of $1,500 to recent STEM-graduates who are hired by Vermont companies.
As Governor Shumlin commented in a recent public statement, “This STEM initiative will help Vermont companies attract the workforce so essential to their success and enhance their ability to compete. Further, it will help recent graduates with the burden of college debt. This is money that can go direct to the recent graduate’s bottom line, while they help Vermont employers with their bottom line.”
I recently got in touch with Ken Horseman of Vermont’s Department of Economic Development. He informed me that the department has approved ten applicants for the STEM incentive so far. Companies in Vermont that hired these applicants include IBM, Mack Molding, Resource Systems Group and Superior Technical Ceramics.
Eligible graduates will need to have earned their degrees within the last 18 months and must be employed in specific high-tech positions that pay a minimum of $50,000 per year. Potential beneficiaries of the Vermont STEM incentive need to apply within 30 days of being hired and can receive the annual $1,500 reward for a maximum of five years.
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Short URL: http://www.newenglandpost.com/?p=764
Posted by erik devaney
on Aug 5 2011. Filed under Business, Technology, Top Stories.
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Jaclyn Cashman 
erik devaney 
admin 
Noelle Swan 
Soren Sorensen
Dear Governor Shumlin,
while I think the intention of (the STEM GRANT) keeping Vermont students in Vermont, employed by local businesses noble, I have some concerns as well.
1.As a soon to be science teacher who recently instructed at UVM’s Governor’s Institute, I noticed that out of all the engineering-oriented students, only one chose to focus on decomissioning Vermont Yankee. If you look on-line at which Universities are offering courses of decomissioning and bioremediating nuclear energy (which is going to be a MAJOR task for the next generation), only one American University came up in Georgia, while all the rest are in the UK. I encourage you to put some of this money to the graduate and undergraduate colleges and universities in Vermont to develop in their engineering departments curriculum for decomissioning and bioremediating nuclear energy.
2. In order to maintain the more community-oriented and regenerative culture of Vermont I encourage to make sure that the engineering jobs you are funding are all geared towards alternative energy development which is sustainable and small. Otherwise you are risking opening doors for big business and more pollution-creating industry to percolate Vermont’s already fragile fabric.
3.The public school education system is in a lot of trouble right now. Problem-solving and inquiry based methods are threatened from the increase in standardized testing. I ask you to use your position to help support Vermont’s public school system to not become prey to these debilitating tests but rather to set a new trend in which a state’s public education is protected to be sovereign in providing a quality education in which students are provided with the tools and experience they need to be active, contributing, discerning citizens of an empowered democratic state and country.
I voted for you and have faith in the work you are doing. Please consider these suggestions as they may provide details you are unable to notice from your current position.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Jessica Rubin