Things are looking up for the Vermilion County economy. Vickie Haugen, President of Vermilion Advantage Economic Development Corporation, says her office has been busy. ‘’We’ve got a really aggressive project load right now. We’ve got a couple of manufacturing projects. We’ve got a couple of really exciting professional level projects, retail projects. So, a lot of new things going on that we haven’t seen in a while,’’ said Haugen during an interview with VermilionCountyFirst.com News. ‘’I’d like to say that it has something to do with the state having a budget, but I think some of that is just kind of ironic. As far as timing, I don’t think people were just sitting on their hands. But certainly that can’t hurt.’’
Haugen notes there are plenty of jobs available now in the county, but the challenge is finding the people who have the necessary skills to fill them. And looking to the future, Haugen says Vermilion Advantage hopes to help more high school students plan careers by having a career counselor work with county schools. ‘’We’ve been hearing and reading about education. We know manufacturing always struggles to fill open positions. The building trades, distribution – you name it. There doesn’t seem to be an area that’s exempt. So we want to be able to educate our kids about that, give them options that they understand by exposing them to those careers – and then hopefully capture a lot of those students that, whether it’s a career they go into right after high school while they think about post-secondary, or whether they do post-secondary and then come back – that they’ll come back and fuel the employment in their own home towns.’’
Haugen says the schools may have specific career related days, such as a day focusing exclusively on manufacturing, and another day focusing on law enforcement or health care.
Later this fall there are 8 local industries that plan to be a part of a public ‘Tour of Industries’ which is sponsored by Vermilion Advantage.
[In the photo above, Danville Mayor Scott Eisenhauer helps cut the ribbon last week at one of the city’s newest businesses…Signature Nails and Spa at the Towne Centre Shopping area. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.]
