PROVIDENCE – Leaders of Rhode Island’s technology and IT industries on April 12 announced the formation of an ad-hoc coalition to support Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s Rhode Island Promise scholarship initiative.
The $30 million initiative, which Raimondo proposed in January, would make all Rhode Island students eligible for a scholarship to cover two years of tuition and fees at the Community College of Rhode Island, the University of Rhode Island or Rhode Island College, regardless of income.
“Rhode Island’s workforce needs are changing drastically and right now the state doesn’t have enough people with the right skills to fill the jobs tech companies are creating,” said Nick Inglis, president of Information Coalition, in a release. “The Rhode Island Promise scholarship will help expand the state’s talent pool and ensure that the jobs Rhode Island tech companies are creating go to Rhode Islanders.”
Inglis joined executives from several Rhode Island tech companies, including NuLabel Technologies, EpiVax Inc. and Virgin Pulse Inc., to support the Rhode Island Promise scholarship, which they say will help close the skills gap and make it easier for their companies to fill job vacancies with highly skilled and well-educated Rhode Islanders.
“EpiVax competes for talent with biotech and medical-device companies in Massachusetts and throughout the northeast,” said Cliff Grimm, managing director of EpiVax. “When more Rhode Islanders have access to an affordable college education, we can hire more Rhode Islanders. The Rhode Island Promise initiative is a pro-growth, pro-business, pro-tech proposal.”
Dr. Rajiv Kumar, president and chief medical officer of Virgin Pulse, and Max Winograd, chairman and co-founder of NuLabel, voiced similar hopes for the initiative’s potential to expand Rhode Island’s talent pool and ensure the state’s future workforce can meet the demands of innovative tech businesses.
“Virgin Pulse is expanding in Rhode Island because of the state’s determination to build and grow its talent pool,” said Kumar. “The Rhode Island Promise scholarship initiative will help our company hire more Rhode Islanders for many of the hundreds of jobs we’re creating here.”
Kaylen Auer is a PBN contributing writer.
