EDUCATING THE WORKFORCE
Hatching new jobs and firms

Thursday, February 28, 2008
By N. CLARK JUDD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Hudson County college and university officials are out to help locals build their own businesses.

New Jersey City University's Business Development Incubator, for example, is an economic dynamo on Jersey City's west side.

Incubator Director Gina Boesch has welcomed entrepreneurs from inside and outside the county to the spacious, 125-year-old former commercial laundry on West Side Avenue, which currently hosts 10 companies. More than 80 jobs have been hatched there since its opening in mid-2005.

Five companies "graduated" from the incubator last year, she said.

"The strategy is economic development," Boesch said. "We need good companies creating good jobs using higher skills because the higher skills make more money."

Hudson County Community College, meanwhile, is collaborating with retired businessmen from around Hudson County to establish a free program where aspiring small business owners in the area, students or not, can come in twice a month for advice.

The school is still finalizing the schedule for that program, said Eric Friedman, HCCC's dean of Community Education.

Friedman's School of Community Education also does training and classes in English for speakers of other languages for established businesses, both on-site and at the HCCC campus, he said.

"We do training for businesses, government agencies, a variety of institutions, non-profits from throughout the county and even into New York. . We train in computer skills, language skills, ESL, all types of project management, even breaking into graphic design programs now," Friedman said.