By Hamil R. Harris, Special to the AFRO

The City of Seat Pleasant has reached an agreement with Prince George’s County Community College to find potential workers that can be prepared to work in high tech jobs- part of the city’s “smart growth initiative.”.

“Seat Pleasant made a significant milestone towards its digital transformation,” said Seat Pleasant Mayor Eugene Grant following the signing ceremony on June 19. “The memorandum of understanding between Prince George’s Community College, The PG Chamber of Commerce and the City of Seat Pleasant moves us toward preparing the future workforce in a Smart City to deployment.”

David Harrington, president of Prince Georges Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Eugene Grant and Dr. Charlene Dukes, president of Prince George’s Community College

President David Harrington of the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce talked about the importance of partnerships like the one forming and how it helps to improve the social, cultural and economic aspects of our community.

Grant told the AFRO the “Internet is a major part of becoming a Smart City and companies like Johnson Control, Amazon and other high tech firms need skilled workers to install and maintain their products.”

“We will be letting people know that the training exists and employers are looking for them.  It has been said that there are 80,000 to 100,000 jobs out there but that people are not qualified for them” said Grant.

When asked by the AFRO what difference it has made in the community Grant said, “What makes us different is that IBM built us a hub where our department heads use analytics for descriptive, prescriptive and predictive solutions. We describe a problem, prescribe a solution and look into the future. For example we have 1,400 houses in Seat Pleasant and 140 are vacant.”

Grant said as Smart Cities become more common around the country they will need a ready workforce that will be capable with the necessary skill sets to install and maintain new technologies such as sensors.

“Our partnership puts us ahead of every community in the state of Maryland and will serve as a model for other cities to follow.”