Center is named for champion of worker training
Archived article from Nov 13, 1998
By Steve Manas
Throughout his distinguished 41-year career as an executive with Johnson & Johnson and during his years as founding chair of the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission, John J. Heldrich has been a firm believer that America's strength lies in its highly skilled, educated and motivated work force.
In 1997, Heldrich endowed and helped to establish a Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers' Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. At a Nov. 10 ceremony at the Bloustein School, Rutgers formally named the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development in his honor.
Among dignitaries recognizing Heldrich were Commissioners Jane Kenny and Mel Gelade of the state departments of Community Affairs and Labor, respectively; Raymond Bramucci, assistant secretary of employment and training, U.S. Department of Labor; President Francis L. Lawrence; University Vice President for Academic Affairs Joseph J. Seneca; and Bloustein School Dean James W. Hughes.
"John J. Heldrich, a Rutgers graduate and longtime friend, has served as a trustee of the university and is on the Board of Overseers of the Rutgers University Foundation. He already is enshrined in the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni," Lawrence said. "We are delighted to again honor John and thank him for his loyalty and generous past and future contributions to the establishment and growth of this center, which will help to keep our work force competitive in a global economy."
"For many years, John has been New Jersey's leading champion of providing a well-trained work force for the state," observed Seneca. "As the State University, it is our job to be in the vanguard of that effort in order to provide the required education and skills for our students, and to contribute to well-designed, effective work-force training programs.
"It's also appropriate that John, who was such a driving force in the revitalization of New Brunswick during his outstanding career at Johnson & Johnson, has chosen to support this center at Rutgers. Our own commitment to the city, state and nation is recognized by Rutgers' presence at Civic Square, the gateway to the city," Seneca added.
"The country will enter the next century with dramatic potential for success," Heldrich said. "The power of technology has created new avenues for communication and creativity and has changed the very nature of work.
"For American businesses to seize these opportunities requires a commitment to quality and a solid work force as the very foundation for growth," he continued. "This center provides a forum for work-force development practitioners from both the public and private sectors to join world-class scholars to combine experience and research aimed at developing solutions that put America to work."
The Heldrich Center provides a university-wide focal point for research and teaching in work-force development and employment policy. Among its missions are to:
--Produce the key work-force development and employment policy leaders of the 21st century;
--Serve as a national and international center of employment policy and work-force development scholarship, and translate research into effective policy and best practices;
--Function as a public-policy forum for the discussion and presentation of key work-force development policy issues affecting the state, region and nation;
--Serve as an intellectual center within Rutgers for work-force development and related social-science-issues research and explore the public-policy implications of that research;
--Provide support to all levels of government and the work-force development system.
A key element within the public-policy and law strategic-growth area, the center is directed by public-policy Professor Carl E. Van Horn. William Tracy, formerly executive director of the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission (SETC), is the center's executive director. Heldrich chairs its advisory committee.
The center's importance already has been underscored by entities including Johnson & Johnson, Bell Atlantic, the Fund for New Jersey, the Prudential and Ford foundations, the SETC, New Jersey departments of Human Services and Labor and the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), which have provided funding, according to Hughes.
"The center is undertaking or has already completed projects with a multi-tude of partners, providing extensive training and technical assistance to employers, organized labor, work-force development system professionals and community organizations," Hughes explained. "Since January 1998, more than 2,000 people have been trained."
He added that the center recently was awarded a multiyear contract to provide ongoing research, training and technical assistance for the USDOL and its constituents throughout the country. Rutgers is the only university in the nation assigned this responsibility.
"This contract represents a first step in the kind of collaborative relationships we hope to build at the center," Hughes said. "We will serve work-force development professionals and their associations, employers and employer associations and also policy-makers at the local, regional and national levels."
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