Individuals representing corporate, small business and education will convene in Morgantown Thursday, Feb. 8, to examine and explore West Virginia workforce development challenges and opportunities.

Sponsored locally by the West Virginia University Research Office,Building the Next Workforce: Making Choices for Our Communitywill be held from 1-4 p.m. at the Waterfront Place Hotel. It is the only such session scheduled in West Virginia, and is part of a larger set of forums to be conducted by the Southern Growth Policies Board in 13 participating southern states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Forum participants, selectively invited to represent a cross section of the West Virginia economic base, will be discussing what local communities and the state can do to build a competitive workforce. In developing and sharing ideas, participants will look at three possible approaches: focus on educational achievement; focus on serving industry; and focus on workforce traits.

Southern Growths mission is to improve the quality of life in the southern region. This is accomplished in part by initially receiving input from people living within the region through community forums,said Curt M. Peterson, associate vice president for research and economic development at WVU .Developing a vision for the next workforce in West Virginia is essential if this state wishes to take advantage of a new and emerging knowledge-based economy.

Feedback from this and other forums from throughout the south will be shared with southern leaders through the Policies Board which is a non-partisan public policy think tank based in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Formed by the region’s governors in 1971, Southern Growth Policies Board develops and advances visionary economic development policies by providing a forum for collaboration among a diverse cross-section of the region’s governors, legislators, business and academic leaders and the economic- and community-development sectors, and provides a gathering place for regional collaboration.

Southern Growth’s research focus encompasses the major drivers for economic development in the southinnovation and technology, globalization, the changing nature of the workforce and the vital role of the community. Southern Growth provides its members, and the region, with authoritative research, discussion forums and pilot projects that define the critical issues shaping the south, and develops new regional strategies for economic development and identifies best practices to facilitate action. To learn more about Southern Growth Policies Board, visitwww.southern.org.