Since the current recession began in December 2007, the United States economy has lost 8 million jobs. The rate of unemployment has now reached double digits. Even if the economy “recovers,” unemployment is expected to rise. Notwithstanding a slight and unexpected dip in November, a reversal of this trend is unlikely to begin for at least another year even under the most optimistic scenarios.

Making matters worse, after noting, “The Federal Reserve . . . expects unemployment . . . to stay above 8 percent — a number that would have been considered disastrous not long ago — until sometime in 2012.”, Professor Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, wrote in his Op-Ed column in the print edition of The New York Times on November 30, 2009, “There’s a pervasive sense in Washington that nothing more can or should be done, that we should just wait for the economic recovery to trickle down to workers.” Writing in the print edition of The New York Times on December 11, 2009 – after the White House “Jobs Summit” and President Obama’s announcement of initiatives to help create jobs, Professor Krugman calculated that the United States would have to add approximately 18 million jobs over the next three years “if we want to see America return to anything that feels like full employment”, and that “the measures President Obama proposed . . . while they would create a significant number of additional jobs, fall far short of what the economy needs.”

Unlike previous economic downturns since the end of World War II, hundreds of thousands of lawyers, other professionals, scientists and engineers have joined the ranks of the unemployed or are in danger of doing so imminently. Expensive higher education and advanced degrees have failed to stem this tsunami, and hundreds of thousands of formerly high paying jobs have evaporated. Many, if not most, are unlikely to return. The result is that many of our most highly educated, talented and productive people cannot find work in their chosen fields and have dismal future employment prospects. To make matters worse, much of the advice being offered is neither helpful nor can readily be put to practical use. All of this translates into shattered careers and lost dreams

Such conditions often result in extreme anxiety and depression and can culminate in paralysis and withdrawal from the outside world. However, hard times such as these can provide the impetus to re-evaluate career and lifestyle choices and embark on new paths never considered before. For those who choose the latter course, the Center for New Technology Enterprise (the “Center”) can be of invaluable assistance.

At the Center, experience is our classroom^SM. The real-world practical opportunities the Center provides to work in multi-disciplinary teams on behalf of research organizations, early-stage companies and entrepreneurs and to hone interpersonal skills, all under the mentoring of world-class volunteer professionals, are more important today than ever before in our lifetimes . The Center is thus actively seeking to reorient the considerable skills of professionals from the financial sector, lawyers, scientists, and engineers -- regardless of where they may be located -- by retraining them at no charge. The Center’s goal is to make these talented individuals capable of providing professional or technical services to emerging businesses or to become entrepreneurs themselves. In identifying and working with this new cohort, the Center partners with universities, federal, state and local workforce retraining and economic development agencies, and other organizations that wish to create a robust infrastructure to support the industries of the future.

The Center’s programs operate in two ways: on-line or in person at strategically located facilities. A student of the Center can choose either method or gain experience using both in any combination. The same mufti-disciplinary and mentoring opportunities will apply regardless of a student’s choice. At the facilities, student teams can also learn by working with entrepreneurs in any type of business, particularly veterans and individuals from traditionally underserved groups and places.

The Center understands that its students may have other pressing needs, such as seeking interim employment. Therefore, the Center is highly flexible in creating work arrangements that accommodate such needs and still provide a rich experiential education.

We encourage you to read this Web site thoroughly. To apply, please follow the instructions set forth in the “Students” menu. For more information, please click the “Contact Us” menu item.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Frederick A. Provorny
President