The Charles County Department of Economic Development held a roundtable last week to reach out to local businesses. Roundtable discussion ranged from marketing and the county’s economic development website, to generating employment and the county’s Small Local Business Enterprise Program. As reported on Southern Maryland Newspapers Online:

[Debra] Jones spoke about the county’s marketing initiatives and said the department wants “to make sure we’re interacting well with the business community.” She said the county has hit several marketing milestones in the past six months.

“In the context of marketing the county, one of the things that we recognize, because we hear this in the business community, is we recognize that the economic development department is the one entity that is actually marketing the county overall,” Jones said.

…

[Marcia] Keeth said the department hears from businesses that they have trouble finding qualified employees in Charles County to fill positions. All of the managers for one business headquartered in the county, according to Keeth, commute from outside the county because the company said it could not find the right people in Charles County.

…“This is an issue that we’re working on, and there’s not an immediate answer. I wish there were,” she said. The county has the Workforce Investment Board, but that resource is mostly targeted toward unemployed people.

“Our challenge is connecting with the employee,” she said.

The Department plans to hold these roundtables quarterly with the next one scheduled for July.

For more information read the full article on Southern Maryland Newspapers Online.