Market Digest

During the State of the Union, President Obama highlighted the importance of partnerships between businesses and community colleges to help improve the skills of America’s workers.

This partnership model is the core mission of Skills for America’s Future, a public-private initiative of the Aspen Institute that is working to connect employers with community colleges to address the current talent mismatch and better train workers for employment.

With the announcement of a national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job and the promise to give community colleges the resources needed to become “community career centers,” the president showed that the efforts of Skills for America’s Future will play a key role in reforming how America’s workforce is trained.

“Skills for America’s Future commends President Obama for continuing to focus on improving skills and for his recognition of community colleges as a valuable resource to develop a skilled workforce, making education and job training attainable and valuable objectives,” said Penny Pritzker, Advisory Board Chair of Skills for America’s Future, the Aspen Institute. “By driving innovative workforce development efforts, facilitating effective public-private partnerships, and building a national network of leaders from businesses, community colleges, and industry associations, Skills for America’s Future is working to reform workforce development in America, and we are excited to have this model highlighted.”  Read the rest of this entry »

The American Academy of Actuaries has identified key policy priorities needed to restore the nation’s fiscal health and financial security, and hopes the president will place these priorities high on his policy agenda this year.

There are mounting risks facing important public programs and private systems critical to the nation’s retirement security and financial strength, and the actuaries urge all policymakers at the joint session of Congress to work together toward viable and sustainable solutions.

“Failure to act to address these significant financial problems makes them more difficult to successfully manage and mitigate,” said Dave Sandberg , the president of the American Academy of Actuaries. “The longer we wait to tackle the major, emerging financial challenges facing the country, the more onerous the solutions can become and the narrower the list of policy options. Taking action now, by constructing bipartisan solutions to these issues, will allow for more reasonable and manageable options to be considered and adopted. In this election year, we encourage policymakers and candidates to specify how they will address these financial risks. And the American Academy of Actuaries is working to ensure that policymakers, candidates, and the American electorate have the objective, actuarial information they need to best guide their decision-making processes.” Read the rest of this entry »

Contractors and trade professionals are relying on smartphones and other mobile technology like laptops and tablets to assist in purchase decision-making, according to a national research study conducted by Eric Mower + Associates Group B2B.

The study found that 50 percent of contractors use a smartphone, 49 percent use a laptop with mobile web access, and 21 percent use an iPad or other tablet for their jobs, suggesting more business purchase research and decisions are being conducted online from the jobsite rather than behind a desk. Tool and building materials brands are most important (65 percent) to contractors when they are on the job and need to replace or replenish a tool.

Of those with a smartphone, more than half (53 percent) use it in the purchase decision-making process to do things like research brands and products, compare prices and scan product codes. The majority of contractors said they use smartphones (56 percent) to take photos of work projects to refer to when shopping for building materials and tools. Read the rest of this entry »

Synopsys, a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, announced today that it has closed the acquisition of ExpertIO, Inc., a leading independent provider of verification IP (VIP) for industry standard protocols. The addition of ExpertIO’s team of protocol experts and its strong portfolio of storage VIP will accelerate Synopsys’ delivery of a broad line-up of high-performance, easy-to-use, full-featured VIP that can help designers address their growing verification challenges. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

With leading SoC designs deploying more complex protocols, VIP has become a critical component of the verification environment. Synopsys is focused on delivering a broad portfolio of leading standards-based VIP to help engineers address the growing verification challenges associated with creating today’s ‘smart’ electronics. VIP provides functional models of on- and off-chip protocols that verification engineers use to test all of the interfaces on an SoC before manufacturing. It enables the engineer to verify how an interface conforms to published standards and also allows the engineer to verify the interactions among various interfaces on an SoC.

“ExpertIO is a recognized leader in the delivery of storage protocol VIP with a team of veteran engineers that has been at the forefront of driving its underlying standards,” said Manoj Gandhi, senior vice president and general manager of Synopsys’ Verification Group. “By acquiring ExpertIO, Synopsys adds a new set of storage protocols to our expanding VIP portfolio, plus an experienced team of development experts to help us drive the next level of innovation in VIP technology.”

ExpertIO’s entire team of engineers is joining Synopsys’ Verification Group. Craig Stoops, ExpertIO’s Founder and CEO, is joining the team as a technical leader helping drive Synopsys’ VIP roadmap.