U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen returned to Peoria for the second time in less than a week Tuesday, speaking to a clean energy workforce training class and talking with budding entrepreneurs at the Minority Business Development Center.
“It's eye opening to me, but it's so important because the only way that I can be effective as a legislator, as a representative, is if I hear from the people that I work for,” Sorensen said after a 30-minute roundtable discussion hosted by MBDC founder and CEO Denise Moore.
“I wanted to hear from some folks who said, ‘You know, I almost didn't do this because I knew the deck was stacked against me.’ But the Minority Business Development Center helps you get through that and says that there is a way through this. ‘Come into the front door; we're going to show you how.'”
Days after discussing affordability concerns at the Peoria Township office, the Democrat from Moline heard stories about Peoria start-ups centered around drone technology, cybersecurity and information technology, and financial literacy.
“Hearing the success stories of these business owners, and then understanding when I'm talking with a young man who says, ‘I’m developing drone programs,’ we need to make sure that this works,” said Sorensen.
Before the panel conversation, Sorensen told a classroom of adult learners about anticipated job growth stemming from Illinois’ emphasis on clean energy development.
“This is so incredibly important for the economy of Central Illinois that you all are here, that you all are going to be the leaders,” said Sorensen. “That you're saying, ‘I'm going to figure this out, and I'm going to do something that I didn't even think that I could do.’”
Speaking to reporters after the roundtable, Sorensen emphasized the need to support training programs to get people ready for working in emerging industries.
“Let's understand that a job and a career are different things. A job is something that you have to do; a career is something that you want to do,” he said. “All of the people that I talk to today, they're headed toward careers, they're not headed into a job. And those careers are going to be high-paying jobs in the future.
“When we talk about renewables, when we talk about wind and solar, and when we talk about nuclear, that's going to be the wave of the future. But also, we need it because we can't afford to be slow. We can't afford to push back, because the price of electricity is already going up. We need to put as much energy onto the grid to keep the energy costs down.”
