|
Cincinnati
Enquirer...
Kasich official
takes jobs training effort to region
Written by Alexander Coolidge
Gov. John Kasich’s top jobs training official met Tuesday with local
business and education leaders to enlist their support for his office’s
effort to more efficiently address the lack of worker skills that mean
80,000 positions are going unfilled in Ohio.
Richard Frederick, executive director of the Office of Workforce
Transformation, was here to launch his department’s plan that will
establish up to 15 districts statewide so local leaders can tell the
state what training is needed. That input will be used to better
coordinate 77 training programs offered by 13 state agencies.
“We’d like to create a flexible system that changes when the need
changes,” said Frederick, whose job was created by executive order in
February.
Frederick said job training programs are not moving from their current
agencies, but his office wants to coordinate with other programs. Ohio
provides about a third of the $290 million spent in the state on
workforce training. While federal dollars are earmarked for specific
programs, Frederick said he hopes the state can shift its contribution
to underserved skills that the market needs.
Denyse Ferguson, senior vice president of economic development at the
Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, supports the move.
“Workforce development is inexorably linked to economic development –
they go hand in hand,” she said.
Julie Janson, president of Duke Energy in Ohio and Kentucky, said
Frederick asked local leaders to participate in surveys that will track
and forecast training needs.
“Having the right workforce is the No. 1 economic incentive,” she said.
“Think about it: If you have a company that wants to move here, but you
don’t have the right workers with the right skills, it’s hard.”
Frederick, who has been on the job for 10 weeks, said Ohio’s training
system is far flung and unwieldy. Most workers can’t be trained until
they lose their jobs. The system is so fragmented that two-thirds of
employers don’t participate in Ohio programs.
“We need to get our arms around this octopus,” he said.
Frederick said Ohio’s web of training programs is confusing for both
job seekers and companies looking to employ them. He envisions a day
when workers seeking training fill out one form that can be shared by
multiple agencies.
“There should be a single point of entry where somebody can find out
everything they need to know,” he said. “If Amazon had different web
pages for everything they sold, they wouldn’t be very successful.”
Participants Tuesday came from organizations including the Cincinnati
USA Regional Chamber, GE Aviation, Duke Energy, and Cincinnati State
Technical and Community College.
Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky had 85,000 unemployed workers
in March and the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent. Statewide, 438,000
Ohioans were out of work and the unemployment rate was 7.5 percent –
compared to 8.2 percent unemployed nationwide.
Read this and other articles at the Cincinnati Enquirer
|
|
|
|
