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Labor secretary leads panel discussion |
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Tuesday, 09 June 2009 |
By Joseph Bell
Pennsylvania's Labor & Industry Secretary Sandi Vito directed a panel discussion yesterday morning at the Ridgmont Assisted Living Facility involving the commonwealth's continued investment in workforce development.
"When I started, we looked around the state to determine what was the best practice in workforce development," Vito said. "There was a lot of criticism, that money was wasted and people were being trained for jobs that didn't exist.
"This area and a couple others were really leaders in creating industry partnerships. What we essentially do is bring businesses together with employees wherever possible and determine what are the training needs now and in the future."
According to Vito, by bringing together multiple employers and workers, industry partnerships can effectively point out various training requirements.
"Industry partnerships was really a new idea when we started to do it and some people didn't think business representatives would sit down and discuss their training needs because they're competitors," Vito said. "It turns out they will, particularly when you're talking about common higher skilled training."
There currently are 77 partnerships throughout the commonwealth with approximately 6,300 employers.
"And over the four years since we've started the industry partnerships and the training money that goes with it, we've had 73,000 employees train," Vito said. "So that's a start.
"One of the goals is to make employers aware that industry partnerships are out there so they can participate and get more people involved. That's one of our roles. It is with the generosity of the legislature that we've been able to do this."
However, workforce development is seemingly in jeopardy as Senate Bill 850 involves cutting more than $16 million in training dollars, including approximately $3.6 million for industry partnerships and roughly $12.7 million for industry partnership worker training activities.
According to Vito, the lack of funding would deny advanced training opportunities to nearly 30,000 workers. Also, 77 industry partnerships would become inactive after one year and 60 staff members would lose their jobs.
"These initiatives have proven their value to employers, to workers and to the commonwealth," Vito said. "We must continue to invest in industry partnerships because of the advantages they provide to employers, the training they provide to employees and the role they play in positioning Pennsylvania as a workforce and economic leader in the global marketplace."
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 July 2009 )
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