Governor's Workforce Plan: A Positive Start

Date: February 21, 2019

Keystone Economic Development and Workforce Command Center seeks to bring agencies together for better coordination

In his 2019 budget address, Gov. Tom Wolf announced his plan for workforce development. Finding qualified workers is the number one concern of small-business owners. In the most recent NFIB Small Business Economic Trends report, 56 percent of small-business owners reported hiring or trying to hire, and 88 percent of these firms reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.

Small businesses hire almost half of the workforce and create two out of every three new jobs. As a result, the unavailability of qualified workers to fill open positions is truly a crisis that is holding the economy back. NFIB Pennsylvania surveyed its members on their interaction with the state’s current workforce programs. The responses indicated that most small businesses are not generally aware of the workforce programs that may be available to them.

NFIB commends Governor Wolf for proposing the creation of a Keystone Economic Development and Workforce Command Center. This initiative seems to recognize some issues that NFIB has found with Pennsylvania’s workforce development system because it brings agencies together to coordinate workforce programs more effectively, reduce duplication of efforts, provide more transparency, and track outcomes.

NFIB believes that the most effective workforce programs, especially those designed to target small businesses, must provide flexible and accessible solutions, not cookie-cutter mandates accompanied by mounds of paperwork and red tape. Workforce programs that address the needs of small businesses would emphasize early exposure to important trade skills and on-the-job training through targeted apprenticeships and mentorships.

Successful programs would provide flexible ways for trade schools and high schools to partner with local small businesses to ensure they are teaching job-ready skills. NFIB would also suggest that workforce readiness not neglect the critical soft skills that employers seek and that help workers earn and keep jobs that lead to even greater opportunities and higher wages.

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