Retooling workforce development for job creation

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org Lawmakers are wrestling with how to best spend the state’s limited workforce training money. At issue is whether the money should be used to help people who have jobs increase their skills or to help businesses fill vacancies.
The House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development is proposing to move the Vermont Training Program and the Workforce Education and Training Fund more toward job creation than job retention and wage growth. The consideration comes as part of broader workforce development strategy in H.852.
Currently, some programs are geared toward improving workers’ wages and skill levels, said Rep. Michele Kupersmith, D-South Burlington. Committee members are concerned that the strategy is not solving a problem they’re hearing about from businesses: Unfilled positions.
Kupersmith said the state’s limited resources demand more focus.
‘We’ve made the decision that the more important policy objective of this limited resource is to fill vacant positions,’ she said.
The bill being considered would change some eligibility criteria for businesses participating in workforce training programs. Rather than ‘enhance’ employment opportunities for Vermont residents, businesses must fill new positions with the training program graduates.
The ‘new hire’ trigger is meant to set a higher bar for businesses to reach in order to qualify for workforce training grants.
Part of the sentiment behind the shift is practical, in that new hires are easier to verify than a business claim that its financial stability is improved by help with workforce training.
But ideology is also at work. Rep. Robert Bouchard, R-Colchester, said he thinks businesses need to take more responsibility for their own training needs.
‘I find it a stretch to think that the state needs to come in and keep you in business,’ Bouchard said. He said he’s more interested in helping businesses start than helping to keep them afloat.
H.852 is a cornerstone of the committee’s stated commitment to workforce development legislation in the 2014 session. In addition to realigning the training programs, the bill would also make changes to the state’s faltering Workforce Development Council and propose new ways to gauge the effectiveness workforce training programs.