Gov Schweitzer wants to retool worker training in Montana

Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Tuesday unveiled a new Workforce Investment Board, which later proposed switching to a single statewide planning system to oversee workforce training instead of the current state board and two local boards.

That would lead to a major change for Montana’s current workforce training system, which is marked by bitter turf battles between the Montana Department of Labor and the Montana Job Training Partnership or MJTP over rival job training programs for laid off workers.

Montana now has a statewide board and two local boards, which would be trimmed to a single board under the plan, similar to what some neighboring states have. After a two-week period for the public to comment, the board will vote on the single statewide planning proposal Sept. 20.

Schweitzer appointed 20 private sector and 10 public sector representatives to join the four lawmakers selected by the Legislature. The governor chose Dan Miles of Butte, a retired Labor Department employee who is now a title examiner for a family-owned business.

Schweitzer said he told the board he had four goals:

By CHARLES S. JOHNSON – IR State Bureau

Full Story: http://helenair.com/articles/2005/08/31/montana/a07083105_02.txt

Related Story: Audit disputes spending for job retraining in Montana http://www.matr.net/article-15817.html

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Labor Day Report: Heading Off the Looming Skills Shortage
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By John Engler
President, National Association of Manufacturers

As we commemorate Labor Day 2005, the state of America’s economy and its workers is generally good, and our manufacturing sector continues to drive an ongoing recovery and expansion. But our annual NAM Labor Day Report calls for concerted action to head off a looming 21st century skills shortage that is already being felt by many U.S. employers.

As technology and competition continue to shrink our world, developing nations are accounting for an ever increasing share of global trade and economic growth. If the United States is to preserve its position as a major economic power in the 21st century it must stay out in front of the innovation curve, and we’ll need a much better-prepared workforce to do so.

U.S. manufacturing will no longer employ millions in low-skill jobs. Tomorrow’s jobs will go to those with education in science, engineering and math and to those with high-skill technical training.

Manufacturing executives recently surveyed by the NAM ranked a “high performing workforce” as the most important factor in determining their firms’ future success. A related study by the Labor Department showed that 85 percent of future American jobs will require advanced training, an associate’s degree, or a four-year college degree. Only 15 percent of future jobs will be performed adequately with minimum skills.

Yet by next summer, 40 percent of our 2002 ninth graders will have either dropped out of high school altogether or will otherwise lack the skills needed for employment. Not surprisingly, more than a third of small manufacturers — 36 percent — surveyed this spring reported that they had good-paying, high-skill jobs to fill but no qualified applicants.

Full Article: http://www.nam.org/s_nam/doc1.asp?CID=202003&DID=235067