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Letters to The Editor
Workforce Investment Act should be funded
Superior
8/17/2011 1:42:47 PM
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This week (Aug 15-19) has been designated as a national Workforce Week of Action.
Over a dozen associations including Jobs for the Future, National Skills Coalition, United States Conference of Mayors, the American Association of Community Colleges, and the National Association of Workforce Boards have joined forces to send a strong message: Workforce development programs are essential to our country's economic recovery and job creation effort.
All across America, workforce professionals in partnership with employers are training workers for existing and emerging high-demand jobs. In Wisconsin Gov. Walker has made it very clear that his publicly stated top priority is creating 250,000 new private-sector jobs during his four years in office. To accomplish this goal, Gov. Walker should encourage our Congressional representatives to push for the reauthorization of the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and to ensure funding will be available to put Wisconsinites to work. With more than 14 million Americans currently unemployed, now is not the time to reduce our investments in programs that are helping workers get the skills they need to find and keep jobs. Funding cuts for federal education and training programs under the Fiscal Year 2012 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill would drastically impact the services available in northwest Wisconsin for those seeking employment or businesses who utilize programs like on-the-job training or incumbent worker training.
The Northwest Wisconsin Workforce Investment Board, Inc. is ready to do our part to help Gov. Walker meet his goal of 250,000 jobs. By partnering with leaders in business, economic development, education and human services, we have honed a regional workforce development system that is putting people in jobs now and launching their careers through effective employment training. In short, we create taxpayers and support the growth of businesses.
During the past 12 months, thousands of northwest Wisconsin residents received career counseling, job search assistance, and job training through more than 32,000 visits to our nine one-stop Job Centers. Career counselors at these centers target citizens' specific skills and skills gaps and help them create customized paths toward sustainable employment. Our professional staff helps people who have been laid off learn new skills and transfer their existing ones into new areas of employment. They offer job seeking, resume writing, and interviewing workshops to those who need to upgrade these vital skills. Our new video conferencing system will kick-off in September allowing for access to a greater number of workshops and trainings at no cost. Job search and placement assistance is available to people no matter where they are on their career paths, and we provide experiential opportunities through on-the-job training, internships and scholarships in high-growth industries.
The time to act is now. We must be able to continue to provide these valuable resources to raise the skill levels of our residents, promote our economic recovery and grow the success of our local businesses.
- LeRoy Forslund, Chair of the Northwest Wisconsin Workforce Investment Board, Inc., Superior.
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