Opportunities and challenges for work force
Two important items came out of Gov. Nathan Deal's High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) meetings last week at Chattahoochee Technical College and Clayton State University. One of them is new, the other relatively familiar.
The new one involves people who have applied for jobs but failed drug tests, or who don't bother to apply at all because of substance abuse problems.
"I think this will be one of those breakthrough opportunities that our state can pioneer," Deal said, "but we're in the very early stages."
The idea is to give people who fail drug tests, or who avoid applying for jobs because of them, help in dealing with those problems before they end up in the criminal justice system and, ideally, to help them get jobs and fill those employer needs.
"If you've got someone who wants to kick the habit," said Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, "we've got to find a way to help them."
But drugs aren't the only, or even the biggest, work force problem, which brings us to the second and more familiar issue that arose at the HDCI meetings -- the chronic shortage of skilled workers to fill high-demand jobs in Georgia.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday that business and industry representatives at the Clayton State meeting want workers who can not only handle high-skill jobs, but who also can interact with customers, coworkers and the public.
In other words, both the stakes and the demands are getting higher.
One suggestion from the business leaders was that job-related programs, in the form of more science and technology education, should be available in middle and high school.
By appropriate coincidence, the same week the governor's HDCI meetings were bringing together business leaders and representatives of the state's postsecondary education programs, Columbus Technical College opened its new adult education facility.
What's the connection? Well, beyond the obvious one -- preparing Georgians for an ever higher-demand work force -- Georgia has a troublingly large number of adults (18 percent) who haven't finished high school. The GED classes at Columbus Tech are free, and every student who earns his or her GED in the program qualifies for a $500 state scholarship.
There are approximately 1,600 students in the Columbus Tech adult education program, which the college took over from the Muscogee County School District. A graduation rate of 59 percent in the program means between 900 and 1,000 of those students should get a huge step closer to jobs or, better still, to further education in an increasingly competitive and demanding job market.
So as industry leaders are urging the state to begin work force education at the secondary level, the state is dealing with the reality that almost one-fifth of its adults haven't even gotten that far. Bridging that gap is of critical importance.
This story was originally published August 23, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Opportunities and challenges for work force."