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Senate bill to create workforce council on amendment stage Monday

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An originating bill that would create a council that works on post-secondary attainment goals is on amendment stage Monday in the state Senate.

Sarah Tucker

State interim Higher Education chancellor and Community and Technical College Chancellor Sarah Tucker told lawmakers last week SB 839 was needed to help guide the state toward a trained workforce.

“We need to do something to create some momentum around getting folks the credentials and training that they need in order to fulfill our state’s economic needs,” she told the Senate’s Workforce Committee.

Tucker said the state higher education leaders created a post-secondary attainment goal of 60 percent of West Virginians to have post-secondary credentials by 2030. Workforce projections indicate that the number is to just fill existing jobs, not even to create jobs.

She said currently only 35 percent of adults in West Virginia have that level of education and training required for future positions.

“This council is tasked with coming up with policy changes, looking at things that may need to happen from a policy perspective to help get people into the programs they need in order to participate in the workforce,” Tucker said.

Tucker elaborated on the idea of how all sectors must come together in order to reach the goal.

“This is not something that just higher education can solve,” she said. “This is something that we need to have the department of commerce working with is with. We need to have Workforce West Virginia, we need to have the K-12 system, we need to have DHHR, we need to have the college presidents.”

Tucker said that community colleges and higher education leaders are working directly with employers. There is economic modeling software that both parties study that see where the future vacancies will be.

Higher education in the state is always tweaking programs for the future, Tucker said.

“It’s not a goal that can be fixed by just one person,” Tucker said. “This council would try to create that synergy so we can all talk together and figure out what our stumbling blocks are in moving our state forward.”





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