Changing Workforce Development in Ohio

There is a lot of hope that Ohioians can qualify to fill the types of jobs being created here. It is said that many jobs go unfilled because of the lack of skilled people. Technology itself creates its own problems. Like when armies of draftspersons are replaced by engineers doing their own CAD work. Any time you computerize or automate a process, you eliminate a whole group of people. Now you have this group scrambling to find other work. So in retraining there is a need to know what skills are transferable and valued by other fields of endeavor. Also you must consider if these new jobs require more than what is reasonable retraining. So far nobody has said what these hot new fields are or how folks can be retrained to take those jobs. It is not just a matter of shifting a worker to a new product line in another factory. I think we've talked before about skill sets. Some how you've got to look at what you have available and compare that to what you want. Then if schools can't stand in the training transition gap, businesses must step up to join the training effort. These should shape the training, provide career guidance, internships, scholarships or what ever investment in real people. If you are going to do economic battle, you must do it all the way. You can't rely on market forces to accomplish the job that requires assertive action. I really hope the governor's efforts paysoff big for Ohio.

Jobmagnet.org and Neotechjobs.org look like great resources. I realize they only recently came online. But do you know if any information is available yet on outcomes--e.g., number of placements, industries/occupations demonstrating higher success rates than others, usage statistics, etc.? I'd be interested to know how these new resources are performing versus traditional resources like Monster.com.

This is great the Governer Strickland wants to add money for this, but letting the Ohio Department of Job and Family services control it? I am a bit skeptical about this, as their idea of getting people off the welfare rolls is to ship them to a facility, working with mentally handicapped citizens, while being overseen by an instructor, and told to do menial piecework jobs, all to recieve their benefits, which usually doesn't add up to even minimum wage. All the time living in fear the instructor will find some stupid reason to sanction them, and cut their benefits for many times pointless reasons. One woman once told me she was sanctioned because she had a medically confirmed bladder infection, and needed to use the restroom a lot. This program also does not allow for families to take care of themselves. When told that you HAVE to participate in the jobs program, you are told when they will be coming to pick you up, regardless if you have any way to take care of your children or not, and usually they come to pick you up about an hour and a half before school starts. Speaking of picking up, that is another interesting point. You are not allowed to drive to the job site at all. No matter where you live in the county, they come to your house, take you all the way to ODJFS, then take you to the job site, (which is back in the town I live in, about a 1/2 hr drive from the agency) Then after you are done, they drive you back to ODJFS, and then take you back home. I wonder what their fuel budget is? It must be nice to have tax payers to pay for so much gas for you! The ODJFS does such a poor job of actually helping people as it is now, that I wonder about handing them this opportunity. You go there, they treat you like a number, hand you whatever benefits you qualify for, and ship you off to job school. I returned to college, after 12 years of being out of high school, because I was told that I would have help, so that I could advance, and better my life, but once I started school, I was met with opposition at every step of the way, I had to fight through two years of schooling with none of the promised help. They also crow about Ohio apprenticeship programs, telling you how great they are, but they never know anything about them, or how to actually help anyone get into one. You can find information about them all over the web, but try to get into one, and see what you find. I don't feel these people are the best candidates for allocating these funds, or for trying to help people. This agency is only interested in giving out the bare minimum, and keeping everyone right in the poverty rut they are in. If they actually wanted to help you I think they would be more proactive in helping people get skills to get jobs that pay a living wage, instead of punishing people, and presiding over them every step of the way. I would actually like to request this letter to be forwarded to Governer Strickland, if he is thinking of giving these funds to this agency. I would like him to see it might be a mistake, and tell him he is free to contact me if he has any questions. I have a lot of inside information on this agency, and believe me going through it is hell.
Sincerely,
Danni Blake

Noelle P

The growing discussions about the high unemployment rate and the large number of positions to be filled should send off a louder alarm about the way we are educating ourselves and others. Technology is never going to stop progressing so instead of fearing it, we need to develop ways to continue to provide employment opportunities to collaborate with the growing technology (for example, IT specialists).

I agree with Arnold when he said that businesses should pick up the slack with educating workers. While it does take more money for education and training, it's only going to help companies in the long run. The alternative is to let potentially productive workers slip through their hands.

Educators are dropping the ball because they are more concerned with students passing standardized tests instead of being "employable for life." The question is where to start. Do we go to high schools or colleges and vocational schools? Where did we lose our value of education and how to we get it back? These programs are a start.