BATON ROUGE, La.
An overhaul of the way Louisiana trains its workers that would revamp the state labor department and rework community and technical college spending was proposed earlier in the week by Gov. Bobby Jindal.
The governor said work force development changes were needed to better match state training to meet the needs of companies that complain about a lack of skilled employees.
Though the state labor department can make some changes internally, most of the ideas would involve restructuring of spending and programs that will need approval of state lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session and from higher education boards.
“For us, the single most important issue in this regular session will be work force development, will be remaking Louisiana’s efforts to ensure our employers have the skilled workers they need and our people have the skills they need to hit the ground running,” Jindal said at a news conference.
Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret said the state has as many as 100,000 job vacancies, but not enough skilled workers to fill the openings. He said training programs in place weren’t coordinated enough to meet the demand of businesses.
“We believe the system we have today is essentially designed to fail,” Moret said.
Jindal stood with a representative of the state’s top business lobbying group, prominent Louisiana business leaders, labor interests, education leaders and lawmakers to announce the recommendations.
Among the most sweeping proposals, Jindal wants to change the name of the Department of Labor to the Louisiana Workforce Commission and reorganize its duties.
The 84-page bill, sponsored by House Speaker Jim Tucker and Senate President Joel Chaisson, would continue the department’s current responsibilities of doling out unemployment benefits and other federal labor programs.
But it also would require coordination of worker training programs with other state agencies, would involve contracting with regional boards for training services and would give those regional boards jurisdiction over federal worker training dollars.
