NEW HAVEN, CT) – This afternoon on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University, Governor Ned Lamont led the first meeting of the Governor’s Workforce Council, a historic group of leaders representing the diversity of stakeholders across the state that are involved in education, training, hiring, and economic development. The council was established last month through executive order and is being tasked by the governor to improve the state’s education and training ecosystem and pipeline so that all residents are able to access high quality and affordable training and education that are aligned to the needs of businesses.
In forming the council, the governor has brought together some of the most influential and talented education, training, business, nonprofit, government, and labor leaders in the state representing every portion of the pipeline, including K-12 public schools, career and technical schools, higher education, employers, state agencies, and workforce development boards.
The governor explained that his goal in creating the group is to take a system designed for the 20th century and bring it into the 21st century.
“By 2025, Connecticut’s economy will need 70 percent of workers to have received some kind of post-secondary training or education. Today, we are hovering around 55 percent,” Governor Lamont said. “Closing this skills and credentials gap is a critical component to growing our state’s economy and will tear down the barriers to economic opportunity that block too many of Connecticut residents.”
Governor Lamont’s Executive Order No. 4 requires the council to submit a report to the governor and legislature by January 1, 2021 that makes strategic recommendations to improve the state’s workforce system in a variety of areas, including better coordination, reducing barriers to training, strengthening the bridge from high school into post-secondary training and education, and emphasizing data-driven outcomes.
“Having a group of this caliber – including a significant number of some of the state’s finest business, education, nonprofit, and labor leaders – meeting together to improve our workforce training system is unprecedented,” Governor Lamont said. “To grow jobs, businesses need trained workers who are prepared to meet the demands of new technologies in the workplace. Connecticut rightly has a national reputation for its high quality, skilled workforce, and maintaining that standing is key to attracting new businesses and creating new, good paying jobs.”
