Industry Sector Partnerships to Serve as Cornerstone of Workforce Policy in Ohio
At the June 11 meeting of the Governor’s Executive Workforce Board, the Office of Workforce Transformation (OWT) presented a proposal to adopt sector partnerships as the underpinning of workforce development policy in Ohio. Defining sector partnerships as partnerships of employers within one industry that bring government, education and training, economic and workforce development, labor, and community organizations together to focus on the workforce needs of an industry within a region or statewide labor market, OWT plans to:
● Identify and support priority sector partnerships in in-demand industries by engaging GWIB Members in industry outreach, providing convening support through partner state agencies, providing access to detailed labor market data and creating industry-specific Sector Partnership Tool Kits; and
● Providing labor market data and a basic toolkit for sector partnerships in all other industries not deemed “priority”.
The expectation is that sector strategy language will be gradually embedded in all relevant grants, formula programs and new statewide initiatives. Using this industry-led strategy, OWT is also hoping to create and/or revise occupation-specific curriculum, increase incumbent worker training, internships and co-op opportunities in targeted areas, and to identify mechanisms to better expose youth to in-demand careers.
The Ohio Workforce Coalition has long worked to elevate sector strategies in workforce policy and funding discussions, and would like to commend Governor Kasich, the Governor’s Executive Workforce Board and the Office of Workforce Transformation on this groundbreaking new direction. Adopting sector strategies and targeting in-demand industries will help the state to make the most of current and future workforce investments, benefitting Ohio’s workers and businesses alike.
522 members of the Ohio Workforce Coalition, and its leadership council, look forward to working with the Administration on implementing next steps.
OWT Sector Partnership.pdf
Filed under: Ohio |
Leave a Reply