Face the Facts: Expanding Workforce Training Efforts in Connecticut

By some estimates, 100,000 jobs are open right now in Connecticut and we don't have the workforce trained to properly fill them.

This is not a new problem for the state, but there may be a new solution in the works on the national level.

NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Congressman Jim Himes (D-Greenwich) who is the chairman of the House Select Committee of Economic Disparity and Fairness and Growth.

Mike Hydeck: So you were recently part of a roundtable with both union leaders and trade organizations. What came out of that session when it comes to trying to solve this problem?

Jim Himes: Yeah, and I'm glad you asked. Because as you point out, it's a really critical issue for the State of Connecticut and for the whole country where there are millions of jobs out there with a gap. That is to say, not enough people who have the training, the hard skills, the technical skills, but also the soft skills to hold those jobs down. And that, of course, is just a catastrophe both for the economy and for people. But so yeah, the roundtable that we held was all about how can we migrate to a system where, first of all, hiring is smarter, right? For too long, the question has been - do you have a four-year college degree? If you have that BA, and by the way, maybe I don't even really care what it's in, you know, that we look at you, we're trying to figure out ways to migrate to, instead of a credential-based hiring process and set a standards, to a skills-based hiring protocol, if you will. And then the flip side of that, of course, is exactly what you were asking about, which is, how can we better train both young people who are coming out of school and obviously, it's huge for them to get the skills that will allow them to thrive. But sometimes it's not so young people who, you know, whose industries have changed, or, you know, for whom a factory that they used to work at closed. And there's a lot of answers to that question, right? There's labor unions, which are doing magnificent apprenticeship programs. There's more thoughtfulness around our community colleges. And then there's the private sector, which has a real interest in training its employees on an ongoing basis.

Mike Hydeck: So we have here in Connecticut and have had for a while the manufacturing pipeline that helps students get manufacturing skills, but that really, at just this point, covers the southeast part of the state, deals with the Electric Boats of the world. Is there going to be a bigger push to train more workers in more disciplines?

Jim Himes: There's a lot of really interesting ideas and programs out there. So right here in Fairfield County, of course, at Housatonic Community College, we have the advanced manufacturing program, which is just terrific because it takes high school kids, and it teaches them in high school, you know, when some of us were not being terribly responsible about gathering the skills to succeed at that moment in time, it teaches them how to use the very advanced manufacturing equipment, you're talking about highly computerized tools and that sort of thing, which will get them jobs at places like Electric Boat or at Sikorsky or at other manufacturing concerns. You know, then we've got a program down here, this is a national program called P-TECH. And this is a really interesting thing. P-TECH will take kids, and it's sponsored by IBM, in Armonk, New York, it will take kids in high school, and it will give them internships, it will give them math and science training, which is important to succeeding at a place like IBM. And it will work with them to make sure that when they graduate, not only do they have a high school diploma, but they're well on their way to getting an associate's degree at a local community college. So that's the kind of innovative model that we really need to be emphasizing and funding around the country.

Mike Hydeck: As a follow up to that, what about the possibility of paid internships? Because some of these kids are helping their family put bread on the table. Some of them may be young parents, so they have to have daycare while they're trying to pull all this off. Paid internships and training at the same time, could that be a part of the message?

Jim Himes: It has to be, it really has to be, you know, one of the challenges that we face is that in our community colleges down here, we've got Norwalk Community College, we've got Housatonic Community College, they have very low graduation rates, lower than they should be. I should say, you know, sometimes less than 50% graduation rates. And the reason for that is largely financial pressure. Right? There are an awful lot of kids or young people who can't afford to go to school and to give up the job because they've got to take care of kids. So, you know, I will report that on this topic, I think in the last couple of years, we've made some real progress, including in my office. You know, it used to be that if you wanted to be an intern in a government office, it was probably only really open to you if your parents had enough money to sustain you, when you were doing that. More and more people are migrating to paid internships, recognizing that you don't want to set up a program that just, you know, gives more and more resources, more experience more training, to the very most fortunate in our society. You also want to make it possible for kids that are ambitious, but don't have that kind of financial backing at home to take these internships.

Mike Hydeck: So we need 1,000 welders right now in Connecticut, we need crews to rebuild our infrastructure. We know nationally, we're putting money towards that. Is there something we can do, not just big picture, but now where the rubber meets the road in the name of legislation. How far along the road are you on that? Or is this just the beginning stages with the roundtable?

Jim Himes: You know, you really crisply asked the question there. So let me just offer a couple of thoughts on what we can actually do or what we should do right now. Number one, again, we need to rebalance our government support for education. Now I'm talking about the student loans. I'm talking about things like Pell Grants, which are grants that get given to people who, who are lower income. Those things have always been targeted at the four-year college, which look, is fine for some people, but we need to rebalance that aid. So that it can also help somebody who's looking to get a technical certification, somebody who's looking to get a two-year associate's degree or maybe some sort of training program that will give them the skills to have the job, that rebalancing needs to happen. The other thing, this will come out of left field for you, but it's really important, you know, we need to get our act together on immigration. One of the great strengths of our economy has always been immigration. If you look at the most innovative companies in the United States today, oftentimes they are founded by or run by immigrants. And that runs right through the skill level spectrum. And at a time when our economy would really benefit by having more talented people in it. We should and by we, I mean the United States Congress, should get serious about a real immigration reform package that would spur our economy.