Brown Urges Local Control for Training Funds
Youngstown Business Journal – Language in work force investment reauthorization legislation being crafted that would allow local partnerships to tailor job-training funds to meet community needs is a step in the right direction, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said.
Despite high unemployment, positions in high-demand occupations such as health care, clean energy and bio-science persist. “Clearly it’s about a skills gap,” Brown remarked during a conference call with reporters.
The workforce investment reauthorization legislation is modeled on Strengthening the Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Sectors — or Sectors — Act Brown introduced in the last Congress. “That’s a great first step. I want to see Sectors become the way our work force system does business, locally determined and locally decided,” he said. He wrote the Sectors Act to try to reduce the mismatch of skills by providing training grants to community partnerships that aligns job training to the availability of jobs, he said.
