Brown: Train locals for jobs in oil and gas industry
The Times-Reporter – The success that Buckeye Career Center has had in placing graduates of its welding program at Tremcar USA is the kind of success U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon Lake, wants to replicate nationwide through a piece of legislation he is sponsoring in the Senate.
The senator was in Dover Monday morning to tour the Tremcar facility in the Reeves Mill Business Park and tout the Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success Act, which he co-sponsored with U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.
Even with the nation’s high unemployment rate, there is still a shortage of skilled workers. The SECTORS Act would tailor workforce development efforts at community colleges and career centers to the needs of regional, high-growth industries, helping more workers receive placements and attract more businesses to a region based on a “clusters” approach.
Eligible entities would be able to apply for a one-year planning grant of up to $250,000 and a three-year implementation grant of up to $2.5 million.
Brown said one of his top priorities is making sure that jobs being created in the region by the emerging oil and gas industry go to Ohioans. That can only be accomplished if residents have the work skills required to perform these jobs.
“We don’t want to see a bunch of cowboys from Texas and Oklahoma taking these jobs,” he said at a press conference. Instead, he wants the jobs to go to people in communities such as Strasburg and Dover, where Tremcar has facilities.
