BATON ROUGE – Today, Governor Bobby Jindal held a press conference with Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS) President Dr. Joe D. May, LCTCS Chairman of the Board Brett Mellington, Louisiana Department of Labor Secretary Tim Barfield, and Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret to announce the official adopting of the Governor’s “Day 1 Guarantee” initiative to ensure Louisiana workers are ready to work on their very first day on the job or they will be retrained for free.
The workforce guarantee program has been a major Jindal initiative in trying to obtain jobs for the available workfoce through training.
Governor Jindal said, “This is another major step forward toward a New Louisiana that is the best place in the world to raise a family, get a quality education and pursue a great career. Ensuring our Louisiana workers are ready to work on their very first day on the job or they will be retrained at no cost to the worker or the business will go a long way in helping to close the current ‘skills gap’ in our state. Today, we have thousands of good jobs available and yet too many Louisianians are still outside the labor force entirely. We must close this gap. The Day 1 Guarantee is a vital part of our comprehensive reforms to put workers and businesses, not government bureaucrats, in the driver’s seat of our workforce training system.”
LCTCS President Dr. Joe D. May said, “It was recently stated that there are more than 100,000 job vacancies in this state. Our community and technical colleges are committed to addressing and solving this workforce shortage. This policy takes our commitment one step further by guaranteeing that our graduates will be ready to meet the needs of business and industry on Day One or we will retrain them. This policy is the ultimate measure of accountability for our system, and we stand prepared to help transform Louisiana’s workforce through the high-demand programs that we currently offer.”
The LCTCS Board of Supervisors met at Baton RougeCommunity College shortly before the press conference with the Governor to adopt the “Day 1 Guarantee” initiative for the more than 100 workforce training programs in the state’s two-year institutions.
The “Day 1 Guarantee” initiative states that, “If one of our graduates educated under a standard program, or his/her employer finds that the graduate is deficient in one or more competences as defined in the standards, the community or technical college will retrain the employee at no cost to the graduate or the employer.” The initiative became immediately effective upon its adoption.
LCTCS leaders also explained that curriculum standards were developed, working directly with businesses and industries, which will serve as industry-validated specifications for each occupational program. These standards allow Louisiana community and technical colleges to offer their business partners this guarantee, and the system will bear the costs within its existing budget.
Louisiana’s enrollment in technical and community colleges has more than doubled since 1999. As of 2007, more than 52,000 students were enrolled statewide, including 17,000 at LouisianaTechnicalCollege campuses.
I wonder how many years it will take to graduate from the LA Vo-Tech carwashing course? Written by
on 5/16/2008
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I agree completely. Eventually socialism reaches a point (usually due to more benefits being paid by an ever smaller - percentage wise - workforce) where the benefits have to be scaled back. Having these training programs in place gives the government something to "point to" as an alternative to generation after generation of free housing, food, etc. once we reach this point in our country. Of course - unlike academic "learning" - "pass" or "fail" needs to be a credible reflection on the students' abilities. After all, "giving" someone a passing grade in electricity may help their self-esteem; nevertheless it could also very likely get them killed by electrocution. So the students will actually have to absorb the knowledge or be given failing grades - no "social promotion" for aspiring aircraft mechanics, s'il vous plaît. Written by kpf
on 5/15/2008
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Is this program going to get those individuals that do not want to work, to work? All the training in the world won't help unless the individual has the will to work or is faced with getting removed from the free ride that our welfare programs has become. Written by Sid
on 5/15/2008
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