The SF city council just approved $500,000 in the 2015 budget to go towards workforce development;
“What we’re looking for is the kinds of ideas that boost workforce, in terms of education, re-education. Things that make people want to work in a particular place,” Erpenbach said.
“It’s going to take all of the best minds to create the best solution that will utilize these funds in the best possible way,” Southeast Tech President, Jeff Holcomb said.
Southeast Tech President Jeff Holcomb believes his institution could use this kind of money to boost education opportunities for students of all kinds.
“It may be already existing worker that wants to be retrained to work in a specific skill that’s needed here. So this might be one of those opportunities where we’re actually up-scaling someone. Or helping them find success in a new career,” Holcomb said.
I like the idea. Training local workers to improve their skills. What worries me, is once again, the council approves an expenditure without a plan, which could quickly turn into abuse of the system. Hopefully the money will go towards helping local workers unlike the state spending a big chunk of change so they could recruit a handful of welders for one company.
We will have to watch this closely and see where this half-million gets spent.