Governor Tomblin Holds Workforce Development Summit

Governor Tomblin says anyone who wants to work can get a job.  Today, he noted the efforts of his workforce development council to make all West Virginians career ready.  

    Close to 60 percent of all the new jobs in West Virginia will require at least a two year college degree through the year 2018.  So the governor convened the first ever Governor’s Workforce Summit at BridgeValley Community and Technical College in South Charleston to address it.  The governor said he took a little known seven member committee overseeing workforce needs in the state, to a bigger and more powerful council that includes higher education and community college chancellors, the superintendent of schools, the secretaries overseeing the Division of Rehabilitation and Commerce as well as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources.  Tomblin says DHHR workers could counsel welfare recipients about becoming employed.

The governor suggested that DHHR counselors can suggest to their clients that there is a better life for them and their children if they got a job.  He noted that there is no longer the danger of losing medical insurance which kept many single mothers from becoming employed.
    The governor said all of these agencies are on the council so each is not working in a separate silo, but sharing information and resources.