Two items I’d like to bring to your attention with this summer issue – one has to do with your job description, another with some congratulations that need to be expressed.

First, let’s deal with that job-description item. When someone asks you what you do, you probably answer briefly in a sentence that includes your job title: I’m a teacher at the technical college; I’m an administrative assistant; I’m a vice president of academic affairs. If pressed for more information, you probably provide further details -- the subject you teach, the position of the person you work for, highlights of your duties. Given a receptive audience and a comfortable environment – a cool summer evening on a good friend’s deck, for instance – you may tell what your job entails on a day-to-day basis and even what it means to you. Only a small percentage of the people in our agency probably include the words “workforce development” in their responses in any of these scenarios. I hope I can increase that number through what I’m going to tell you here.

After the decision was made to feature the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism in this issue, I took another look at MEAG Power’s interview of GDITT’s leader, Commissioner Glenn Cornell, which we thought would be a good piece to provide with this article. The interview is directed toward economic developers, and the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that it was absolutely appropriate to direct it to all of you.

I have long believed that every person in our system is in workforce development. If you teach math or work in tech support, serve as administrative assistant to a president or work in adult literacy, it may not have occurred to you that you are an important part of the workforce development segment of Georgia’s economic development team. I want you to understand that you are in workforce development, that what you do in whatever capacity in our system, your efforts feed the processes that lead to better jobs, and, ultimately, to stronger families and communities, to improved quality of life, all deeply embedded in and essential to the positive economic development of our state. Our agency is in the business of workforce development, and so are you.

On to the congratulations. The May issue of Industry Week features an article of vital interest to our system: “The Next Crisis: Too Few Workers.” (You can read the whole article online on the Internet. I encourage you to do so.) The article points out a “looming shortage of skilled workers,” providing data to support the contention that “by the end of this decade there could be a 10.03 million-person labor shortage.” Existing shortages are highlighted, along with some ideas about how to address the skilled-worker shortage. (The information is vital to our system’s future planning, and we are monitoring the situation closely.) Professor Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, points out that for small- and medium-sized companies, “government or trade associations can play a role in helping them to cope with some of these issues . . . .”

Then he says, “To a large extent, it comes down to aligning . . . the education and training institutions and establishments to the needs of those companies.” Oregon, Georgia and New Jersey are among the states that are doing “a very good job,” [Van Horn says]. “Georgia, for example, has created a post-high-school certificate program that tailors manufacturing and other kinds of skills training to the needs of specific communities around the state.” You know what that program is – it’s our Certified Manufacturing Specialist (CMS) program and our other kinds of certified skills training.

This significant compliment is just the latest example of the national attention our system has been receiving lately. Our rapid growth and the way we partner with business and industry to develop Georgia's workforce is being noticed in many ways, including in print, through commendations, and by the many requests from other states to license our programs. Thank you all very much.

Congratulations.

From the Commissioner
Summer 2003
Vol. 2, No. 3

Published quarterly by the
Georgia Department of
Technical and Adult Education
1800 Century Place
Atlanta, GA 30045

Kenneth H. Breeden,
Commissioner

Editor:
Donna Maddock-Cowart
dm-c@mindspring.com

COMING NEXT ISSUE

Our fall issue features the second in a series focusing on our business and industry partnerships throughout Georgia. The Albany area presents another fine example of how business and community support increase opportunity and economic strength.

Albany Tech's
Manufacturing
Technology Center