Our key partner in this effort is the Department of Technical and Adult Education. In fact, much of the vision that has led to our success in building this system flowed from my extensive discussions over the years with Commissioner Ken Breeden, a personal friend and mentor of mine. With my election as labor commissioner and the passage of the Workforce Investment Act, we finally have been given the opportunity to realize this vision.

Working together, the partnership between DTAE and the Georgia Department of Labor forms the cornerstone of Georgia's statewide workforce development system. Obviously, the technical college system is the premier provider of technical training and education in this state. When DTAE provides quality graduates, we're provided with quality job seekers. This partnership serves the needs of employers, as Georgia continues to lead in the creation of new jobs and employment opportunities.

The key to meeting the needs of today's job seekers and employers has been to modernize our services. In doing so, we have made our services more accessible and appealing by transforming the way and the environment in which they are delivered.

Shortly after I took office, we began redesigning the old unemployment offices, as they had long been called, into modern, customer-focused career centers. By improving and increasing access to information technology in our career centers, we have increased efficiency and expanded services. We have also made the environment much more comfortable and customer-friendly — more like a private-sector business than a staid government office.

Our career centers and technological innovations enable the Labor Department to take a more proactive role in the career-building process. We are now better able to help those who are seeking a job or information about training, educational resources, and even financial aid to help them improve their position in the job market. We are proud to be an integral part of a highly coordinated approach to providing Georgia's workers and its employers with services that they truly need and deserve.

The value of improving technology and using it to enhance our ability to serve citizens cannot be stressed enough. Technological improvement has been a major focus of what we set out to do when I was elected to this position. Not only are we now providing more computers for our customers in the career centers, we have placed more of our services on the internet.

Today, people can go online and search for a job, access a wide range of career information, research educational and training opportunities, and find sources of funding to pay for it. Workers who lose their jobs can file claims for unemployment insurance electronically. Employers can use our internet site www.dol.state.ga.us to find qualified employees who have posted resumes online.

None of this was possible four years ago. And soon, employers will be able to file wage and tax reports and make payments online.

Another innovative way of meeting the needs of today's job seekers and employers is the Career Opportunity Expo, developed to deal with the effects of the recession and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Drawing on the career center concept and the job fair and using satellite and state-of-the-art information technology that allow us to bring the career center directly into the expo, we are able to give job seekers direct access to a large number of hiring employers.

At the same time, we offer workshops that deal with resume writing, how to negotiate a salary and how to conduct an interview. Public and private partners including our technical colleges, Peach Care, Family and Children Services, and the HOPE Scholarship and Grant program are invited to participate in the expos. All of this has enabled us to help thousands of Georgians find jobs during a very difficult time.

To expand accessibility of the resources of our workforce development system across the state, we have encouraged and funded the establishment of "one-stop" centers that provide easy access to the vast resources of the system. One of the things I'm most proud of, as we build this network, is that our partnership with DTAE enabled us to quickly establish one-stop centers on every technical college campus, as well as satellite campuses around the state. Now, citizens have more of a choice. They may choose to go through a one-stop if it is more conveniently located.

Thanks to the high degree of commitment and cooperation of DTAE and our other partners, no other state can claim to have the kind of integrated-service approach that we have here in our state.

Beyond that, I would like to see the resources made available that will allow our technical colleges to build the capacity needed to meet increasing demand. The Labor Department is not in the training business. However, because training is critical to the success of our customers, it is in our best interest to support those who do provide training. That is an important lesson learned long ago from one whose counsel I still seek, Dr. Ken Breeden.

As we move into the future, we are committed to the continued improvement of our state through service to our customers. These are our goals: striving to understand and anticipate the needs of Georgia's workers and the businesses that employ them; treating our customers the way we would like to be treated if, for some reason, we sought our services; and working to hold down costs and give taxpayers the best possible return on their investment.