Helping Kentucky Workers Prepare for and Obtain the Jobs of the Future

Working families are caught in a crunch. They work hard to give their families what they need – but, more and more, being able to afford health care for their kids, and other basic necessities, requires working longer hours or multiples jobs, and that takes away from giving their children what they need most: the time, supervision, attention, and moral guidance that only a parent can provide.

Earlier this month, my running mate, Dr. Dan Mongiardo, and I unveiled our ideas for ensuring that every Kentuckian – starting with our kids – has access to affordable health insurance coverage. Last week I announced my plan to help parents to make ends meet and find more time for their families with parental leave policies, pay equity for working mothers, improved child support collection, and increased law enforcement efforts to keep kids safe from predators, drug and other violent crime so parents can have peace of mind.

We need to go further, however, and help working families better their situations in the long term by making sure that all Kentuckians can obtain good jobs with good wages and benefits. We must ensure that all Kentuckians can advance as far as their God-given talents will allow, obtain the highest-paying job possible, start their own business, or achieve whatever they hope in order to help their family. Here’s how we can get there:

Investing in a Better Future for All

The most important investment we can make today to move Kentucky forward – and to help every Kentuckian achieve his or her goals in the long-term in today’s increasingly competitive economy – is education.

Kentucky’s Council on Postsecondary Education reports that within 10-15 years, nearly two-thirds of new jobs will require some post-secondary education. For Kentucky, this means that we will need approximately 400,000 more degree holders – twice as many as the state had in 2000 simply to keep pace with changing knowledge and skill demands that will be required by employers.

Despite these needs, Kentucky ranks 47th in workforce education, 47th in the number of adults with college degrees and 45th in our ability to compete economically with other states. Ernie Fletcher has underinvested in education, and our people and our economy have suffered as a result.

Besides creating more and better jobs, improving the educational status and skill level of our workforce will result in higher wages that could lift Kentucky out of the bottom eight states in median family income.

Education leads to more and better jobs and higher wages; it reduces poverty and improves the well-being of the citizenry. It is the driving force behind why some states thrive economically while others trudge along. Investing in human capital creates a highly skilled, knowledgeable workforce and, in turn, attracts businesses, grows our economy and increases tax revenues.

Improving our economic outlook begins with investing in people. All it takes is leadership and a little bit of business sense.

Kentucky needs a leader who puts the needs of Kentuckians first – a commitment that I will bring to the Governor’s Office.

In my Jobs First plan, I outlined a number of industries that build on our economic strengths and provide us the greatest potential for growth such as energy, manufacturing, agriculture, adventure tourism, shipping and distribution, and data warehousing. I have recommended ways to invest in Kentucky businesses to create more jobs and improve our economy. Now, I want to discuss another component of creating more jobs – and making sure that every Kentuckian has the chance to advance to better jobs with higher wages and benefits: that strategy is investing in human capital.

My plan for Putting Opportunity First includes:

• Expanding opportunities for higher education and advancement.

• Increasing advanced training opportunities.

• Modernizing state government’s approach to developing a skilled workforce.

Each of these areas is discussed further below.

I. EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AND ADVANCEMENT

It’s an old adage now that “the more you learn, the more you’ll earn.” In coming years, as many as two-thirds of the jobs in this country will require some post-secondary education. It is therefore imperative that, if we’re going to help families make ends meet and earn as much as possible, then we need to provide every Kentuckian with the highest level of education and training they can attain. To help our people advance tomorrow, we need to help more of them to get higher education today – and that means not just our college-age young people, but adults at all stages of their working lives.

Increasing Opportunity for Kentucky’s Children

We need a well-funded college and university system to increase participation in post-secondary education. This is one of the best investments we can make; studies tell us that if we make the investment in our students, then they are likely to stay in Kentucky after they graduate. A 2006 study found that 95 percent of in-state graduates remained in Kentucky after graduating from public colleges and universities.

As Governor, I will:

• Enable more kids to go to college – and stay in Kentucky. If we are to have any chance of meeting our goal of doubling the number of degree holders by 2020, then we need to increase post-secondary participation and the best way to do that is by making higher education more affordable. A 2005 college affordability study found that, “Kentucky higher education is within reasonable range of affordability for most students. The biggest exception to this is lower-income, independent students who receive less aid than dependent students.” That’s why we need to supplement the existing lottery scholarship programs by creating Kentucky First Scholarships, a grant in the form of a forgivable loan for tuition each year, with one year of tuition forgiven for each year that the student spends working in Kentucky after graduation. Based on 2008 tuition rates at UK, we estimate that income-eligible students would be eligible to receive up to 25 percent ($1,775) of the cost of tuition per year. Kentucky First Scholarships are intended to help most Kentucky students bound for college to pay their tuition, but will especially support lower-income, independent students as they seek higher education.

• Review funding assistance for students needing remedial courses to transition successfully into a two- or four-year degree program. Kentucky must strengthen the education pipeline. For example, of 100 ninth graders in Kentucky only 65 will graduate from high school, of those 39 will enter college, 29 will remain enrolled after their sophomore year and only 15 will graduate within three years from a two-year program and within six years of a four-year program. Unfortunately, these statistics underscore a much larger issue on how prepared our students are for college level work. Even if we are successful at increasing the number of high school students and adults who enroll in higher education or credential programs, without remedial courses to assist them, we could lose more than half of these scholars well before graduation. I will work with our education partners – colleges, adult education providers and local school districts – to integrate and enhance the high school curriculum and better coordinate remediation services so our students are better prepared when they arrive at college. In addition, I will also work with our education partners to determine options for offering low or no cost remediation services to students who need them so they are not at risk of spending all of their Pell Grant monies on remedial courses.

• Redesign the senior year of high school. The senior year of high school is no longer used effectively by many public schools. Virginia succeeded in making major changes in high schools. So must Kentucky. To better prepare our students, we must provide more opportunities to take advanced placement courses, enhance education standards and develop early student interventions. For example, in some Virginia high schools, students are given two choices at the end of their junior year: 1) those who plan to go on to college following high school can take up to 15 college credits during their senior year while earning their high school degree and 2) those who plan to enter the workforce can begin to work toward a certification in an industry of their choice while still in high school, and students are further guaranteed one semester of community college in order to complete their certification. I want to create the opportunity and the desire for our students to go beyond high school. And this requires us to think creatively about ways to reform our education system and close gaps that have short-changed our students and placed unnecessary limits on their dreams and career goals. Options like these could save students and their families significantly in reduced college tuition costs.

• Establish more Early College High Schools. Dual credit opportunities for high school students contribute to the ability of students to make substantial progress toward a college degree before finishing high school. One such program just getting underway in Kentucky is called the Academy of Math and Science in Kentucky at Western Kentucky University. The academy will admit a select group of high school students to enroll in the academy and live on campus where they will take courses alongside college students and earn credits for college while completing high school. Another similar program called, Early College High School, is being sponsored by the Gates Foundation and allows high school students to earn up to two years of college credit while enrolled in high school. Early College High School programs basically are small, autonomous high schools that blend high school and college into a coherent education program. The College High School at Owensboro Community and Technical College is Kentucky’s only Early College High School at this time. As Governor, I will establish more programs like these.

• Provide information to high school students on what it takes to be successful in college. We must focus not just on increasing college enrollment but also on ensuring that those who enroll in college are successful. As Governor, I will make it easier for middle and high school students to obtain information they need in order to succeed through an interactive college website. For example, states like Colorado and California have developed college websites that serve as one-stop shops of higher education resources. The websites are interactive planning tools listing high school courses that a student should take in order to fulfill high school graduation requirements and meet admission requirements of the college that best meets their education needs. For example, students can search for information about degree programs, housing options, financial assistance opportunities and can take a virtual college campus tour. They can even register and pay for some of their courses online using these websites. Best of all, these websites can be used to tailor an education and career path specific to a student's own career aspirations. Parents, educators and guidance counselors can use these websites to research information on school graduation rates, student enrollment statistics and other important information that could be useful in advising students and their parents in selecting a college. Kentucky will develop a website that serves as a one-stop shop of high education resources similar to California's and Colorado's.

• Reassess high school education to ensure that it still adequately prepares students for college and the workforce. Even though college participation is up by nearly 20 percent in the last 10 years, many students arrive at college unprepared for college-level coursework. A study conducted by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education in 2005 found that 54 percent of students who entered certificate degree programs at Kentucky’s public colleges in the fall of 2002 were unprepared – many of them in more than one subject. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the KERA reforms, it is time we undertake a comprehensive re-assessment of current high school education to ensure that students progress and graduate prepared to pursue higher education or to transition successfully into today’s workforce.

• Do a better job of marketing our higher education opportunities, at home and across America. It is often the case that after spending years in a city attending college or graduate school, a student will stay there. Kentucky has terrific higher educational opportunities – two flagship state universities, excellent state-supported universities, and nationally-recognized private universities. And while the number of out-of-state students who stay in Kentucky after graduation has increased from 24 percent in 2000 to 37 percent in 2006, we could be doing more to keep these graduates working in Kentucky. As Governor, I will launch an all-out effort to market the state’s colleges and universities to the college-age public. Doing so will help encourage bright, home-grown talent to stay here, while those from out-of-state may stay and contribute to the future of the Commonwealth. Given the great place Kentucky is, a student for 4 or 6 or 8 years just may become a Kentuckian for life.

• Invest more in our educational institutions. The underlying problem in college affordability is that post-secondary education costs too much because we’ve been under-funding our colleges and universities. We need to fully fund our colleges and universities, including full funding of the Bucks for Brains program. The Bucks for Brains program is an endowment match program that matches public dollars with private donations to spur research and enhance programs at Kentucky post-secondary institutions. The program is administered by the Council on Postsecondary Education and is funded by the Research Challenge Trust Fund. However, no funding has been supplied to the Research Challenge Trust fund to provide funding for the Endowment Match Program in recent years. As Governor, I will provide the money needed to the Research Challenge Trust Fund to provide funding to our post-secondary institutions.

Increasing Opportunities for Adults to Advance

To simply reach the projected national average in educational attainment, Kentucky will need approximately 800,000 bachelor degree holders by the year 2020. In order to meet this goal based on current production levels, Kentucky needs to have about 246,000 undergraduates enrolled in college and our colleges and universities need to award at least 22,700 bachelor’s degrees by the year 2010. Given where we stand today, this is an ambitious goal, but not unattainable.

But we’re not going to get there unless we help every Kentuckian who can benefit from further education to get it. Working Kentuckians – not just our children – need additional education and training: Many could earn more, get a better job, or start their own businesses, if only they had the opportunity. But too many don’t have the time or resources to obtain more education while working and supporting their families. We need to do something about that.

As Governor, I will:

• Reach out to adults who are within reach of completing their degree to get them re-enrolled. There are over 10,000 Kentucky adults with more than 90 credit hours and no bachelor degree. I will work with education partners in the higher education community to reach out to these adults to get them back enrolled in college and working toward completing their degree by providing more flexible arrangements for adult students to earn their degrees while maintaining full-time or part-time employment, offering condensed courses like those offered by Executive MBA courses and/or through incentives, such as waiving admission fees, discounting books or supplies and providing more online courses.

• Pursue opportunities to give credits for work experience. I want to encourage more working adults, especially those with some college credit to enroll in a post-secondary degree program. For example, some Vermont post-secondary institutions are using alternative ways to offer students’ college credit for things like work/life experience and external credentials. Specifically, these institutions recognize that people learn from experiences outside the classroom and want to honor those skills and knowledge by providing college credit. I will encourage Kentucky post-secondary institutions to consider similar approaches to award college credits that may encourage more adults to enroll or re-enroll in a degree program.

• Continue efforts to strengthen articulation agreements between public post-secondary institutions. Students transferring from two-year institutions to four-year institutions and from a four-year institution to another four-year institution sometimes must repeat coursework because not all institutions have articulation agreements that recognize credits from other institutions. This can be particularly problematic for adult students who temporarily leave a program to work or attend to family needs only to return years later and be told that they must retake several courses. All public post-secondary institutions in Kentucky should continue to work collaboratively to negotiate articulation agreements that will allow for smoother transitions from one institution to another.

• Create a state loan program for working adult students. Kentucky currently offers a small scholarship program known as the Education at Work Scholarship, which provides awards of $500 for residents enrolled in a post-secondary institution. We need to expand the dollar value of this program, make sure that less-than-halftime students get assistance, too, and expand eligibility to include advanced job training opportunities and not just college courses. For instance, the MI-LOAN Program in Michigan has disbursed more than 27,976 student loans totaling over $148 million. MI-LOAN is open to all students regardless of the number of credit hours of enrollment – so that working adults, who can’t take on a half-time student loan, in addition to work are still eligible for the funding. MI-LOAN funding starts at $500 – where Kentucky’s current program leaves off – and makes available as much as $75,000-$125,000. I would extend this program to non-degree training programs in approved high demand-occupations, as the Northern Virginia IT Career Assistance Loan program has done; by focusing on high-wage jobs in targeted industries, we can ensure that student-workers aren’t assuming a large debt load that they will be unable to repay. These programs are able to provide low-cost financing for adults seeking additional education at practically no cost to the state due to the guarantee structure of the programs.

II. INCREASING ADVANCED TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

We must invest in human capital to attract the high-paying industries and good jobs with benefits that must be the foundation of Kentucky’s economic future – and this goes beyond increasing the number of college degree-holders in our state. The workforce development system not only must meet the needs of our businesses and industries – it also must meet the needs of working Kentuckians and this means equipping them with the knowledge and skills to enter the workforce and obtain good jobs with higher wages and better benefits.

State government, working in partnership with industries and businesses, can offer integrated workforce training programs to retool Kentucky workers and prepare our young people and working-age population with the skills to compete in the future.

As Governor, I will:

• Match training programs to industry needs. Kentucky has increased the variety of programs that are available through KCTCS; however, some programs still do not match the training needed to successfully transition unemployed Kentuckians to employment. For instance, manufacturing equipment and machinery used to train students and adult learners in academic settings are sometimes out-dated, which means they will need to be retrained by the industry upon employment. Moreover, KCTCS reported that in 2005 it served about 2,700 businesses in Kentucky. Although the number of businesses served by KCTCS has increased from 1,850 in 2004, it still is not reaching the majority of Kentucky‘s businesses. We can do better. As Governor, I will reach out to industry and education providers in all of Kentucky’s diverse regions and request their combined assistance to design courses and curricula that reflect the skills and requirements of our businesses in today’s economy. In addition, I will require that each program be evaluated regularly to quickly identify where adjustments need to be made to keep our programs up-to-date. With an ever-changing world, we must invest in programs that ensure increased employability of our workforce.

• Work with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to fill job training needs. Community and technical colleges can encourage young and old workers alike to pursue education beyond high school and can custom-train and retrain workers in the specific skills that a business needs — at little or no cost to the business. Other states, like North Carolina, have instituted programs to better equip their community colleges to train their workforces – one North Carolina county quickly saw its non-agricultural employment double and per-capita income increase by five times as a result of such programs. For example, one community college in North Carolina worked with local hospitals and health care providers to anticipate their future manpower needs, and then worked with them to develop cutting-edge training programs to fill those needs, and thus greatly reduced the shortage. As Governor, I will implement similar successful strategies for KCTCS to fulfill our workforce training needs of the future.

• Expand the number of industry partnerships, whereby businesses can collectively identify workforce education and training needs, collaborate on building career pathways for industry employees and developing credentials recognized across the industry, and share training and other costs associated with increasing workforce competitiveness. Partnerships also provide an opportunity to make better use of resources and can foster the creation of peer-learning networks across businesses to increase depth of knowledge and spur innovation. For example, to align training programs to businesses’ needs and to encourage more industry partnerships to form, Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania set up an Industry Partnership Worker Training Program Fund. The fund will be used to distribute training grants to newly formed industry partnerships to conduct training programs. As Governor, I will bring together businesses with similar workforce training needs across the state to form partnerships like these.

• Promote greater use of regional small business training alliances. Many new businesses in high-tech and other emerging industries are small businesses. The economics of these small businesses do not permit them to conduct their own training programs. Yet a consortium of small businesses in similar industry sectors could jointly apply for training grants to fund industry specific training. That is why I will create Regional Skills Alliances (RSAs) as Governor, to make it easier for small businesses from similar industries to train workers on new equipment, and gather and share critical information about markets and technology. Michigan has established 13 RSAs throughout the state that are comprised of local business partners and workforce training providers that use federal Trade Adjustment Act funds and federal Workforce Investment Act funds to develop customized training programs. It’s a model that we should consider replicating here.

• Create an entrepreneurial support network. People need support and encouragement in order to turn their dream of starting a business into a reality. That’s where the role of a support network comes in to help. An entrepreneurial support network is a group of professionals who each plays the role of an advocate, coach or facilitator working with an entrepreneur to guide them in the business development process and to help them overcome inevitable challenges associated with starting a business. Unlike business counselors who provide information about specific aspects of a business, like management, marketing or finance, an entrepreneurial support network advocate is the entrepreneur’s primary motivator. As Governor, I will reach out to organizations that provide this service at the local level like the Entrepreneurial Coaches Institute serving northeastern Kentucky and find ways to expand these resources statewide to create an even larger support network to aid our entrepreneurs.

• Assist women in moving into nontraditional occupations. Nontraditional occupations are defined as jobs that employ less than 25 percent of female workers. These jobs can provide women the opportunity to earn higher wages and better benefits than traditional female jobs and often lead to longer term employment. Even today, many women who enter a career placement office are directed to traditional “women’s jobs.” If we are going to promote self-sufficiency and improve income, especially for women, we must shift our thinking and provide both greater workforce training options specifically for women who seek nontraditional occupations and the encouragement to them to do so. For example, the District of Columbia created a program to train women in commercial and residential construction – a sector that was identified as having growth potential for that area. A program initiated by the Californians for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency in San Jose created a referral program for welfare recipients to inform them of nontraditional workforce development and job opportunities in the construction industry. We must work to provide more workforce development and training programs specifically geared to women in nontraditional occupations that I have identified as having growth potential for Kentucky, such as energy, agriculture, adventure tourism and construction.

• Strengthen the Career Readiness Certificate Program. Kentucky has created a nationally-recognized career readiness certificate, the Kentucky Employability Certificate (KEC), which confirms to employers that an individual possesses basic skills in reading, math and finding information – skills that all jobs require. We need to build on and go beyond the existing KEC program with a “KEC-Plus,” providing assessments in more skill areas, on-site support where people work, eligibility for fast track training opportunities to develop specialized skills, benefits for businesses when they hire a KEC-Plus certified worker, and free job profiling for any company that pledges to interview KEC Plus job seekers for open positions to determine skills match. As Governor, I will work to strengthen and enhance our career readiness certificate program.

• Support KY TECH in increasing the skill level of our workers. The Kentucky Tech System consists of 55 Area Technology Centers that serve 129 of our 176 school districts. These centers provide technical education and skills training to high school students to equip them with the skills that business and industry demand or to transition into post-secondary education. These centers combine work-based learning with traditional education that meets the needs of KERA requirements, technical skill standards required by business and industry and the Kentucky Employability Certificate. As Governor, I will expand these centers to allow all schools districts to be served and continue to push for our education partners to define additional areas of academic credit within technical education programs to allow for students to easily transition to a two- or four-year degree program.

III. MODERNIZE STATE GOVERNMENT’S APPROACH TO DEVELOPING A SKILLED WORKFORCE

Kentucky must have a modernized workforce delivery system that is able to provide the knowledge and skills that our workforce will need to respond to changing economic conditions. In order to meet these new demands, Kentucky needs a coherent and coordinated workforce delivery system that is results-oriented, effective and accessible.

As Governor, I will:

• Create a coordinated workforce delivery system. Ever-changing economic conditions and changes in funding and personnel present ongoing opportunities to rethink the way the state delivers workforce training programs and services. We must be ever-vigilant to reduce fragmentation and eliminate duplication. Several state agencies, boards and councils currently have a role in economic and workforce development – such as the Cabinet for Economic Development, the Education Cabinet that now is made up of nine agencies of which includes the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, the Department of Education and the Department of Workforce Investment, which also has four offices and the Kentucky Workforce Investment Board that serves as an advisory board to the Governor, the Bluegrass State Skills Corporation, the Adult Education Centers, and likely others – which leads to confusion and creates complication. As Governor, I will integrate our workforce delivery system into the statewide education and economic development strategies that I have laid out to grow our economy. Doing so will establish a flexible, efficient, performance-focused workforce delivery system that is more responsive to current and future labor market changes and will maximize Kentucky’s effort to provide employers a robust pool of knowledgeable and highly-skilled workers from which to draw.

• Ensure Kentucky receives all of the federal money to which it is entitled. The federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) established a national workforce preparation and employment system to be carried out by states. As part of this act, states receive federal WIA funds intended to be used to provide customized workforce training programs. According to a Government Accountability Office report, Workforce Investment Act, States’ Spending Is on Track, but Better Guidance Would Improve Financial Reporting, several states, including Kentucky, failed to spend all of their 2000 federal dollars. For 2000, Kentucky spent only 91 percent of its federal allocation and fell below expenditure rates based on labor benchmarks and projections established by the federal government to guide states in managing their spending. Kentucky also continued to fall below target expenditure rates in 2001 and 2002. Even more recently, Kentucky continues to carry a significant fund balance, and in 2006 its rate of spending fell below the national average. We cannot allow money to go unspent, especially given that Kentucky has lost more than 26,000 manufacturing jobs in the past five years. That’s money that could have gone to provide life-changing training to thousands of Kentuckians. Yet state government couldn’t get its act together sufficiently to find a reason to spend those funds. As Governor, I will make sure that we are making use of every possible WIA dollar due to us. We must develop better tracking data to actively monitor training commitments and WIA spending balances. Having tracking data that is both more timely and more accurate will guarantee that all of our job-training funds are spent – and spent wisely.

• Improve customer satisfaction. Companies have been using customer satisfaction surveys as a matter of course for decades. Several states now are using customer satisfaction surveys to collect feedback from their customers – employers, workers and jobs seekers – to measure their satisfaction and improve their workforce delivery system. As Governor, I will integrate the use of customer satisfaction surveys into the process of modernizing the workforce delivery system, so that state government and service providers are not left guessing whether Kentucky’s employers, workers and job seekers are satisfied with the workforce services provided by the state. With this information, state workforce and education agencies can improve.

CONCLUSION

Kentucky needs a leader with the experience and authority to build a strong workforce that meets the needs of industries and businesses, and to grow a 21st Century economy that creates more good-paying jobs. To get the job done, we will need to put aside partisan politics and do what is right for Kentucky. The next administration will need to have the experience to bring our workforce and businesses together, because we cannot succeed unless we are all pulling in the same direction. All it takes is some leadership and a little business sense.