CREATING SKILLED WORKERS
Summit looks at ways to produce job-ready workforce
How to create a skilled, job-ready workforce in Northeast Texas was the subject of discussion Wednesday at a gathering of regional stakeholders and education and employment experts.
Texas Workforce Commissioner Julian Alvarez delivered the keynote speech at the Workforce and Economic Prosperity Summit hosted by the Northeast Texas Regional Alliance at the Mount Pleasant, Texas, Civic Center.
“What you’re doing here in this room needs to be replicated in other parts of the state,” Alvarez said before going on to speak about innovation in career training apart from traditional four-year university degrees.
“As I’ve been traveling the state, I’ve been listening to many kids and folks like you all, especially our industry partners, and they’re telling me that you don’t have to have a four-year degree to be successful,” he said. “Times are changing in front of you as we speak.”
He challenged the audience to reconsider their advice to young people choosing their careers.
“One of the things that I was asked to talk about is encouraging young adults to follow that career path that they want to do, not what you’re familiar with, but what they want to do.
“Are we promoting career and technology in our schools? Are we encouraging young adults that they can make a great living and have a great job—scratch, career—in trades?
“I guarantee you that if right now this air conditioner wasn’t working, none of us would be in this
room. Or if the bathrooms weren’t working when we sustained that hurricane, man we were all wishing for a plumber, weren’t we? Or even the folks that are on the road right now building our roads that work for TxDOT,” Alvarez said.
Shorter-term apprenticeships resulting in professional certification are no longer confined to such traditional trades.
“We are right now encouraging in my office for more people to go into that kind of training model in apprenticeship. You see, apprenticeship has now extended into the IT field and health care,” among other fields, Alvarez said.
The luncheon speech capped a morning filled with information on workforce development from local, regional and state-level perspectives.
State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, spoke about recent activity in the Texas Legislature and what issues may take center stage during the next session, including election integrity and public school safety and financing.
Jenna Cullinane Hege with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board spoke about the 60x30TX campaign, which advocates for 60 percent of Texans who will be 25 to 34 in 2030 to have earned a post-highschool certificate or degree by then.
A panel of administrators from Texarkana College, Texas A&M UniversityTexarkana, Northeast Texas Community College and Paris Junior College discussed the role of higher education in workforce development. David Fitts, executive director of Texas Education Agency Region 8 spoke about the role of education kindergarten through grade 12.
The Northeast Texas Regional Alliance comprises community leaders from Bowie, Cass, Delta, Franklin, Hopkins, Lamar, Morris, Red River and Titus counties in Texas.