Oklahoma's workforce needs work, officials say
EDMOND—With Oklahoma's workforce ranked next to las tina recent survey, business and political leaders said Monday that the state must get better at training people for jobs in demand.
“The No. 1 economic development issue in Oklahoma is workforce ,'' Brent K is ling, executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, said at a news conference at a defense contractor' s plant in Oklahoma City.
Gov. Kevin Stitt held a workforce development summit in Edmond on Monday and had declared September will be workforce development month.
U.S. Sen. Jim In ho fe, R-Tulsa, touted a bill he plans to introduce next month addressing several aspects of worker training and employment. Even though the state is at full employment, it is not providing the workers necessary in such industries as aviation and highway construction, Inhofe said.
C NBC, the cable business news chann el, released a survey last month of the best states f or business and ranked Oklahoma 43rd. Oklahoma finished dead last in the education category and 49 thin the workforce category.
CNBC rated states on the educational attainment of its workforce, the number of available workers, economic output per job, the concentration of tech workers and the
success of worker training programs.
Ben Good win, a senior vice-president with K rat os Defense and Security Solutions, which hosted t he news conference on Monday, said the Unmanned Systems Division plant in Oklahoma City has gotten several employees from the state' s vocational education system, including one worker who began work on Monday.
The company hopes to hire between 350 and 500 workers over the next few years at the plant, which makes jet drones used as targets by militaries in the United States and other countries.
The average salary for workers at the plant will be $ 65,000 a year, well above the state average, Goodwin said.
One element of Inhofe's bill would expand the use of tax-favored 529 accounts to be used for loans for vocational education and expenses.
The senator's bill would also extend and expand programs that provide educational scholarships for military spouses and reimburse them for new licenses or credentials.
Jill Cast illa, a U.S. Army veteran and the wife of an Army officer, said spouses are often professionals whose certifications don' t cross state lines. Castilla, now president and CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond, said those spouses often wind up unemployed or underemployed because it wouldn't be worth the cost to seek certification for a short stay in a state.
In his proclamation naming September as workforce development month, Stitt said he formed a committee of more than 100 Oklahomans who have been working "to develop means and methods to recruit and train this modern- day workforce for present and prospective Oklahoma employers."