Connecticut should expand its public-private workforce development programs to meet the state’s growing need for skilled workers, according to Blake Moret, the CEO of a global technology company.
Moret, CEO of Milwaukee-based industrial automation company Rockwell Automation, said the state cannot develop the skilled workforce it needs for manufacturing without partnering with the private sector.
“To provide the most effective workforce programs, you are going to need to forge those partnerships with other technology providers,” he said in his keynote at the Connecticut Workforce Summit at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville on Tuesday.
“We partnered with the government on programs in Ohio and some other states that have created an articulated hierarchy of instruction that can be applied by manufacturers for training their workforce,” Moret said.
Job growth in the state is failing to meet demand despite an improving economy, said Chris DiPentima, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, who joined with the state Office of Workforce Strategy to organize the summit.
“Connecticut GDP grew 2.1% last year, the best in the New England region for the second year in a row, 34th in the country. And that’s with less than 1% job growth in the last 12 months. Imagine where our economy would be if employees could fill more of those open jobs,” he said.
The summit focused on the education and training needed to develop a more diverse and inclusive workforce to fill about 90,000 job openings currently available in the state.
That’s about 30% more than the pre-pandemic level.
