July 29, 2019 7:15p
(WGTD)---At a roundtable discussion at Gateway Technical Colege in Racine Monday, Gov. Evers learned about how the area is coping with the skills shortage and working to develop solutions to ease the problem.
He and his secretary of Workforce Development, Caleb Frostman, also made clear how they view the issue. "The real actual bottleneck is how do we get more people to come to Wisconsin or stay in Wisconsin," Frostman said. "And the answer we're hearing emphatically is touting the quality of life and making sure we invest in improving the quality of life here in Wisconsin," he said.
Gov. Evers elaborated, indicating that beyond the obvious, the state needs to work on issues relating to transportation, criminal justice and diversity.
Evers and Frostman joined about 30 representatives from the business community, Racine Unified, Gateway, Racine County and the Racine County Economic Development Corp. for an hour-long discussion on recruitment issues, the second such session to be held in the state.
Mentioned by participants were Racine Unified’s new career-oriented academy approach at the high school level, R-C-E-D-C’s marketing campaign aimed at workers who live outside of the area, and new strategies designed to encourage closer looks at the benefits of a two-year degree.
Business representatives said they’ve become more flexible in dealing with workers. Roxanne Knuth of Twin Disc said the company is now offering employees nearing retirement age a chance to phase out their status with the company by working part-time. "They have all of that knowledge," Knuth said. "And they're great at training new employees. Being able to tap into that is really a plus," she said.
The Racine-based company employees over 300 in Racine, with hundreds more around the world.
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