SHELBY — Lt. Governor Jim Tressel said he wants every Ohioan off the bench and in the game when it comes to workforce.
“We need everyone who’s on the sidelines,” Tressel said during a visit Thursday to North Central State College’s Kehoe Center.
“We need every person coming out of corrections — let’s help them find their pathway. We need every person coming out of recovery and addiction — help them find their pathway,” the former Ohio State University football coach said.
“We have an incredible amount of job opportunities coming to Ohio right now, and we need to make sure our workforce is ready to meet the moment,” he added.
Tressel visited the Kehoe Center as part of a statewide tour to inform the development of Ohio’s Workforce Playbook, an initiative announced by Gov. Mike DeWine in March.
The Workforce Playbook will develop a plan to retain existing talent, recruit new talent to Ohio, and rally Ohio’s existing workforce to greater productivity, according to a press release from Gov. DeWine’s office.
Tressel’s visit included a tour of the Kehoe Center and brief chat with the area’s leaders in economic development and education.
Tressel said one of his primary goals is to raise awareness of the career pathways and advancement opportunities that exist in the state. Another is to retain Ohioans as they enter the workforce.
“As I go around the state, we have some amazing programs for our young people,” he said.
“It’s heartwarming to see right here and every other region of our state, we’ve got a lot of good things going on. I don’t know that our young people and maybe their families know all of these pathways, all of these opportunities.”
Several industry leaders talked about ways they are working to engage the next generation of workers.
Kaci Griggs of Charter Next Generation said it’s all about repeated exposure, which is why the company promotes student tours.
“They see us come in whenever you’re in grade school, they do another tour in high school. Now we have an internship opportunity,” Griggs said.
“It’s just continuously reaching out to all levels of that education and then giving them the opportunity, through an internship program, to stay here in Ohio.”
Nicki Scott, OhioHealth Mansfield’s director of nursing, spoke about the health system’s partnership with North Central State and Pioneer Career and Technology Center to create an employee pipeline.
OhioHealth implemented a work-based learning program that allows high school juniors and seniors who are in medical career technical programs to work entry level positions.
Supt. Stan Jefferson of Mansfield City Schools said the district aims to prepare every student for one of four ‘Es’ — employment, enrollment, enlistment or entrepreneurship.
Supt. Rob Peterson of Madison Local Schools highlighted the district’s partnership with the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development and internal career tech program.
“(Chamber workforce development director Clint Knight) and our group of businesses and educators have really tried to work on helping our students understand that there are good jobs right here in this area and in the region,” Peterson said.
“Seventy percent of our juniors and seniors are in a career tech program.”
Peterson also alluded to the ongoing state process, which will impact the state funding schools receive over the next two years.
The current version of the budget bill proposes a $220 million increase in funding for the state’s K-12 public schools and $500 million increase for private school vouchers, per reporting from News 5 Cleveland.
Meanwhile, approximately 90 percent of Ohio students attend public schools, according to data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
“We’re not getting the support that we feel we need, especially financially, from our legislature,” Peterson said. “It almost feels like they’re trying to drive public education out of business.”
Tressel responded that the budget process is “far from being done” but also that schools need to become more efficient.
“I was in education for 48 years, we can be more efficient than we’ve been in education,” the Lt. Governor said. “Because we haven’t been quite as efficient as we could be, people want to start being efficient for us.”
NCSC President Dorey Diab said it was an honor to host Tressel.
“It is a tremendous opportunity to bring together business and education leaders from throughout the area to discuss the challenges we face in meeting the workforce needs of Ohio today, and as we look into the future,” Diab said.