Goal: Streamline Ohio’s efforts to develop workforce training

Feb. 14, 2012, Mansfield News Journal

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

Ohio’s workforce development systems are overly complex and fragmented, according to Gov. John Kasich.

There are 77 programs spread across 13 agencies, all depending on a number of state and federal funding sources.

Ohioans need jobs — and Ohio employers need workers with the right skill sets. So Kasich has created an umbrella office, the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation, to oversee and coordinate the state’s worker training efforts.

But uniting all the different efforts is easier said than done — which may explain why it hasn’t been tried sooner, said Dan Navin, assistant vice president of tax and economic policy for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.