Kasich: Improve job training

February 24, 2012 at 12:03a.m.

COLUMBUS

Gov. John Kasich continued calls Thursday for an improved state-backed job-training system to provide growing companies with a ready supply of workers.

“If we can get this right, I believe we can help companies; we can attract jobs; we can improve education, all of it,” Kasich said. “But it’s a big challenge. It’s never been done. It isn’t being done effectively anywhere in the country, and we’re going to do our darnedest to get it fixed.”

The governor made the comments after announcing an expansion at JP Morgan Chase & Co.’s Columbus complex, an $18 million project that will create several hundred jobs in central Ohio.

Kasich announced the expansion during a short speech before Chase employees after meeting with company officials.

He used the visit to repeat calls for more effective, efficient state job training, consolidating current programs and coordinating efforts with Ohio’s public schools, community colleges and universities.

Specifically, Kasich wants companies to pinpoint the kind of skilled workers they need, then have the state respond with classroom instruction, degree offerings and other programs to prepare students for those positions.

“If they can’t get qualified workers, they won’t come here,” Kasich told reporters.

He added, “When companies forecast and they tell you what they need, you can then train people for those jobs. Now that sounds like it’s pure common sense, [but] we don’t do that today. We don’t get companies to forecast so we can begin to hold the educational institutions accountable for training people for the jobs that exist.”